North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Decided to do something different & dodge tour boats this weekend with wife & kids at Cooinda.

Have read aarons post http://fishingterritory.com/northern-fr ... w%20Waters and are trying to work out the spots. ie Threeways (left & left again) and some old posts from years ago.
Blinky must of posted a map once but it is now just 1011011011101's

But this is my first venture into the "weed". Will I be spending all day pulling my kids lures out of water lily stems and grasses?? Should I get some rubbers especially for this spot?
Or just trolling with classics should do just as well?
Thinking I was going to have to crimp the hooks as it is a Park, I cannot find any mention of this concerning Yellow Waters.

So any family friendly tips would be appreciated. Only need 5 keepers (one for each person)
Looked at the accommodation...... "family rooms" are limited to 3 people, so was told would be forced to take 2 rooms @ $200 each per/night.....hmmmmm... So will roll out swags at $90 per night unpowered.

Aarom mentioned he left the boat overnight at the ramp..... would others do this?

was there on anzac day, you will have to launch from home billabong (at cooinda) and turn right from the boat ramp and go to the end, you will see a flood marker, assess the hight and follow that if there is enough water, than you will end up near where the tour boats dock at in yellow water billabong.
IMO dont bother trolling, the yellow water barra are easily spooked, best is if you have a bow mount electric.
things i have found that work best, river to sea tango prop, rapala skitter pop in grey and green bomber.

take some weedless rubbers and work the lillies and all the snags, should be a bang up weekend, may see you out there.
i have a thread in here somewhere from when i cleaned up from yellow water. have a look at my profile and see if you can find it.

http://fishingterritory.com/post139293. ... ng#p139293
pm me if you need anymore info

only to happy to help

Book a room and put kids on swag on the floor...or book one of the dongas...worth is cos theres lots of bugs at night! Take kids early morning and late afternoon till after dark. Rest of the time let em play in the pool while you and the missus relax in the lounge bar (if theyre old enough to b unsupervised). If you can, rig them weedless soft plackies with a single hook...texas rigs (if youre not sure get the tackle shop to show you how to rig them) should b fine and any wormy looking thing works well.....or surface frogs...prob better as less weed. Best to have a set up for them that doesnt sink or doesnt sink much.....its so shallow the baz wont miss them...Just need to go out from boat ramp then 50 meters to the right after 5pm till dark. Stay out of the trench for the tour boats. ......drift and let them cast around the boat. Anywhere will turn up baz...Main thing...as dark falls it will get cold so everyone take a jacket! Lots of cordial and choccie snacks!!!

Yellow Waters can be caaarnt of a place if the fish don't want to bite, but if you want a sure fire way of catching some fish, head to the sign where the water is flowing and you should find as many as you need. Basically once you go through Home Billabong you will come out to where the Yellow Water boat ramp is, follow the river and turn right at the first junction. Then steam up river up another K or so and things will become narrow again, keep going and you will eventually get to a sign saying No Boating. Don't be fooled by the sign, most people turn around thinking that is says "Boating Prohibited beyond that point", however on my last trip out there I saw the local hotel staff as well as the hotel fishing guide down past the sign. I had a chat with them and they said next time have a closer read of the sign, as it clearly marks out a section of the South Alligator well well beyond that point which is the prohibited zone. However when you read it from 5 metres away in the boat you tend to only take notice of the boat with the red strike through it, giving you the impression you cant drive past that point. The fishing can be dynamite anywhere along this strech of river so park in the buffalo grass and cast up and down the channel with rubbers lures. Then, if you get nothing in the channel around the sign, motor on past it through the narrow water and fish the next body of water where it all flushes out. It you stick to the left hand bank and fish that channel right around the bend you will pick up heaps of fish all along that bank. I prefer to anchor in the middle and cast into the bank, however all the locals like to anchor in the grass an cast out to the channel. Last time I was there on a big moon the fish bit really hard early early morning. If your confident enough go out with the moon still shining and you should get 3 decent hours of fishing in before 9am

Thankyou to all who replied & PM'd.
Have purchased a few rubbers/frogs & nitro's and stuff never thought of before, as always have been a hard bodied lure person.
Dug into that old box in the shed & found stuff I was given but never used, like Stavros & Bushies & Buffalo's fishing box of rubber goodies (or who ever those old fishing rogues were 10-15 years ago). Researched about texas rig hook placement, and have found the weedless strategies very interesting.
Have printed out maps from Google earth & are ready to go.

No doubt will venture into tackle shop again on Friday....

Will report back next week

freddymuluka
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha all this time i have been fooled by that stupid sign!!!

