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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote rodsncods Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Apr 2023 at 3:06pm
got a few of them as well martin. looked good. . . .mick
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ducks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Apr 2023 at 10:40am
Yea I took a couple of Jimi Sideways up to arnhem land a couple of years ago and got fish on one of them.  (They both swum great but you can only legitimately fish so many lures in a day.)
Still in the box packed for next time LOL
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rivoli Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Apr 2023 at 12:32pm
It's very satisfying seeing others catch fish on my lures across the country and I really appreciate Martins posts so always happy to send a few his way. Still making them out of all sorts of scrap timbers and bits and pieces. Have reduced to only one a month or so these days as I'm trying to get to quality over quantity and refining the sealing and glueing process to make them bulletproof and have a high quality finish.  This is the most recent one I've finished. 


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Apr 2023 at 5:30pm
WOW that finish is great- very nice.

You should start up your own post in fish caught on your lures. I, and I’m sure others, would like to see those photos. Has there been any yellowbelly/ callop or Murray cod caught on them?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Apr 2023 at 4:30pm

Absolutely perfect conditions today. I smashed out to the first line of reefs in 20 minutes. Flat water with a little ripple from a westerly zephyr which breaks the surface tension of the water and puts on a little bit extra speed.

Once at the first reef I started a mackerel troll to the destined reef. The spanish mackerel are a bit scarce this year. I‘m convinced it’s because of the distance the freshwater from our big wet season has reached out to. So this was a mistake I won’t make tomorrow when I go back out again. High tide was at 9:30 and I wasted an hour trolling for no result. Usually I see birds working bait schools and trolling around these often produces a hit from some sort of pelagic, but there were no visible bait schools at all.

I trolled to the section of the second reef that I wanted to fish. I was using a mackerel lure that HJK gave me to try. I previously told him how it performed (great – didn’t blow out at 14 kph and trolled at 5 metres deep).HJK then gave me permission to loose it – so I did. I approached the reef and a bommie came up at about 5.5 metres and the lure buried itself into it and refused to come out.

Once in shallower water, I stuffed up the first cast and tangled the lure in the line between the second and third runners on the rod. Don’t ask how as I refuse to elaborate, lets just say “ dipshit moment”. As I was untangling the mess I looked overboard in 3 metres of water and I saw a coral trout about 40 cm long, with a fish tag in it’s back. Judging how clean the tag was I would say that it was a fish I tagged when I fished this reef with Shannon a couple of weeks ago. Funnily enough, this is the same area that Justin Coventry (Cape York lures, writes a Cooktown report for Fishing Monthly magazine – yeah Justin, I’ll talk you up) saw a tagged coral trout about 6 months ago.

Once sorted out and after I had given myself a mental uppercut I got down to fishing. A few “soft”hits had me more alert. Looking out more diligently I worked out that some of these hits were from squid and whenever they had a go at my lure, the lure would foul up. Just must have been how they attacked the lure. I then dropped a couple of fish and started trying different retrieval rates. I started hooking fish when I left the lure dead in the water longer between rips. And that’s how I fished for the day. The first 2 fish aboard were a 51 and a 53 cm trout which I kept. All the rest I tagged and released.

I saw a few boil ups from bait fish and during one of these a shark mackerel (yes I had a good view of it) smashed my Kuttafurra Scud lure in 2 metres of water and promptly bit me off. As I just finished tying on a new leader and attaching a DJR Creef Freak, I looked overboard and there floating was my lost lure .. YESSSS (imagine a fist pump). By now I had drifted off the end of this section of reef and motored up to the top end again and set myself up for a new line of drift.

This new drift only produced small fish – trout, longfin cod, varigaited emperor, stripeys. This drift was also co – incided with the dead time of an hour before dead high tide. I persevered for the next 2 hours for very little so I started a troll home. This troll only resulted in one hit that failed to miss the hooks. As I was still in the confines of the reef I reckon this was another shark mackerel.

Game plan for tomorrow – smash it out to this reef – no trolling. With an hour later in the tide and no trolling this should give at least an extra 2 hours of good fishing time.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Apr 2023 at 4:50pm
Photos now

Coral trout on the Kuttafurra Scud










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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Apr 2023 at 5:05pm
Coral trout on DJR Creek Freak 







With this trout, I saw a larger one trying to take the lure out of it's mouth so I slowed down with bringing it in hoping the larger fish would snare up on the free swinging treble - it didn't.



