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Freshwater Lagoon (Secret Location)

 
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A Lagoon Somewhere. (Location Undisclosed)

Chris Jones and I had been waiting for the rain to stop so we could fish another one of Chris’s freshwater secret spots. Apparently it needed a top up to simplify putting the boat in, we were using Chris’s Quintrex Eclipse as the lagoon holds a few big lizards and for this reason doesn’t lend it self to canoeing!

On arrival I was amazed at the size of the lagoon and the amount of big snags sticking out of the water, whole trees laying partly submerged! Mate! I was keen as, I rushed Chris that much that he forgot his hat and cigarette papers didn’t worry me but he gets a bit cranky if he doesn’t have a “Durry” now and then. Especially after he’s caught a fish, must be a sexual thing!

Anyway after we had returned for his “Tallyho’s” and hat we started working the grassy banks and snags, the idea was to work up one side then work back to the car. Chris was using a popper made by Leads of Townsville (as opposed to the other Leads who is in Cairns, this for those who are technically minded!). I was using a “Leads” (Cairns) deep diver (now I’m confused!) as I figured the fish might be down in the timber.

That theory went out of the window very quickly as Chris hooked up to a useful Barra in a small shallow bay. It gave Chris a bit of a work out and it was soon at the boat, measured (54cm) photo’d and released. As a soon as things settled down I quickly changed to my old red and white $5 special popper, I only need showing once!

As we worked the bank we had a couple of rises’ and rolls from some Tarpon but the lures were a bit too big for them. I flicked the popper into a likely snag only to have it smashed and turned inside out by a horse of a Barra! Before I could say “I’ll have another cast at it”, Chris has pelted his lure in and connected to a fair lump of a fish! Now this fish was giving him some hurry up I can tell you! ”Better keep him out of that snag “ says I “I’m trying, I’m trying” said Chris! Finally we can see some color as it swims past the boat, a magnificent fish, I could see Chris’s lure was just hooked in the bony part of its head. I suggested to Chris that it might be a good idea to keep his rod down as I had the feeling that one jump and she would dispose of the lure very quickly.

I finally got the fish in the net, what a beauty only 86cm but what depth and massive shoulders no wonder it was pulling! Some pics and a measure and back in the water, Chris was stoked, a personal best for him. The crazy thing about it was as Chris was fighting his fish another fish equally as big was going “Troppo” as well, I didn’t think it would be good form to try for it, I probably would have to swim back if it caused Chris to drop his, but let me tell you I considered it!

Well the rest of the day was an ant-climax as all we rolled were a couple of adventurous “Sooty's”. Threw heaps of lures at a nice Barra cruising in the shallow, to no avail, so no fish for me but what a wonderful spot. I suggested to Chris that we come back one evening and try for some Tarpon, as I was keen to try a new light outfit I had recently purchased.

We duly rocked up one evening about 5pm,using my old punt and electric motor; we started out for some fun fishing on light gear. I was using a Penn Power-graph (two piece) coupled with a Shakespeare Catera 4525 holding 6lb Fireline, Chris was using the same reel on a two piece UglyStik. We were both using tiny poppers as the Tarpon can be hard to hook up on bigger lures.

The lagoon was flowing over the causeway bringing down some floating weed which was going to make things a bit difficult but we could see Tarpon rising everywhere! First cast, a couple of “Bloops” and I was on, they are really fun fish throwing them selves out of the water in an effort to lose the lure. Chris was on to so we had 2 tarpon doing there aerial acts all around us, after taking some pic's and releasing the fish we moved on.

The rest of the evening was spent catching and releasing Tarpon, most of the time they were doing the releasing. Some times they would hit the lure that hard that it would fly out of the water, splashing down to be attacked again, very visual fishing and heaps of fun.

I read somewhere that you don’t have to catch big fish to have fun, how true that is!

As it started to get dark we decided to call it a day, I didn’t fancy being in that lagoon in a leaky punt after dark. Some of the crocs there are bigger than the boat!

Jim (Jimbo) Lee  -  www.un-reel-sportsfishing-adventures.com.au