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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2023 at 7:19pm
Originally posted by horrorhead horrorhead wrote:

Can anybody else see the similarities? … Or is it just me? I reckon Ed was the model for Chris Sinclair’s Viking lure



Yes, it truly resemble you, but needs little fine tuning with your beard Wink  .

Thanks, martin for sharing the post & some pics of the fishes caught on the lures including mine. It gives a different level of feel to the lure maker, seeing fish caught on their lure. 

With regards, Raghubir

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jun 2023 at 8:57pm

Back at Lakefield National Park with  niece Tiffany and her beau Shannon. Now Shannon is a recent convert to lures and had some brand new DJR luresto try. The lures turned up the day after he started his last work rotation (FIFO worker) a couple of weeks ago so he was eager to prove them. He had such a fun time loosing my DJR lures on the reef so decided to get some of his own to loose.

I had a destination in mind but decided to give a little billabong a go that I found on Google Earth a year ago. Last year Scotch&Dry and I tried this little billabong for a couple of strikes and one barra caught by Ed. I wanted to try this place again and hopefully to tag another fish or two. I was optimistically hoping to tag a few more fish as this place is hard to find and so not under much fishing pressure. The track in was overgrown with grass past window height and closed in scrub brushing both sides of the car. In fact I had driven past the entrance even though I was going slow looking for it. It was Tiffany who saw the feint hint of the track.

We tried a much smaller and shallow billabong first for no joy. At the bigger billabong I cast my Kuttafurra lure and my line went over a small twig. I wiggled the lure on the surface and a sizeable archer (rifle) fish smashed the lure. After a couple of photos Shannon yells out and when Tiffany and I got to him, he had a 54 cm barra on the bank caught on a DJR lure marked “proto” on his first cast. Obviously this is a prototype and it obviously works. Using another DJR lure Tiffany soon had a tarpon on the bank.

After a little while I had moved past the other two and I soon hooked onto a big fish. This fish was easily in excess of 75 cm. It had lazily poked head and half of it’s body out of the water and shook it’s head. I had barely had any pressure on the line and the fish was free … HUH?. Inspection of the line showed that the double was cut and as I was looking at the cut double, the fish leapt clear of the water trying to dislodge the lure. The lure was stuck to the outside of it’s head with both trebles and it became obvious that it had cut me off on it’s gills. The fish jumped again a few minutes later and swirled on the surface a couple of times after that. The lure in it’s position won’t hinder the fish and will work it’s way out, one of the benefits of using barbless hooks – less damage to hooked fish.

The rest of the day saw us with plenty of action with hooked and lost fish. Shannon caught another 4 barra and a tarpon all on DJR lures. Tiffany caught a small barra on a green Bomber lure that she found on a Cooktown beach. I landed another barra on a Kuttafurra Scud, a couple on an OCD made lure and one on a timber Killalure repainted by OCD (Gavin Marshall). Shannon and I had a couple of double hook ups. I lost one barra of about 70 cm as I tried to lift it up the high bank, the flourocarbon leader had broken. Now I had accidently left my Schneider leader material at home and was using the leader material, from a brand new spool, that Shannon had bought the day before. Schneider had never let me down before. I had lost another lure to a fish when the flourocarbon broke at the loop knot. I got this lure back though.

With plenty of follows, flashes and thrown lures, we had a fun day. I’ll be hitting this billabong a few more times this season. One thing I did realise though, I fish in this billabong, were not interested in lures that were too big or too fat. The repainted Killalure only had the interst of 2 fish, the one I caught and the one that broke me off - I forgot to mention, I managed to get this lure back as well. Longer or fatter lures did not even raise a follow.

PHOTOS TO FOLLOW SHORTLY - RUNNING OUT OF BATTERY.


Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jun 2023 at 9:32pm
To make things easier for me - all of Shannon's fish were caught on DJR lures so I'll only comment on photos with those lures if need be.

