Last wildman trip for the year.
Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 10:52 pm
Well after copping a bit of flack from a few on here about this spot decided to put one last post up before Christmas.
Yep, I went to the Wildman mouth last building neaps too boys, I've been slaying them out there since the 90's with plenty of clients going home with their new PB ....
After ringing Stuarts tree camp they answered the phone on the 2nd day of trying. .. turns out they were closed for the wet leaving no option but to run the 80km including almost 40km of open ocean from shady ramp. Much better to pay the 50 bucks at their ramp usually and be 15 km from the mouth. So with a spare 60l and a carton of rum cans onboard i set out with a mate up from down south keen as to get amongst 'em.
Coming out of sampan it was full of coral spawn and jellyfish. Which i hoped wasn't the case out there.
Ended up working pretty hard and trolling for hours, but once the water cleared up on the top of the tide got onto a few including a good one(116cm ). Which was trolled up in the wee hours on a pure white bigass B52 custom painted one off job. After a bit of a nap upstream out of the swell. Got lucky too with the hooks only just holding by one point in its jaw. Pity about the photo I had already released it before I saw the results.
My mates luck was unbelievably bad and he managed to lose every single barra (3 of them including a metrey) he'd hooked. Either by jumping them off or pulling hooks thumbing the spool. He refused to wind the ones I'd hooked in stubbornly telling me he didn't want any help with his fishing. ...
We stopped at a bit of reef on the way back in out from Point Stuart but only a few tiny goldies under 40cm on a couple of zman plastics in the halfhearted drifts we did so headed back in as he was a bit over getting roasted in the Territory sun. Retrived with no issues off our new ramp which is pretty schmick mid arvo and stopped in at Coroboree pub for a chicken schnitty burger on the way back in. (Compliments to the chef ! )
Will probably head down to Finniss mouth over the springs this weekend to put him onto a few flicking DOAs into the snags as trolling does my head in when they refuse to bite we would've marked easily a 100 fish no worries but only had 8 hits on this trip. Or maybe possibly head down to the little Finniss if the weather is gonna be OK. I will be checking pics in future before release after this effort. Moisture or fingerprint on lens I'd reckon. Or my gun photographer mate might have got a bit wobbly after a couple too many cans.
( More than likely. )
Anyhow I hope you have better luck than my mate and prep your gear to handle a big one when you get onto it as bending standard rigged hooks straight is not the go when onto a ripper.
Best of luck, and remember a day at home dreaming about it is a day wasted .....so get out amongst 'em...
Yep, I went to the Wildman mouth last building neaps too boys, I've been slaying them out there since the 90's with plenty of clients going home with their new PB ....
After ringing Stuarts tree camp they answered the phone on the 2nd day of trying. .. turns out they were closed for the wet leaving no option but to run the 80km including almost 40km of open ocean from shady ramp. Much better to pay the 50 bucks at their ramp usually and be 15 km from the mouth. So with a spare 60l and a carton of rum cans onboard i set out with a mate up from down south keen as to get amongst 'em.
Coming out of sampan it was full of coral spawn and jellyfish. Which i hoped wasn't the case out there.
Ended up working pretty hard and trolling for hours, but once the water cleared up on the top of the tide got onto a few including a good one(116cm ). Which was trolled up in the wee hours on a pure white bigass B52 custom painted one off job. After a bit of a nap upstream out of the swell. Got lucky too with the hooks only just holding by one point in its jaw. Pity about the photo I had already released it before I saw the results.
My mates luck was unbelievably bad and he managed to lose every single barra (3 of them including a metrey) he'd hooked. Either by jumping them off or pulling hooks thumbing the spool. He refused to wind the ones I'd hooked in stubbornly telling me he didn't want any help with his fishing. ...
We stopped at a bit of reef on the way back in out from Point Stuart but only a few tiny goldies under 40cm on a couple of zman plastics in the halfhearted drifts we did so headed back in as he was a bit over getting roasted in the Territory sun. Retrived with no issues off our new ramp which is pretty schmick mid arvo and stopped in at Coroboree pub for a chicken schnitty burger on the way back in. (Compliments to the chef ! )
Will probably head down to Finniss mouth over the springs this weekend to put him onto a few flicking DOAs into the snags as trolling does my head in when they refuse to bite we would've marked easily a 100 fish no worries but only had 8 hits on this trip. Or maybe possibly head down to the little Finniss if the weather is gonna be OK. I will be checking pics in future before release after this effort. Moisture or fingerprint on lens I'd reckon. Or my gun photographer mate might have got a bit wobbly after a couple too many cans.
( More than likely. )
Anyhow I hope you have better luck than my mate and prep your gear to handle a big one when you get onto it as bending standard rigged hooks straight is not the go when onto a ripper.
Best of luck, and remember a day at home dreaming about it is a day wasted .....so get out amongst 'em...