No Barra But Tarpon...

A quick trip to Kadadu and Shady Camp, and not a single barra caught.  I must admit I am a little confused as to where the barramundi are biding their time, hoping like I for a run-off that perhaps has ran away.  I hardly even saw any barra, and heard not a single boof in two nights.  But there were tarpon.  Everywhere.

This shallow little stream was perfect to trip a few tiny surface lures across - little DUO poppers and Smith Towadis.

Dragging 30 -35 cm tarpon out from beneath a snaggy bridge gave the new Evergreen Kaleido Designo a bit of a workout.

Tarpon have particularly boney mouths, and can be tricky to hook on smaller trebles.  I had a night at Nourlangie Creek where I was getting hit every cast, but failed to hook anything for more than a few seconds, with each fish in turn somersaulting out of the water and spitting the little surface lures. Unfortunately that was all they would go for, seeming to be feeding on insects alighting upon the surface (they went crazy for little cicada patterns). I think it didn't quite help running braid through the Designo rod and using short leaders because, expecting a possible barra, i was using 20lb Sunline Rockfish Fluoro for abrasion resistance, which of course meant that the leader knot was too big to cast through the small guides of the rod tip.  The Designo Mach S1 is rated 2-6lb, but has a very substantial amount of butt strength and a super fast action with a solid tip.  It can flick the lightest, unweighted plastics with amazing precision.  But it is designed to be used with fluoro and nylon lines. First thing I did upon returning to Darwin was order some quality 5lb fluoro for the next small stream adventure.

I caught tarpon in almost every little stream and water containing culvert.  But I wanted a barra, so it was off to the Shady Camp barrage again.

Big tides and more crocs than I have seen for a while.  Fishing alone off the barrage at night, I had to shoo a 3.5 meter critter away with a big stick when it took the liberty of trying to sneak up behind me on the barrage.  I was surrounded by crocs on every side.  They seemed as hopeful for barra at high tide as I, and there were quite a few territorial fights.  But neither I nor the crocs caught a barra that night.  Strange days.  But in the morning, there were tarpon every cast.

There were also quite a few fish carcasses floating around from recent rain, washed dead and free from what were evaporating billabongs.

I thought I'd try a tiny trout lure I brought back from Japan, which the tarpon indeed seemed to like... but hooking them on the single trout hook was a different matter.

So I finally went back to the trusty old Squidgy shad in drop bear white, and hooked almost every strike after that.

Here is the surgery I perform to rig these lures weedless.  Fancy times!

And another shot of the new Evergreen rod, colour matched to a Daiwa TD-Z Type R+.  I can't wait to run some fluoro through it!