On the Finniss with the girls.

And jacks, salmon, jewfish - tell us how you went. NT, FNQ and Norwest.
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Bullet
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On the Finniss with the girls.

Post by Bullet »

Headed down the Finniss again on Friday the 7th with my mate Larry to see if we could get amongst the barra. We head down on the friday arvo and once again drove down the beach and launched at the mouth. The sand bar at the mouth was a hive of activity with the Reel Womens comp on and a couple of camps set up.

We dropped the boat in to fish the last couple of hours of daylight and headed up to the first rock bar for a troll. It was a slow start but I eventually had a couple of rats on and in the boat to start off our taly. As the light fadded we made a pass over the second rock bar when my classic was nailed hard by a better fish. It fort hard but I managed to steer it away from the rocks and into the net. A beutiful 86cm chrome baz to round out the day. :drinking1: It was almost dark so we headed back to the sand bar, pulled out the boat and found a spot on the beach to light a fire and roll out the swags for the night. :drinking2:

Up before the sun to cook some breaky and get bon the water nice and early. This paid off with Larry hooking up and landing a 72cm salty on the very first pass, just a couple of hundred meters from the sand bar. The fight took its toll on Larry's leaded so while he tied on a newy I cast a Reidy's rubber across the front of the snag the Larry had pulled his fis from. On the second cast my SP was slammed and with a bit of manoovering i managed to boat another clean barra in the mid sixties. What a start tothe day 8-)

We moved up river with the tide to another set of snags where we bumped into Rammers who was fishing in the Reel womens comp in team WHOGAFF. The girls were having a tough morning so I gave them a few hints as to where I had done well in the previous weeks.

We continued heading up river and stated to work some more snags and managed some nice fish in the sixties and seventies as the tide rose. We had our chances with numerous double hook ups but every time one of the fish would spit the lure early in the fight. Rammers and the girls were headed up river so I called them over to join in the troll run. This paid off for them with Rammers landing a fish in the sixties to get them on the board for the day.

I was keen to try some snags just up river from where we were on the top of the tide as I was bricked, snaged and busted off by some bigger models on a previous trip there. We could only manage a few hits so we moved back down to where we were earlier and the fish were still there with more barra in the 60's & 70's plus a few dropped. The key was to troll as hard up against the snags as posible putting your lures right in amongst the timber.

The day was getting on so we headed down river a bit to around the first rock bar for a few passes. We scored a few more fish and I did hook up to a much better fish but she didn't want to play fair snagging me and braking my line in a mater of seconds. We went back to the snag and found my line floating in the water, I graded it to find the fish still attached. I gave it a pull but the line was wrapped around some timber. The fish responded by launching itself out of the water behind the snag and I thought I still might have a chance of landing her but then my line broke again and it was gone. :banghead:

As we and some other boats were consistantly picking up fish I found it hard to believe that a well known guide was bait fishing in the middle of the river catching powertails with heavy bottom bouncing gear. WTF. (Check out the pic below)

We continued down river to find Rammers back at the snag where we met them that morning. We pulled in to say hi and they returned the favour from earlier in the day by telling us the fish were on so we jumped in behind them for a troll. First pass Larry hooked up but I wasn't on the ball steering the boat and it burried him in the wood work :lol: On the next pass though all was forgiven when his gold Halco scorpion was smashed by a solid baz. After a long fight Larry had a new PB of 82cm and he was stoked. :clap:

We decided to head back after that and finish on a high, so we said thanks to team WHOGAFF and headed back to the sand bar and pulled out.
Once again there was heaps of people on the bar enjoying the Finniss which was good to see. It a great place to camp around the mouth and I will be doing a few camping trips down there this dry for sure.

Cheers bullet :mrgreen:
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Cheers Bullet

I LIVE WITH FEAR, SOMETIMES SHE LETS ME GO FISHING!

