Next instalment - Hard body lure action
Attachment 36730
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Next instalment - Hard body lure action
Attachment 36730
12 Mile barramundi rescue.
Attached is summary of rescue activities in last couple of weeks.
Also a GE map of area. Rescue operations (in blue) in very small part of the creek with the rest of it inaccessible (in red). 1,000 estimate refers to number in the blue section. Thousands more in the inaccessible section.
Hope is that the highest of high tides reach into the creek soon but not confident about that.
Or bring on the rain.
Rescue continues.
A decent black jew from the river.
Caught on a live poddy mullet fishing for barra last Saturday 28 Apr.
Went 1.55m with estimated weight of 40 kg.
Caught in 4-5m of water so barotrauma not an issue.
It went swimming away happily on release.
Not tagged.
Worst kept secret fishing spot.
It pays to know the local topography as well as the river. Back tracking from known topographical features.
Attachment 36828Attachment 36829
Vibes
Attachment 36847
Not the Fitzroy but what do you think that is?
Attachment 36900
It is the Fitzroy actually. Fitzroy WA. Not the Fitzroy in Victoria but it could have been looking at the 21.4 temperature.
One thing that you can be assured of is what the sounder WASN'T (a garmin).
Hope you've been paying attention.
I'll be putting up a couple of photos of some well known lures. If you have been paying attention or investigating things for yourself, you should be able to make some observations.
Wash my mouth out with soap should I ask for comment because nobody reads this stuff.
However, talk to others and work out answers amongst yourselves.
I'll put up my views about those lures after you've had a reasonable time.
If somebody has agreed with me, then it may mean they'll have to spend time on the "naughty chair" so be careful.
https://www.worldfishingday.com/show/
World Fishing Day later this month.
Have a look at the Aus contribution on the day. Never know who might pop up.
Lure No 1.Attachment 36965
Attachment 36964
Attachment 36966
Well. Rocky's Frenchville Barra/Threadfin competition kicked off this morning. Couple of early photos back
Got yr thoughts about No 1 lure worked out?
'nother one
Attachment 37014
Lure comments
Attachment 37022
While I'm sorting out the next lure, have a look at the attached regarding VHF marine radio. It might just help save your life one day.
Attachment 37046
Got VHF all figured out?
Here's the natural progression into VHF marine repeaters. How long will this one take?
Dont forget the World Fishing Day on Saturday 23rd June (all day if u like).
https://www.worldfishingday.com/
Everybody gearing up in Rocky.
John Haenke (Downunder Guided tours) and Starlo outfished for king threadfin today in CBD reach of Fitzroy.
My young neighbour (the one I told you guys about previously) capped off a good day with a 110cm threadie to put everybody in the shade.
World Fishing Day in Fitzroy
Barra and threadfin caught on cue despite 20.2 degree water temperature.
Lots of local fishers joined in along with 4 guide boats to showcase Rocky's CBD in the Net Free Zone to the world of fishing.
In Focus II (John Haenke/Steve Starling), Hooked Charters ( Danny Powell/Coby Pascoe), Big Fella Charter and Reel Fishing guided.
Some picked up the local wharf "rats" and took them out and about so they wouldn't miss out. I took a couple of "pontoon rats" with their parents' permission.
Highlight of their day was catching up with their hero "starlo" for a photo opportunity along with their blue salmon.
Attached also is neighbour's lad with his 110cm king from the other day. He is 6' 4'' @ 16 yo.
I had a live mullet out at one stage only to see a shark coming on the sidescan. About 20 seconds later lost the whole lot.
Kids sure do dress the part these days.
Stanage Bay
For those of you who have travelled to Stanish Bay, a name well known to you (or should be) is Ms Ireland.
Better known as "Von".
Apparently there was an accident at the boat ramp last week which resulted in Von passing away.
Wag of a lady who brought sunshine into the life of everybody fortunate enough to meet up with her.
Despite her share of life's hurdles, she was a breath of fresh air.
