Different freshwater species

[kickouttheclams]

Hi everyone, I recently moved from the UK to Townsvile and last week all my fishing gear FINALLY arrived from the shipping co. So I am thinking of hitting the local Ross river for my first ever Aus fishing trip. I haven't got a boat yet so I'm gonna have to fish from the bank.

My first question is since I have never caught an Australian fish, what would be the single best method and bait to my maximise chances of catching the most diverse selection species of f/w fish in one session? I'm not worried about size at this point, I'd just like to catch as many different species as possible since they are all new to me. Secondly, anyone have any idea which is a good spot to fish from on the Ross River?

Thanks in advance !
Keith

ps - love the site

[Jeremy87]

Never fished the ross river but i have done a fair bit of freshwater fishing throughout aus. My first bit of advice for a land based fisher would be to download google earth. Look for parks or bridge crossings as your access point to you desired fishing location. The aplins weir gets its fair share of reports in regards to decent barra, which generally is the target species for your area but there are many many more species to be caught if you go down a size bracket. Tarpon, jungle perch, sooty striped and scroham grunter, archer fish, jacks, large gugeons etc. There should be dozens of skinny water locations within an hours drive of you that hold some or all of these species. I would suggest hopping on google earth and identifying a bunch of likely spots and then dedicating your first days fishing to driving around and looking for good looking water holes (by all menas take a rod with you). You can fish small cut baits or worms with reasonable success but if you really want to have some fun get yourself a short graphite spin outfit and a bunch of small hardbodies. Cast at structure or into the base of an inflow etc and work it back and a medium pace and hold on. there is a few guys on this site who are townsville locals who do this thing all the time there. Search back through the freshwater reports and try not to get distracted by all the impoundment barra threads and you'll see some good skinny water threads. When fishing skinny water keep moving, it no good fishing the same strectch for an hour, the fish tend to turn off pretty quickly once you start catching them aim to cover 500m to a kilometer every hour or so depending on what the bank is like. Ok onto crocodiles yes they are up in your part of the world and you need to be mindful of there presence. There are a few things you can do to make things safer. Firstly keep the pet dog away from the water they can draw attention to your presence (they'll also ruin the fishing), secondly if you cant see the bottom either due to depth or water clarity give the bank a buffer and don't wade in. Alot of people say if theres barra then theres crocs is a good rule to keep in mind. Just because there is an obsticle like a weir etc doesn't mean a croc can't make it up there, also just because theres no barra doesn't mean there is no crocs. you'll learn with time what type of water to be wary of, having just come back from darwin where there are more crocks than you can poke a stick at i have a new appreciation of just how smaller body of water can hold them.

Good luck getting into them

Jeremy

[Jeremy87]

Heres a the link to my recent escape to the NT locations different but the idea is the same

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=133156

heres a few reports giving examples of skinny water fishing in north QLD, you'll find that this sought of fishing happens around the dry when the rivers aren't so high and are easier to access, it probably also has something to do with the barra being harder to catch and people adjusting there targets accordingly.

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=132177

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=130890

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=130076

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=113588

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=64801

[warrior]

yes jeremy hit the nail on the head be wary of the SHORT LEGGED LONG TAILED SWAMP DOG as they are everywhere up your way saw a big one a few years back in one of the runoffs near townsville you are very lucky to have settled in such a great place good luck with your trips out into the big blue yonder. you will love it.

[kickouttheclams]

Thanks Jeremy and Warrior. I will definitly be on the lookout for lurking crocs, it's all pretty exiting. We don't get that kind of stuff in England (over there you wouldn't encounter anything more threatening than a pi**ed off water rat).

Thanx also Jeremy for the head up on Aplins. Gonna give it a shot next week and use google earth to see if I can discover a few more remote areas armed with some light roving tackle and a pair of waders. I haven't caught the barra bug yet, but I'm sure that'll all change when I hook my first one. I'll let you all know how I get on.

You guys don't know how refreshing it is to get away from the Carp Carp Carp obsessed UK! If I never see another bloody Carp it'll be too soon!

[BobbyJ123]

G'day mate, your best bet would be to go to Aplin's Weir. A small live mullet and hopefully, you will get a barra , or a mangrove jack.

[Scott nthQld]

deleted....Ausfish does not own my thoughts and opinions

[kickouttheclams]

Awesome Scott, cheere mate!

Well, here is what happened today when I went for my first fishing session. I ended up going to Aplins Wier, the saltwater side. I started off with some light float tackle and a smal hook with meat on it. Fishing from the rocky side I caught about 6 smallish fish with spiny dorsal fins and bars across their backs (looked very like the English Perch or redfin as you call it over here). Maybe grunters? I decided to use a couple as livebait as I had some larger floats with me and didnt get interest for the first hour and a half
However, I saw some fish getting spooked and cast my bait to ti. They within a couple of seconds... Wham! I hooked a Barra! It leapt out a few times and put up an amazing fight on 8Ib line with a 20Ib leader.

It was just on the legal size at 55cm. So to say I am happy is an understatement!

Thanks everyone for your advise

PS - no crocs were sighted ;)

[disorderly]

You caught a legal barra first time out in the middle of winter...
man, what a fantastic effort....

well done,mate.

Scott

[kickouttheclams]

Cheers Scott!
Sorry that last post was a little rushed as I had the wife nagging my ear off. One other thing I didn't mention was that I hooked another Barra, however this was much smaller than the first and got off the hook as I was about to land it, so it would have been well under the legal limit anyway.

Both takes came from casting toward scattering/jumping fish (mullet I think) very close to the bank. I also noticed some massive fish jumping out towards the middle of the river -much further than I could cast unfortunately. Could these have been barra too? I was under the impression that Barra were a deeper water fish, hunting near the bottom? I think I may have been fishing my livebait too shallow as I didn't get a sniff when I was further out. It was only when I cast neared to the bank where it was shallower that I got my takes.

I just looked up the fish I was using as livebait, they were barred grunter and flag-tailed grunter. Anyway, thanks again everybody for the advise. Had a blast today.

Keith

[birko]

Awesome Scott, cheere mate!

Well, here is what happened today when I went for my first fishing session. I ended up going to Aplins Wier, the saltwater side. I started off with some light float tackle and a smal hook with meat on it. Fishing from the rocky side I caught about 6 smallish fish with spiny dorsal fins and bars across their backs (looked very like the English Perch or redfin as you call it over here). Maybe grunters? I decided to use a couple as livebait as I had some larger floats with me and didnt get interest for the first hour and a half
However, I saw some fish getting spooked and cast my bait to ti. They within a couple of seconds... Wham! I hooked a Barra! It leapt out a few times and put up an amazing fight on 8Ib line with a 20Ib leader.

It was just on the legal size at 55cm. So to say I am happy is an understatement!

Thanks everyone for your advise

PS - no crocs were sighted ;)


Mate, legal size is 58cm.Dont take home a 55cm model. The fish you saw jumping out in the middle are probably mullet. Congrats on the 55cm, Dont let winter put you off.

Birko