North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

My partner and I headed to South Ali on Saturday morning arriving at the ramp at around 11am, we motored up the river to fish the outgoing tide.

We fished right up the top near Forks and didn't get any hits so we drove down a km or so to the first junction on the right hand side (if you are travelling upstream). My partner got a couple of hits on a plastic and after a while I thought I would try a barra classic as he couldn't get it hooked. My lure hit the water and bam I was on. Pulled in a beautiful fat barra at 70cm. We took a photo and released her as there was still too much beer in the Engel and not enough room for fish...

Then my luck changed.. I quickly got my rod out there again and after one or two casts my lure got caught on the top of the Bimini without me knowing I cast line out and my rod flung out of hands into the water. I stood there stunned and there was no way I was going to reach into the water over a metre to try and grab it esp after seeing the crocs near us... it quickly sank and my partner and I had a bit of a sulk... It was my trusty Curado and g-lumus , dam it! Suppose it gives me an excuse to buy a new rod. About an hour later my partner bumped the top of the bimini with his hand and down falls my lure! YES! at least I got that back!

For the rest of the afternoon we fished Nourlangie Creek and a few other spots but had no luck.

Sunday morning we were back on the water before sunrise and headed up the river again. It seemed like there was more water falling off the floodplains and the flow of water coming down was a lot faster which was cool to see!

We started at the top near forks and fished every section of colour change and water movement without a single hit. We stopped at the same junction I caught my barra on and my partner said 'just check the d-shackles on the anchor and make sure they are connected' I didn't really know what he was talking about as I have been on that many fishing trips with him and he has never asked me that... so I checked the shackle that connected the anchor to the chain.. yep all good, threw it out then watched as the anchor and chain disappeared. oh dam! I didn't check the shackle connecting the chain to the rope. I was not in the good books... again! I have learnt valuable lessons from this fishing trip!

In the afternoon we decided to try the rock bar and down the creek and found some really great colour change. My partner then caught a 56cm so he was happy... fished until about 3pm with about 6 other boats on the water who weren't catching much either.

It is a beautiful river and was told that the flies were bad there. I can confirm... the flies are horrid. They don't bother me but I could hear my partner swearing his head off about them ha-ha.

Nice fish.
At least you got a few which is better than most this weekend.
Well done

Well done, congrats

Well done, love that river!

Next time you loose a rod cast a line with a sinker running to a trebble only. Has worked for me a few times when fishing with kids that drop rods

Nice post and fish

Great story and sorry to hear about rod and anchor but life is lesson if you pay attention, sounds like you are.

cheers Craig

Yeah I reckon you could have got your rod back. I've done the same. Then I put a deep diver on and dragged the lure around where the rod might be, considering current etc. works most times. Bugger loosing it though, I've done the same with the anchor, but only once. some nice fish to numb the pain though.

Congrats on the fish. River looks awesome. Don't worry, like many fishos... I've done the same with the anchor... Again only once! May head that way myself sometime soon

Great fish you caught - nice, fat and silver!

Everyone's lost stuff over the edge before - you're just getting your bad luck out of the way.

Good on ya,

Yes, many people have chucked an anchor over the side that wasn't tied on ... keeps the local chandlery in business.