Now for the fishing gear

Thanks Willie....
Wishin Ima gunna be fishin tooooooo...yehaaaa 4 weeks to go!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peter

While Willie is right about the baitcaster, it is an expensive reel. Since you don't do this all the time, a cheaper reel should suffice. An Abu 5600 C4 or 6500 C3 is good value, abit further up and you get the Shimano Corsair CS 400 and Daiwa Millionaire S 300. All these reels will do the job well enough for you.
Cheers, Mark.

Looks like you are doing the same trip my wife and I took 2 years to complete. We too had a 12 ft tinnie and a 15hp motor.
Being a fishing fanatic I ended up taking 17 fishing rods to cover everything from small freshwater fish on fly to Marlin but I must say that the rod and reel I used the most was a 5ft 8in Shimano Steve Starling Barra rod and an ABU 6500C4 reel spooled with 30 lb braid.

Sure the braid is costly ,however it doesn't take long to recover the cost when you are able to pull misguided lures out of snags, lilys, trees and Pandanas. A straightened hook is easier to replace than an entire lure.

I have caught many Barra over 1 meter as well as Trevally to 50lb Threadfin to 110cm etc etc. The rod is quite stiff being graphite and fishes well with lures from about 8gms to 35 gms able to be cast.

take some time to practice casting and after about 100 casts you will be quite proficient. The secret is not to try too hard.

I can , if you wish, direct you to some fantastic fishing spots.

regards

Brett
A couple of holiday pics

Forgot to mention.
Lures.......You must take Gold Bombers, they are availabke in every tackle shop but make sure you get the ones with the "BArra proof" hooks and split rings. Tilson Barra lures (colours: T110,T115,and T112 being the pic of the bunch) are another excellent lure and are neutral in teir boyancy which helps keep the lure in the strike zone a bit longer. These 2 types of lures probably attributed to more than half of the many 100's of fish we caught. Also throw in a few chrome metals for Barracouda , Mackeral, Trevally and Queenfish.

Check out the forums on AUSFISH which is a QLD based site for many more tips and info.

Brett

Brett

I was down at the tackle shop in Newcastle today. I am going for the ABU6500C4 Barra combo.....graphite rod and ABU reel.

Bugger me......Shimano Curado......you would want to do a lot of fishing to make it worth while. Mind you a very nice reel.

I spent some time with a giy who was very helpful, ran me through learing ow to cast a baitcaster and steered me away from my inexperience and eagerness to part with my cash.

I am also upgrading my beach rod and reel, going for 2 piece 12 foot Abu sonar tip and daiwa 5000. The 5000 comes with a spare spool therefore i can have a heavy and light line rigged.

Cheers

Peter

Good choice Peter. The ABU reels are popular and not difficult to obtain spares from most good tackle shops. Make sure you spool up with a good Braid (Bionic Braid is a good one). I use my 6500 on 3 different rods from 5 ft to 11ft 6 so they are adaptable for different styles of fishing.

Here is an imprtant tip. With braid ensure you learn how to tie a double using a 50-100turn bimini twist. Connection to your monofilament leader can be with an albright finished with a whip or better still buy a pack of Harros Knotted dogs which are a twisted leader and instructions on a fantastic over and under knot. It wont take you long to work out hoh you can make your own twisted leaders.

Brett

"he who has his hook in the water the longest catches the most fish"

Peter ,
If you must buy an ABU then do not get the 6000 / 6500 size as it is much bigger than you need with braid . A 5000 /5500 size will hold 300yd of 30 lb braid .
Personally I would go to the 4500 size with 30 lb braid , but that might be
to radical for you . Barra don't run far - the only time you might get spooled is if you were lucky enough to hook one of those wonderful black jew they get up in the far north and in WA .
I guess you will not be casting non stop all day like we do when we are up there , so weight will not be so much of a headache .
Brett gives you a good tip when he tells you how important knots are with Braid . Buy a little knot book and practise before you go .
My choices for braid are Fireline and Tuf Line . Get a bright colour if possible so you can see your line when you are trolling the rivers .
regards ,
WillieWishun I was fishun

Thanks Willie, knot with braid are very important ,as you know, the diameter of the braid is so fine that it has the ability to cut through itself. Geoff Wilson's book of knots has a few good Braid or Superline knots with good illustrations and instructions.

I have found fireline to be a little stiff for baitcasters and prefer to use this line on threadlines. Platil Millenium Hotfibre 2 is a very heavily waxed line and seems to catch and stop the lighter lures in flight...very annoying. Bionic braid is very durable, Pink in colour, and made in Australia by Platypus I think.

