shoal bay over nighter : NT Barra

rosco84 · Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 9:02 pm Post subject: shoal bay over nighter

So after alot of questions and the odd answer we decided to hit shoal bay up for an over nighter on friday, we both managed to knock off around 11 so gave us plenty of time to get to buff creek and get over to shoal bay with no problems.

Seen a bloke at the the ramp who said they landed one fish, but seen 4 or 5 metre fish landed, so hopes were up. got to the rock and had a look around, went up the first little creek on left after rock and threw 4 pots out to soak for the night in hope of a couple of mud crabs to have a chew on, with them out of the boat, we went in search of live bait, they were tough to find but managed to score a good amount of whiting and nice size mullet as well 20 or so prawns. and a little baz

So as the afternoon closed in we headed back to the rock to set up, but as the sun went down the sea breeze picked up, and with the breeze and tide pushing in the fishing was not ideal for the rock (from what i have read), so after soaking a few livies with no luck apart from a couple of small queenies we made the call and decided to hit kings creek up as there was now plenty of water.

So we ventured up king creek where the breeze was still an issue, ended up anchoring bout 150metres inside the mouth, so out floated the baits and fingers crossed, our hopes were dying as we only managed to score a shark and one hit, i pulled the pin at around 10.30 (i think a combination of to many great northerns, to much sun and not enough water may of played apart in the head ache i got) any ways mitchi kept fishing and got a nice salmon, so we shut it down for a couple hours then woke back up at 2 and felt much better, so pulled anchor and headed to the mouth to set up and throw poppers at the corner.

once set up and trying to keep the keen motivation up with thoughts of the elusive barra, we decided to soak a whole dead bait for s...ts and giggles, thats when the fun began and time flew, it was around 4 o'clock and i seen a bit of a nudge, than whack, trying to dump my bait caster pull the rod out of the holder and hook in was a mission on its own, with a huge run straight for the other bank i couldnt pick it yet but thoughts were "stinking shark", i then tightened the drag just a little which applied the pressure needed to slow down, turn and make me realise this was no shark, with two more awesome runs and some incredible tail beats the call was put out 'JEWI' followed by a rather loud YEWWWWWWWWWW!!!, so working this fish down hoping for a view,managed to surface it and get sight of a very impressive jew, with some quick moving net work, mitchi had the fish in the boat before i knew what was doing. and we were proud owners of a 119cm jew

with couple of high fives, the minds were back on the job, and that job was lets get another jew dog,, so bait casters were thrown a side rods were rigged and dead baits were soaking, no longer than 5 minutes later with a dull light shining so we could see a little, that very familar nugde nudge was repeating its self on mitchs rod, "this looks promising"was the call, giving him a little line to do our part our good friend did his and WHACK, we were on again. it was another horse of a fish, 3 awesome runs had him close to the boat and the shimano TORIUM had once again done its job, the fish surfaced and another yewwwww was let out, another ripper of a jew 119, with a half gumby effort with the net i managed to get the big girl aboard,

So once again baits were out in hope for a more, but at the same time more than satisfied with what we has stumbled across, , we stayed in that spot with out any luck but morale was high and stories were told, and before we knew it the sun was rising with only a little shark being caught and another half a dozen empties apon the floor.

Started trawling on daylight with no real luck, then looked across to another bloke who toughed it out by him self all night as well with no one but his best mate (little red cattle dog) to see him hooked up to a horse of barra, unfortunately after a few mintue fight he was gill raked or snapped off,
poor bastard" this is when we looked back to the rock and seen the boats coming, we still had time up our sleeve though cause every boat that came would of had a very colourful conversation with the famour shoal bay sand banks i have heard so much of

So we gave the trawl away in hope of another fish on a bait, so anchored up in teh mouth and old mate headed over the corner to soak another bait aswell, we did not have much luck but old mate was on again, this time our call was a big jew, half his luck, but his luck must of ran out cause sanp, lost it as well, we felt prettyy bad for him., , by this time two more boats were nearly apon us and we had had enough, so gave it another half hour then called it quits, so mitch pulled his rod in i was bout to do the same as i noticed a bite i let it go than the famous whackkk, i was on, after a 3 or 4 mintue fight with some spectacaular aerial views,and being to slow to even think bout pulling the camera out i had a monster queeni 105cm

Called it quits and headed off, grabbed the pots and scored 3 nice bucks for our trouble.
it was my first over nightr at the bay, but it was an awesome trip, we went chasing barra, and came back with 2 great jew one hell of a queen fish which were pbs allround, and a feed of muddies,,,,,life is good

had some problems loading photos, first time i have done it, if they dont work i will try to sus it out cheers