DON'T NEED BAIT!
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Ernie
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Post by Ernie »

Top write up and photies Bullet :mrgreen: and some nice silver fish aswell :drinking1: :drinking1:
Live it and ENJOY
Cant save the world from idiots as they'll just build a better one!
Wouldn't need rules if people did the right thing!
PSST There maybe crocodiles in the water
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Post by Brad the Lad »

great report mate.

i have never fished the Finniss before, and that was certainly an inspiring post.

might have to look into this camping at the mouth for a day or two and sussing out the river.

looks like a lovely spot with plenty of options.

cheers.
fishing and beers,

wonder what the poor people are up to!!!
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Post by Faulksy »

Great read and top pics :mrgreen:
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Post by COOPS »

good stuff,

top pic of the blue boat :mrgreen:
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Post by scottmac »

Cool jump shots! 8-) Nice chromies as well. A lot cleaner than the ones we were getting a couple of months ago. Everyones favourate blue boat strikes again!!!
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Post by ponyplay »

top write up and photo's. Those first few photo's sure where nice looking silver salties :drinking1:
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Post by ozdodge »

Great story and top photos Bullet :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Those jump shots are awesome - I was just reading the lastest NTMAG about taking great barra shots and it said you needed to be dedicated to the job and not fishing yourself, so you either debunked that rule, or your a top bloke for giving up fishing to take photos. :-? :-?

We struggled to get silver fish the last set of neaps there, so well done on all those chromies mate! :clap: :clap:

cheers
ozdodge

Don't crowd me - I'm likely to bite!
rammers

Post by rammers »

Nice work bullet, they are great silver looking fish and some great jump shots!

Glad you guys got onto a few, and thankyou once again for showing us a few spots!!

may see you down there camping one weekend! Certainly looks like good grounds down there!
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Post by drifter »

Great Post Bullet, good fishing & photos to boot.

Good on ya for helping the girls out :mrgreen:

Intersting photo of the "Guide Boat". Thats the difference between the original - Geoff's Barrabase.com.au- and his knock off - Darwin Barra Base. How often have we seen this crowd high and dry getting into the Finniss? It's a bit like KFC.

Anywat, great post :cheers: :cheers:
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Onya Bullet!

Post by JewieQueen »

Nice fish guy's and great photo's. I tried to attemp taking photo's with my slr but the fish just did'nt want to jump for us or it was a bit of too much :drinking2: going on.

As Rammers said thanks a bunch for the couple of troll lines you guys showed us your a legend.

Doing my first camp there next weekend if your down there i will be sure to shout you a couple of rumbo's!

The barra base boys managed one jewie while we were trolling past them to on that hole, how ever my attempt of this on the 22/5/10 ended me up with a powertail that was 116cm and estimated weight around 16 kg... Think i will stick to the barra!!!!!

Cheers again.
It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming.

Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. But teach a man how to fish, and he'll be dead of mercury poisoning inside of three years.

“Fishing, with me, has always been an excuse to drink in the daytime”

"Soon after I embraced the sport of angling I became convinced that I should never be able to enjoy it if I had to rely on the cooperation of the fish."
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Post by gammo42 »

Love those pictures :applause:
Well done and thanks for the share

Gammo
Ben Jam

Post by Ben Jam »

Nice one bullet, loved the report and picture.

Drifter, I had know idea about Barrabase and Barra Base, I thought they were the same company. Crazy :-?
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Post by drifter »

Hi Ben Jam, the cheap knock off is Darwins Barrabase. Not to be confused with Barrase.com. Geoff was the Manager of the original Barra Base on the Bathurst Is. Then when that closed set, up shop on the mainland. He has been guiding for over 20 years, and well as a mate. certainly knows how to put punters onto fish, as will be attested by many on this site
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Post by Pecheur »

Hi Bullet,

Nice fish, nice report and nice photos...
:mrgreen:
Well done!
:applause:

Have a good day,
Pecheur
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