Stanish will not be quite the same again.
Salt water cocaine.
Black Jew swim bladders also known as fish maw.
Fetching around $400 per kg at the moment (a lot more than the jewie itself).
Commercial line and net catch of black jew in Qld for the 20 years to 2015 averaged 3 tonnes per year.( QFish query)
In 2016 it jumped to 11 tonnes.
In 2017 to 30 tonnes.
Even bigger year expected in 2018.
Now they're being caught solely for swim bladders. Wash your mouth out with soap for suggesting that to pro fishermen. Its only coincidence that the commercial take has increased 10 fold in 3 years as the trade in swim bladders has increased 10 fold in the same number of years. Pure coincidence.
NT has had the problem a bit longer and now has a pro line fishing quota of 140 tonnes. Also has tags to identify swim bladders and black jew numbers.
Dumping of whole black jew has been discovered (gutted of course) in the NT.
NT has a real black market problem. Qld heading the same way.
Fisheries slumbers on.
Last week a 4.8m tinnie with 27 black jew on board with an average weight of 17 kg came into Rosslyn Bay boat harbour at night. Straight past the DPI Boating Patrol office (they keep gentlemen's hours) and ramp/jetty to the carpark. Loaded up and away.
Black jew are selling at about $22 kg while Black Jew swim bladders are about $400 kg "on the black".
Be observant in your part of the piscatorial world.
Latest model by Shimano
Attachment 37216
Anybody recognize this person with his first-ever barramundi in 2006?
Attachment 37238
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=P...&v=_-dMVYuXZXw
Any Victorians or Juro/Strike-Pro/Oz-Pro, Tica, Daihici (the list goes on) people should know about Rick. He's worked for Stuart McLaughlin's various fishing business interests for years. Pretty good bream fisherman as I understand it.
He came up from Vic specifically to catch a barra. Didn't care about size so we took him under the bridge in middle of CBD. The barra was 77cm. Took 10 minutes. First ever. Happy as.
https://jurofishing.com/
Have we forgotten the stuff about lures, colours and observations?
Anything stand out about these 2?
The orange is fluro on both.
Attachment 37253
Got it all worked out?
While u're thinking about that, think also about tilapia in SE Qld.
You'll see the presence of tilapia by the nestsAttachment 37275 they make on the bottom usually out to a 3m contour. The nests look like thousands of golf holes (dimples) on the bottom
If the waterway is crowded with them you'll see the "dimples" out to the 4m contour.
I'll post a screenshot as I find it.
Attachment 37282Attachment 37283Attachment 37284Attachment 37285Attachment 37286Screenshots
Fish hotels, tilapia nests, bait schools, predators.
Note the tilapia nests on the bottom in the 2nd last row of screenshots.
Note also the lack of fish around hotels/havens that are in insolation.
Put them close together (or top of each other or jumbled up) and they will indeed attract fish. With insufficient timber they simply don't work well.
These 10 are in Yeppen lagoon on the LHS coming into Rocky just after the big bull roundabout.
These are made out of sleepers criss-crossed to about a metre or more in height Add more timber to make them more effective.
Sleepers are heavy (especially a few layers of them) so transporting and placing take on extra dimensions of difficulty.
Look for the "golf dimples" on the bottom in freshwater rivers, creeks and especially impoundments like Lenthalls's and the weirs below it.
If you find them anywhere, screen-save the image along with a gps mark. Report it to DPI and the local Council.
Local happenings.
Talking to Bill Sawynok yesterday. Capture reports to hand have been over 250 king threadies in last few weeks with 130 of them over 1 metre. A couple of them hitting 1400 (plus change). One landbased report of 5 x 1m threadies in an hour. Only caught 5 fish, bagged out and took 'em home.
Bill's a bit more serious now about getting extensions for the measuring boards for the Barra Bounty. It was a bit of a throw-away observation not so long ago but with over 30 fish longer than 1200mm last year and what's been happening this year, the suggestion is taking on a new dimension (so to speak).