This photo of Shannon is with the same fish as the next photo, I caught a barra as he was getting his photo taken



my barra was caught on one of Aaron Young's Kuttafurra lures


Tiffany with a tarpon on a DJR



Tiffany and a barra on her beach found green Bomber










Double hook up using DJR and OCD lures


Archer fish on the Kuttafurra lure, the lure that was cut off by the gills of a big barra


An OCD caught barra, it swallowed the lure but was easily released, mainly because of the barbless trebles




Barra on the OCD repainted timber Killalure


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jun 2023 at 6:45am
Awesome! Shame about the big one getting away.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote p.j. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jun 2023 at 7:23am
Weldone Boys and Girls. Some nice Fish to top the trip Thumbs Up

  Knaek & Break
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P.J. LURES
SO SMOKING HOT
EVEN CUSTOM DOGS LIKE THEM
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SnowE Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jun 2023 at 9:52am
Another great report, always enjoy reading these!
Cheers,

SnowE
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jun 2023 at 8:00pm
Found this hole on Google Earth last year. Here is this hole from 1 kilometre elevation. We had only fished about a quarter of it.

It also came to me today that non of the fish action came from surface or near surface lures apart from Tiffany's fish that she got on the green Bomber. Something to remember the next time we I fish it.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jun 2023 at 8:30pm
Today I took Shannon to a local river. It was more to get out of the house then anything and I didn't want to over exert myself - feeling lazy.

I wasn't really expecting to catch anything but more to show him the scenery. The better fishing is downstream from here and that's quite an effort to get there, plus a trek through some very long grass. (The area hasn't had it's rotational burn off for a couple of years.) I didn't really fancy getting all scratched up and dancing with tiapans and brown snakes.

I ended up with 3 small sooty grunter and a small jungle perch. Actually 2 of these grunters were khaki grunter but so many people call them sooties, there are major differences between them.

This area has beautiful scenery of clear water through a rock river bed. It used to be a swimming hole until a big saltwater crocodile started frequenting the area. You can still find safe little bath tub sized holes in a set of rapids to cool off if you really wanted to though.

This photo is of Shannon trying to keep a low profile so as not to spook any jungle perch. The JPs prefer to take up station under trees with low branches overhanging just above the water. This gives them cover to dart out to eat anything aquatic but also to munch upon anything falling from the tree itself. You usually get just one or two goes at a JP before it gets wise and then they just disappear as though they have never been there. So stealth is key when chasing them.



I got the biggest fish, the sooty grunter, on a white Basstad that I drop shot down to a big log in the water. Check out the differences between the sooty and the khaki grunters. The indigenous prefer to eat the khaki grunter , and actually so do I if I'm going to eat any (larger ones further up Cape York then in this river.).




Khaki grunter (tiny one) and the small jungle perch caught on a Mark A lure.





I drop shotted this Southern Cross made timber bibless in a fast flowing but very deep hole for this 21 cm khaki grunter. I had been smoked before using 12 kilo line in this hole, but not today.





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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jun 2023 at 7:08am
Beautiful fish those Jungle Perch
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Jun 2023 at 9:42pm
Martin , location is beautiful for fishing .
Thanks for sharing.
Regards, Raghubir
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jun 2023 at 12:29am

Scotch&Dry and I attended to the  “secret hole”today. And we had a pretty good time. It would have been better if our lure losses weren’t so high. Well high by other’s standards but, unfortunately, normal for me. I think Ed lost 2 lures, but that was ok as we found two Bombers for him. I think I lost 4 lures including one of Raghubir’s to a lure eating tree, a brand new HJK stickbait (that was given to me by HJK two days ago), to another lure eating tree, a lure made by a Japanese tourist given to me by HJK to another lure eating tree … trying to think of the other lure. This place has too many lure eating trees. I liked it better when there were only kite eating trees and they were only eating Charlie Brown's kites (if you know – you know).

Now what about these 2 Bombers we found? One was a gold Bomber and the other one was sort of like an Elton John flouro painted Bomber. We did find another Bomber, hanging in a lure eating tree right next to a Kuttafurra lure that that tree ate last Sunday. So with all of these Bombers being lost , it’s obvious that somebody else knows of my secret little hole. But we haven’t found were any fish were cleaned so hopefully all fish were put back.

OH … did I mention that I found a DJR lure that Shannon lost on my last trip? Yeah that was good teasing him about it saying that I used it and lost it again. Then admitting that I didn’t use it but threatening that I might chase barra with it in the morning. Hey DJRs are good lures and so I got some mileage on teasing Shannon out of finding it.

