Well after some boat and trailer maintenance done and a return to work date looming a couple of mates and i decided to hit some freshwater stretches to the south of Darwin for the day. A 3am start and a good 3hour drive had us at the boat ramp/bank launch and sliding the rig's in for the day's mission.

Heading down stream the scene was awesome with pandanus,rainforest and vines lining the banks and old tree's every 25metres or so creating a very fishy looking environment.

After traveling for 45 minutes or so we went down separate feeder creeks that were trickling floodplain waters into the main river.
By all the surface activity and the roaring sound of the cicada's in the tree's i thought a surface lure would be a good option in the tight creek as the sun was rising on the distant horizon.I was not to be disappointed.

It took maybe 10 cast's to hook up to a feisty little barra of around 50cm and was great fun on the 2-4kg spin gear i was using in the tight water. I cast again and as soon as i started walking the dog back a huge bow wave appeared behind the 90mm surface slider. Twitching-twitching and bang,a 2 metre freshwater handbag pokes it's snout out and crunch's my lure. Thankfully it didn't hook up and i got my lure back.

I continued casting and the action started to pick up with a fish every 1-2 casts smacking the slider and hooking up every 4-5 swipes. They were all small barra around the 40-50cm range but every 50metre stretch had a 50-60cm fish in amongst it. Usually in a back eddy out of the main current flow in some fallen timber.

After around 8-10 rats and 3 fish over 50cm a shuddering strike and no acrobatics had me thinking sooty time. I was not wrong and after a spirited fight on 8lb braid I landed a nice healthy 39cm sooty. Great fun on the light tackle. A quick picture and release had me casting again in what was now more timber than water. It took some fancy maneuvering with the electric to progress further as log jams every 50-100m or so would close up the creek into pool's.

The fish were still there tho and a few more sooty's and a lone barra had me at the end of the creek with impassable overgrowth cutting the waterway.
I settled for a piece of fruit and a drink and reflected my surrounding's. Pristine environment with bountiful wildlife and fish. It was awesome.

I started on my way back and concentrated on the spot's i had landed fish on the way down but this time i was flicking 3 and 4 inch berkley stickbaits on 1gram heads and a jackall bros tn70 lipless crank as the surface activity had almost stopped.

I reached the section of water that had produced the most fish on the way down and what proceeded was some of the best fishing i have experienced. It was a fish a cast for the next 3 hours with barra from 30cm-60cm smacking anything you through at them.

After landing around 20 or so(mostly rat's tho with a 60 and 57cm fish amongst them)I headed back to grab the other lad's.
I asked them how they were going and they hadn't turned a reel and were about to head home. I told them to follow me and we headed back to the honey hole. A quick exchange of some 3 and 4 inch plastics and jig heads had them into fish first cast. The bite went on for the next 2 hour's.

The lad's were having a ball and i tried blades,fly's,spinnerbaits and hard bodies catching fish on all of them. One of the lads hooked a good fish of around 65cm but using 20lb leader it was not to long before he got raked.

The fish slowed down a bit and the call was made to give em a rest and pull up under some tree's for a bit of a break.

After some lunch and a rest we headed back down and started were we left off. The lad's wanted to have a look down were the sooty's were so we started picking our way down there.
After about 50metres i hooked a decent fish on the jackall and knew the hook's would probably not hold up to this fish. He played fair and didn't brick me in the tree's that were laying around. I couldn't net the fish as he was still playing up a bit so the lads circled back and netted it for me. 69cm of barra was to top off a wonderful day for me and provide the encouragement for the other lads to keep flicking.


We hit the bottom of the creek with no more fish landed and headed back to the 'hole' and got a few more but they were pretty shut down by then understandably. It was 16:30 so we packed up and headed back to the ramp spotting a 3metre salty on the way back which reinforced the lad's advise of no swimming.

Boats back on and a two hour drive home wrapped up what was a awesome day in awesome country with great mate's. Sure is hard to be going back to work now.......

_________________

Unreal Steele. Good to see a bit of effort paying off for you & the boys. Well done.

Awesome report Steele. Well done

Dex

some dirty looking fish there

_________________

Good report Steele but 3hr drive there and 2hrs to get home that will keep em guessing

_________________

cool post man, thanks for sharing

_________________

IMG_0573.JPG that barra has some weird eyeball stuff going on? looks like one of those fat arsed goggle eyed goldfish you can buy

_________________

What a day! Better than us chumps at work!

Mate great post and what a great day fishing. Well done.

Sounds like a ripa of a day,always good when the effort is rewarded!
Cheers.

You said it.. Well done

_________________

Top post Steele!

Nice pics and nice country!

Pm sent

_________________

sounds like a ripper of a trip mate and that scenery would have made it all the more special. very envious. great report mate

That’s a great trip and something youll never forget.
I love being in the bush and also do as you did. I just sit there and try to take it all in

Good trip! Well done.

Reminds me of a trip I had once on the swampys. Same sort of thing with fish smashing lures for hours especially on the surface. A week later they were all dead, big fish kill. I wonder whether that's the case there as well. A couple of those fish don't look real healthy. Be interesting to know. You gonna go back again this week?

_________________