An interesting trip to Townsville

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Broomstick
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An interesting trip to Townsville

Post by Broomstick » Tue Dec 16, 2014 5:21 pm

G’day guys,
Last week I drove up to Townsville to collect wild guppies for my PhD and let’s just say it was an interesting trip. Not a lot went right, but in the end I collected the fish I needed, managed to sneak in a few hours fishing, and spent some quality time with my old man (he was my ‘research assistant’).

We started the drive last Monday at 6am and everything started off smoothly. The plan was to drive straight through with no breaks - my Dad would drive during the day while I slept (I have a talent for sleeping at will) while I would drive through the night. Barring any disasters, we would reach Townsville at around 1pm the next day, and have a few solid hours fishing before we started fieldwork the next morning. We passed a lot of beautiful scenery as we passed through central Victoria and central New South Wales:

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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:

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I hit my second twenty minutes later, which took out one of my headlights and put a serious dent in my front bumper. We considered stopping for the night but I was desperate to get to Townsville as quickly as possible so I could get a fish in before we started fieldwork, so I decided to continue at a more sedate pace, making a mental promise that I’d stop for the night if I hit one more kangaroo. Well the big man upstairs must have been on my side because despite countless near misses, I didn’t hit another one. However I did come within inches of two giant wild pigs that would have ended the trip pretty quickly.

At about 1 am we came to a roadblock – the road was closed due to flooding. We could either wait it out until morning, or find another route. Well I was already 2 red bulls and 2 coffees down by this stage so there was no way I was waiting it out, so I got on google maps and found an alternate route. It wasn’t much more than a dirt track, and a lot of it turned out to be under water, but it seemed to be heading in the right directing. The positive of all this water was there were frogs everywhere:

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Unfortunately, there were also millions of these guys:

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After annoying the sh!t out of my dad by stopping every twenty minutes to catch frogs, we eventually made it back to the main road. However now we had another problem – we were almost out of fuel, and still over 100km to the next town. So I jumped on google maps again and found a place called Banana that was about 50km away. It was touch and go, but we limped into town and thankfully found a truckstop. By this stage the sky had finally started to lighten, and a foggy morning emerged:

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As the sun rose higher I thankfully gave the keys over to my dad, and we surveyed the damage to the car:

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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:

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The last leg of the journey seemed to never end, but we eventually arrived at our hotel in Townsville at around 2pm (considering all the drama, we actually made pretty good time). 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. This is one of my favourite places to fish, despite the fact that I’ve lost a lot more fish here than I’ve caught (including several barra) but I was sure I’d make amends this time:

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I tied on a hardbody while my Dad tied on a plastic, and second cast I was on! This was a good fish and it screamed off before pulling the hooks a few seconds later. I was shattered, but it was a promising start. Over the next hour or so we caught several flathead (they were eating everything we threw):

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I love the tails on these northern flatties:

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Last edited by Broomstick on Tue Dec 16, 2014 5:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Broomstick
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Re: An interesting trip to Townsville

Post by Broomstick » Tue Dec 16, 2014 5:21 pm

But we had no more screaming runs. 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:

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Poor fella had an old rig in his mouth:

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In the blink of an eye I swapped my hard body for a sammy and second cast I was on! But again after a screaming run, the hooks pulled. Unperturbed, I kept casting and a couple of casts later it was smashed again for no hook-up. F%#k! My dad also had a few swirls and boils but he wasn’t having any luck either. After a while they lost interest in our stick baits so I tied on a little 65mm duo popper and first cast it got absolutely belted! The sound the fish made when it hit the popper was unreal, like someone clapping their hands (which had me thinking barra). This fish didn’t mess around and swam straight for deep water at a rate of knots, but after peeling drag for a good 30 seconds my line went slack. Gutted, I wound my line back in to find my leader shredded - that will teach me to fish 8lb leader up north. I quickly retied another leader and tied the sammy back on, but by now the surface bite had shut down and all I could manage was this tiny long tom:

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As the sun started to disappear, revealing a beautiful sunset:

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I decided to tie on a shallow diving hard body and it didn’t take long before I came up solid. This fish wasn’t doing much – just shaking it’s head and staying deep, but there was a lot of weight to it. I was thinking monster flatty, but was surprised to see this shovelnose come to shore:

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Not the fish I was hoping for (I thought it was a threadfin when I first saw it’s fins poking out of the water and got a little excited) 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 shovelnose rounding up mullet in the shallows earlier in the day (not a great photo, but you get the idea):

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By now it was dark, and I was feeling a little flat about all the lost fish. So we decided to stay a little bit longer and flick a few vibes around in the dark. I tied on a tn60 while my dad tied on a transam, and it didn’t take long before I had a solid hook-up again and yep - you guessed it - the hooks pulled. It’s safe to say that I was a little bit annoyed by this stage, and as I was retrieving my lure I hooked this little guy:

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Some would consider this salt in the wound, but it was my first yellow-fin whiting on lure and even though I jagged it in the tail, I was claiming it as a win. So with that we decided to head home, and after setting my alarm for 4:30am the next morning (urgh) I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

