Lure fishing Darlington Point Monday

[big Neil]

My lure fishing mentor Luke asked if I wanted to go fishing at Darlington Point this morning. "Yep, of course". The water level was fairly low as we launched at the old boat ramp and slowly made our way upstream. We took full notice of all the snags we were fishing. 5 hrs of solid casting with both spinnerbaits and lures produced nothing but a double strike which did not connect. The area was absolutely packed with big snags so we put plenty of casts in.

As we sussed out a new area Luke spotted a fish right up near the surface and quickly cast at it. The fish hit the lure but didn't connect, so I quickly cast near to where the fish was. A few cranks of the reel and I was on. The #1 Stumpjumper was smashed and I landed a 58cm Yellowbelly. We rounded the next bend and decided it would be the last set of snags we would cast to. On the absolute last cast Luke hooked up to a beautiful Murray Cod of about 60 cms. Alas it got on a snag and Luke had difficulty bringing it to the net. I lunged the net under the fish and knocked the lure from its mouth...it swam away. We counted it as caught.

The trip back to the ramp was really hairy as the water level had dropped another foot. We ran aground several times and hit numerous snags as we slowly crawled back to the ramp. All in all a good session of numerous new snags discovered, a Yellowbelly, and a Cod.                                                                                                             

Here are a few pics 

 

 

Thanks for reading   bn                            

[bessell1955]

Have you eaten the Yellow belly from there?

I ask as I have eaten them from impoundments they are on the best. 

[big Neil]

3 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

Have you eaten the Yellow belly from there?

I ask as I have eaten them from impoundments they are on the best. 

I contemplated taking this for a feed till I saw it. It was so fat that I decided to let it go again. Usually, Yellas from the river, as against ones from impoundments, are slender as they have to work hard in the current to get a feed. These are good to eat. I won't take fish that are FAT as they taste terrible...better to release them as they are obviously adept at feeding well and make good breeding stock.

Cheers, bn

[dirvin21]

That's solid yellabelly Neil

I'm bloody jealous 🤔

[Hill373737]

Cracking yella Neil, they go hard so would have been a decent fight!

[bessell1955]

BN, I have also found the big fat Yellows are not the best.

[Pickles]

At it again Neil - great to hear. That’s a beaut Yellowbelly mate - well done. (Kingies are back on here, but only rats, but whenever you want to visit again, you know you’re always welcome).

[big Neil]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

At it again Neil - great to hear. That’s a beaut Yellowbelly mate - well done. (Kingies are back on here, but only rats, but whenever you want to visit again, you know you’re always welcome).

Many thanks Bob. I still have that burning desire to catch a decent Kingfish and Jewfish.  bn

[Yowie]

A nice fat yella b.n. Otherwise it was a quiet outing.