Sunrise heading out this morning


I took my (so called)  waterproof camera out with me - it may not work anymore. But at least it did capture some images






I found this mesh pencil case in Kmart the other day. Now I'll have someplace to put used lures where they can also dry out. At home all I need to do is wash the lures through the mesh and let them dry in the bag.


This Jimi Sideways (Rivoli) stickbait has a strong action even with a heavy wire trace. Can't wait for some giant trevally action on it. Come to think of it, the GTs are a bit scarce of late as well.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Apr 2023 at 7:38pm
Great photos mate!
Do the trebles get stuck in the mesh pencil case? Looks like a great idea
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2023 at 9:33pm
Originally posted by Chep Buxley Chep Buxley wrote:

Great photos mate!
Do the trebles get stuck in the mesh pencil case? Looks like a great idea

Every now and again a treble pokes through, but the material is pretty stiff and single strand so it's easy to untangle them. Another thing that helps me is that I crush all of my barbs (whenever I'm smart enough to remember to on a new lure).
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2023 at 9:34pm

I’ll only make this a quick report today – I’m worn out. What I’ll do is describe the main events of the day.

We had a shark day. We had lures bitten off by sharks. A fish bitten in half and I suspect a few fish swallowed whole and biting through the nylon leader. At one stage I had a Fugly Martin’s Minnow bitten off at the same time Michael had a Dave Pearce garfish lure bitten off only to have both lures float back up and retrieved. The next fish that  hit the Martin’s Minnow took it under a bommie – GONE. I had a screaming run on a Doc Yarrum, but then everything went slack. I’m certain this fish was swallowed by a shark. At one stage I was looking at jumping overboard to cool off, as I was just about ready to lift the lure from the water, a shark about 2 metres long shied away from my lure. We jumped overboard later in the day.

We had our chances at a couple of big giant trevally. My big GT hit the lure but failed to hook up. Michael’s big GT took him for a big run and as we were chasing it out into deeper water and away from the reef, a knot broke and exit one GT and lure. We had a few other “buzz” lures but for no hook up.

My white Kuttafurra Scud lure fell victim to a bommie dwelling something. Bummer, that one was getting nicely scarred up (just like the lost Martin’s Minnow). But it accounted for the 2 big trout.

All up we caught 9 legal cvoral trout but we only brought back the 2 largest at 49 cm each. Michael had caught a nice 48 cm spangled emperor but as he was taking home a trout, he opted to tag it and let it go.

Trying to remember our losses today- 1 Kuttafurra Scud (under a bommie), 1 Kuttafurra 150 mm minnow (bitten off), 1 Jimi Sideways (bitten off), 1 Martin’s Minnow (bitten off, retrieved then bommied), 1 Doc Yarrum (bitten off), 1 beach found Classic (broken off – knot), 1 First Strike (bitten off). I think that’s all .. oh yes, a Big Al Special had it’s bib knocked out by a 54 cm giant trevally. But I’ll glue that bib back in. A costly day but them’s da breaks when lure fishing.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2023 at 10:43pm
Sorry for not posting photos - lost connectivity

Big Al Special lure - supplied by Stringer -cheers Billy

coral trout


stripey and giant trevally




beach found Classic and spangled emperor




DJR Creak Freak and coral trout





Doc Yarrum and coral trout and paddletail




First Strike lures
varigaited emperor


coral trout




tea leaf trevally


paddletail



Fugly Martin's Minnow and stripey


Kuttafurra lures

coral trout





longfin cod



half a stripey


paddletail



Dave Pearce garfish blank with paddletail and coral trout








beach found Reidy's and long tom


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Apr 2023 at 4:37pm
Last year I tagged an undersized barramundi. 23 days later it was caught again by Roly (I've posted a photo or 2 of him before on this post) and it grew by 20 mm. This barra smashed a fish on the surface between Roly and myself but he got his lure in the area first. Still being undersized Roly released it again.

This barra was re-caught again. This time it was oversized so it was kept. It had grown 60 mm from when I first caught it - 11 months before hand. From the re-capture certificate below you can gain a few things.

1/ This barra remained in the same river system, maybe moving up or down the river due to breeding migration. It also frequented the same area despite have 2 "out of water" experiences beforehand.

2/ This barra growth rate was in tune with the growth rates of barra in Lakefield National Park and in Hinchinbrook Channel. A report by Sunfish shows that once barra reach legal size of 58 cm, they grow on average of 75 mm per year. 

3/ Released fish have a good chance of survival if handled properly. I used a Joe Flint tiger minnow with all 6 barbs on the 2 trebles crushed. Roly used a small white single tailed grub. Even though his single hook still had it's barb, it was quickly and easily released.

