On John’ became big hit
efore work this morning and got one arra and smoked by a really good fish,” Morgan said yesterday morning.
“I was using vibes (lures) and the roblem was, there wasn’t much bait ongregating below the wall,” he added. Morgan figured the fishing might be ougher than he had anticipated, the arra fishing usually firing below the alls once vast schools of perch, grunter nd smaller baitfish type species take efuge in the eddies adjacent to the most vigorous flows immediately below he wall.
“The big fish really taught me a sson and I didn’t have much of a chance on the light line I was using,” Morgan said.
He told how the big barra used the current to its advantage and showed little sign of tiring before the hooks of the Vibelicious model lure pulled free.
Fishing perfect therapy
Youth worker James Vaughan was saturated when I spoke to him below Black Weir on Monday morning.
Vaughan, from Liverpool, England, but a Townsville resident for three years, waved a fly rod with the grace of a trout fisher, but one laying his casts in more turbulent waters.
He was using a dark purple deceiver pattern fly and I watched as he teased the interest of at least a pair of barramundi, neither though connecting solidly with the disguised hook.
Vaughan showed me a short video he’d taken of a barra he’d caught only a moment before I had arrived with camera in hand.
It was a plucky little barra of about 60cm, which was happily released by the angler with the Pommy accent.
“I just love fishing … I do it most every chance I get,” Vaughan said.
He agreed that it was a great personal therapy after having to deal with the youth problem of the day.
Efforts bring dam delight
Townsville Barramundi Restocking Group president Rhyce Bullimore is overjoyed with news earlier this week that Townsville City Council has shown unanimous support for the proposed opening of the Ross River Dam.
The TBRG have long campaigned that the dam be opened and follow in the footsteps of neighbouring Peter Faust Dam and Lake Tinaroo where world-class barramundi fisheries draw anglers and tourists like moths to a flame.
The TCC heard the proposal to open the dam for recreational use and is now forging ahead with master planning for the proposal.
“It’s been four years of hard work, it has all but secured access to the dam. Now it’s the finer details that are being sorted out with the master plan,” Bullimore posted on his social media platform.
“A huge thanks to Mark Molachino who has been there driving and supporting this from the very start. The Upper Ross has a great councillor that works hard to make things happen,” Bullimore added.
Mudcrabs in abundance
The welcome rains have not only excited barramundi anglers, but crabbers too.
“There is no shortage of mudcrabs at the moment,” says Rick Ryznar who enjoyed a 14-crab boat limit when he and a mate set traps in a local creek early this week.
“Brought home our 14 and also had a cook-up in the creek,” Ryznar boasted.
Meanwhile, Thomas Milford waded the shallows near the mouth of the Bohle River to manhandle a catch of five big mudcrabs on Tuesday morning.
Milford used the remnants of an old fibreglass fishing rod, the butt end, to pin the crabs to the bottom while he manoeuvred behind the crustaceans to secure his catch.
“I do this a bit and have always got one eye out for a croc,” Milford said of the local lizard population.
“I only go stalking the crabs when the water is clean enough and I can see all that is going on.”
Milford admitted next time he may bring his good fishing rod and a lure.
He said while catching a feed of crabs was his priority, he wouldn’t have minded hooking one of a least a dozen barramundi he spooked in the shallows.