Anyway, we caught 6 fish each today, me 6 barra with the largest of the day at 575 mm, just under legal size of 580 mm. Ed scored 5 barra and a sleepy cod. Now these sleepy cod are good eating. Ed’s fish was only 385 mm long but if it was kept then each fillet near the head would have been about 6 cm thick. These are the world’s largest gudgeon species and are fast growing. Today’s version (as I have read in literature from a fish breeder) was most likely about a year old. Because they are so fast growing their flesh stays very white, even in a hole with a lot of leaf litter on the bottom and manky water like this waterhole.

(That’s probably why we hadn’t seen any evidence of fish being cleaned as those trespassers .. I mean, other fishermen, knew that the barra out of this hole would taste like crap. Just to let you know, the biggest sleepy cod I have seen was one caught by a mate at 560 mm and it was just like eating a big yellowfin whiting. We also caught a barra out of that same hole and we couldn’t eat it it tasted that bad.)

Anyway, back to our trfip today. I had managed to land one of Raghubir’s lure so close to a snag that I thought I was not going to get that lure back. But as I had somehow managed to swim that lure over the log with the bib bouncing on the just submerged log, a huge BOOF filled the air and I filled my pants – almost. The amount of displaced water was amazing, but the hooks didn’t bite and the lure was hauled back towards me as I tried to set the hook. I tried to tempt this fish a few more times, a couple of times managing to save the lure from yet another lure eating tree. After a while

Ed moved forwards a bit giving him a great shot at this snag. He cast his (doomed) lure (one that he later lost), landed the lure almost in the same spot I previously  had and he slowly twitched the lure away with it just making small ripples on the surface. The lure had only moved about half a metre and this fish smashed his lure. Ed fought the fish in and as it looked like he was going to win, the fish half jumped out of the water, flicked it’s head and the lure came flying out. We both agreed that this fish was easily 80 cm long.

There were so many stories that I could tell that came out of today, but I’ll leave it there. We had a great day and HEY, GUESS WHERE I AM GOING ON MONDAY?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jun 2023 at 12:46am
And now for the photos.

The found DJR lure that gave me teasing ammunition on Shannon.




Ed with the First Strike lures. Ed lost this lure, as well as another First Strike lure, (and I think both were eaten by trees) and come to think of it, he lost a third lure (to be revealed shortly).










HJK lure




Mark A Lure








S.K. Lure - the long skinny one had a fantastic action, until a tree ate it.






Ed's (now lost) Twin River lure





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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jun 2023 at 1:38am
Wow !! Martin some amazing catches …. Cheers 👍

Regards, Raghubir
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jun 2023 at 10:54am
I forgot to mention that just like last weeks trip, the main bite times was approx 10 am to 1 pm. 

I had worked out that the best bite normally starts at 10 am. But in some places I am seeing an end time around 1 pm. But in other locations the bite time extends into the late afternoon. This early afternoon end time may be because these locations are billabongs cut off from the main river out of the wet season.

The 10 am start time is easy to explain as the water needs to heat up during the day during winter. As the weather warms up going into summer, the water can get too hot and shut the bite down. A water temperature of around 32 Celsius seems to be this limit.

One area that we got fish fish from and had a lot of other activity was over and adjacent to a shallow rock bar where heat is transferred into the water by the exposed rock. This is also where Raghubir’s lure and Ed’s lure was hit by that big fish.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jun 2023 at 7:18pm
Those barra are nice looking
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote steiny Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jun 2023 at 8:00pm
Well done Martin. Love ya work
cheers steiny
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Jun 2023 at 9:32pm

Shannon and I made it back to our secret waterhole again today and things were a little slow.

Now there are 2 possible reasons for this. Yesterday was a cool day for us here with the top temperature at home being 24.6 degrees celcius. Now this may have cooled the water down more then normal and so it took longer to heat up today. But I’m more inclined to believe it was the moon phase. I had worked out before, and confirmed many times, that the week before the full and the new moons fish best for barra. The trip with Ed was on the 17th which was spot on our new moon. So for me to score 3 small barra, and Shannon 2 small barra (and a catfish), I was quite happy with the results.

Before our first capture, we came across a Gary Akers made AK Lure that I had lost when I fished here with niece Tiffany and Shannon over a week ago. It took us a while but we managed to get it out from under a snag it had floated under and to cast a lure over it to retrieve it. Later on I was to cast it over a snag on the opposite bank, get it snagged on it, and bust it off. I was hoping to be able to get over to the other side to retrieve it as it floated of the snag after I broke the line off. As it turned out, we were only 150 metres from the end of the waterhole so I was able to walk around to it.

