Fishing with Eric

Took Elizabeth out on the boat. A beautiful sunny day.

Fishing with Eric

Eric tried out his new boat. We tried NorthWest bay. Frist tried near the powder jetty, and got a small flathead or two. Moved over to conningham for no real result. Moved over to Bruny for no real result. Finally fished near tinderbox (outside the reserve) and Eric got something large that took the soft plastic and broke the line. Work called and the day was over :(

Tyenna, 16/2/2008

I just survived two days on the Tyenna.

Day 1 was a mental health day. I shot up there before the weekend crowds. The plan was to fish the river hard, and see what I could do. I started off up at the Tyenna Rd bridge (where the track is into the falls). The day started off in fine form, with fish frequent. I was fishing a dry with a nymph dropper. At one point I had a fish on each! But after and hour of lots of action the river suddenly went quiet. I explored a bit, and then decided to try some other locations. But it seems that plenty of fishermen had decided to try Friday afternoon as well. I tried below the fish farm, where I saw the leviathan. It looks like the secret has been discovered. Instead of the large number of big fish, I saw one 3lber, and that was it. I also saw lots of lures, line, litter, etc. Final score for the day was 6, with as many lost in the fight. One platypus that came within a rods length. And a narrow miss of a kangaroo on the way home.

Day 2 was take the kids into town day. No sooner had they got in the car than they started fighting. As we were driving in I tried to get them to stop. Instead it escalated. By the time we were in town it was full scale war. So I turned around and drove home -- telling them they could walk in if they wanted to go into town. This caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Being teenagers, there was even some interesting language. When I got home Susan said that to show that I meant it, I should head out and go fishing -- to really drive the point home. So back to the Tyenna.

Every spot on the Tyenna had a car. I didnt get there till 1:00pm, but still -- the river was being hit hard. Went back up to the Tyenna Rd spot -- there was even a car there. So I parked near the bridge and bush bashed through to the river. After 50 meters of sweat I found a track, which I followed to a magnificent pool, full of fish. Tried fishing with hoppers, and got one almost straight away. Tried other flies to no response. Back on with the hopper, and lots of looks. The key seemed to be the hopper with a yellow body -- I had some with tan and grey bodies, and they were ignored. I worked upstream from the pool, and had some more luck with a hopper in the next pool, and missed a few in some fast water. Eventually I came to a very long, deep, pool. At this point I decided that it was getting late, and I should head back. I wasn't looking forward to wading back down the river. However, the forest by the pool seemed to be open gum forest, so I thought I would try walking through that for a bit. I climber up the bank, and found the train track was 4 meters away. Once I was on the train track, I decided to walk upriver a bit and explore some more, and found a couple more pools at a bridge nearby. More luck with the hopper at this pool, fishing until dark and walking back along the track. Final score was 3 on a hopper and one on a bugger, with a good 6 or more missed on the hopper. Also missed one on a royal coachman wet.

Cairns Trip - Day 11

Went to the top end of Trinity beach again. No luck. Went to the jetty that evening, but again little luck. By this point I had probably given up fishing in Cairns. It is really only good if you have a boat -- which I didnt have.

Cairns Trip - Day 10

Went to the top end of trinity beach. Got a meter long ribbontail. Lost a lure, and (foul?) hooked a milkfish but didn’t land it. (Pic is a ribbon tail caught on the jetty)

Cairns Trip - Day 9

Went on a fishing charter with Alex. Alex was HOT – he got a flounder, a big fingermark that we kept, a toadfish, a grunter, and a queenfish. I got a grinner. The rest of the party (5 people from NZ) got two toadfish, a small fingermark, and a small trevally.

The wind was coming from the North. I went to the jetty to try for the afternoon – lots of bait fish to be seen. I got a follow from a large silver thing. Not much catching though.

Cairns Trip - Day 8

Went to the palm cove jetty with Elizabeth. Got something large that ran for a while and then spat back ½ a soft plastic. Got a hit immediately after that cut the line. Then it went quiet.

Cairns Trip - Day 7

Went to Yule point really early to see what I could russle up. Nothing. Went to Port Douglas and fished off the rock wall at the park. Got nothing. Tried 4 mile beach. Got nothing.

Cairns Trip - Day 6

Went to Yule Point first thing in the morning. Lots of bait, but nothing hit the fly. Tried spinning and got 2 small fingermark? and a flathead. The tide was rising, and Yule point is a falling tide fishery.

Cairns Trip - Day 5

Got up early and went to Four Mile Beach (at the bottom of Port Douglas). The plan was to fly fish the shallows at dawn. But it took me a long time to get to the beach and find access. I got the spinning rod out for a quick recon fish. Started wading out in bare feet towards a sand bank– the water got up to my knees, and then started getting shallower . Saw a splash to the end of the sand bank, and let fly with a tassie devil. Bang – something reeled off line. Eventually it tired, and I started gaining line. Saw a long thin fin flapping – thought it must be something exotic. And it was – a ray hooked in the tail. I broke the line and let it go. Noticed two rays on the bottom within sight – suddenly the bare feet didn’t look so good.

The tide was coming in, so I moved closer to shore. In the gutter behind the sand bar I got a trevally. Moved into shore and down the beach. Saw some bait so I tried casting near the bait – got a small flathead.

Came back to the apartment and took the kids shopping. Hit ‘Erskines’ tackle and asked about shore based fishing – to be told there was bugger all in the Cairns area.

Rigged tip a clear tip 7 weight tropic line for the next day