Fishing Victoria Forum

I've been on a quick trip north to catch up with my mum in Cairns. I went away for a few days camping and fishing with a close friend who is being treated for Melanoma. We camped on the Mitchell River about 3 hrs drive north west of Cairns on private property. In this part of the Mitchell river there are no barra or saltwater crocs due to waterfalls further downstream.

The river resembles a trout stream, having rock and gravel beds with a bit of sand. The main fish present are sooty grunter, rifle fish (archer fish) and catfish. The pics provide a good idea of the country:
We didn't fish too seriously, going out in the canoe a few times. We did manage to catch plenty of rifle fish and some sooties on surface lures. The boofs were not as spectacular as those of cod but the rifle fish in particular were heaps of fun. Sooties are great as they are one of the hardest pullers of all our freshwater fish for their size. No pics as my camera is not water proof and having already wrecked one this season I didn't want to risk it.

Nice part of the world at this time of year.

Best Wishes

Truedogz

Here I was thinking this was a boring old east gippy report.... Good stuff mate

Also, funny you mention the thing about the falls and no crocs. Someone told me a while back they seen a croc far inland in a creek where there were falls??? May have been freshwater croc though

Sounds like a great few days camping mate!
Great pics
Cheers :thumbsup:

Looks picturesque would have been a relaxing couple of days.

great stuff mate, the archer fish are awesome to watch hunting, were they big in size at all?

What about me ??, I would have been your caddie, Just to warm up
Although I thought you were going to mention a stream about 2kms from you
I'm gunna fish the Major Mitchell in the warmer weather
Cheers Gra

Nice getaway and scenery to clear the mind Will. Wishing your mate all the best

Cheers, Anth

Kimtown wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 13, 2019 7:44 pm

Also, funny you mention the thing about the falls and no crocs. Someone told me a while back they seen a croc far inland in a creek where there were falls??? May have been freshwater croc though

Yep, you'll get crocs (both freshies and salties) far inland, but only freshies above the falls.

I really love the Sooty country, and damn they hit hard.

Nice time away
Good report

purple5ive wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 13, 2019 8:15 pm

the archer fish are awesome to watch hunting, were they big in size at all?

The rifle fish (thats what the locals call them) weren't huge, the biggest about 25 cm. I have caught them a lot bigger though. There are huge ones in Tinaroo dam and I caught one in the Norman River on the cape in 2007 that would have been well over a kilo.

As for crocs the freshies do live in the area, but didn't see any this trip. Five years ago we camped in the same area and saw a big freshie. This roughly the area we camped at:

-16.613334, 144.540723

Best Wishes

Truedogz