A little while later I caught a small barra on it and was happy with that. Then I had another hit on that lure close by a thick log sloping into the water. The fish missed the lure then it became inexplicably caught up and I couldn’t see why. My line broke trying to get the lure back. Shannon cast his DJR Proto lure over the same log and was flashed by a little barra, then he was inexplicable snagged and broke the line.

By this time I had tied on a Raghubir lure and cast over to the log, then it got inexplicably snagged but we worked out that there was fishing line hooked up on the log and we had hooked up onto that line. Shannon said “bugger this, we are not loosing all of these lures “ and he tied on a cheap Kmart lure and he gave me one to use as well. My first cast over there had hooked the AK Lure and the DJR lure and the line that was holding them on had snapped and I retrieved both of these lures. Unfortunately the Raghubir lure was held under water and could not be seen. I think I’ll stop using Raghubir’s  lures until I can get them out on the reef.

Other lost lures include a DJR Creak Freak by Shannon and I lost a Kuttafurra lure, the one in the photo that got me my first barra for the day.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Jun 2023 at 9:43pm
The saga of the AK Lure in photos.










Shannon with his DJR caught fish








First Strike lure




Kuttafurra lure




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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 2023 at 3:44am
Again, Martin some good catch, loosing lure is part of the game. May be my lure does work in that specific secret spot, you may be correct they might do well in reef . The best part is that at least you get fish on other lures and not a flop show. 😜

Thanks for sharing, enjoy reading your posts.

Best of luck!

Regards, Raghubir
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rivoli Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 2023 at 12:00pm
nice fishing in the creeks this season Martin, loving the walk the opposite bank each time to retrieve the lures from last session.  LOL
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 2023 at 6:24pm
Fishing line is the WORST to get snagged on
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Jun 2023 at 11:41pm

A friend arrived unexpectedly in town. He was here last year on his way to Kununurra but left some gear in storage. First I knew he was in town was this funny looking bloke fishing on the rock wall. I wasn’t sure at first as he had a face buffer on. It was only as he started to pull it down that I was certain he was back.

Darren and his wife were only going to spend a couple of days in town as they organised their gear but decided to extend their stay. They were only spending 6 months at a time with work in Kununurra but have now been offered full time employment. Now I’m not saying that I am jealous of his fishing over there at the northern end of Western Australia. Like really … who would want to catch metre plus barra on lures and fly straight from your own back yard? (Now up to 121 metre plus barra). And really, who would want to do regular trips to Broome and catch marlin and sailfish from a small tinny ? No I was not viewing his videos with green  / envious eyes.

I first met Darren in the mid 1990’s as he was fly fishing for bonito and northern bluefin tuna off Snapper Rocks at Coolangatta. I used some photos of him in an article I wrote for the now defunct Baywatch Fishing magazine, except his mate told me his name was “Chad” so I named him wrong. He turned up here last yesar and I recognised him, started talking and found out we had a lot of friends in common. Now I’m sure that I’ll take up his invitation to visit Kununurra in the future and stay with him and his wife. Honestly, this bloke has countless videos of all sorts of bucket list fish from lure fishing for mulloway off the northern NSW rocks to all over the Queensland coast to Darwin to Nigaloo reef.

So Darren jumped at the chance to fish Lakefield National Park as it seems it was always on his bucket list of places to not only to fish, but just to expirience a new location. Things were not really looking up to well. The weather was raining in Cooktown with a cool night and Lakefield’s nights are always cooler then Cooktown’s. The rain dispersed for a while once we went over the Iron Range but it soon caught up with us in the form of short periods of drizzle. This kept the day, and consequently the water coolish, and along with the wrong moon phase I was not expecting a day as good as the previous few trips.

So the first hit came after about 2 hours of trying. Darren had hooked onto a nice barra of about 58 cm on a soft plastic of some sort, but this spat the hook at Darren’s feet. A little later on he hooked onto, and landed a little sleepy cod. It took another hour of trying before I landed an undersized barra. The next hook up came when I landed another undersized barra an hour later. After this Darren land 2 undersized barra and 2 more sleepy cod for the next 3 hours of fishing. So all in all, 7 fish landed and tagged. I’m interested in learning about the growth rates and movements of sleepy cod and I have read literature saying that they grow very quickly.

