Anyone Fishing?

[BarraMan]

DAY 4 - Things can only get better!

Early start (04:00), run down the McArthur (20 nm) out into the Gulf and east to Lousy Ck (10 nm).



We were casting hard body minnow style lures and vibes (little fish-like plastic lures) and a range of soft plastic lures into snags, drains and creek mouths.



The top lure is a Gold Bomber - there have been more barra caught on Gold Bombers than all other lures put together! If in doubt, put on a Gold Bomber!

This is only a small fish, but you can see what we are doing - casting into the mouths of feeder creeks, particularly if there is a mudline!



We set ourselves a target of 20 legal barra (>=22") in the boat for the day among the three of us. We had our possession limit (5 per person) and 23 barra boated by 1:00 pm - so we headed back to the cabin at KAB - for aircon and cold beer!





My Brother flew in that afternoon - 7.5 hrs flying sure beats a 32 hr drive!

[Fuzz]

Hell of a trip to this point! Seems the fishing was pretty darn good if you could catch 20 fish between three of you before noon. About the swamping all I can say is at least the water was above 40F.

[BarraMan]

Hell of a trip to this point! Seems the fishing was pretty darn good if you could catch 20 fish between three of you before noon. About the swamping all I can say is at least the water was above 40F.

Indeed! The swamping was interesting. The boat was handling the sea quite well until suddenly - it wasn't. Can't say that I was particularly concerned as I believed the pumps would clear the water quickly. I was glad that I had installed the manual pump. Thought it was a bit of "overkill" at the time, but its now going to be replaced by a double action higher capacity pump.

It was a good lesson in how quickly things can deteriorate and how it pays to be prepared.

DAY 5 - coming up! Will it be worse or better? How bad can it get? Watch this space!

[BarraMan]

DAY 5: Setting the scene!



Ran down the McArthur and into Dugong CK (a dugong is like your manatee!) - caught 4 x barra.

Headed over to East Head - the track between the two islands on the map above. Hit a rock in the middle of nowhere doing about 20 kts (!), on a track that we have followed many many times, in more water than we generally have. The skeg guard bore the brunt of the hit but it also bent the prop, although it remained functional. We were stunned!

We abandoned any thought of fishing there, motored carefully to deeper water and headed up and around the easterly island to the mouth of the Carrington Channel. Now I have the channel into the Carrington marked on my chart plotter, but my crew got a bit anxious when they thought that because we were headed for dirty water that it was shallow water and urged me onto a different track .............. where we promptly ran aground on a very large mudbank on the western side of the channel. We were well and truely stuck - fortunately on an incoming tide! Moral = don't listen to your crew when you know you are on the correct course!

We sat there for a hour or so. Son Stuart soon got bored and started casting a Gold Bomber around the boat .............. and caught 3 x nice barra!

Once we got off the mudbank we decided it was beer o'clock so we headed for the boat ramp, stopping to fish a drain along the way for 4 more barra = 11 for the day.

Just to finish a horror day, we hit a sand bank - again on a track that we have travelled many times, so another hour or so wait for enough water to get home!

Fortunately I carry a spare prop - so we were soon back in business, eager for Day 6!

[VT_Jeff]

Is the cockpit self-bailing?

[BarraMan]

Is the cockpit self-bailing?

No! I thought long and hard about making it so but put that in the too hard basket and opted for large drains eiither side of the rear cockpit floor that drain into the bilge where 2 x 2000 gal/hr and one 750 gal/hr manual/auto electric bilge pumps dispose of it - backed up by a manual bilge pump that empties the cockpit.

[OrangeQuest]

Is the cockpit self-bailing?

No! I thought long and hard about making it so but put that in the too hard basket and opted for large drains eiither side of the rear cockpit floor that drain into the bilge where 2 x 2000 gal/hr and one 750 gal/hr manual/auto electric bilge pumps dispose of it - backed up by a manual bilge pump that empties the cockpit.

You would have had to have the sides lined up with scuppers like sea going vessels to clear that much water in a shorter period of time. You were pumping out more than 80 gallons a minute. Seems it was a good test of what your boat's limits are, and now you know. Not a test I would want to be involved in.

One of the things I considered before putting my floor down was a big strainer and as big and deep of a bilge area as possible with an overflow area so the pumps can have a chance to clear a wave over the bow.

[pee wee]

What an epic trip! Lots of good stories for telling around the campfire.

[BarraMan]

Ya gotta luv trollers! Thousands of miles of waterway and they have to fish over the top of you!

[Jeff]

Crazy people!!! Jeff