We woke up before the sun the next morning and after getting all our sampling gear ready, we headed to our field site. 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. Because I came at the end of the dry season, the creek had evaporated into isolated pools that made sampling super easy and I collected a sh!tload of fish. So after doing all the ground work the year before, this was meant to be a nice, cruisy field trip with lots of fishing time. But when we got to the field site, it was immediately clear that it wasn’t going to be so easy. The creek had completely dried up:

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The year before this stretch of creek bed was dotted with little pools that were full of guppies, but this year they were dry (evidently Townsville is in the midst of a big drought):

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So instead of spending a relaxing couple of hours a day collecting guppies and the rest fishing, we now had to find a new area to sample. So we headed down river and after a bit of exploring we eventually found an area with a few bigger pools that held guppies:

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It was a lot of effort but eventually we started catching fish. Guppies are extremely crafty and have the 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 beautiful area:

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And there is heaps of cool native by-catch to keep you interested, like these pretty rainbows, which are everywhere:

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Several gudgeon species:

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Glass fish:

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And lots of cool invertebrates like this water scorpion:

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And millions of shrimp:

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Unfortunately, there are also heaps of these guys – Mozambique mouthbrooders, which are a noxious species of tilapia:

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They have completely taken over some pools, with juveniles swimming around in their thousands:

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Last edited by Broomstick on Tue Dec 16, 2014 5:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: An interesting trip to Townsville

Post by Broomstick » Tue Dec 16, 2014 5:22 pm

After 3 massive days of sampling (we were up at 4:30 every morning and home at 5), we decided we deserved a break. So on the fourth and final day we decided to finish up sampling at around lunchtime, and head to a little creek that I’d discovered on my previous trip to try and catch a jungle perch. I saw a few in this spot the last time I was up here but didn’t get a chance to fish it, so I was itching to get back. But as we drove towards the mountains some ominous clouds began to form:

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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. Unfortunately, in all the excitement I forgot to take a photo of this spot - but let me assure you that it was beautiful (a rocky river bed dotted with deep, clear pools). My dad quickly tied on a lure and first cast he was on:

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A little spangled perch – only tiny but a super cool fish and 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:

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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:

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My first jungle perch, I was stoked! They really are a beautiful fish and punch well above their weight. I quickly called my dad over and first cast we was on too:

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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, and we quickly forgot about all the trials of the past few days:

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After catching a few perch I hooked something that felt a bit different, and immediately I knew what it was going to be:

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A big turtle. This guy was angry and took a long time to get to the surface, but after getting the hooks out of him he took off like a bullet. Eventually the fish wizened up to our tricks in this pool so we moved on to another. I tied on a little stickbait and first cast, as soon as it hit the water, it was smashed by multiple fish. It was amazing watching the fish appear out of the depths and fight each other for my lure. Eventually the hooks stuck in one and I landed my first perch on the surface:

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Next cast the same thing happened, but somehow in all the mayhem this little guy ended up with the stick bait:

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After releasing this little fella there was a monstrous crack of thunder right above our heads and the heavens opened – time for us to leave. As much as we would have loved to keep catching perch for the rest of the afternoon we weren’t too phased – it had been an amazing little session and one I won’t forget in a hurry. So we headed back to the motel, did a little fish maintenance, and went out for our first decent meal of the trip (up until this stage we’d been too busy and exhausted to go out for food, so we’d been living off sandwiches). We went to bed early, satisfied with our sampling efforts and ready to tackle the big drive first thing in the morning. So after packing up all the fish:

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We started the 30 hour drive home. And this time, the journey was blissfully uneventful. However we did drive through this blazing inferno (tiny grass fire):

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And saw an amazing sunset and sunrise:

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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. I’m extremely glad I took my old man up with me who worked his absolute ass off, despite my assurances before the trip that sampling would be a piece of cake and we’d spend most of our time fishing. But overall I had a great time and can’t wait to head back next year ☺.

Thanks for reading!

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Last edited by Broomstick on Tue Dec 16, 2014 5:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Bodz
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Re: An interesting trip to Townsville

Post by Bodz » Tue Dec 16, 2014 5:37 pm

what can you say but "WOW" what a trip and report. Thankyou

purple5ive
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Re: An interesting trip to Townsville

Post by purple5ive » Tue Dec 16, 2014 6:01 pm

Man what a trip. Id love to do things like this with my dad. Keep up your legendary reports.
I can't wait to see what your going to come up with on your trip coming up soon.
Cheers

JoshW
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Re: An interesting trip to Townsville

Post by JoshW » Tue Dec 16, 2014 6:13 pm

Thats awesome mate.

Those roo's are f***ing mental, a bull-bar is almost a must if you're driving through the night through there.

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Re: An interesting trip to Townsville

Post by CarlG » Tue Dec 16, 2014 6:24 pm

Another great read Broomy...I prefer reading your reports to watching most fishing shows..

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Broomstick
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Re: An interesting trip to Townsville

Post by Broomstick » Tue Dec 16, 2014 6:29 pm

Thanks fellas :)

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Re: An interesting trip to Townsville

Post by SFP Guy. » Tue Dec 16, 2014 6:31 pm

:thumbsup:

Sounds like a hoot!

Cam.

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Re: An interesting trip to Townsville

Post by Scraglor » Tue Dec 16, 2014 6:44 pm

Another awesome report mate, I always get excited when i see a new Broomstick report pop up. Haha

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