One cool thing though, I managed to get back a lure I snagged when I last fished here with Shannon on Monday.

My 2 barra were caught on this Mark A Lure that previously worked well here. I did try other lures and different depths but this one was the most effective for me today. I did have a few short takes using this and other lures but I think they were mostly small tarpon.





The small sleepy cod caught on the soft plastic



The rest of the fish that Darren landed was on a Barra Classic






The retrieved lure, I was able to safely reach it with my fishing rod.






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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hooknose Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jun 2023 at 12:16pm
Get into em Martin 😁 👍
MAN I LOVE FISHING ! ! !
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2023 at 8:28pm

Today we went to a different area in Lakefield National Park. As it was Darren’s last day in Cooktown before he drives back to Kununurra, we decided to keep it a short trip and picked a waterhole closer then to what I normally fish. This was one of the first places I had ever fished in this park and scored some great fish on that trip. Since then it has mainly produced small fish with only the very odd one being legal size. Not that me catching a legal barra is a big deal though as I seldom keep a fish these days and just enjoy tricking them into taking a lure.

We pulled into the first choice area but there were campers there. We then went around to the other, and last, area and it was empty. Great, we shouldn’t be disturbed. It was a windy day and a bit cool but we were hopeful that we were close enough to the full moon in 9 days time that the fish would be starting to come on the bite. Darren getting hit by a couple of rat barra  almost beside the car had risen our hopes even more.

Once these little barra stopped their activity we chose to walk upstream of the car park. It was tough going but I know the bank opens up further up river. Darren scored a little 475 mm barra and a little tarpon while I scored an archer fish. As we got further upstream our way became even more tedious with the jungle getting thicker and thicker. We dicided on returning to the car and going down stream. Now down stream the holes get smaller and shallower but with the river at this height there should be enough water to hold fish.

As we approached the car park we were dismayed to see that two other vehicles had parked up. Bummer, we weren’t going to give up though and started walking down river. I scored another archer fish and a tarpon then a very small barra of 330 mm. Then we heard voices and soon we saw people fishing the opposite bank. Next thing one of them yells out to another that he was hooked up, that it was his eighth barra. I said to Darren, that that was for our benefit to hear not this mate’s.

A little further on one of them calls my name and I identified him as the fire engine truck driver in town. Soon to emerge was Justin Coventry (forget his Lurelover’s name, but you can read his monthly Cooktown report in the Fishing Monthly publication) and the 8 barra was a ruse designed to annoy me. Bewtween the 5 of them (3 of their sons with them), it was only one of the boys who scored any barra and all 3 of them were under 450 mm.

After a little while we were all back at the cars talking and telling tall tales as fishermen often do. Not a very productive session for most of us but it was still good fun. I do know of an area further south but it is a very long hike down and would be better for a very early start. I only know of this area because of a Cooktown fishing guide but haven’t yet made the trek down as the way is very tough.


Darren got his 2 fish on a Barra Classic




I got all of my fish on a small Ganesy lure, I didn't take a photo of the very small archer fish or tarpon. Archer fish first, then the barra, then my biggest tarpon 





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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2023 at 10:43pm
Great story!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jun 2023 at 6:24pm

So Mr Murphy (aka Mr Viper) graced me with his presence. And he wanted to go fishing, he was adamant that I showed him all of my secret spots. Well not really but he did want to go barra fishing. We couldn’t go too far as Bill Cara is coming this afernoon. So before we went we saw one of the local traditional owners to line up access onto one of their cattle stations over the next couple of days.

So we hit a local spot that I had only been to once before. Great country, beautiful little creek but the fish were a little hard to find. Once we got a while past the creek crossing we hit a patch of little fish. Shane scored 2 little barra and dropped 2 and I scored one tiny barra and dropped another. It was a fun day after all and just a few minutes outside of town.

We summised that the barra may not have liked the dirtier water from the creek / road crossing. S o next time I’ll try upriver and see what happens.

Now Bill has just arrived and we’ll be making plans for the next few days.


Shane Murphy and surroundings. That is not muddy water but very tannin stained water over sand



My massive 27 cm barra on a Morry Kneebone lure



Shane caught 2 barra, one on a soft vibe and one on a Ganesy Lure. Yes under the jungle it really was that dark.



