The plan was orinally to meet at bp palms at 6am Tuesday. But after a from call from big glen who said his mates had been down there a few days before and actually had to wait for the water to come in. I called lincon and said we better change that to 4am to be on the safe side. And it was a good thing we did. We arrived at shady to find bugger all water and a falling tide. We quickly got the boats ready and made our way down. It was pretty bl..dy shallow til after the wreck.
Plan was to go through the cutting but I was abit doubtful of that looking at the water height. We ummed and arrrghed between boats tossing up going through or heading along the coast. Lincon hadn’t been through before so the call was on me, I was like yeh yeh its be fine.. we started idelling through and I turned to me mate pooty and sorta said, I dunno if were gonna make it man… hahaha
Few tight spots and some shallow water and we got through. Not without 400 more scratches. One section in particular we had to pull our way through. Lincons boats abit bigger check em out squeezing through.
We arrived at the mouth a few hours before low, not only to have it to ourselves - but to be greeted by beautiful conditions.
My deckie was rigging up and I cast at a snag to get nailed by this queensland groper! not a barra but on the board. A first for me from shady.
Lincons boat then got on with a barra.. and then not long after a bigger barra but ill let him add that bit.
Me and pooty were waiting for our turn and.. It was long and we started getting into the barra.
I picked up this 83cm to break the duck for the trip and febuary.
The tide was coming in so we moved up stream to an area I had been looking at on google earth.. Lincon’s decky was abit sun struck so we stayed with the boats and the 3 of us went for a short treck with the rods and a couple of poles. Had to walk through abita grass which was erie.
Got onto a dozen or more barra, all tiny, but good fun in the clear water, site casting and watching schools of rats chase you in. Also picked up a few tarpon.
Few hours after the tide turned to come in an a few barra later we decided to cruise up to marsh. It was still pretty low at the mouth and less than favourable conditions so we went up to the barrage to have a cast.
The creek is pretty grown over, and there was no way lincon was getting the big quinine up there, we went up as far as he could get tied the boat off then they jumped in with us and we made our way up
It was pretty isane fishing session. Nothing of size to write home about but a genuine fish or hit a cast. We would have boated 30 or 40 barra in quick succession.
Barra on fly!
It was near high tide so we went back to the mouth to see if there were any big girls around but the conditions had deteriorated even more.
So we headed back to tommycut so cook up a feed and settle in for the night session.
It was good night, a few beers, then some rum we decided we should have a fish. It was a good decision I quickly picked up an 80cm within 5 minutes haha.
Pretty arsey actually and the other lads were having a laugh, reckoned I was wasting my time! Well they quickly started fishing. The barra came on for a bit there around2am. Licon picked up an 79cm and pooty got another fish around 80.
We all lost a few barra and had some good hits, pooty got a small threadie as well. Turned out to be a bl..dy good night. And managed to dodge the thunder storms and stay dry.
Woke up in the morning had some brekky and started fishing. Got onto some barra pretty quickly. It was around then heaps of boats started rocking up. Ended up being around 14. There were a few fish getting caught but not many and nothing of any real size.
The tide was coming in and wind picking up so we made the call to head out to te jew reef. Didn’t have much time, cause we wanted to fish the mouth of sampan and a few of the barrages for abit before heading home, so we only had one drop. There were a few pickers around, small golides and cod. Then we hooked up to 2 nice jewies. Got the first one in the second lost on a rock. I was pretty stoked anyway not a big fan of bluewater fishing but it’d been awhile since I got a jewie, dam they pull hard in that shallow water. The fillets we got off one fish was more than enough.
Things went quite and it was chopping up there a fair bit so we went into sampan. First troll got nailed by a nice threadie.
Then it was on, fish a pass of a small section for prob an hour or more. Ended up with 8 nice threadies, biggest 104cm the rest around 70-80cms. And another 4 legal barra to around 78cm!
Lincon in on the action.
Talk about icing on the cake, we were on our way home, fairly satisfied with our efforts and that last session at the mouth of sampan just topped it off!
Trip back up river was drama free. Tide was a lot higher than when we went down, and we made it back in goodtime.
We had got the chambers bay trifecta
, barra, threadies and jewies! Had a great trip, heaps of fun, good meeting some new fellas some good company with plenty of beer. The best bit was catching a heap of fish, well deserved after the fishing that ive had for the past 5 trips 
Cheers fishos
, so might have to take the missus to the Adelaide for a bit of a sightseeing tour. Never brimming with confidence on THAT river 
Although with the whole of April off I can't complain too much. ...next time... and i'll make sure I bring a pole to fend off crocs, that little mini billabong looks like good fun. Well done. 
