Aussie W/End Mondy

[TonyM]

Good man Brian - thanks for not making those of us that couldn't make it wait in suspense too long

It was also very noice of you to let Paul win the drag race

Ohhhhhh man my IBD is critical right now

SWMBO is heading to surfers with my daughter for a much needed break while I look after the boys - after that it's boat hooked up to the car and nothing but nothing will stop me going for a fix (oops I mean fish)

Cheers
Tony

[Callop]

Please Sir, can I have some More ???

[NAGG]

Dont leave us hangin bro!

[BR65]

Day 3, Australia Day. This time the alarm worked, and I was on the water at 3.30, with the cabin boys not far behind me. I headed up on GPS to last nites tree, and the boys slid in 5 minutes later and tied off on the next point maybe 50 meters up.
The only action I saw there was a great view of a 105 jumping between 2 boats, back lit by the red glow of some ones light, I still don’t know who got that fish.
The sun was up now, and I headed off, fished another point, then further up and tied off on a tree and fished some shallow water, where a 90 something crunched my last raggedy hollow belly, took to the air, and spat it back at me – bugger.
Moved around a bit, and finally settled on a spot near where the Ranger was working, the boys had pulled 2 very nice fish the night before, and were giving that same spot a work out.
It was around 9.00 am now, and Paul had called on the 2 way to say he was heading home, when I got a wack on the B52, bugger, banged it down the line again a couple of times, twitch, pause, hold, crunch, an agro little 92 commits and threads me thru the trees, a bit of free spooling and he is in the net, yee ha.
I keep fishing this spot, alternating between H.B’s and softies, mixing it up, looking for another fish, when my Squidgy gets crunched on the spin stick, and a great fight in some open water leads to a 106 gracing the mat, yee ha again.
Bit of rain rolls thru, and the B52 is crunched a third time, this fish knows where home is, and I pull the hooks on a good barra when I try to thumb lock the spool to keep him out of the timber.
Navi and Vin are fishing nearby, I can see they have fish as well, so the call is made to bugger lunch, let’s fish on.
I poked around a bit, fished here and there, then moved over to a spot we fished in the storm in early December. Tie off, half a dozen casts, and the squidgy is engulfed by what I can only describe as a pig of a fish, it gets its head and shoulders out of the water, then surges off for 20 meters, where it sticks its head out again, and spits the placcy. I’m gob smacked, Id kept a low rod angle on the off chance that fish would jump, didn’t make a difference.
Picked up the other stick with the B52 on, and started working it, a big boil behind the lure was a good sign, and half a dozen casts later I’m on to a 111 that leads me a merry chase before finding the net.
Move off again after a while, and wind drift onto another spot, where a middling fish engulfs the placcy and goes air borne, before spitting it. Damn, try a bit of lay down a bit further on, I’ve caught fish here before, half a dozen casts with the suspending lure, and I’m crunched. I can see this fish, it’s not big, but it surges around a stick, tangles up and shakes the lure off.
Next move is to a spot that I normally fish only early morn, but hey, I’m on a roll, let’s give it a go. Half a dozen casts here, and I’m wacked by a good fish that threads me thru the vertical trees, rubbing me off in the process, this aint funny any more. Another swirl on the lure here, and its getting on, so I headed to the previous nites point to tie off for a bit.
It didn’t take long here, the black/gold 100mm squidgy gets cracked by an extremely angry 97 fish that really gave me some curry, boy was that fish pissed. No more enquiries, and I’ve got on more spot in mind, with half an hour of light left, and the end of the trip in sight, I tie off and start casting. True to form, the softy is soon smashed, and a short, torrid tussle sees an 80 something at the side of the boat, where it obligingly saves me the trouble of netting it by coughing up the jig head.
That’s it, I un-tie, grab a Bundy and head back to camp in the last of the days light, 4 fish in the net, 2 over the meter, and more jump off and rub offs than you can poke a stick at, I’m like a dog with 2 d#cks.
Now the technical stuff, for me it was suspending B52’s, hollows on ¼ ounce 5/0 nitros, and squidgys that did the damage. I’ve been thinking about the jump offs, I made a real effort not to high stick, with most of the fights spent with a horizontal rod angle, so I dunno bout the number of dropped fish, maybe just one of those trips?
Any ways, that was a big type, but it was a big week end, with a lot of hours between fish, caught up with a lot of the boys, fished with most of em, caught a few, lost a lot, awesome stuff
Cheers
brian

[BR65]

Heres the 97, think the boys have got pics of the others and mite flick them on to me to post.
I didnt take a lot of pics this trip, it was just to hot and wet to have the camera out all the time.
Hope you all enjoyed the read, cause i enjoyed the trip, I think I got the sequence of things right, but a lot happened, and Ive left a lot out, things like Nath being guide for Graham and putting him onto his first barra before he would have a fish, the gooses in the c/c, Justin and Whittos name for a certain bay that was holding some reluctant fish, heaps of things that add up to a good week end, rain or not, but man, works going to hurt tomorrow!

[TonyM]

Dayum - that's what I'm talkin 'bout!

Off to find solace in a beer bottle!

[Roo]

What a day! day 3 was. Well in Brian. The bloody matchsticks is a bugger tho' and taking a pillow for a mid session cat nap would no doubt coincide with the best bite period if I tried it. cheers for the detailed info.
Cheers Roo.

[Callop]

Awesome stuff and a great read.