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 2023 at 7:50pm
Looks like a great little fishing spot!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jun 2023 at 7:06am
Sorry I haven’t posted for the last 2 fishing trips. It’s been hectic fishing and recording fish tags and the near 3 hour drive there and back. I’ve only got time for this post before we go back again. I’ll need a rest day just to post up photos.

Those who have me on Facebook would have already seen the photos but on here I give more of an insight to the trips.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote rodsncods Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jun 2023 at 8:49am
oh your just a busy little ? bee aren't you. not enough hours in the day to go fishing is there big fellaLOL. might see you at the expo. . . .mick
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jun 2023 at 8:45pm
Hi , Martin !! no issues we have all the time to wait  to see your post in LL. Post some video if possible or a link of video so that i can catch you  sitting in the desert. I am enjoying several post of fishing at lake field national park on you tube . The favorite one is by "RealLoose Aventures" , these guys catch lot of luge size Barramundi.

Regards, Raghubir
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jun 2023 at 8:49pm
Martin ! those pics were brilliantly captured, who was the man behind the camera ?Clap

Thanks for the post, love it specially the pictures.

Regards, Raghubir 
Its takes years of hard work, commitment and passion to give a life to a piece of raw timber !!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Jul 2023 at 9:55am
Bill is really good at taking photos, but I'll post the photos on here later as my laptop battery is low. But here is the story behind it anyway.

As promised a bit of a story about the fishing done on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (yesterday) just gone.

Shane Murphy (Viper lures) came up for a look at the area and a fishing trip. A couple of days late Bill Caracatsanoudis turned up. Bill and I had already had a fishing / camping trip planned but our camp site booking in this far northern national park was cancelled as the road in was still too wet. I can’t say the name of this park as I have been  obligated to not advertise it by the people who told me about it as well as the sensitivities of some of the traditional owners in the area. It is such that the “T.O.s” would be quite happy to lock it away if too much damage is done to the area.

Anyway, I digress. I had taken Shane to meet one of the family members (and a personal friend) of the area we wanted to fish on the Tuesday. This cattle station borders Lakefield National Park but is often trespassed upon by travellers passing through. (All sorts of damage has been done including the shooting of prized bulls to attract pigs so they could be shot, broken fences, paddocks set alight). Permission was granted (as I knew it would be as he previously told me I could go on anytime I wanted to) but he asked that if we could, could we bring him back a “little”barramundi. He prefers eating the smaller fish and he knew that we won’t keep any undersized so just over legal size is what he wanted. I also told him that we would stop off at the station and let them know that we were there.

On our trip through the National Park on Wednesday morning we passed close by a little billabong. I yelled out “croc”and our chauffer for the morning – Bill, stopped and reversed backwards. Just with it’s snout touching the road, and the tip of it’s tail touching the water was a 2 metre long freshwater crocodile. It stayed long enough for us to get a very decent look at it, but none of us thought to take a photo of it before it lazily turned around sand went back into the water. Now that was cool, they are a cute critter, as opposed to a saltwater croc that is uglier then sin.

We eventually made it to the homestead of the cattle station as I was greeted by one of the T.O.s. He said his name and I recognised my mate talking about him once before. We advised him what my mate said and I asked him if that was still ok to do. He was happy with it all and I importantly asked him if there was going to be any burning off in the area. Soon with everything in order, and us knowing that we were not going back to a burnt out car and them knowing exactly where we were going we headed off again to our destination.

Upon arrival, we could see that the river was flowing very quickly. Under these same circumstances before I headed directly upstream from where we usually go and went to this shallow lagoon. First cast and a little barra. I yelled o the others to join me. Bill had expirienced this before and soon the three of us were pulling small barra. But in all of this shallow water action, Bill managed a nice 74 cm barra. This was too big for my mate so it was released with a tag in it’s back.

After a little bit of fun we decided to hit the big hole. We had quite a few hits and misses from big fish and we caught a lot of undersized fish. Towards the end of the day I had caught a nice 60 cm barra that was put in my back pack as thanks for letting us fish there. On our way back home Shane had suffered badly from cramps. I had gone through the same thing previously so when we got back home I feed him on magnesium and sea salt and water. He has not had a cramp since. I take a drink made from sea salt, magnesium and a little bit of ruby red grapefruit juice with my bush walks to stop my cramps.

