We enjoyed a good sleep in this morning, our first for a while and after breakfast I rang a few friends in Brisbane to suss out the job situation. Things weren’t good with both the coal and iron ore markets in a slump. Apparently people were being put off on both sides of the continent. Sue did some work on formatting the blog. The girls went for a swim and later had a game of chess at a picnic table in the park. We had lunch and then went into town to pick up a few supplies and top up with fuel. When we returned, we took the girls down to Katherine Springs for a swim and a swing from the rope. They had a ball and resisted leaving, as we had expected. Eventually we returned home late in the afternoon.
Katherine Springs rope monkey
And the monkey's sister
The girls put on a magic show while Sue and I had happy hour and later, after dinner, we worked on the blog to the wee small hours of the morning. We managed to get it up-to-date for the first time since leaving Brisbane.
Daly River – 8 October 2012
After breakfast I made some more phone calls to contacts in Brisbane re the job situation and then packed up the van to leave Katherine for the Daly River. We stopped off first in town at the tackle shop to buy a couple of cherabin pots. The girls also bought some soft plastic lures from the bargain bin. Leaving Katherine, we stopped for fuel at Hayes Creek before turning off the highway onto dodgy Dorat Road, which is only one lane wide and gets very interesting when a road train approaches from the other direction. Eventually we got onto the upgraded double lane road into the Daly River and we arrived at Woolianna at 2.30pm.
We chatted with the caretakers, Russell and Jill for a while and then set up the van. It was very hot and steamy, so Sue and the girls hit the pool for a swim, while I laboured away preparing the tinnie, downing about 2 litres of water in the process. We had a late happy hour followed by a delicious meal of bluebone in beer batter.
The only van in the park at Woolianna
Daly River – 9 October 2012
After breakfast, I continued getting the fishing gear ready and also prepared the cherabin pots. Sue made a banana loaf with some lady finger bananas that Jill had dropped over the day before. We launched the tinnie at midday and dropped the pots on a couple of snags just upstream, then we headed downstream to chase a few barra. Again it was stinking hot under the midday sun, so it looked like being a short exploratory session only. The Daly is a beautiful river, but studded with snags and rockbars, and as a result caution must be exercised until you have sussed out the dangers. We found a couple of stretches of deeper water and trolled deep diving hard body lures over sunken snags, but without success. If the fish were there, they definitely weren’t interested. The weather got the better of the women folk and we returned to the pontoon at about 2.30pm, where we left the boat overnight.
That afternoon was spent relaxing in the pool before happy hour and dinner.
Daly River – 10 October 2012
We woke at 5.00am to the alarm and left the pontoon at about 6.20am.
The dawn patrol ready for another barra assault
It was quite pleasant on the water until the sun came up and we started the day casting lures to snags in the shadier sections. It wasn’t long before I got something, which turned out to be a rotten river whaler shark. I fought him for about 20 seconds before the hooks pulled and I retrieved the lure with a bit of shark skin hanging off the trebles. I was lucky to get the lure back. A couple of casts later Sue hooked and landed a small 50cm barra, which of course went back as the legal size is 55cm in the Territory.
Sue with a small barra taken casting to the snags
Sue hooked up again soon after, to what we think was a small barra, before another shark nailed it and took off. Unfortunately this time the shark got the fish and the lure. A few more casts at other snags produced nothing, so we again put on the deep divers and trolled the deeper sections of the river. After giving the trolling a fair whack without success, Sue and Kelsey had had enough, so I dropped them back to the pontoon while Georgia and I headed back downstream and continued fishing. We sweltered under the hot sun for nought. The closest we came to a barra was watching a small freshwater croc swim off with one he had caught.
We returned to camp at 11.30am and had some lunch in the cool air conditioning. After lunch, Sue and I drove about 8km back up the road to Banyan Farm, to within Telstra phone range. We rang my step-mum Mary for her birthday, keeping the car running all the time to stay cool. We also tried to track down some mail that we missed in Broome, one piece of mail had arrived and we had it re-directed to Cardwell. A second item still hadn’t arrived from Brisbane after being posted 16 days earlier. We would have to try for that one again in a few days time.
