We both had never been before and couldn't find much info on it so it was going to be interesting. Ended up meeting Smarty at his place around 5am hooked the boat up and we were off. Arrived at 10 and got stuck into setting up camp. Spoke to a few people that didn't really have much luck although a 90 was pulled on the Thursday arvo by one of the lodges clients.
Decided to head out to have a look around and a bit of a fish. There was a lot of weed around and within the first 100m saw a few fish cruising around it. headed around further and found a good weed bed where we threw the lures out the back. Along the run we could see a few fish but they weren't interested. got up to the end and turned around,about half way up smarty got smacked. A few jumps and it was in the boat....63cm not a bad way to start the trip
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Had a few more runs down the same stretch for a couple of bumps and few powertails to smarty.
Went and had a look around another stretch where a few trees looked promising. A few passes and a few more powertails to smarty
, this was just the start haha. Finally i got a good hit and fought a small barra into the boat. Went 61 and was pretty slim, unlike the bloke thats holding it
I was finally on the board. There was only one other boat on the water other than the lodge boats that dont give a fcuk about anyone else and get as close as possible to you when trolling
Next troll smarty got a smaller one at 51 that kept us interested but the fishing after that slowed down, for me anyway, smarty just kept smacking em one after the other. He was hooking up while the tourists were taking photos, the powertails just couldnt keep away from him
i think he ended up with 1 barra to every 5 powertails.We pulled out around mid day to have a snooze and a feed.
Put back in at 5:30 to get ready for the night. Spoke to a few people out there that had only got a few rats. putted around for a while and smarty got a few snaps of the wildlife and the sunset, again the lodge boat thought about themselves and proceeded to get right in front of smarty as he was taking the pics
Finally the night set in and began to get dark, really dark. The billabong came alive with bugs and crocs and bait.....but no barra, not yet anyway. The bait was prolific in the form of big mullet and tarpon swimming around the surface but nothing else, no boofing, just buzzing. The bugs were getting thick and it was frustrating to do anything with a headtorch or light on. We trolled up and down the billabong for a while for a few rats but we were looking for bigger fish. With nothing happening Smarty resorted back to his camera to get a few more snaps of some of the locals.
We were about to call it quits but we decided to do that "LAST" troll and im glad we did
Smarty felt a bump while his lure passed a tree, he pulled his rod to try and set the hooks and the fish erupted in the dark. headlights went on and once he got it to the boat we saw it was a solid fish, it saw the boat and had that last jump......to freedom
We had worked for it only for us to lose at the boat. We regathered, turned around and as soon as my lure hit the water it was smashed. This one stayed connected and in the net it went. 71cm
Next troll smarty got smashed, the reel screamed and nearly got pulled out of his hands, then nothing.We had found where they were and new they were hungry, it was getting late though and we were getting pretty tired. Anyway lures went back out and it was my turn again with a 60.
Every run we were getting smacked and the next was no different. Smarty finally connected to a fish and kept him connected, into the net and he had a 65
It then slowed down a bit and the next few runs we only got bumped, nothing stayed tight though. we nearly called it quits again but close to the end of the run i hooked up and i could feel it was a descent fish. A few solid runs and close call at the net we had the biggest of the night. it went 72 and was thick
We called it quits after that as we were tired and didn't want to make too much noise coming back at the camp too late.
cheers for the trip smarty
