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12-05-2007 Yellow Water, Kakadu

werewolf

By werewolf
in Saltwater

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werewolf Newbie

werewolf

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Sat 12th May Yellow Water, Kakadu

6:15 AM 11:15 AM

Dad, Mum and I all joined 'Deano Jackson'Â for a barra charter in Yellow Water, near Cooinda in Kakadu. Dad actually went out with Dean about 2 weeks ago, and since he reckoned it was so good, we made the 600 km round trip from Darwin to go back:woohoo:. That said we did some touristy things on the way including looking at the rock art around the place and visting the Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Cooinda. Both were worth seeing.

The fishing trip was amazing and Dean was a fantastic guide. There was just too much action to do my usual moment by moment report!!! We landed 20 barra:woohoo: and one catfish:silly: between us. Dad got the biggest at 69 cm and 8 pound on a popper in the first few casts!!! This was Dad's first EVER legal barra and considering he said he wasn't going to leave NT until he got one AND it was his bday, he was absolutely stoked! Wild barra that you caught yourself for your bday dinner is something special. Overall Dad landed 10 barra, a rather nice Birthday present!:laugh:

Dad and I started out with the poppers early in the morn and then we later moved onto diving lures. Mum is a bit of a rookie when it comes to casting so she was content (crazy) to watch us for the first hour or two and then Dean tied on a small SP for her and she had a ball on the tiny barra that couldn't resist it. She didn't land many but she had a ball. After she got a bit better at that Dean gave her a larger SP and then Mum landed her biggest ever fish, a nice barra just shy off legal at 54 cm!!!:woohoo: All up Mum landed four barra. Mum was still pretty scared at casting so Dean quite happily casted for her all day! I must say I was proud to see my old girl have a go and catch some barra!

I lucked out with the poppers:blush: but had some enormous big hits. I nearly wet myself on the first one and forgot to strike. For every fish that we landed, we had probably 5 more hits or follows plus overall we dropped a few fish either to jumping or hooks pulling.:sick: Dad landed about 5 fish on poppers before the surface activity died down a bit and we went to divers. I got my first barra on my first cast with a diver:woohoo:! A neat little fish at 49 cm! I ended up landing 6 barra all up, all definitely under the NT legal 55 cm, but looking at the pics I reckon one of my later fish beat 49:sick:!!!! Stupid me for not measuring it when I am so big on keeping records!:evil:

The casting technique was painful! The retrieve was DEAD slow. Any more then what was required to make the lure start swimming and it is too fast. The action is imparted by “whipping†the rod back and forth to make the lure wobble like crazy. The idea is to make the lure look like the sickest thing in the river as barra, a rather lazy fish, won't bother otherwise. Dean reckons “the more wobble the more gobble†LOL! After doing this for a few hours, you start hurting though!!! :pinch:

In the last 1.5 hours or so we moved to some deep water for a bit of trolling to try and hook some better class barra. We hooked em, but couldn't land em! The very last fish of the day went to the bday boy and he got smashed, we never saw it and the 60 pound leader didn't last long on the snag the fish ran around:sick:. Mr bday also caught a catfish on the troll and Deano quickly swapped lures:silly:!!! Oh the trolling was hard going too. Again we were going dead slow, and constantly whipping the rod side to side!

Along the way Deano pointed out a lot of different wildlife to us which was really good, including numerous crocodiles! Deano was an absolute top guide and a pleasure to fish with and helped Mum out all day with her casting. If anyone is visiting Kakadu during the run off I would highly recommend him.

Also the tackle that we used was Shimano Stadics??? with 30 pound braid and overheads with the same for trolling.

Ps a lot of the fish pics are on Dad's camera and it will still be a few weeks before they are back so you will have to make do with what I have!!!!

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Brian D Newbie

Brian D

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Good read wolfie. I am stoked for you - it must have been a trip tp remember and I dare say you will.

Good to read that the same technic is the same as the northern dams, cause it's not easy to master nor get your head around but it works.

Well done and hope you can post some more pics. Can you post em in th photos too please?

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James W Newbie

James W

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great report wolfyB)

looks like ya had a ripper of a trip....didnt get onto the hoardes of tarpon in the main lagoon did ya? When i was there back in 93 there were a few guys hunting barra with bow and arrows...anyone doing that stuff when ya were there?

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werewolf Newbie

werewolf

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Terry - I should have a few more eventually for ya off the other camera;)

Chilly D - yeah when I get a chance I'll start posting some in the galleries section. I have a heap of last season sharking pics that I want to stick in as well.

JB - we didn't see a tarpon this trip, although when Dad went last time someone boated one. Didn't see anyone with bows either, and I probably would have been a bit scared if I did!!!

Feral - the water is absolutely teeming with mullet, so its really no suprise why the barra are there and why they are so fat. They must eat all day long!

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