Prossie River Session

[baited]

1 1/2 hr drive north of Mackay, the Proserpine River lies with its mouth facing south into the muddy Repulse Bay. With a strong wind warning forecast the chance of finding some clean water to cast some lures wasn't looking very good. The decision was made to get up there early and get the last few hours of the outgoing before the churned up waters flooded back up the creek. We slipped the tinny into the water at about 6.15am . With only two other boats on the water it looked like we were the only keen ones. We drove for about 1/2 hr up the creek and settled in on a good looking strip of bank with a few juicy looking snags. The wind was gusting a good 25 knots so we opted to trail a couple of lures. I tied on a $3.50 Frenzy, Russ and Xavier tied on FAT RAPS. We trailed up and down using the electric motor keeping an eye on the sounder which was showing some nice archers. On our forth run one of those archer decided to tap on my lure and with a couple more twitchers he came back and crunched it. And the end result was a small king Salmon which is what we were targeting. After an other half a dozen runs a healthy little barra decided to taste my Frenzy , measuring 76cm."This ones going on the dinner plate" We persisted in the same area a little while longer and tried casting into the snags but with a solid 20 knots of wind the braid kept finding the snags and we were doing a lot of fetching. With our patients running short we decided to troll up the river. Around the next corner was a couple of nice crocs, trying to get warmer than the water temperature of 19°. Where one of the crocs was laying was a dirty patch of water, I flicked a “Prawn Star” into the dirty water and immediately came tight with a little barra of 55cm. At the same time one of the lures we were trailing got hit and there was a heap of commotion on the surface and it was all over “don’t know what it was” . We just keep driving up the creek on the electric with the tide trying to stay in some clear water. We went and we went and went and we saw croc after croc after croc, I have never seen so may crocs. At least 30. We found one nice deep bend with a lot of archers on it so we worked this area for a little bit and got one more King. With the water getting dirty and the wind still blowing we headed home at lunch time with the thought that all the crocs ate all the fish. This must be an extremely healthy fishery to support this many crocs. Here’s a couple of photos my young fella shot.

[Catfish Queen]

Hey there Bruce,
Nice piccies, pity about yr ugly mug - Steph didn't go fishing ? she probably would have outfished you anyhow...lololol
Damn nice little barra there and Salmon - great eating too !! well done !!

Dyllan loves the crocs ! says it all hey...

Bel

[baited]

Getting up at 4.30am on a cold Saturday morning is not my idea of fun fishing. Isaac and i had a great day of retail therapy and left the crocs to the big boys. Steph

[ActiveAngler]

Hi Baited,

Look at the quality of those fish - just outstanding!!!

Those barra just ooze quality mate - they appear to be in good nick!

Very very good sesh buddy.

Cheers - Ben

[Talina]

Thanks for the report baited....That story & those photos could be mistaken for a fishing trip up in the Northern Territory/Cape York!!

Good quality Saltwater barra like that are pretty hard to find these days due to the poundings our river/creek systems get..Awesome effort!!

[chook]

well done. good to see the barra starting to move around

[neil]

So, Kingie fillets slow cooked in the camp oven this weekend then

The Barra look to be in fine condition - amazing what a netting ban can produce

Neil