Herbert River 11/01

[Jim_Tait]

Dan,

fantastic effort by you guys, you make me homesick for NQ . I've done the same stretch many times in the past and I love fishing the Herbert River. The barra, jack, JPs and tarpon actually extend all the way up to the gorge (as do the salties!!) and I dont think you can beat catching all those species in a rainforest fringed clear flowing freshwater river (the Burdekin used to be like that in my youth also
When I got married my 'bucks night' was a drift down the Herbert (canoes and punts) from the end of the road at the national park to Abergowrie and we caught all the species you came across. We had so much fun that my mate repeated the mission for his 'bucks night' - meanwhile our wives to be went out on the town with the girls and did the strippers and playing up thing - still know where I preferred being!!

[Bad_Bubby]

Early in the week I set off for a road trip from Cairns to Townsville. There I met up with some mates of mine Kiel and Dave. Our plan was to hit the Herbert River near Ingham. Kiel and I had a vague idea of what to expect having made the 1hr drive north of Townsville a few times ourselves. Dave, on the other hand had never gone after sooties so this was to be something new for him. To say the trip met expectations is an understatement. From the outset we were fighting sooties exceeding 30cm, I also managed one of my best fish to date early on . Then came an array of other very welcome species namely barra, jack and tarpon. Kiel started hooking barra in one part of the river which was pretty amazing given how far uspstream we were. In total he landed 3, with one reaching 66cm .

During the chaos I somehow resisted the urge to cast and got some good video footage aswell as pics. Despite the time I spent with the camera I got ahold of two jacks, one going 34cm aswell as a barra of my own. As we treked upstream the rain began to be a problem. We noticed the hookups became less numerous as more rain poured down. Dave was the exception, he caught some huge sooties when the rain began. All I could see through the rain was a soaked guy struggling to hold big black fish with two hands . Unfortunately the rain meant it was hard to get photos of his bigger sooties. Things got worse very quickly as masses of muddy water flowed downstream. The fishing shut down immediately when this happened so we headed back to Ingham for a customary feed of KFC.

Having made an abrupt end to fishing Kiel suggested we should get in some casts at Cattle Creek before heading home. The action at Cattle was a bit below average although we had a bit of bad luck with missing some barra hookups. Dave landed some pretty decent tarpon on light spin just as the sun went down. The trip home was done in darkness and pouring rain, with conversation changing to snoring within 5 mins of being on the road. When we got back to civilisation we had a stroll down to Aplins eventhough we were rather tired (and soaked). Dave got his barra for the day at Aplins around 65-70cm. That was the only fish landed at a depressing weed-clogged Aplins . But all in all a fun road trip and good to catch up again.

Dave's first ever sooty

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One of Kiel's bruisers

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my best for the day

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one of Kiel's barra

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a jack

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Kiel unhooking a pretty big sooty

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my barra

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The big one

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One of the final fish of the trip with rain closing in

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A pic of a sooty sitting in clear water

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Dave's Cattle Creek tarpon

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Barra at Aplins

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Last pic: release of Aplins barra

[Moffy]

some awesome fisht there BB - put many boat fishos to shame