And the first leg of the journey was completed without a hitch. But when I took over for the night drive at around 9pm, that all started to change. I quickly discovered why people don’t drive at night in these areas – suicidal kangaroos. I hit my first kangaroo about half an hour into the drive, smashing my indicator:
I hit my second twenty minutes later, which took out one of my headlights and put a serious dent in my front bumper. We probably should have stopped then and there, but I'm a stubborn bastard and was loathe to waste any time. Well the big guy upstairs must have been on my side because I didn't hit another roo. However, we were slowed down by several water crossings, which were chockas full of frogs:
Unfortunately, there were also millions of these nasty buggers:
When the sun finally started to lighten and a foggy morning emerged:
I gratefully handed the keys over to my dad, and we surveyed the damage to the car:
Not too bad all things considered, and it could have been a lot worse. By now we were in central Queensland and the scenery had changed from wheat fields and dry sclerophyll to endless sugar cane fields:
The last leg of the journey seemed to never end, but we eventually arrived at our hotel in Townsville at around 2pm. All fatigue forgotten, I unpacked the car and rigged up the rods in record time, and we headed straight to the flats at the mouth of the Ross River:
We started flicking around little hards and over the next hour or so we caught several flathead (they were eating everything we threw):
I love the tails on these northern flatties:
But we didn't encounter anything more substantial. A few fish were breaking the surface so my dad tied on a big stickbait and it didn’t take long before it was smashed! This was a good fish and after a solid fight he landed this beautiful queenfish:
Poor fella had an old rig in his mouth:
In the blink of an eye I swapped my hard body for a sammy and second cast I was on too, but after a blistering run the hooks pulled. Dang. Over the next hour I dropped two really good fish and was smoked by something massive - that will teach me to fish 8lb leader up north. The only fish I managed to get to the sand was this pathetic little longtom:
By this stage the sun had started to set:
And the surface bite died off, so I switched to a shallow diving hardbody and first cast I was on. This fish had a lot of weight but wasn't doing all too much, which had me thinking monster flatty, but I was surprised to see this shovel nose come to shore:
Not the fish I was hoping for (I thought it was a threadfin when I first saw it) but a first for me and I’m guessing a pretty rare capture on lure. However I wasn’t that surprised after seeing a big shovel nose rounding up mullet in the shallows earlier in the day (not a great photo, but you get the idea):
By now it was dark, and I was feeling a little flat about all the lost fish. We decided to stay a little bit longer and flick a few vibes around in the dark and it didn’t take long before I had a solid hook-up on a tn60 and yep, you guessed it, the hooks pulled. And for a bit of salt in the wound, I jagged this guy next cast:
And with that we decided to call it quits. The next morning we were up at our field site at first light:
I’d come up here the year before to do some reconnaissance work and after a lot of exploring, I found a freshwater creek just outside of Townsville that was full of guppies. I came at the end of the dry season and the receding floodwaters had created all these isolated little pools that made sampling super easy. But this time, they were completely dry:
This meant we had to find a new sampling area, so we headed down river and after a bit of exploring we eventually found an area with a few bigger pools that held guppies:
It was a lot of effort but eventually we started catching fish. Guppies are extremely crafty and have this knack of seemingly disappearing into thin air (or water) and when you’re trying to catch them in big, deep pools as opposed to rapidly evaporating puddles, it can be very difficult. But it’s hard to complain when you’re getting paid to ‘work’ in such a pretty place:
And there is heaps of cool native by-catch to keep you interested, like these pretty rainbows, which are everywhere:
Several gudgeon species:
Glass fish:
And lots of badass invertebrates like this water scorpion:
And millions of shrimp:
Unfortunately, there are also heaps of these guys – Mozambique mouthbrooders, which are a noxious species of tilapia:
They have completely taken over some pools, with juveniles swimming around in their thousands:
After 3 massive days of sampling (we were up at 4:30am every morning and home at 5pm), we decided we deserved a break. So after finishing sampling on the fourth day around lunchtime, we made our way to a little creek that I’d discovered on my previous trip to try and catch a jungle perch. But as we drove towards the mountains some ominous clouds began to form:
And considering we were fishing in a high-risk flood zone, I didn’t want to be stuck down here if it started bucketing. We arrived at our spot amidst some pretty spectacular lightning and thunder and decided that at the first sign of rain, we’d leave. This place was spectacular:
And before I'd even tied on a lure, my dad had a hit:
A little spangled perch – only tiny but a first for my dad. And before I’d even tied a lure on, he was on again. This fish was less cool, a Mozambique mouthbrooder:
While my dad messed around with little perch in this pool, I decided to head to a deeper pool downstream and first cast I was on to something a little more substantial:
My first jungle perch, you beauty! They really are a mint fish and they punch well above their weight. I quickly called my dad over and first cast we was on too:
Another ripping fish, and in the space of five minutes we’d both ticked jungle perch off our bucket list. Over the next hour we caught countless jungle perch up to about 35cm and a heap of hungry little spangled perch:
A treble threw the finger couldn't even dampen our spirits:
Eventually I hooked something that felt a bit different, and up popped this guy:
A big, angry turtle, who was none too pleased about being pulled out of the water (bastard absolutely nailed me on the finger). We moved from pool to pool, catching our first jp's and spanglies on surface:
Until there was a monstrous crack of thunder right above our heads and the heavens opened – time for us to leave. We weren't too phased though - what a bloody sesh! The next morning we packed up all the fish:
And started the 30 hour drive home. And this time, the journey was blissfully uneventful (except for this little grass fire):
And a beaut sunrise and sunset:
So that brings an end to without a doubt my most challenging fieldtrip. Kangaroos, floodwaters, drought and some longgggg hours in the car all contributed to what was a very exhausting but very satisfying week of sampling. Big thanks to my old man for helping me out - you da man!
Cheers!
