The wild barra lives!

Next morning checking the traps... Did the croc leave me anything?
I didn't get any fresh water crays but i did catch some favourite Barra bait.
A Big mouth

Ivanhoes crossing was still closed so we headed in via the back road on the old Wyndham rd .
No crowds as the water level is still a bit high to warrant fording it on foot to get to the opposite bank

Ah the serenity

Fatboy catching live bait

At this point I'm in! Troy get me that Net... STOP TAKING PHOTO'S... first Barra nerves set in
HURRY UP!



I hooked him on a little lure that looks like one of the local grasshoppers that come out this time of year during the build up to the wet. The local Aborigines would know the storm season was approaching when they started to hatch. It pays dividends to read all those information boards on the walking tours... Leichhardt's grasshopper.. Secret weapon 456 .. Its a keeper



This little fella was just under 40 cm. Local size restrictions meant we had to throw it back. You can keep anything from 55cm and up. I was stoked as you can see in the photo. Back it went to fight another day.

Kites on the scavenge for the next meal

The pelican saw Troy swinging about his live bait on the rod & figured there must be lunch near by. He did far better than we did pulling in several fish in a short time



After lunch it was off to the Hoochery...
 to buy some hooch?
They have to grow their own sugar cane as the region now grows mainly sandalwood with the sugar cane industry going under  some time ago



Ahh Rum....

Please ring the bell 3 times if counter unattended! Troy couldn't help himself & rang it anyhow

Katherine hot spring .... German backpackers in the foreground...
This artist is good. They must have been there on the same day we did.

Geoff kindly offered his tinny for us to explore the Ord river in.
We didn't have to think twice about that one...

Off to the rapids to try & catch a 2nd for the day.

We parked up stream & clambered over the rocks to get down stream into the holes were the Barra are hiding out

A local grunter impersonating a flying fish .

It gets dark up here very quick. No longer had the sun hit the horizon we headed back to the boat. Twilight only lasts about 20 minutes so we had to high tail it back to Geoff's place before it got dark

10 minutes later back at Geoffs. What a magic spot. Ken  I could see you up here! wanna buy the 10 acres next door?  

On the way back to the boat before we left secret spot X and no fish in hand......I had a small incident with a lure.

It won....


A quick pull with the pliers achieved jack shit apart from inflicting serous amounts of pain with no results. Rather than contend with a lure & the hand throttle of the dingy I chose to remove the hook from the lure & figured it would be best to deal with this on dry land with some proper medication close at hand. Back at Geoffs place I sough his advice on the best way to remove it. Geoffs cop out was to ask Troy, he is the paramedic after all!
After much discussion it was considered that it wasn't life threatening. The general consensus was if Troy attempted the extraction then it soon could turn out to be.
Geoff recalled a youtube video he saw where a bloke had a huge deep sea lure stuck in his hand and it was successfully removed without any need for any major surgery while still out in the ocean. A quick search of the net found the video in question. It was studied closely & just the barb it self on this guys hook was as as big as the whole hook in mine. Harden up Hemington I though.... Time for self extraction. with a loop of braid around the offending barb & a count down from 3 it was removed with very little fuss.  As usual Tan's ESP kicked in & the phone started ringing just about at the point of extraction...Timing impeccable as always my love!



Tomorrow we head off up the Gibb in the direction of Kulumburu so today its time to restock the fridge & freezer with supplies for the next week or so. Geoff has a mate at Honeymoon beach known as "Frenchie" who has a box of mangoes en route, delivery care of the big red truck due early next week. A bit of a bribe to help us con the good fishing spots out of the locals. Thanks for that Geoff

The blog will remain stagnant for a few days as we wont have any mobile or Internet coverage until Derby early in November.

Watch this space. Fishing photos to follow soon