Me, the Missus, the Kids, the Mother-in-law and the Father-in-law (who shall now be refered to as 'Jed') spent a long weekend camping up at Tully.
I'd like to say that it was four long days of fishing, however, with the kids in tow, it would have been unfair to Sarah to ignore my domestic duties of being dad. So it was that me and 'Jed' would get away whenever we could for a spot of fishing. The target species this trip was Jungle Perch and plenty of Sooty Grunter was to be expected as bycatch.
On our maiden outing early on the first morning we hit the Tully River before the water level came up. The water clarity had improved from when I was last there at Christmas and Sooties were visible everywhere. Doubt began to set in though when the fish refused to come to the party. The action wasn't just slow, it was non-existant. I slowly cast my way through the tackle box, beginning with poppers, moving on to spinners- a proven Sooty killer but not this day. Next in line were bibbed minnows but still no response. The situation called for a bibbless crankbait, so a gold, 50mm Cordell Rattlin' Spot was tied on with almost instant results. The initial inactivity had put me in a stupor which was smashed by the solid hit and pull of a Sooty, judging by the feel and the bend of my rod, it was a good fish.
Here's a tip for young players; When fishing with Jed Clampett, ensure Jed is given instruction on the camera being used.
The first Sooty for the trip- and a hard fighting one at that- was bankside and Jed took two photos that were never taken.
On previous trips to the area I'd identified a creek which I thought might hold some JP's and I was keen to give it a go. With Jed as company we arrived where the creek met the Tully. Now, I should make it clear that Jed has a well known aversion to walking. On top of this his choice of footwear for this excursion was his "Japanese Riding Boots". So it was obvious from the get go that Jed was not going far, especially up a jungle stream.
The creek was not as big as I'd originally thought but it was interspersed with holes deep enough to hold fish and up around the first bend I happilly found myself in a tug-o-war with a JP. The gold Rattlin' Spot had done it's job again and I was happy to take the photo myself this time. By now though the lure was hard to work effectively due to the depth of the creek so I switched to spinners thinking it to be better suited for the task.
I fished the creek concentrating on the bigger holes,unfortunately for no more success. At times the vegetation on both banks closed in, and wayward casts required me to wade across some holes to retrieve the lure from a snag, thereby spoiling any chance of catching what may have been there in the first place.
With Jed waiting for me, I returned to where I'd left him, greeting me with a loud "woooh doggy" and proudly announced that he'd caught a few Sooties on small soft plastics. It was a good day, I got my JP and Jed had caught his first Sooties.
The following couple of sessions were pretty half hearted. Jed had come up lame with a cut foot after his famous Japanese Riding Boots had failed him amongst the rocks along the river bank, and all I could catch from there on in was Sooties.
In the end I had succeeded in catching a JP, all be it only one, and I never tire of catching Sooties and the familly all had an enjoyable camping trip.
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Originally Posted by Whitto
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