North Australian FISH FINDER forums

Well it was decided Tuesday night that Thursday was looking good for a day off work to hit the water.
I was taking the folks for a run and another couple of fellas were tagging along to see if we could raise
us some good fish. We hit the road at 4am and were soon enough at the turn off. The other fellas
stopped to grab an ice coffee out of the esky so we headed out in front. Onto the dirt and the road
was perfect. Was like driving on the highway cruising at around 80km/h. All of a sudden out of nowhere
a fat buffalo bull charges out in front of us. If he had kept running straight across the road we may have
been able to avoid him, but probably startled by the lights he turned away from us then bang hit him
square in the middle of the bulbar. I hit the skids and tried to pull up but with the boat in tow there
was no way of stopping or swerving and would have hit him doing at least 60km/h. Anyways he luckily
bounced off and rolled into the drain and we pulled up to inspect the damage. Unbelievably it
wasn’t too bad at all. The bulbar had been pushed back a bit and slightly twisted but there was no
panel damage other than a small bump where the bar had touched the bonnet on impact. Probably
lucky the cruiser is lifted and thank god for the ARB steel bulbar!! As for the buff he wasn’t in good
shape and not having anything to put him out of his misery with there was not much we could do at
5am.

So on we went and managed to get the boats in on daylight. There wasn’t a lot of water coming
over the barrage, probably less than I expected. It was a pretty uneventful trip to the mouth
where we were greeted by a howling westerly and 4 foot chop rolling in. Decided the only thing we
could do was troll the banks inside the mouth and hope it flattens out. The tides were a lot different
than I thought also. When we arrived at the mouth the tide had already turned and was running out.
Managed to hook up a nice threadie on the 2nd or 3rd troll and another about half an hour later, then
nothing. The water was running hard and the wind didn’t let up. Motored back to flick a couple of
creeks that didn’t look too promising, with no water flowing out. However mum managed to hook and
land a nice 65cm barra out of nowhere? Spent a few more hours trolling and casting for no results so
headed back around 2pm. Noone else had hooked a fish while we were there so we didn’t feel too
bad with three. Got back to the barrage to find there was less water than in the morning but managed
to get the boat on using the winch probably for the first time in 2 years. Found the buff was dead on
the way home and took a couple of photos before heading home without anymore dramas. The other
fellas stayed on for a while longer to catch the incoming tide. But still didn’t manage a fish until
they got back to one of the creeks down from the barrage, landing one at 65cm and dropping two
others. Still was a pretty good day considering and definitely better than working!!

Hey Smithy, I might be in to see you for an insurance quote sometime soon…

Cheers!
Moonman

Good going moonman, Nice fish oh and nice buff

holly craap moon

just goes to show how tuff toyotas and ARB gear is. i have always wondered how much damage a buff would do to the 80s, thanks for the demo moon

harmsey

Moonman..most people shoot there buff



We were at the mouth yesterday and it was DEAD...actually shady was slow all over, we only boated 2 fish for the trip....good to see you did better

some nice fish there mate! well done.

its always a shame when u make the long hall down there and get to the mouth to be greeted by rough seas. ive found on some tides the water sorta picks up there like pressure waves. can be nasty.

luckly you drive a toyota not a ford hey

Well done on those three fish and good to see minimal damage to the cruiser.

Geez moon, lucky with that buff alright (or unlucky) if the road was that good its lucky you weren't going a lot faster. I know I would have been.

Cheers Flicker

coroboreebandit wrote:some nice fish there mate! well done.

its always a shame when u make the long hall down there and get to the mouth to be greeted by rough seas. ive found on some tides the water sorta picks up there like pressure waves. can be nasty.

luckly you drive a toyota not a ford hey

Especially nasty when it's blowing it's ring out and you're trolling along with your head down coit up in the esky and the deckies is dickin' round doing something or other and next thing bonk! you've hit a log and the motor has stalled , wind is pushing the boat up on the mud at a rate of 20 knots . Well.............I can now tell you there is a new channel at the mouth of Sampan running at 90° to the main one ..........thanks to the good ol' 90 Suzi dragging us backwards off the mud flats!

Here's a photie of the boys at one of the barrages (2Rods & BarraBeast), they got fish.........we did'nt...........but we did drink the esky dry

Beat the hell out of being at work, any day!!!!!!!!!

Blinky wrote: there is a new channel at the mouth of Sampan running at 90° to the main one

Great read Moonie. Top pics. Can't wait till I get a shot at some run off action myself.

Rich