Ground breaking stuff charanix charinix more commonly known as Milk fish, one of the
most sought after and seldom caught sport fish there is in tropical waters. The mouth of the Jackson has
done it again folks and Al, (the fly fishing machine) is rather stoked to have the pleasure of holding
such a magnificent fish for the camera. I know you fly addicts are foaming at the thought, and dieing to
know the capture details, well it happened like this... the channel to the mouth of the river over the sand bars
was brimming with life with the making tide pushing in, nervous baitfish were skipping, jumping and spraying
everywhere and you could hear the activity as well as see it. You could see the fish shapes under and "boils"
on the water as fish, startled by the boat sped of, some sped off the wrong direction and slammed into the
side, this fish sped and jumped.. clear into the UB22 Yamaha Long boat being towed by the mother ship as we
entered the river at 7.30 pm... sorry to beat it up, but "got you a beauty".
Morning #1, as usual we head out the front and see what is on the buoys we deployed the night before on the way down. Tunas
"out the gazoo" on fly and slices. They were a little tough to outsmart and get with in casting range but everyone caught some,
Andrew and Tim caught 3 great Spaniards trolling as well. After lunch got some classic video of feeding the groper, the things
you witness in life through a camera lens seem to burn more indelibly in you mind than what you just witness with a naked
eye. Probably because the whole of your visual sense is framed, focused and concentrated on the shot you have composed.
Any way, big Dave is lying on his generous, be it firm belly, he two handedly lowers a tuna frame into the water, I am
sitting on the bow of a skiff looking straight back at the Paradise transom videoing Dave from the same low level as he is
laying parallel to the water, Groper latches on and pulls, Dave pivots like a rocking horse, on the afore mentioned belly and
his feet, calves and back of his thighs come into the view finder of the video before the groper wins the battle takes the fish
allowing Dave to rock back to level again.
Afternoon session was a little slow at first until the tide got out a bit then all hell broke
loose, "The Dads" caught a thumping permit trolling and Evan from Arizona had a mammoth battle on fly
with the largest Permit I have seen. It took him, and a heavy 16 foot boat initially up the river
then back against the tide two 300 yard legs until the wind caught the skiff and pushed it onto a
sandbar where he planned to beach land the fish.We had the Permit in plane view and positively identified as Evan was rolling it on the surface and
"stalling it" in the water an action that really hurts and tires other fish. I was just about to say ‘don’t
increase the pressure at this late stage, take it easy... and the hook pulled. Anyone who says a Permit doesn’t
fight harder than an equivalent size Trevalley has never caught one. People who have caught them know that they
are at least 3 times harder pulling than any fish of equivalent size. Another highlight of the afternoon was
possibly one of the biggest Giant Herring we have seen caught by John.
Day 2 Crabbing was a bit of a let down only catching us 8, hardly enough to feed 12 customers and 6 crew. A call on the sat phone to a professional fisherman I know who works the Wenlock and Port Musgrave area confirmed he had some crabs, and sure I could get some off him. 3 cans of fuel and a cut lunch I was off in skiff "Mr. Blond" for the 3 ½ hour round trip, chef Adam met me on the way back in another skiff a little south of the Jackson 5 hours later, there was a bit of a mix up and it look me longer to find Pete the crabber than I thought, Adam said he was worried for me, I think he was concerned more for the makings of dinner.
Phil is no longer the Permit trawl captain, Al is, this afternoon his guys caught 3. He reckoned there must have been a shit load of them on this one rise detected on the sounder as he trolled the edge of a regularly fished sand bar. He made 3 passes for the 3 fish taking 20 to 30 minutes each to land. Another 3 were taken spread through out the group, 6 for the afternoon. We are learning more and more about these fish every day and we now have a few tricks and techniques we’ll happily share with anyone who cares to ask but, I man not going to spell out every thing I have learned over the past years catching these "holeyest of holey" fish on this forum if you get my drift.
Tonights chilly crab (2 hours ago) was the best I have ever eaten, and I have eaten a lot of chilli crab. Adam sure does work some magic in the galley. It’s 9.30pm Deadly Dave just said to me "you know what’s the best advertisement for your business?...this" referring to Al casting his soon to be patented "gay cray" fly off the bow to rolling Tarpon.