The next day I suggested we fish the skinny water upstream. We arrived in Shanes car, but everything in the tray had”a nice coating of red dust - lovely.  Now this river splits into 6 rivulets before it enters the big waterhole below it. Towards the end of the year most of these are completely dry but the main one runs shallow with a few deeper holes. We fished the little lagoon from yesterday for a few little fish but shortly moved further upstream.

In this new hole things got pretty hectic, there were fish everywhere it was crazy. Shane scored the biggest of the day at 77 cm but we all caught a lot of big barra. I had to start limiting my fish tags to the bigger barra only as Iwas quickly running out of the 50 gun tags sent to me last week and the 30 spear tags for the single applicator (big ass needle). All I can say is that it was a total fish fest. I had thought that the fish might keep to the skinny water during high flow because it’s more protected from the big crocs in the big holes. Whether this is the case or not, a pattern had emerged from D.O.P.E. (Data  Of  Previous  Expirience) that led me to this suggestion and it paid off. Evertime I had fished upstream in high flows we caught good fish, with only mediocre fishing in the deeper holes. The times we had great fishing in the deeper holes was during low water flows when the fish were forced out of the rivulets.

Yesterday was our third consecutive day and it was my time to drive. I pulled up closer to our upstream site and parked under a nice shady tree. No red dust coating today as my (home and mates crafted) canopy design is reasonably well dust proofed – always a bonus. We fished the same holes as yesterday and smashed the fish again. We then looked further upstream and found more little holes that most held good fish. I had fished these before but at lower water levels. I watched one little barra take my Mad Dog mackerel lure and hook up, a bigger barra then tried to take that lure out of it’s mouth and hooked up. As the bigger barra surfaced and shook it’s head, the smaller one was sent flying anout 3 metres through the air. Bill had one hook up that screamed line off his reel with a near locked up drag and 20 kilo braid. He had no hope as this big fish found a big snag system. Bill’s 74 cm fish on the first day didn’t pull any drag at all so this was a very big fish. You have to fish a heavy drag in this skinny water as you lure is ofter not more then a couple of metres away from something that you can get hooked up on. But this fish bypassed other possibilities and ran about 7 metres to the gnarliest entaglement of logs, sticks and twigs that you can find anywhere.

So all up we caught over 100 fish in the 3 days. I ran out of fish tags. We couldn’t photograph al of the fish but I did get at least one photo of all of the different makers that I used – except for the Ganesy Lure … and the Per banana lure. Both of these lures were cut off by the gill plate of a small barra on their first cast. After I lost the banana lure I was spent. I went back to the car and saw a littlw waterhole nearby and watched a little freshwater croc swim in that. It was another good day. My aboriginal mate would have come with us but he had a dance festival that he had to attend to as well as a meeting with the local land council. Hopefully I’ll get a fish in with him next week.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Jul 2023 at 12:25pm
Some photos of the first day. Photos of the other days' fishing will come later. We stopped touring around for lunch.

(edited) did have this photo as a double hook up, but Bill had just released his fish as Shane hooked up.



A long Tom on a Raghubir lure, most of this day was in the less productive big hole


A Japanese maker that signed his lures S.K., not to be confused with the Australian S.K. lures



Kuttafurra Lures made by Aaron Young




Some sort of store bought plastic bulk molded thing



Ganesy Lures - Steve Gane





HJK lures




Fysshe Lures - Ian Salmon



Cam Cupitt made Headland Lures



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Jul 2023 at 8:21pm
Photos of Thursday's fishing

Cam Cupitt made Headland lures






Bill with a Headland Lure and me with a Kuttafurra Lure (Aaron Young)



Bullship lures made by Peter Griffiths






Fysshe lures made by Ian Salmon






Ganesy's Lures by Stephen Gane




HJK lures






Kuttafurra Lures made by Aaron Young






Lee's Lures made by Richard Lee





Mad Dog Lure made by Dave Hill




OCD Lure made by Gavin Marshall










On some sort of scum frog with rubbery bendy twirling legs




2 different spinnerbaits





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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Jul 2023 at 8:38pm
Photos of some of Friday's fish

Raghubir's lures








Headland Lures - Cam Cupitt






HJK Lures






Kuttafurra Lures - Aaron Young





close up of lure



Crossing a wet gully


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