I'm still waiting to get a tag return on a coral trout (I've now tagged 209 common, passionfruit and bar cheek trout all up). I'm interested to see their growth rates. I have had one return, but it was a fish I had tagged just the day before so the only thing that taught me was that that fish did not learn. I caught that fish on a Doc Yarrum lure both times in the exact same area. Myself and Justin Coventry have both seen free swimming coral trout that I have caught (I believe I am the only one tagging trout in this area). Both of these fish were seen in the same area.



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HARTE Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Apr 2023 at 5:03pm
Interesting stuff, great work Martin Clap
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Apr 2023 at 4:14pm
fishing report from yesterday, only managed to get connection on my laptop now.

My little penguin got eaten, I was attached to that little fella … wait … uhmmm… Nicho, get your mind out of the gutter. A big giant trevally ate my small Kuttafurra penguin. Mickey Rat and I were fishing our destined reef and after catching a few fish on the smallest penguin that Aaron Young makes, I let Michael use it. The penguins are effective when the squid are about as I believe the fish mistake the predominately black and white for a squid. You always know when the GTs are about when you see squid ink in the water. This reef with it’s squid eating GTs has now cost me 2 small, 2 medium and 1 large penguin. I’m now not sure if I want to use my last (large) penguin there … blow it, I will- no pain no gain.

We were both catching some good fish when Micheal asked me if I had a lure I wanted to be tested. I gave him one lure but it wasn’t to his liking so I gave him the little penguin I was using. After only a few minutes he was hit hard and came up busted off on a small bommie.

I’ll try to keep this as a short report as I’m a busy boy at the moment.

The fresh westerly winds made the going out a bit bumpy so after a while we trolled until we made it to the leeway of one of the first reefs. After the high tide the winds started to slow down and swing around to the north east as per prediction, so the conditions ended up smoothing right out.

After a while we drifted close to the edge of the reef and no sooner had I caught a double header of 30 cm trout on a Kuttafurra lure that Michael was slammed by another GT. (No I am not jelous that Michael had all of the GT action today while I haven’t tangle with a metre plus specimen for too many months). This GT acted like GTs should. It found it’s way to open water and there Michael had a great battle on his hands eventually bringing up a 104 cm unit. What a gorgeous fish and he caught it on a beach found “Prince” lure.

At one stage I had hooked a Maori wrasse about 60 cm long using a DJR Creak Freak. Having it long side the boat I was unaware as to how heavy these fish are, so I tried to lift it on board instead of using the landing net, so yep … the hooks pulled as it was half out of the water. Now that would have made a great photo and I blew it.

With 7 trout tagged and 3 in the esky to take home we were starting to get a bit warm. At home the thermometre said that today only got up to 38 degrees celcius (yesterday was 44.3 degrees). So we jumped overboard again to cool down before heading home at full noise. As I was towing the boat home I noticed the winds had got up as per the predictions. Nice when the weather forecasts are correct, makes it easier and safer in planning a trip
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Apr 2023 at 4:20pm
Now for the photos

fish on beach found lures








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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Apr 2023 at 4:37pm
A coral trout on a HJK minnow
 this is a passionfruit trout, noted by it's different spots and the convex tail. Most trout have a concave tail.



Fish on DJR lures made by Steiny

bar cheek trout


passionfruit trout


common coral trout 


bar cheek trout distinguished by the blue bars around the head.



First one of this type of longfin cod that I have seen with a white belly and 2 different coloured spots. Just thought I would show it as to me it is unusual


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote rodsncods Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Apr 2023 at 4:39pm
maori wrasse have been a protected species since 2003. i thought any protected species weren't allowed to be taken out of the water, correct me if i'm wrong. . . .mick
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Apr 2023 at 4:48pm
Kuttafurra lures now, including part of a trout that fed a shark.




double header of a common trout and a pssionfruit trout.





the last fishes that the little Penguin caught, including a variegated emperor.





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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Apr 2023 at 4:52pm
Originally posted by rodsncods rodsncods wrote:

maori wrasse have been a protected species since 2003. i thought any protected species weren't allowed to be taken out of the water, correct me if i'm wrong. . . .mick

It would have gone back, I wouldn't keep one. Even the regular wrasse and parrot fish that you are allowed to keep I''d put it back. They are too valuable of a species in a reef ecosystem.

I can't see how you can't take most fish out of the water to unhook them anyway.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Apr 2023 at 11:43am
Just when it looks like this year’s wet season is about to end, it starts pouring again.