"I can’t believe these guys work their ass off all day taking people fishing then fish themselves in the dark". Al has caught 3 Poons in the time it has taken me to type this paragraph. I type slow, young guide Lee refers to what I do on these trip reports as "word wanking", something he knows a bit about, and it isn’t words. I’m going to bed, tomorrow is going to be a great day.
It’s 2 days later, yesterday was a repeat of the previous day, Tunas and pelagics in the morning, the Tunas, both Longtail and Macs were very cooperative and stayed high in the water column busting baitfish and were not spooked or put off by our presence as is often the case. Some Cobia are starting to turn up, Lee’s guys had shots at some piloting a ray on the flats where they also saw about a dozen Permies in threes, pairs and singles. Andrew landed a thumping Cobia that was released.
The weather being good all but glassed out for the arvo. The guides opted to take every one back out the front believing the amount of dimersal (bottom) life on the sounders could not have produced such lackluster results as has been the case in the morning session jigging and bait fishing the bottom. We figured a change of tide and subsequent current run off shore might make what ever it is they are seeing bite. Here is another useless but interesting piece of trivia for you, the current flows to the north with the making tide and to the south with the ebb opposite to what you would expect to happen.
Fishing... anchored adjacent one of the buoys all the boats, once called to the action on the radios were hooked up at once. Never once was there not someone in one of the 5 boats not hooked up, often both anglers were, this is the sort of thing that really gives a guide a chubby. Dave, not deadly Dave, dodgy Dave caught I shit you not 18 fish in 18 consecutive casts and retrieves with a squidgy, one head and nearly 2 packets of tails, he even caught his last on a head only just to see if he could. No permit for that afternoon as the tide cycle has moved into the dark in a couple of days we can again start looking for them in the mid to late morning with the high sun. Hitched the skiffs "line astern" towing and got out of the Jackson at 7.10pm and was on the anchor in the Doughboy at 9.30.
Slow roast lamb shanks on a bed of polenta with zucchini and capsicum and a citrus tart with cream, ice cream and blueberry sauce for desert as we traveled north.
Lunch time Sunday, selected angler quote. Dodgy: "Landed 13 of the 18 fish I had on, can I get a couple more lures off you?" One of his fish was a 40 odd pound GT, damn good effort seeing as he was using a bait caster and 20 pound braid. He has borrowed one of our TLD 15 rods for tomorrow so his mate (the other Dave) get to have a fish as well instead of watching like he did all morning. One boat went up the river for the morning, no Barras, plenty of other snag dwellers and one beautiful Diamond Trevalley.
That bait caster must have some GT attracting capability because back in the hands of the owner using it for what it’s designed for, plug casting at structure known as "PalAl snag" another thumping GT came out of the snag to try and tear the arms off the angler expecting at most a decent Barra. Another highlight of the afternoon came when Phil’s crew were at speed zooming up the coast to the gymnasium spotted a tightly balled up school of bait with a couple of Cobia in attendance. Quickly shutting down and casting 10 or 12 "Cobes" materialized but there was only three lures so that was what was caught.
Check this father and son fishing team, those of us old enough to remember the Black and White minstrels and with a bent humor sence would get a bit of a giggle out of these 4 white sets of white lips.
Could only get a photo of 2 cos someone had to take the shot.
With the maximum neap tides yesterday and today the old adage for river fishing of "no run no fun" is proving itself. The gutters that normally plume muddy into the main stream where we catch barras on the falling tide don’t produce when there is less than one metre of tide fall because the inflowing water is clear and there is nowhere to or the bait and Barras to hide. All the same this avo produced one nice Barra for Andrew on a live mullet cast into the snags, 22lb on the boga grip and released to grow.
Angler comment over dinner "you’ll not believe how much more money I’ve spent on holidays like this and had way less fun".
I am now back seated at my office after yet another magnificent trip. Last day was an absolute corker with the bait schools to the south that we have been playing in for the past "I forget how many trips" really turning it on. The boys were catching long tails in the mid teens (kilos) in 4 feet of clear water. We have had an absolute cracker of a year so far, there has not been a trip under what I consider to be 75% catch rate. My bench mark of 100% is when anglers come back to the mothership early because they are done catching for the day.
You all out there, thanks for your continued support. If you are reading this and coming on a trip soon and are into your music and DVD movies please bring some of your favorites to share in the evenings if you like.
Till next week, be cool. GREG Previous Fishing Trip Reports:
