Well after dodging extra long roadtrains and cattle truck tripples on a single lane road with crests and blind corners I finally made it home from my 980km roadtrip to the NT Gulf of Carpinteria. 

Borroloola township was my stomping ground when I was a kid and had not been there for a few years, so with Darwins pitiful wet season and my local haunts written off, I decided to drive down to gulf.     

   The drive on its own is fun  ...... with all the beast jumping out of the bush trying to wreck your car...... happened to some unfortunate traveler later the same night. .....

Well I pulled up into the Savannah Way Motel,    formerly a construction company work camp back in the day when I used to be an employee  for them and was great to see  the upgrades of the accommodations for the traveling fishermen. ... aircon rooms  en`suite  secure vehicle parking and they will even let you was your car and boat down for the trip home.

My first day I spent scouting around at my old spots, only to find a new ore loading facility had been built cutting me off from my ledge........

And that the passing years of wet seasons had changed the river course and banks...... was looking like I had to find new ground.

So exploring was the plan of the trip, find new ground and access to the water.

Once I found the new tracks in and the creeks full of bait all I could get were saw sharks and reef sharks..... the reef sharks were great fun on the topwater lures..... cast out start twitching and a bow wave would form behind the lure and the chase was on with the shark sometimes on, or ending the chase at your feet in an explosion of water..... hours of fun.

But as most of you know I have some pretty lures and gear so this trip was also a test of the gear that I have and was having  some drama finding the barra.

The owner of the Savannah Way  took me out to some of his rockbars on the local rivers that surround the town, ( easy enough to find on your own Google Earth is your friend  )

Working some of the more expensive lures in the sharp and rough  bars with the thought of crocodiles present makes for interesting fishing. 

Lots and lots of baby barra in the rivers about 30cm to 50cm good fun...... but not what I want to justify my lures with.... so with a not so good tide height and wrong time of day, I chose a spot away from the crew I was with and cast a lure out into the rapids,

winding and twitching...... bump bump on the rocks below.... snag... 250$ lure..... pull on line to break it off..... lure comes free.... wind twitch twitch 

Lure comes to a stop..... dammit snagged again..... explosion of water... bucket mouth does the dance.... down the river it goes. ... around the tree it goes....spool on the Branzino is getting empty fast...... get into water, get around tree..... fight continues. .... around another tree, this time out in the river propper. ... take a step into water, slip and now I'm in up to my neck..... bit of a swim and some help from my fishing buddy  ( I  never fish remote alone )...... it's getting tired.... I'm  getting  tired..... 

And then up she pops in all her fat silver 103cm glory...... slowly slide her over into a small grassed pool where we both relax.

Yes a great short trip and all landbased if ever doing the  Savannah Way track spend a bit of time in Borroloola and stay at the savannah way motel,  meet Charlie the owner and pick his brain for information on  the fishing, and at the end of the day enjoy a fresh cooked meal and a cold beer from the bar amd a sleep in the aircon...

Hope you enjoy the pics    cheers Syd

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