An advantage using the correct sized leader from the braid is that if you happen to get a snag or a huge fish the leader will break away from the braid at the knot to ensure that you retain your expensive braid on your reel and not attached to something else.

Don't forget to run a layer or 2 on your spool before you wind on the braided line. This reduces the risk of the braid spinning on the reel under load.

On a passing note Willie, with the amount of rain they are getting upp North at the moment it looks like next Barra season is going to be a cracker. I heard that Darwin has receiver 200mm more rain that the average for the entire wet season and there are still 9 week of the season to go...................

Willie, just a bit of trivia. Apart from how we use a term in the plural, which is probably a totally different subject, don't get caught up too much on the suffix "man" as in the word fisherman. The suffix "man" comes from the latin word for hand, manis, and really denotes the idea of being in control of.... In this case fishing. So a fisherman is a person who is control of fishing (well I suppose we like to think so.) To be politically correct then those of us who have to change gears by hand should refer to our machine as being "personual". The siffix, or for that matter the prefix "man" in many of the words we use, note I ddn't say all, has nothing to do with gender. On a more serious note, I agree that it is also a good idea to get as many books as you can on knots and rigs. Knots are very important and I have often found that some books are better than others at describing how to tie and use them.
Go get 'm
Mike.

Thanks guys. I have the tackle, and there is a couple of recomended knots in the ABU operating manual. I will also be purchasng a fishing knot manual.

Thanks for all the help, again.

Peter

Mike ,
Thanks for that - you brightened up an otherwise dull morning .

Brett ,
I fished in Arnhemland in May , and it was tough fishing because of last years poor wet . Three of us got 47 barra for five days hard fishing , although I did actually finally manage to stop a good size black jew on a baitcaster . Normally we would get that number every day .This year my Top End friends tell me that as you say , the wet is a beauty , and they are dusting off their gear in anticipation . I hope to be up there to see for myself .
I can't agree with you on the braid . Fireline is stiff right out of the box , but quickly becomes more supple . I like a stffer line on any reel because it stops loops around tips etc and if you get an overrun ( which of course never happens to me ) , it is much easier to get out on a stiffer line . Also stiifer lines such as Fireline and Tuff Line do not dig in to themselves like the softer , less dense lines .
I have just bought myself a Trak Shak camper which has a 12' tinnie on top . So maybe in the future I will be spending more time up there than previously .
See you there ,
MikeWishun I was fishun

Mike and Brett,
Sorry , just to confuse you , I signed my last missive "Mike " instead of "Willie" my nickname .
Regards ,
Late for Breakfast .Wishun I was fishun

http://au.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/brett_and_julie/detail?.dir=/Holidays&.dnm=Od+Barra+again.jpg

Hope this works

[ View Image]

Brett,
They were good . Nice to get a barra over 100 . How do you post photos to here like you did ? I am a dummy with things like this . How did you attach the wheels to your tinnie ?
WillieWishun I was fishun

Willie,
I will get the digital camera from work and take some pics of the wheels. I purchased the kit in 2000 and at the time I don't think any more were going to be imported. They wouldn't be too difficult for someone with a bit of engineering/ welding knowledge to make.

This is the first time I have attempted to paste a pic.

I copied the ... [ View Image]...bit at the bottom of this page and pasted it into my message. The I deleted the http://domain.com/image_path bit.
Then I went to my yahoo site and right clicked on the pic and then copied the shortcut( selectable from the drop down menu).
Then I came back to the Ex oz page and pasted the shortcut in between the inverted commas where the http://domain.com/image_path bit was.

Then I prayed like hell that it would work.

Flappan ,
I do not think he should use a 7' graphite rod for barra , even though they are erroneously called barra rods their use for barra went out during the dark ages .
WillieWishun I was fishun

Well there you go . . . Shows how long since I've been Barra fishing . . .

Whats the latest rod construction ?

PS, I still prefer the slightly longer rods , but thats just my choice.

Thanks Flappan

Cheers Troopie....I am only getting one chance at this lifetime trip story with the cheese and kisses so I keep buying stuff that will last (the best that is).

Good call on e-bay though, as usual you need to know exactly what you want and the price that should be paid.

Thanks again,

Peter

Cheers Peter. I will have a look at the western angler, I used to subscribe and found most issues pretty good.

Peter

Denis,
Maybe you should attach the hook to your winch to make sure none get away .
WillieWishun I was fishun