In the past few days some barra have been showing up. Yesterday morning Roly help land a barra that he measured at spot on 1 metre for a bloke (I think he may be a member- if so Post up a photo please). Now the fisherman didn’t want the fish so he asked Roly if he wanted it. Roly’s response was “ it’s too big to keep” as he doesn’t like killing the big breeding females, so it was released. I was fishing the same spot from midnight to 2.30 am , four hours before it was caught.Confused

Today I  went to this spot later and first cast I pinned a nice 71.5 cm barra. Tagged it and let her go. Now I got this fish on a ( gasp ) beach found gold bomber lure that lost all of it’s gold chrome. So it was that creamy white colour with drawn on red eyes and gills with a felt pen . Now I used to be in competition with my brother in law as that is the only lure he would use - gold bombers. No matter how many times I would out fish him, he would only use bloody gold bombers, so I have developed a disliking for them.

I then switched over to one of Nicho’s little bass lures. The trebles on this lure were way too small for a barra so I replaced them with a 1/0 single on the belly and to stop it from fouling up, I tied the shank of the single with a piece of 2 kilo braid to the back hook hanger to stop it from swinging and fouling. The intention is that on hook up, the light braid would break off securing the fish even more. 

I had 1 nudge with this lure from an undersized barra and 3 follows that saw the barra turn away at the last moment. On of those that turned away easily dwarfed the barra I caught earlier, I’m estimating about 85 cm, much longer and a hell of a lot fatter.

All of this was done in between downpours and eventually I gave up as I didn’t want my phone and external battery booster to get wet while in my pocket ( I listen to podcasts and music when fishing by myself) and my clothing was soaked. 


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Apr 2023 at 11:46am
PS. Another reason I don’t like Bombers is because I have seen so many of them break too easily. But I believe the metre barra caught yesterday was on a gold bomber.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote puglee62 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Apr 2023 at 10:55pm
i recon Wayne is having a bit of a laugh right nowWink
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Apr 2023 at 8:24pm
Originally posted by puglee62 puglee62 wrote:

i recon Wayne is having a bit of a laugh right nowWink

He surely would be, Mickey Rat had a laugh when he learnt about that barra and Bomber. He know how much I don't like them.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 May 2023 at 8:12am
We are still getting some decent rain here in Cooktown and that is keeping the water a bit discoloured. This means that the schools of bait are not coming into the river like they usually do. Some bait is present but not like other years. So the Pelagius like trevally and queenfish are scarce. 

But the barramundi don’t seem to mind it too much, either that or there is so little food around for them that they attack the lures more. This morning I scored a nice 73 cm model on a K.A.D. Lure which was tagged and released. A mate scored a slightly smaller barra on aWal Muffett made jewel. Now Claudio also got an 80 cm barra a couple of days ago and a few more have been reported including a spot on 1 metre fish that was released.
 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 May 2023 at 10:51pm
That was good size barra Martin 👍
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 May 2023 at 3:04pm
Well I wanted a good wet season and we are still having it. Usually the rain stops around February/ March but we are still having some good showers here keeping the water dirty. The swollen creeks and streams mean that the baby barra can stay in them longer offering them a longer period of relative protection until those waterways start to shrink forcing them out into the big wide world of big predators.

The dirty water also means that the big schools of bait ( mainly hardiheads) are not entering the river. Only small and scattered schools are coming in. These hardiheads feed the barramundi, mangrove jacks that are in the river activating them. The giant trevally and queenfish follow these big schools in from the open water. If you look back over the same months in this thread in previous years you will see photos of the queenies and GTs of the size that we usually get.

Hopefully Lakefield National Park will start to open their camp grounds soon so we can chase the barra there. Bill C and myself are booked into a national park in 6 weeks time further up the cape. I’ll be taking up some of Raghubir’s lures that he sent me.

I picked up these lures today and they he finish is great and they are robustly built. They have a great slow roll action and handles a pretty fast retrieve as well as my fast rip style that I use on the reef. I’m itching to get them on the reef and chasing barra. I’ll have to be careful in the freshwater not to overcast as they cast very well. I was surprised as to how deep they dive, deeper then what I thought they would.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote rodsncods Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 May 2023 at 4:01pm
i got a few of them as well martin, one with inset red eyes. reckon they will be good on the yellas. . . . .mick
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 May 2023 at 9:04am
They look the goods
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ducks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 May 2023 at 5:53pm
Will catch fish - despite Martin will be doing his best to lose them :D
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Jun 2023 at 10:40pm
Lakefield National Park is open as from today so tomorrow I’ll be up there.

