South Alligator for New Years (again).
February 16th, 2011 | Fishing Trips | No Comments »The yearly trek to the South Alligator over new years was on again (been going for around 10 years now) and has become something of a tradition. This year was a little more event filled than most years but unfortunately not in the fishing stakes. With only a couple of undersized barra to show for our floodplain visit on the first couple of days, we decided to head to the mouth so see if we could change our luck. The trip down was fantastic with mirror like conditions and a following tide making the trip short and comfortable. Here’s a few pics:
Barron Island looking toward the Jewie holes.
Looking from Baron Island across to Field.
Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the fish that it was a perfect day for fishing and we only ended up with one baby (60cm) Jewie for a 2 hour jigging session. The lack of breeze made conditions a little tropical but no-one was complaining. A quick trip over to Brooke nr 2 produced a nice 80cm threadie during a downpour in the early afternoon but nothing else. So we headed back to the main Brooke creek to meet up with our co-travellers. Thats where the dramas began.
One of the boats we were travelling with was uncharacteristically anchored up just inside Brooke. It seems that the Merc 60 four stroke wouldn’t run due to the very flat battery attached to it. Even pull starting it would only work for a few seconds before it gave out again. As no-one in the creek had a second battery on board and seeing as it was getting on a bit, we decided that the only course of action we had was to leave the boat down here for the night and come back in the morning. Bugger. Here’s a little feeder creek you might recognise a few hundred metres inside Brooke with the recalcitrant boat firmly anchored inside for the night:
So with the owners of the boat split amongst the two other boats, we set off for home. Unfortunately, the dream run down became a nightmare run home. After driving through a couple of rain squalls, the brand new Yammie 115 four stroke had its first taste of something solid when we found ourselves sitting on a sandbar about two metres from 10 feet of deep water. Who put that there? Luckily, no damage was done and we were able to press on…..until the mother of all river storms loomed about 3kms short of the boat ramp.
The lady skipper of our boat was none too pleased when the male skippers of the two boats decided that it would be better if we rode out the storm tucked in behind a little mud headland instead of pressing on back to the ramp and the relative safety of the cars and the Aurora Kakadu. Well….we got smashed. Driving rain and all-too-close lightning strikes were actually no problem compared to the looks I received from Number 1 boss lady who doesnt count lightning amongst her favourite things. Eldest son actually got a jolt from one strike whilst holding on to the wet canopy supports. A cup of concrete later and he was all good.
Visibilitywas quite poor during the storm. Unfortunately, visibility wasn’t poor enought to save me from the death stares:
But, as they say, all’s well that ends well and after a nervous hour getting belted by a new years day storm, we made it back to the boat ramp and then home base – the Aurora Kakadu. A few rumbo’s later and ,whilst I hadn’t been totally forgiven for my apparent lack of judgement, the days events became rollicking good stories. Next day we headed back to the mouth (minus lady skipper) to collect the other boat and unbelieveably, there it was intact and waiting. Dreams of pulled anchors and driving rain sinking the boat were for nought. We connected up the new battery and headed for home with our tails between our legs.
We tried the culverts on the way home to Darwin later that same day and despite the early rain and the fact that they were all pumping….zero. Oh well, we’ll get ‘em next year.