"King" of the Fitzroy comp coming up in August. That'll be interesting.
New city reach boat ramp almost completed. Opening in a week or two.
Stocking of barra ABOVE the barrage starting to crank up. It'll be an alternative to the annual barra closed seasons. Give the guide guys (5 of them with 8 boats at the moment) and tourism fishing visitors another barra option over summer.
No SIP fees involved. Like Awoonga.
The maths based on Fisheries stocking formula (impoundment surface area) gives about 300,000 fingerlings (50mm) per year. Currently only a 1000 or so per year ( bigger ones @ 200mm or so) put in annually. Local stocking group subsidised by Council.
Council interested in its own hatchery (started out as a grow-out facility idea and has now escalated a bit).
Amendment.
Number of reported (tagged) king threadfin caught in Fitzroy in last 3 weeks = 220 (not 250).
Number 1m or more = 130 (59%).
Attachment 37324
Lets have a look. These are my thoughts only.
Lure A.
Surface lure (stick bait) but it hangs bum down somewhat. Only gets body vibrations into water by rod tip control pushing water sideways (walk-the-dog technique). Darker back with fluro belly so highly visible from underneath depending on water turbidity. Has a rattle for audio attraction.
Would I buy 1 for barra?
Yep.
Lure B
Another surface lure that hangs bum down a bit. A surface popper.
This lure has 2 thing going for it.
Number 1 is the colour seen from underwater. White which is a colour more visible than most in almost any turbidity and water colour.
Number 2 is the rattle.
The fluro stripes are useless unless fishing for seagulls. The fluro orange stripes are on the back and only visible from above. But its a "floater" so they're only visible from the air.
Colour scheme dreamt up by an artist and not a fisherman. Pretty so known as bower bird lures.
Catching fishermen might not have been an intention but its sure an outcome with this lure.
Would I buy 1 for barra? Nope.
Some Fitzroy threadfin king catches last week by the Powell father and son team.. (Dan and Michael ).
In one session 7 over 1 metre with 140, 136,130, 129, 122. Mixed the photos up a bit and missed a couple, I think
Note the dirty water colour.
Attachment 37325Attachment 37326Attachment 37327Attachment 37328Attachment 37329Attachment 37330
Amendment again for the Powells. 7 over 1200mm
So what comes after soft plastic vibes?
Eyes too big for belly?
Not a Fitzroy pic but a good one never-the-less.
80cm or so barra caught on lure with a smaller one down its throat with tail and wrist sticking out. Skin has been sloughed off the smaller fish by larger one's digestion process.
The smaller one had the length of the unsloughed skin sticking out and STILL the bigger one took a lure! So it probably wasn't hunger.
Other point to me was the size of what this barra calls edible.
You guys should be right up on the next bit that follows as a natural progression.
So what is it that stands out (forget about 1 fish eating the other and predator can't disgorge the prey due to reversed spine direction) about this photo?
138cm barra caught in CBD area of Rocky this afternoon. Mate and I fished the CBD for a couple of hours catching, tagging and releasing a couple of small king and small barra. After 2 hours along came another vessel and started fishing close by.
Within minutes they'd hooked up to a big barra. Looked a lot more than 120cm when it stuck its head and shoulders out of water.
After 20 mins these guys managed to get some of it into a dinky little shallow landing net and then they couldn't lift it into boat.
They came over to us and we gave them lip-grippers, 140cm measure mat. They measured the fish in the water and it came up as 138cm.
Mate took cell phone photos which I'll put up when he sends them to me.
Net man on the boat videoed most of the battle and should be something to behold.
In all the excitement I forgot to tag the bloody thing.
No justice in this world.
Here 'tis. They managed to get a photo after all. They spent about 45 minutes reviving it apparently and it swam away.
So what is it that stands out (forget about 1 fish eating the other and predator can't disgorge the prey due to reversed spine direction) about this photo?
Look at the lure and look at the background water. Anything familiar?