But I have to make this post before I forget something. I was just on the wharf with one of the local miscreants  ( when I get a bit of time I’ll post up some of his follies). We were talking our usual verbal diarrhoea bouncing bad jokes off each other. I looked into the water and saw a barramundi of about 65 cm shoot out from under the wharf directly below me. This barra came to a sudden stop, then angled upwards and tail walked across the water for about a metre shaking it’s head. A butter bream flew out of it’s mouth and  landed about 2 metres away. I watched this butter bream float away dead and the barra came up and nudged it once leaving a sizeable swirl in the water.

So what happened was that the barra tried to eat the butter bream but it was too big for it. So the barra did it’s thing on the surface to dislodge the fish from it’s mouth. Then the barra came back for another look to size up the butter bream again and decided that it was too bulky for it to swallow.

That was awesome to watch and I left Rob there casting his Leads Lure trying to catch it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jun 2023 at 10:44am
The things you see when you spend time near water.......
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote p.j. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jun 2023 at 4:29pm
Would have been a great sight Martin Thumbs Up

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2023 at 10:26am
Scotch&dry accompanied me to Lakefield National Park yesterday. We didn't go straight to our intended destination as it was too early. By that I mean that at this time of the year the water takes a while to heat up and activates the barramundi. 

Now I'll give the name of the first spot because A/ it is just a kilometre off the main road in (from Laura to Kalpowar) and gets frequent attention so it get hammered - almost as much as Kennedy Bend and B/ it's name describes what happened there. We first stopped off at "Catfish Hole".

Soon upon arrival at this aptly named hole Ed yells out that he hooked a fish - a catfish. Very soon afterwards he had another 2 - all released but with just a "little" bit of teasing from "somebody" that he was the CATFISH KING. Now this "somebody" spoke too soon as he had quickly caught up to him at shared this venerated position.

After our little side diversion we headed to our chosen spot (secret - shhhhh). I generally like this area when it's cold up here (we had a winter here last Tuesday, it got down to 21 degrees celcius) because below the main body of water is about oa kilometre of wide shallow rapids that's in full sun so the water temperature is higher.

We walked past the very busy camp sites with there 5 or 6 boats in the water ( that's almost as many big crocodiles - all longer than said boats, that's in that waterhole) and headed straight to the little but deep holes further down stream. One the way I noticed that there wasn't any discernable tracks made and only on the way back did we see somebody else's foot prints so we were pretty much fishing territory untouched since last year (no footprints at the little waterholes we fished).

Ed's first cast landed him another little catfish. A moved later and after a few casts I watched a barramundi stalk my little Kuttafurra lure as the lure slowly floated to the surface just off the water's edge. The barra just slowly opened it's mouth and, instead of inhaling the lure, it just swam forwards and "surrounded" the lure with it's mouth. I waited a second before striking but the fish then opened it's mouth again and lurched forwards and out of the water and the lure flew out of it's mouth.

OK so the barra were still very sluggish and only showing mild interest. We had a lot of fish just following the lures with their mouths closed and just nudging the lures. All up I dropped 5 barra and had quite a few follows and only landed the one barra - a rat at 46 cm. Ed landed 4 barra from 45cm (including the first) tp 52 cm, still undersized. Ed had converted more of his takes then I did and only dropped 3 barra and had just as many follows as I did. The comment was made that the fish hadn't yet had their morning coffees as they followed the lures from a long distance before attacking the lures at our feet.

On the catfish front, Ed didn't land anymore, but I (once again) took the CATFISH KING crown with catching another 3. 

Ed stated off at Catfish Hole using a First Strike lure made by Frank Trewick. This is a deep diving lure and suited for this hole but at the second location he changed over to a Twin River lure made by Nick Stock. Nick now lives in Cooktown working at The Lure Shop but is now only making 3 models, mainly aimed at barra. 

I used one of Aaron Young's Kuttafurra models and one of Raghubir's lures that he sent me. Both lures caught little catfish and both had a lot of interest from barramindi, both large and small. I had a barra more than 70 cm hit Raghubir's lure at my feet then inexplicably spit the lure back out almost immediately. I think an overnight camp might be needed to fish the late afternoon when the water is warmer still.

Raghubir's lure



First Strike lure






Kuttafurra lure






Twin River lure








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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2023 at 10:35am
Can anybody else see the similarities? … Or is it just me? I reckon Ed was the model for Chris Sinclair’s Viking lure


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote rodsncods Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2023 at 10:59am
yeah, yeah, hard life, fishing, barra.....looks to me like you need another hair-cutLOL. . . .mick
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