OK- caught no fish but had a good time
Here is the link to a video created for people who have never done the 1km Home Billabong to Yellow Water Billabong trek before

This link is specific a new thread regarding the Video on FFF
http://fishingterritory.com/post158609.html#p158609

This is the Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqquuMJ0 ... ature=plcp

What happened with the fishing mate?

Threw lines out from 3pm - sunset on saturday, travelled all over the place inbetween the other 13 boats (trailers at ramp when we launched & more coming), watched others fish and didnt seem to be too much action. Went to junction (3ways) and along the sign area & beyond. Bit of slapping at sunset but no boofing. Saw a woman catch her first ever fish (sorry, ...heard a woman catch her first ever fish)
Went back to "home" at dusk about 20 minutes after a stack of boats headed off , we had spotty & thought we would give them enough time but still lined up with 8 trailers which went like clockwork. Wife again drove boat onto trailer effortlessly.

Slapped the giant mozzies when out of tent, and put up with the usual loud/foul mouthed louts on the turps all night until some woman got right up them in the wee hours. Well I am right up to date on the sex lives off all NT ADF personnel, who did what where & when, who lives on what floor etc and so are all the other 4-5 years old children that were camping closer to them than we were. What ever happened to "What goes on tour stays on tour". ( A special thankyou to the RJ's Johnno, Deanno & Vinnie (who tried to sneak off for a sleep, tsk tsk) & others whose names all seemed to end in an O, for the "loose lips sinks ships" examples all night. I think the last straw for the Lady was the "would you ever" game. (Could of been a hamster with masking tape involved, I'm not sure) Ahhh..... the good old days of caravan park camping.... I realise now that I do not miss it.

Up at first light very glue eyed & on the water by 7AM. Went back & trolled & threw out rubbers etc at various spots. Saw a few people catch a few. We managed a Saratoga after I gave up on shallow lures & threw on my classic. Kids all tired & not really getting into it. We decided to snatch it by 10 AM & back at camp by 11ish packing up looking forward to a sleep at home. The others were also packing up as they were kicked out. Good Job.

I'm just getting too old & cranky to have to put up with other people camping near us. But we had a great time on the waterways and would probably camp at Mardigul camp next time (all 3 campers there).

Here is the sign for skinnyjoel, I worked out you can go another 3km past the sign (if you can get through the salvinia)

I also hit up Yellow Waters over the weekend.

Went out sunday morning, hit the water about noon. Nothing until around 4pm when the Toga started to fire and then Barra on the surface on a weed bank just past 3 ways.

Launched the boat again around 9pm and fished till around 1am. Landed around 20 with the biggest at 88cm.

This morning we were on the water around 7am and was tough going. Our usual spots certainly weren't producing like the normally do.

All in all it was better than a days work!

Aaron

Also heard of the ADF saga (a mate is the fishing guide out there). Certainly glad I wasn't there on Saturday night. Was told that they were booked for 3 nights but were swiftly ejected on Subday morning!

aaron wrote:Also heard of the ADF saga (a mate is the fishing guide out there). Certainly glad I wasn't there on Saturday night. Was told that they were booked for 3 nights but were swiftly ejected on Subday morning!

ADF + =
WHICH MAKES NORMAL PPL WANT TO
hahahahahahah i love emoticons, its not offensive with funny pictures !!!!
cheers for the picture of the sign mate,
might take a pool scooper out there and throw the salvinia in the boat (to burn it) if i dont catch any, the amount of ppl who go out there, 3 scoops each and we would rid the place of it.

Hi Garrynt,

I was also out at yellow water on the weekend. I saw you come past on the Sunday morning with the go pro hanging out, looked like a great setup. On the Sunday morning after you left the area past the sign the other couple of boats also left not long after. I was there on my own and hooked into a couple of nice fish at 72cm and 80cm. Not long after the last fish the Kakadu parks and wild life rangers came down to were I was fishing, after the sign and at the bottom of the run just past the weedy section and said that I had to clear out as I was in prohibited waters, if they found me there again i would be subject to the $1650 fine. They indicated that the sign was the limit. I moved back up to the sign and ended up telling a couple of other boats later that day (thinking I was doing the right thing) that the rangers gave me a warning and that they would pass the sign at "their own risk".

On first look the sign is confusing and I didnt want to argue with the rangers, now that I have seen the sign again it is fairly clear that the rangers were wrong and don't even know their own policy. I'm a bit peeved to say the least.

Not suprised about the rangers the Dumbasses don't even know their own "No-Go areas" or on the other hand they Know and they just want to keep that area for themselves the p&%cks