[Whitto]

I knew you and the Boys would do OK......Two Words Brian.....Honey Hole.....Aaahhh the Serenity...God's Country.....Well done Mate..Good stuff....Whitto

[SeekingBarradise]

Nice report Brian well done on your trip. Bloody hell she was a wet one. We were so stuffed that it was hard to think let alone talk at night around the campfire!!!!! Next time we will freshen up and do more of the social thing with fellow Ausfisho's.

Trolling Info for those planning a trip to Mondy.

A few blokes we met in the camp were trolling 4 rods out and going over fish with approx 10-12 footers and they got a couple of fish over a few days. They were trolling approx 20-30ft of water in the creek bed of B.

Fish seemed to be around the thermocline on the sounder. They had big days on the water as well and were out at 4am and we saw them out there in the late arvo as well.

Hope this helps a few of you out.

Cheers Lyndon

[robersl]

you had a ##### trip Brian well done mate

shane

[wheezer]

top read Brian, thanks for putting the effort in...regarding your jump offs with a low rod angle, well sometimes it can't be helped, as they say 'thats fishin' but i did make this point today in another thread, a low rod angle, or rather pointing the rod at a fish removes the cushioning effect of the rod. this is magnfied by the lack of stretch in braid. jumping barra are voilent barra! and by not allowing the rod to absorb the headshakes then the likelyhood of something giving ie hooks pulling is magnified...i don't pretend to be an expert but this is one of the observations i have made over my time, i hope it helps...look forward to your next yarn!

[eotbmg]

Great stuff Brain, congrats on such a great trip.

Funny how all our fave spots are yours or Naths, or Chewys, or Lyndons or whoevers.

We found the fish to be flighty around heavy boat traffic [ not surprisingly ] no coincidence the fish came on the chew on Monday considering Sundays Boat a thon.
Between the Mexicans and myself we boated 9. Dropped about the same, high lights were both the boys first barra on placcys[ thanks to Nagg for his cooking recepie]
Lee got the 2 106's on Squidgys. Josh dropping a 90's fish after a 10 minute fight around super heavy structure, knocked off at the leader. I dropped beheamoth in your home point[ straightened trebles and split rings]. I didnt go too hard on the fish, just thumb pressure, couldnt get a wind on her and she spat the B 52 back at me.

Same deal with us mate B52 was the standout, Lee got one on the bigger version as well.

Loved the conditions-absolutely no wind,dead calm all day, the stuff dreams are made of.

Cheers
Ben

[Peter4]

Ahhhhhh Brian.......your feats become more and more amazing.

Some might say "The force is strong with this one.....".

A great read - good company, late nights, long days fishin, jump offs, rub offs, rain, humidity, hot sun, thirst, exhaustion, nature and best of all barra.....

Still disappointed that you don't have more pics though.....

Nevertheless I will respect you in the morning...

Pete

[Whitto]

Hi Whitto thanks for the campfire yarns, even thought it rained all weekend and the fishing was tough that's for sure. A few blokes were doing 15,16,17 & 18 hour days with 14 hours without a bite then a few got a good bite period. Some guys were on No Doz and doing suicidal hours and about a thousand casts a day.

We lost a fish just as we were about to net it which was a pitty. It was around 95cm. I got gillraked by another fish which was bad luck, and had a couple of really fickle bites in the day like slow grabs on the plastic etc even with stingers on they didn't hook which was interesting. That fish i saw and was about 110cm. Scott had a follow from a 60cm barra and some interesting little taps/bites etc. A very interesting weekend it was.

Camp: I reckon about 20 fish landed over the 3 days max with about 200 people chasing the fish doing huge days. It was a real funny bite during the day, we didn't fish all night where i hear a couple of bite periods popped up. One early night and the other very early am. Changing weather was interesting and didn't help the fishing.

With all of us doing massive days with hardly any sleep the campfire was a place where we looked like zombies...I'm still shattered and will need a week to get over this trip, and i didn't even drink... More social time on the next trip that's for sure. Everyone back in camp at 10am - 3pm for some more social time around the fire might be a good idea.

All in all we learnt a lot and the trip was made even better with good company like yourself, Nath, Scott, Greame and catching up with Brian, Ben, Paul, Navi, Vinnie and Steve for a yarn was good fun.

I'll do up more of a report once i get a few days sleep...

I reckon i heard this saying about a thousand times on the weekend.

Number 1 on the water baby... I think big justin and scotty started this one.

My version is: Number one underwater baby!!!!! We usually said this after catching catfish.... Or if any of us did something silly on the boat like birds nests etc, getting snagd up etc.

The other saying was: We smashed em!!! This was said even if you caught nothing... These 2 sayings were running jokes over the whole weekend with the whole camp cracking up at everyone's own version of the joke. This is a
central qld mate's joke. e.g. if you drive a skeeter and you get to the boat ramp you have to say "We/I smashed em". You are not allowed to say anything else.

It was all said in fun and nobody should take offence ok as this joke has been around for a while.

We had a good laugh of a trip. A few donuts for us on this trip. The first since the first half of last year crickey. I'll have to start planning the next one.

There is a new name for one part of the dam. Silver Back Ridge... Where only the big units fish.

Cheers Lyndon.

10 out of 10 weekend Lyndon.....".We smashed em" "No1 on the Water Baby"....Bloody W*$#ker.....I quite pleased to have a small part of Monduran named after Justin and Me....."Silver Back Hill" Umm like the sound of that.... When you have to drop the Kids off to school ya gotta go.....Got home Sunday arvo and now just recovering.....Worth every effort......Cheers Whitto