Back at the van, we prepared for another crack at the barra and left the pontoon at 4.30pm. Even though most of the sting had gone out of the sun, the wind was very hot and dry, like standing in front of a hair dryer. We headed straight for the Golden Mile, about 16km downstream. Russell had given us a tip on where to troll, at a spot where he had always caught fish. We trolled small shallow running hard body lures over submerged snags in 2 to 4m of water. Georgia was first to hook up to a fish, a small 49cm barra, which was promptly returned. Kelsey was next, a 50cm barra on a blue spearhead. Again it was released.
Kelsey's barra taken trolling at the Golden Mile
We finished trolling the run that Russell had recommended and turned for home, stopping only to cast at one good snag we had trolled past earlier. It looked too good to pass up and after a couple of missed strikes, Sue finally hooked another small barra and handed the rod to me. I landed and released another 50cm fish. That made one barra each for the day but all too small for the table.
We got back to the pontoon at about 7.00pm, in fading light. A quick happy hour was followed by a great feed of Spanish mackerel in beer batter.
A rufus night herron at dusk next to the Woolianna pontoon
Daly River – 11 October 2012
I woke to the alarm at 5.15am and left Sue asleep. I then woke Georgia, leaving Kelsey sleeping, and we had breakfast and left the pontoon at around 6.00am. Sue and Kelsey had opted for a morning at home after a big day the day before. They caught up on the household chores and had a swim.
Georgia and I started the morning casting and it didn’t take long before I hooked a fish and handed the rod to Georgia who almost landed a fish of about 45cm. I say almost landed because I was taking a photo of it next to the boat when it spat the lure and swam off. Georgia was not impressed. More casting produced about 4 short strikes, but no more hook ups. As the sun rose and got higher in the sky, the shadows disappeared and we began trolling. We trolled a deeper section upstream from Browns Creek and lost one lure when it snagged and the line became wrapped around the rod tip. The line snapped before I could reverse the tinnie.
We gave up and returned to the van at about 11.30am. Georgia was exhausted and hit the pool for a refreshing swim.
After lunch and a short snooze, we had ice creams and all hit the pool for a swim. Later in the arvo, I borrowed some cherabin pots from Russell and tied them off down at the pontoon. In these I used chook pellets for bait, as the dry dog food we'd tried so far had yielded nothing. Happy hour was had under the shade of a mango tree followed by a bbq dinner.
Daly River – 12 October 2012
I woke to the alarm at 5.00am and this time I left the lady folk behind, heading off on my own for another crack at the elusive Daly River barramundi.
Georgia had a really bad night’s sleep and woke up with a nasty headache and sore throat. Sue later spoke with Jill, who said Sue could follow her into the community health centre later on and get Georgia looked at.
On the river, I began my day by checking the pots, and again our pots yielded nothing, but I was lucky enough to get 4 cherabin from the two pots I'd borrowed from Russell. They went into the live bait bucket for later, as I cast to some good snags not far downstream from the pontoon. I was straight onto a small barra the first snag I fished but it wasn’t much bigger than the lure, at about 20cm. I photographed and released it and kept casting to the same snag. About a dozen casts later I hooked something a bit more solid, but it didn’t jump, leading me to believe it might be a catfish or another one of those rotten sharks. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a chunky little sooty grunter of about 35cm. It had acquitted itself a lot better than the larger barra we had previously caught. After a quick photo I released it to fight another day. More casting produced a few missed strikes but no more hook-ups, so I headed downstream to a snag Russell had told me of, where the bait fishermen regularly do well.
I re-rigged the first rod for cherabin and dropped the first livie down amongst the timber. Minutes later, while rigging the other rod, the first bait went off and I quickly grabbed the rod before the fish tied me in knots down below. A short fight saw me bring a small barra of about 45cm to the boat. These cherabin go alright.
My next cherabin bait flicked off the hook without even a bite, so I sent my third precious bait out on the same rod. After finally rigging the second rod, I hooked up my last, and largest, cherabin and sent it to the bottom. The boat drifted sideways and the line took on a funny angle leaving me thinking I had wrapped it around the timber. I retrieved it to find the bait missing and was mighty peed off, as it had only been in the water for about 20 seconds. At least I had one cherished bait left, but upon checking it, found some rotten fish had bitten its head off without hooking up. Now I was more than just peed off and let everybody within ear shot know about it. I cut the bait fishing rig off and tied on another lure and began casting again. What else could I do?
