My first Barra of the year.

And jacks, salmon, jewfish - tell us how you went. NT, FNQ and Norwest.
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Pecheur
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My first Barra of the year.

Post by Pecheur »

Hi there,

Yes, I finally got my first Barramundi for the year.

Arrabmundi had asked me if I wanted to go for a bit of Barramundi fishing on the Adelaide river.
Of course I said yes!
It is still early in the season, a bit too early in fact, but who could resist a fishing trip, instead of staying home doing some cleaning and other important stuff?

So we were on the road very early, and it was still dark by the time we launched the boat:

Image
Launching in the dark.

But as opposed to all the other trips that I had done on the Adelaide river, this time we had decided to go down river, instead of upstream. This to me was a first, and I was excited to go to discover some new territories.
We stopped as the day had started, to a little creek and started to flick our lures across the little stream flowing in the river. We were using large hard body lures, and didn't register any hits, but who could hear and sometimes see little boof here and there around us.
One fish was rather constant on our left.
We casted many time in it's direction but couldn't get anything to have a go at our lures.
I even tried a fizzer, in the hope that it would provoke a strike.
Just as we decided to drift past a bit lower, we changed lures and both of us had now soft plastic lures on our lines.
I made my first cast with it towards the spot where the little Barramundi had been repeatedly boofing.
That was not the best cast in the world, and my lure ended in the weed bordering the water. I gave a sharp jerk on the line to get it off the weed, the lure dropped in the water, I gave one turn of the handle, and said: Oh! I just got a hit!
But it wasn't just a hit I was on! in fact the fish had then been swimming parallel to the boat and it did take me a few seconds to realise that I was on.
The fight wasn't very long, as the fish was no monster, and once at the boat, I just grabbed the leader line by hand, and pulled the fish in the boat. I had just boated my first Barramundi of the year!

Image
First little Barramundi of the year.

This little run off Barramundi, made me very happy, it is alway nice to catch the first one of the year.
And lets be honest, this happen only once a year...
:wink:
I had caught it on the first cast of the day with a soft plastic, surely this was going to be the lure of the day ... Well yes and no... Yes, because it caught me my best fish of the day, but no, because that was also going to be my last Barramundi of the day, for me.

But not long after that, as we arrived to another little run off, Arrabmundi was on!
And his fish was better than mine:

Image
Arrabmuni and his Barramundi.

This fish too was caught on a soft plastic and on the cast.
From there on, the long desert crossing started...
No more Barramundi were to be caught for the day...
We did try every little colour change that we saw, like this one:

Image
Colour change on the Adelaide river.

But to no avail.
So we went back up the river, as far as Beatrice creek. First as we arrived we had the place for ourselves. But it must have taken about all of ten short minutes, to have at least five or six other boats around us, all casting or even anchoring about where we were flicking our lures ten minutes before...

Image
The junction of Beatrice and Adelaide, with a few boats.

Some of the boats even had stereo blasting some night club music...
I might start to be an old fashioned kind of guy, but when fishing, I still prefer the sound of nature and the birds than the Duff Duff music...
Anyway we persisted there for a while, and Arrabmundi got two very good hits, but none stayed connected.
The sky was starting to grow darker and more menacing by the minute, and a few lightning started to be seen in the cloudy sky.

Image
Dark sky.

So we made it back towards the ramp, and turned in one last little creek to see if we could get lucky, one more time.
We got lucky with the rain, that is for sure, as it fell upon us like there was no tomorrow.
The positive in it, is that it was refreshing.
And then the rain stopped... For a few minutes and restarted... And stopped again, and started again, a few time.

Image
Flood plain from the last little creek.

In this little creek I actually got a fish, but it was either a Garfish or a Long Tom, not sure which one of them.
It was of the same colour than a Barramundi that would have spend the winter in a billabong. Never I had seen one of this colour before.

But between the intermittent rain and the lack of Barramundi, we decided to call it a day and to head home.
The sky was still full of rain:

Image
Clouds over the Adelaide river.

when we arrived at the ramp, we saw that a lot of people had the same idea than us, and it was a bit busy.

Image
Waiting next to the ramp.

But it wasn't that long before we were able to put the boat back on the trailer, and on the road again, home bounds.

Thanks again to Arrabmundi for inviting me fishing, it was great to finally get my first little Barra of the year.

In this trip I used 18 different hard body lures, and four different soft plastics, for a grand total of two fish caught...
This prove that I needs more lure!
:wink:

Have a good day,
Pecheur


jabsy
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Re: My first Barra of the year.

Post by jabsy »

Still waiting to get out on the boat and have a crack, so you are one step ahead of me..

Well done.
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ozdodge
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Re: My first Barra of the year.

Post by ozdodge »

Good stuff Pech,

love an early morning on the Adelaide - she's a beautiful river!

Good on you both,

Cheers
ozdodge

Don't crowd me - I'm likely to bite!
slug
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Re: My first Barra of the year.

Post by slug »

That 2nd last pic of clouds over the river is a cracker :cheers:
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Edo
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Re: My first Barra of the year.

Post by Edo »

Nice work mate, good to meet you the other day.
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theodosius
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Re: My first Barra of the year.

Post by theodosius »

Hahaha, it definitely proves you need more lures!
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Re: My first Barra of the year.

Post by Castamasta »

Good read and great pics as usual Pecheur [emoji106]
Pecheur
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Re: My first Barra of the year.

Post by Pecheur »

Hi there,

Thank for the replies,
Edo wrote:good to meet you the other day.
Yes, it is always nice to put a face on people.
:mrgreen:
theodosius wrote:Hahaha, it definitely proves you need more lures!
Finally someone who understand me!
:lol:

Have a good day,
Pecheur
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