Vic River Pirtek Challenge weekend

And jacks, salmon, jewfish - tell us how you went. NT, FNQ and Norwest.
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tender470
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Vic River Pirtek Challenge weekend

Post by tender470 »

I am a member of the RAAF Tindal FIshing Club in Katherine and we decided to get away as a club and fish the Vic River for the Pirtek Challenge weekend.

Having never fished the river before and being somewhat cautious of how trecherous the river is known to be I jumped in my mates boat who had fished the river on a number of occasions and had all major obstacles marked in his GPS. And due to tides we would be travelling down river on an outgoing tide saturday morning and would be able to plot a fresh course along the river.

We left Katherine at 3pm after work on a friday and headed west to Timber creek which would be our base for the weekend along with the other 20 odd members that were coming along for the weekend. Due to the ramp only being single lane we decided to put the boat in friday night and tie it up in big horse creek itself. THis proved a top idea as upon arriving at the ramp friday afternoon there were already half-a-dozen trainlers in the car park with a further 6 more boats in the big horse creek camp ground, add that to the 10-12 boats in our group yet to arrive plus any day trippers, the ramp would be a hive of activity.

We successfully launched the boat without any trouble and puttered up big horse to find a suitable spot, and this is when it all started to go pear shaped. We found a spot to tie up and as we were tying up realised we left the spare tire for the trailer in the boat, we threw the tire up onto the bank and she rolled back into the water, this happened about 4 times before it finally sat on the bank nicely. After tying up we goout of the boat and I picked up the tire to carry back to the car, well i took 3 steps slipped in some mud bounced off the tire as I fell and it made its escape back into the creek :banghead: well it can F$%&#@n stay there then. Now covered in mud a sporting a nice set of ruises along my ribs trudged back to the car. Got back to the camp ground at Foggartys to see the rest of the group statring to arrive. Had a feed :chef2: and a few beers :drinking5: and talked about the exciting day ahead, some other guys we spoke to that evening had fished Angalarri for 12 baz for the day biggest being 93 smallest 53.

Got up early saturday, so early even the sparrows hadnt farted yet. Fisrt light came and we were off the the boat. Helped a couple of guys launch their boats and we down and hopped in ours. motored out of big horse got clear fo all the lunching activity and put the boot in, ROAR went the engine, however on the plane we did not get. great. At 6000rpm we were travelling at 15km/hr according to GPS. THis is not good, slowly, slowly we motored down river to the Baines where we found bait everywhere, schools upon schools of it pushed up against the banks and in the shallows, yet nothing feeding on it. Casting lures into the schools and out into the deeper water produced nothing. We collected some live bait and decided to anchor up in a channel in the Baines itself and try some live baiting, two hours sitting there, for zilch. I will say that the water down this part of the river was pretty dirty and seemed allot cearer up towards angalarri.

The time came to move back up stream to get back to camp for a BBQ that was organised for the club, allowing time to flick some lures around at angalarri and troll over a couple of rock bars.pulled the anchor and switched the sounder over to full screen GPS to see the message "GPS module not responding" great :banghead: luckily the tide was rising by this stage and we should be mostly ok without needing the channel marked. Motoring past sandy island the engine gave a cough and a splutter, and slowed down a bit this carried on for a good couple of kms, then the engine died, manual prime of the bulb, anmd there was pressure and off she went again, we kept this up manually priming the bulb every 30 seconds or so until, no pressure in the bulb, and engine stops....out of fuel, luckily we had a spare jerry with us, top up the tankand to our surprise the tanks not empty as we dont even fit 20L in before she is coming out the overflow. Manually prime the bulb, pressure engine start HOORAY! Motor up about 10km short of Amgalarri and engine dies, no pressure in the bulb, squeeze bulb get pressure, motor starts. rinse and repeat a few times. engine finally dies completely, fuel coming out of bulb but not making it to engine, fuel also a bright yellow colour. Try to raise someone on the radio, nothing, luckily some guys come past in a new 580 top ender and agree to tow us back to Angalarri where we hope some of our mates are still fishing and havent headed back yet. Get to angalarri and tie up to a mooring out the front while our saviours go in search of a club member, decide to drop some mullet over the side while we wait, result one small p o w e r t a i l. A couple of our club members come out to tow us home.

And so we start the tow back. 6.5 hours to get to the ramp. We get back to the ramp tie up our boat and help our mates retrieve their boat at about 11pm. back to camp for shower feed beer and bed. Sunday morning head down to the boat and try to get it started, she starts but anythig over just knocking into first and the engine dies. Troll and flick the rock bars around the ramp until about 10 then decide time to pack up and head home. putting the boat on the trailer and a boat waiting in line pulls in a nice barra onb the corner og the creek directly opposite the ramp, fish had been showing there all weekend just had been able to entice one.

So on a personal note not allot went right but majority of people we spoke to caught fish with most between mid 50 to high 60s and 2 in the 90's a 93 and a 99 on sunday morning. Diagnosis from the weekend is spun prop bush, blocked fuel filter and deteriorated fule lines from tank to bulb.

Anyway here are a few pics of the Vic she sure is a beautiful river and one of the guys who towed us back for 6.5 hours on saturday, you guys are legends.

Woody
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garrynt
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Re: Vic River Pirtek Challenge weekend

Post by garrynt »

Thanks Woody
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seano
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Re: Vic River Pirtek Challenge weekend

Post by seano »

At least you stayed positive!
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Matt Flynn
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Re: Vic River Pirtek Challenge weekend

Post by Matt Flynn »

good report, only the lying ones catch fish every trip
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ozdodge
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Re: Vic River Pirtek Challenge weekend

Post by ozdodge »

Bugger, sorry for the bad luck!,

Good write up though....

Cheers
ozdodge

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