Last Sunday afternoon was spent fishing on the upper Adelaide River with Arrabmundi.
Here comes the tall tale of it.
Arrabmundi picked me up at my place a bit after lunch time, no need to get up early.
Still I woke up at 6:00 am, wondering if I should check my fishing tackle bag one more time, you know, just to make sure that I had everything needed, and that nothing got forgotten.
But the time arrived and on the road we were.
The journey to the river was as usual spent talking about fishing, big fish and all the ones that got away.
A bit like high elite athletes having a prep talk before an event...
Nah, just like two totally obsessed fisho really!
As we arrived the water was a bit lower than planned, but we launched quickly enough, to realise once on the water that we had forgotten the fishing lures in the back of the car...
Back to the ramp presto and off again, in direction of Goat Island.
Zooming up Adelaide river.
The water colour was very good, and not a ripple was to be seen.
Calme water on the Adelaide.
This photo was made from a boat going full throttle, as you can see it was very calm water.
In no time we were at Goat Island, just for a little chat with Kai, whom neither Arrabmundi or I had seen on a long time. But we didn't have the time for one of his famous burggers, we had other priorities we were there to catch some fish...
So back in the boat and we pushed still higher on the river.
Practically in the first spot where we stopped, I got a nice silvery Barramundi on my lure.
The little guy jumped all over the place, and I lost it at the boat. But for us, this wasn't a failure, it was a very good sign that the fish were around, and that we were to catch plenty.
Or something a bit like that. Something that you tell yourself when you lost a fish early in the trip.
And for once, it was going to be true.
Even if it was to be a bit of time until the next fish.
We were casting soft plastics against a bank, Arrabmundi was telling me to let my lure sink, that a big snag was placed between the bank and us. He said that often there are fish hiding in this snag, and that your lure has to go through the branches of it to get a hit.
So I let my weedless soft plastic go to the bottom, and started to reel it in slowly, scraping some submerged timber on the way back. I felt a bit of a hit on the lure, but no hookup, and nearly immediately after that... Bang I was on!
I short fight latter and I had a small Barramundi jumping near the boat.
Now, not wanting to have the same result I had previously, I just lifted the rod and the fish, straight into the boat.
And voilas! I had my first little fish of the day:
Sweet little fish of mine.
This one was too short to keep, but I hadn't caught a Barramundi in a few weeks, and that was definitively something to make me happy. Simple things are sometimes the best...
We missed a few more fish there, before going to try our luck somewhere else.
By now the water had changed colour, but was still very calm.
Flat as a pond.
We saw fish on the sounder, in a deep hole, and tried to troll some deep diver over them, for no results. So we stopped, put the electric motor on, and sent heavier soft plastic in the deep hole, still no fish. Then we decided to try some vibe: no fish either.
This deep hole must have been a bedroom full of sleeping Barramundi, as we couldn't even get a tiny small hit in there.
What to do then?
Well that is simple, go to another spot. This we did. And we found a few fish there...
First Arrabmundi came up with the first legal fish of the day:
Arrabmundi with the first legal Barramundi of the trip.
A keeper is a keeper, and that fish went in the esky, no more school for him.
I then got another rat:
Fishing selfie.
Yes, as you can see from this pic, I am not very good at selfie...
Which is why many of the small fish I got after that I didn't photograph.
And to be honest I didn't photograph the little ones caught by Arrabmundi either.
We did get a few fish there and were happy with ourselves.
And we started to slowly make our way back down river, the weather was perfect for this time of the year:
Adelaide River in November.
It did get a bit hot, but not too much, and we didn't get caught in a storm.
It was perfect fishing weather.
We stopped at another of Arrabmundi spot, hoping to augment our tally...
And catch fish we did...
First Arrabmundi got hits after hits casting against a log in the water.
The fish kept having a go at his lure, but never fully connected.
And finally he said: Got it!
And a nice silver barramundi game trashing at the surface. Quick as I could I got the net and the fish found himself in a boat above water.
Arrabmundi with his best fish of the trip.
Yes Arrabmundi finally got this fish that was teasing him. And it was going to be his best fish of the day, sweet revenge.
There the technic was the same, send your lure as close as you can from the bank, let it sink, and hang on once you are hooked on, because the fish won't have long to go to brick you in the snag... You already caught it at the heart of the snag...
And that is exactly how I got my best fish of the day too.
But lucky me, it came straight for the surface, and tried then to swim around the boat to get to the middle of the river, instead of back in it's snag.
My best Barramundi of the afternoon.
It wasn't a monster fish, but it was still going to be the fish of the day.
(Strangely enough, I did think of taking a picture of it on a brag mate at the time, which is sad because it would have been for me an upgrade in the Seadogs Comp.)
And like all fisho who suddenly, even if it is for a short time, gain some bragging rights, I was really happy with that.
Not to be undone, Arrabmundi got his third keeper of the day, just to show me what he could do:
Third keeper of the day for Arrabmundi.
By then we decided that we just had a good session, and that we would head back.
But on the way, Arrabmundi couldn't resist and showed me another of his secret spot.
A seemingly unassuming place, where he flicked a lure under a tree, and immediately got a beautiful little fish, with was promptly released.
I lost a fish who spat the lure at me, just after. This was the confirmation that this was indeed a good spot.
Then I got another hit.
The fish grabbed the lure, and swam straight back in the invisible snag and got me bricked before I could do anything.
Of course in my mind, this fish was much bigger than the one I had just seen spat my lure in the same spot a few minutes before. After all, he had taken my lure and stuck it in a branch before I was able to turn it back. This was a story that I would tell for a long time...
Well maybe not...
Arrabmundi used the lure retriever to unstuck my lure, and told me that he believed that the fish was still on... And yes I could feel something pulling on my line.
Excitedly, I cranked my reel back in action, pumped the rod, and...
A nice, very small Barramundi came to the surface. Certainly the smallest fish of the day...
In fact it must have taken the lure while it was in the centre of the snag, and just turned it's head to the side to get stuck in a branch. Making me believe that I had just hooked a huge fish...
Ha!
We had a good laugh about it, and said that by now we must have spooked all the fish in this snag by getting my lure back with the retriever. So we went back to the ramp in earnest. With just a very short stop at Got Island for another short chat with Kai. To know how other anglers had done during the day on the upper Adelaide. It seemed that with our ten fish (Four keepers and six rats) we did well.
Arrabmundi new boat just fly on the water, and it was a quick trip back to the ramp.
The night was falling upon us, and the river seemed peaceful.
Sunset on Adelaide River.
One could have easily forgotten that these waters are full of big crocodiles.
Thanks again to Arrabmundi for inviting me on his boat, I had a ball of an afternoon.
It was a long time that I hadn't see so many Barramundi up close.
The only problem with these kind of fishing trip, is that they are addictive...
And that is it for now.
Have a good day,
Pecheur