I remember thinking to myself, that I was due for a change of luck and then next cast, a good fish inhaled by lure just below the surface, about 10 feet from the boat. My first thought was this is the one I want and I didn’t give it any headway at all. I muscled it out of the snags and brought it to the surface green, where it jumped straight into my waiting net. Bad luck fish, good luck me. It was a better fish measuring 70cm, and finally we had a keeper from the Daly. I fished for about another hour or so, picking up one other small barra of 50cm downstream from Browns Creek.
My 70cm barra from the snags on a gold bomber
Sue was just about to leave with Jill when they heard me return to the pontoon, and so after cleaning the fish, we left Jill at Woolianna and headed in to the community health centre for Georgia. It was closed when we arrived, but would open within the hour, so we went to the store and picked up some sugar for another banana loaf.
To fill in time we headed to the Daly River Inn, where we had a great lunch. Sue and I had steak sandwiches, Kelsey had a plate of nuggets and chips, and Georgia scored the largest plate of chips we have ever seen. On a huge plate they stood over 4 inches tall and well deserved the photo that Sue took.
I got a call back from one of the engineering contacts I’d called during our lunch. He actually called from his job site in Papua New Guinea, and while unable to help himself, gave me the number of another contact in Perth.
At the health centre later, the medic confirmed that Georgia’s tonsils were swollen, but not really nasty, and one of her ears was a bit red. No pills were necessary and he recommended panadol and rest for the patient.
Back at camp I started on the pack up, while Sue knocked up another banana loaf and the girls watched some tv.
We later had happy hour, before home made pizza for dinner.
Dunmarra River – 13 October 2012
We got up at 5.30am to the alarm. After breakfast and packing up the van, we had a quick chat to Russell and Jill, and then hit the road for Katherine. We did some grocery shopping at Katherine and bought a new pair of sunnies for Georgia. We got some fuel and hit the road again, heading south and stopping at Mataranka and the Highway Inn for fuel, before arriving at Dunmarra Roadhouse, our stop for the night.
Camooweal – 14 October 2012
We woke to the alarm at 5.30am, and after brekky and pack up, hit the road for Camooweal, some 800km away. Back to Queensland today. We stopped at Renner Springs, Threeways and Barkly Homestead for fuel. While wasting half an hour with dodgy gas pumps at Threeways, Sue was given a free watermelon from a friendly truckie. We had another stop at the border for a quick photo and arrived at Camooweal at around 4.00pm. Sue went over to the lovely pool with the girls and had a swim. The water was really cold, but the kids still enjoyed it.
Cloncurry - 15 October 2012
We had a bit of a sleep in this morning and didn’t get up until 7.00am. We had slept with the air-con on and it was really quite cool outside in the morning. We got going around 9.00am and headed for Cloncurry.
We got to Mt Isa and stopped at the bottle shop to buy Sue some cruisers. No luck. We got some fuel in town and continued on to Cloncurry. When we arrived, we could only get half a tank of fuel, as the pump was playing up.
That night we decided to stay at Kurrimine Beach for a week prior to spending time with our friends at Cardwell.
Bivouac Junction – 16 October 2012
We got up early, at 5.30am, and headed off just before 7.00am for Bivouac Junction. Before leaving town though, we returned to the service station to fully fill the gas tank. Thankfully this time it worked.
We stopped at Julia Creek for fuel, but couldn't get any autogas because of a dodgy pump. We continued on to Richmond and again had trouble getting gas, but thankfully it worked in the end, after a bit of mucking around. We stopped at Hughenden for more fuel and then again at Charters Towers.
We arrived at Bivouac Junction around 3.30pm and set up the van next to a cabin. Bivouac Junction is situated at the delta of the Burnett and Fanning Rivers, with onsite cabins and plenty of space for camping. Sue and the girls saw a peacock with its plumage on full display, but it closed the show before Kelsey could return with the camera. We also saw heaps of wallabies. Sue and I went for a walk down to the riverbank and took a few photos, before returning for happy hour, which we spent outside one of the unoccupied cabins.
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