North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

So with the holidays drawing to a close I headed for the bridge lagoon for my one last chance of a big barra over easter. Once again the boys in blue were on the road and giving everyone a turn on the breatho . Right in front of the coroboree pub. I passed through and continued to the ramp arriving at about 6: 00 pm.

I launched solo without any dramas and headed down to the river after locking up the ute with the tackle back prodder sitting safely in the tray still.

(Didn't figure that one out till I was snagged miles from the car.)

The motor roared to life shattering the tranquillity of the peaceful surroundings as I got going.
Expectations were running high and the level of the river was almost down to the perfect height.

The fist creeks colour change was textbook and soon I was rigging a lure with barra boofing in the paperbark trees while I trimmed the tag off the leader holding the yozuri that had cleaned up on the last trip.
Many casts and several choices of favorite lures later i had still not had any solid hits. I still had the barra feeding everywhere but couldn't get any real action on the lures. I had tried all types of retrives on a few different sizes plastics and hardbodies. I'd had enough of a lesson in patience and frustration management for the time being. The sun had long since set by now and the last rays of twighlight lit the surface of the river as the flying foxes flew overhead by the hundreds headed out into the night for their dinner . ...

o well bugger them. I thought as I drove off leaving them biting

Cruising straight past Hardies Creek i planned over the sandbars with well over a metre below the skeg. Weaving through the tricky stuff in amongst the tops of the flooded paperbark trees with the light bar illuminating the way like it was daytime still I was soon casting into another prime looking spot. Clear water ran out through the trunks of the overhanging giant trees and the odd subsuface boofs could be heard amongst the pandanus leaves to my right.
The first few casts went well but soon i had snagged the branch of one of the old snags in 3m ....
This was when i figured out i had no prodder. I did recover the lure but the boat had spooked any barra in the area so soon i was moving spots again.
I pulled up near a bit of rapids from the station lagoon barrage and after changing to a 6in nilsie I had what turned out to be catch of the day. I fished on into the night stopping at both the previous spots on the way home too. Once the moon rose I loaded back up and hit the road retiring to my comfy bed for what was left of the holidays. ..

Can't win 'em all hey.

How much silt is on the ramp?

100mm to 250mm of the most highly prized Mary River boatramp mud available covered all but 2 small strips of it the other day blinky . ..

But I could easily launch and retrieve in 2wd. It was however nearly unavoidable getting muddy feet hopping in. I'd put your punters in first to minimize the mudfest.

Might be heading back out there again this afternoon to try again. If you are in a 2wd commodore i wouldn't recommend it. But a decent 4wd you'll find it no worries.

Right up the top there is a bit of a small puddle just before the top of the ramp on the approach but was pretty hard on the bottom take a saw if you don't believe in scratches on your 4wd or just harden up. as the bamboo in the river edge is leaning out onto the approach road making going through the puddle mentioned only way in . . ..good to see the rangers getting onto it..............one day.

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I keep getting the feeling that I am missing something bl..dy Spectacular while typing this instead of casting into the feeder creeks. No doubt the river is dropping height by now similar to that of the pics from my previous round 2 post..

I've gotta go .. i think I can I hear the barra boofing from here.

goldfish wrote:100mm to 250mm of the most highly prized Mary River boatramp mud available covered all but 2 small strips of it the other day blinky . ..

But I could easily launch and retrieve in 2wd. It was however nearly unavoidable getting muddy feet hopping in. I'd put your punters in first to minimize the mudfest.

Might be heading back out there again this afternoon to try again. If you are in a 2wd commodore i wouldn't recommend it. But a decent 4wd you'll find it no worries.

Right up the top there is a bit of a small puddle just before the top of the ramp on the approach but was pretty hard on the bottom take a saw if you don't believe in scratches on your 4wd or just harden up. as the bamboo in the river edge is leaning out onto the approach road making going through the puddle mentioned only way in . . ..good to see the rangers getting onto it..............one day.

.

I keep getting the feeling that I am missing something bl..dy Spectacular while typing this instead of casting into the feeder creeks. No doubt the river is dropping height by now similar to that of the pics from my previous round 2 post..

I've gotta go .. i think I can I hear the barra boofing from here.

I heard that the ranger in that area owns the Mary River Park on the eastern side of the river. When that opened the camping was banned at the ramp camping grounds. There does not appear to be much maintenance happing at that ramp these days. You should be able to launch a 5m boat with a Corolla at that location. We used to launch there with the Torana and a 3.6m fully floored boat back in the late 80s.

Dan

Good report, have you tried the billabong outflow down there?

Sure did..

that's the spot my one and only fish came from.