North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

109.5 caught by my wife at the roper river in april 2010 on a orange and white halco lure. Swam away strong to fight another day! Best day of her life she reckons!
Will hopefully be back there in a week if the water drops a bit, fingers crossed!!!
Trent Robinson
PO BOX 854
DUBBO NSW 2830

Well done mrs Robbo ,she looks pretty happy I hope yas get a few more this trip

Hi Trent

I'd put off any plans until early May.

We've just arrived back from Tomato Island camp. Barged up to Roper Bar and then got out across Hells Gate by the skin of our teeth. 3 vehicles travelling with us stayed at the Bar and are now stuck there.

Currently Hells Gate is approx 2.3 metres over the bridge decking PLUS there's a dip on the western approach to the bridge of 100mm.

Red Rock flood measuring station on the river is nearby and is accessible off the web. There's a direct relationship between the heights. Hells Gate is not runoff water but is simply back-up water from the river. Its still.

Red Rock river height was 12 metres and still rising the last time I looked. U've got buckley's of getting past Hells Gate until river drops to 10.7m. When Red Rock is at 10.7m, Hells Gate is 500mm over the bridge decking. If u can see ALL of the bridge safety rail, u're looking at about 500mm.

Strangway Ck (about 80 km further back towards Mataranka) is washed out. Most of the pavement is gone and 2 of the holes (about 300mm deep) have been filled with 48 sandbags as a temporary measure to allow access. But there are a number of deep holes/washouts that haven't been filled.

Be very careful about reading the depth gauge posts on the causeway. There's no flood monitoring station for Strangway and its height is simply dependent upon how much rain has fallen in its catchment to the east of Larrimah and Daly Waters. Considering the state of the causeway surface, I wouldn't attempt to cross until depth comes down to 500mm on the middle posts.

Got some photos of the Strangway road damage which I'll post if somebody wants to see them.

PM me if u have any queries. Offer extends to anybody else.

Got a 119cm swampie, 90cm and 2 in the mid-eighties at Mountain Ck when river had fallen to 8 metres the other day. Mountain Ck was just starting to come good for lures when the river started to come back up again and killed any fish interest. Basic rule of the Roper is to forget fishing on a rising river.

No silver fish in river at moment (down as far as prawn farm anyway). Lost a big fish at prawn farm on a 6 inch hollow-belly but got a few on cherabin. Swampies.

Runoff had turned around and was running fairly back into river at places like Tuna Ck and little Tuna but fish hadn't started congregating after 3 days. Rivers gone back up now so will most probably be running back out over floodplain again. Blackfellow and Crocodile were flowing out but dirty. No fish congregation there either. Bit hard to read Roper tides that far down but seemed to be high tide during day and low at night.

Had to resort to cherabin on the bottom until river settled down a bit. When lures started to work, the lures of choice were hollow-bellies and dropbears (110mm and 100mm) thrown right in close to pandanus.

regards
Ronj

Shady in March

Hi all. First attempt at this so hope it works. I'm a southerner (Bribie Island in QLD) who has always dreamed of catching a barra - didn't care what size even if not legal! I just wanted to catch one. Finally organised a trip last week for 6 mates and myself to Point Stuart so we could fish Shady Camp. Never even seen a real Barra let alone caught one. First morning with the Point Stuart boys, 3 hrs in my pommie mate caught a 92cm and thought he had the title. 10mins later I hooked the one in this photo using a green B52. She went 112cm. Even had some battle scars on her from a croc or shark perhaps. First and only Barra I caught in the 2 days we were there but I still can't get the smile off my face! Nearly all the boys caught something (and the pom even got into the Metre Club himself with a 1.02 the next day). Great trip, great guides and we will definetly be back next year!

103 shady-camp

The one day you dont take a camera.
Lucky mate had a phone.

Mates 113cm, Fog Bay in March (Thinks its a guitar??)

1.02 caught at Shady Camp in early April. First metre Barra for Scott (in fact only his second ever, first one was 92cm - not a bad start to his Barra career)

Caught at Sampan Creek mouth 27/04/11. My first Barra ever and caught in the first 15 mins of trawling. Spot on the 1 metre mark.

got this 1.03 trolling in shoal bay

metrey from the weeds in the lower ord -po.box 1843 kununurra W.A. 6743

Just over the mark at 1.01m, caught this year at spillway creek on a tsunami soft plastic and 20lb pound braid

cheers Mike

p.s. address is PO Box 1558 Kununurra WA 6743

I caught this one recently in the Cairns Inlet. Caught casting a soft plastic at a snag. Was an amazing fight and released after a few pics. Unfortunately I was on my own so couldn't get a pic holding it. At least I had the brag mat, I'd only bought that the day before! Since then I've set up a camera tripod in the boat.

RM. the fork in chinaman has a 6m deep hole off the rh side of the fork...biiiiiiiig jacks on herring livies. Some huge grunter too. evening on run outs. Used to park just short of the hole between mud bar and m/groves across the entrance, fr/rear anchors. cast onto the mud bar and let it drop off the edge, Haaaang on.

Cheers mate yeah I know the spot you're talking about. The inlet has been fishing pretty well lately. Heaps of Jacks and a few barra too. I was amazed to crack the metre in the Inlet only 10 minutes from home. I've fished through the cape and before now my best was only 98.