Just an update on how we went...
Decided to hit Shady Fresh early Saturday morning, signing up at the Corroboree Park Tavern on the way through about 5am. This would be the first time I’d fished the fresh side in about 10 years. Not far after the Point Stuart turn off we came across an injured animal on the side of the road. I thought I'd do the right thing and check it out, to find a young Jabiru that had been hit by a car. The bird was clearly not in a good way but was still fairly alert. I tried to pick it up to move it away from the road and confirm that its injuries were serious when to Liam's amusement its long neck swung around and next thing I know my head is in its beak! Well knowing that it wasn't going to live, no longer having use of its legs I put it out of it misery and moved on with a couple of scratches for my troubles.
We arrived at the ramp with Liam still laughing at me, to find only two other cars in the parking area, one of which was our other crew. Fairly quiet for a Saturday morning I thought but was pretty happy about that. Dropped the boat in the water around 630am as 26 rather large crocs looked on from only 30 metres away.
It makes you wonder how there are any fish left in the place?? We motored upstream to find our other crew trolling the weed beds with only one rat to their name. We followed suit and soon Liam had a couple of rats of our own. I evened the score not long after but still there were no legal fish to be found.
The weather heated up and was almost unbearable, so the canopy went up as the fishing was pretty slow. By now I had only landed 2 rats out of a possible 8 and this trend continued. Liam however was landing anything that hit and was up to 8 fish with one legal fish at 56cm. The other crew were in fine form
but managed to pick up two good fish in two trolls past a section of weed. One came in at 81cm and the other in the high 70's. Well at least now they were in the game.
Wanting to fish into the night, we decided to try find some shade and have a bit of a snooze before the afternoon session began. Not getting much shut eye we were back into it to watch a group of Queenslanders hook into a good fish. They fought it for a bit and it was finally netted with smiles all round. Not having anything to measure it with we offered our brag mat and confirmed old mates new PB was now 89cm.
Pretty sure this was to be the biggest fish of the weekend, too bad they weren't in the comp...
Night fell and a steady run of legal fish were being landed by Liam with his biggest at 78cm, but on the other hand I had now managed to drop all but one and was determined to get a big one. The other boys had called it a night early after a big day in the sun, and Liam pulled the pin at mid night. I however wasn't going to be beaten so easily and continued trolling for a couple more legal fish and few more lost. Around 4am I called it quits and hit the sack but only for a couple of hours until the other crew was into us to get up again!
Unwillingly I got up and first cast landed a 62cm barra from under the boat. Maybe things were looking up? But that was pretty much it for the morning. We changed tactics and threw some weedless rubbers into the lilies landing a few rats over the next 4 hours. The other boys had had enough and knowing one of the other boats had landed a good fish the day before they pulled out. We followed soon after thinking we’d have a quick go at corroboree on the way back.
Dropped the boat back in at the rock hole ramp and headed back into the main billabong. We trolled a few likely spots for a couple of hours managing to land one just legal fish and you guessed it I dropped two more.
We had both had enough and the lack of sleep was starting to take its toll. Back at the tavern there were boats arriving left right and centre and whoever was in charge of the music forgot to turn their hearing aid on as you could hear this woman singing from the boat ramp. It was too much for our weary heads, so decided to head home early to catch the NRL grand final.
As for the competition we didn’t do so well. Liam wasn’t too far from the mark with his 78 but my biggest at 72 was a bit woeful. If it had of been a points comp Liam may have had a chance also but again we didn’t hang around for the presentation so didn’t hear many reports from others in the comp. In all it was a good weekend away and somewhere different for me.
Cheers
Moonman
caught on tuesday at mouth of south.. posted it up the next day? 
will get round to a trip report when i get the rest of the photos 
