Cycling and Fishing Australia, 1st leg Perth to Darwin. super post

[worldfisher]

Hi everyone, Its been a while since i posted but at the moment I am a little way through an adventure that i would like to share. I arrived in western Australia a few months ago in perth and after a little trip to the south west after Australian Salmon i started cycling up the west coast, trying to catch some fish as I went. Not always easy beacuse of big distances, difficult access to the water (beacuse of long side roads ect) I managed to get some good fish, sometimes land based and sometimes joining up with locals in their boats. Now after a few months and a good few thousand Km's i have reached darwin. After a trip to SA in september i'll return to australia, cycle and then work to hopefully get enough money to enable me to hit africa on the bike. I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking,

All the best, Scott
www.worldbiker.blogspot.com



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One of the Australian Salmon we nailed. We had been waiting on the beach for a couple of days until a massive shoal arrived and all hell broke lose. The bait fish were completely screwed and some even jumped onto the beach to try and escape the predators. We managed 16 in an hour or two on slices, poppers and minnows. great fight. acrobatics and good runs on the light spinning stick.



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The beach where we caught the Salmon. we also caught herring and saw seals, sharks, stingrays and dolphins close in.


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THis is my mate Bryan who took me squidding out of Perth. We caught a heap of squid and then later a number of other species such as king george whiting on light tackle.



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I went out on the boat with another friend, Ben and caught this big Pink snapper on a soft plastic just as the light was going. Only big fish of the day so we were pretty pleased. Caught it 20km off perth in 30 metres of water.



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Ben and I also went jigging for samson fish one day off perth but they weren't playing ball. This little one that ben got was all we had to show for our efforts


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So I left perth and headed north up the west coast watching out for the kangaroos and emus.


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There was some good stuff to see along the way and a little way to the next fishing spot!



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A little way up the coast I met up with Lloyd who is probably the best soft plastic fisherman on the west coast of oz. We went out after Dhu fish, snappers, sambos, breaksea cod etc. This is Lloyd with a good Dhu fish. He's had them up to 19kg so this was a mere baby. Lloyd and his girlfriend caught most of the fish until after dark I hooked a monster...which snapped me up! sh!t



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stopped at this place called Flat rocks. Its a pretty famous spot for big mulloway (kob) and good Tailor (shad,elf) caught bugger all tho but nice anyway!



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flat rocks sun down.


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then i cycled a few more hundred kays up to a town called kalbarri where apparently there was good fishing. this was the first tailor i got on the lure. only a small one but a start.


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The tailor got bigger. this was one of five good ones i got in one session.



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went out on a boat with a Zim guy, laurie who runs murchison boat hire and got this tuna.


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then got this spaniard which was pretty tasty


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Went to tey get some kob on lures at night and got this good tailor.



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this is one of the kob that helped me win a prize in the local competition. i spent the night freezing my nuts off on the beach so at least i could get some new lures!



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this is Point quobba where lots of species can be caught from the rocks. many guys ballon fish for big spanish mackeral, cobia and other pelagics. sharks can be a problem with bigger fish. Cliff gaffs are a must and a reel with huge line capacity to get the bait out. balloons are filled with helium to keep the bait on the surface away from the sharks.


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went on up to Exmouth, a true fishermans paradise. I joined up with adam who started fishwreckedc.com and his mate Tim. this is tim with a coral trout taken on a soft plastic. unfortunately the weather was the worst for 6 months which meant we could troll for billfish as planned. shame!


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managed to get snapped up on the light stick and then got this spangled emperor. my first which made me happy.


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After exmouth it was inland to see some gorges and things. this is mt bruce in the pilbara. pretty spot





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a nice gorge in Karajini national park

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Back on the coast at broome I caught no fish but cycled on this beach. Its called cable beach and is meant to be in the top ten in the world?


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I stopped on the fitzroy river for three nights and got my first oz barra. small reward for two days of hard fishing..three more gave me the slip. it was a nice quiet spot with plenty of freshwater crocs to see.


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Fitzroy river. western australia.




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I left the main road and went onto the Gibb river road which is a 700km beef road running through the kimberly region. mainly corrugated and stony. it traverses some beautiful country.


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Gibb river road



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pushing through a sandy section


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Durack river crossing


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half way on the Gibb


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pentescost river crossing.Everyone warned me about crocs but upon arrival i figured that the stream of 4wds would have scared them all away. it was pretty shallow too. Being a fisherman my other logic was match the hatch..with so may prados and landcruisers to feet on why would a croc want a skinny cyclist? I carried half my bags accross and then was wading back for the rest when a 'kimberly wild' bus pulled up and all the people climbed off and started taking photos of me! just what i wasn't in the mood for. i had already had my photo taken 15000 times and was getting a little bored of it. the khaki clad tour guide marched over and said " you're not going to ride that thing across are you?" i was a bit put out to her refering to my bike as a 'thing' but managed to keep my cool and reply that no i was going to carry it across. at that point in an almost hysterical voice she said " what about the crocodiles" so i replied that we had an understading as i put the bike on my shoulder and marched off across the river! think she must have been building up the croc thing to all her tourists and i put a spanner in the works! the funniest bit was that as i walked across my arse was hanging out as my shorts were completely torn and in pieces! well at least the tourists were entertained and got some good photos!



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In western Oz are Boab trees..just one spp. compared to Africa's 8 or so. made good places to rest in the shade while cycling.


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this is a boab prison tree near derby that they used to put the aboriginals in for safe keeping!



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In Kunnunurra on the ord river i had a good session catching 13 barramundi and 21 tarpon in a coulple of hours. no monsters but plenty of acrobatics



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River Ord Tarpon



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catfish anyone?



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King Billabong..very australian



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heading to darwin in the Northern territory.



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Cup of tea after a long day in Litchfield national park



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A decent sooty grunter from the Finniss river. NT



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Nice Anthill



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NT swimming hole



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Another sooty grunter come to the bank



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camping place after a long day

Right guys i've run out of steam so hope you enjoyed..there more on my blog if you are interested

 

[Enigma]

No pics only image place holder icons

 

[worldfisher]

I can see the pictures when I load the page...anyone else see them or any idea why if they can't?
maybe i should divide the post up?

Scott

 

[VaalieBassman]

Can`t see anything

 

[lebaka]

cant see them either but would love to, remember your last report India i think

 

[cheetah13]

It says uploaded with imageshack, don't know if it's a pic loader, or what. That is why we can't view the pics

 

[worldfisher]

Hey guys, Strange...i'll try and sort it out tommorrow. I usually use image shack to get a forum link and its always worked before ok.

Scott

 

[Johan Fourie]

Saw them all - great photos  - thanks for the report.

 

[cheetah13]

And now I see them as well, lol

Well done and great report

 

[worldfisher]

Hey Guys! I've reposted the links just to be sure everyone can see the photos!

All good now??.please post if you can't see them!

phew..this post is turning out to be harder than the last 3 months of cycling!!

all the best, Scott

 

[Psy]

Fantastic, looking forward to the rest.
Darwin and lower west coast sure is beautiful country.

 

[Glider]

Great report and well done!! When you come to Africa come and hit the Goliaths here in the Congo.

 

[Enigma]

I can only see the Squid pic, the rest are only icons and when I click on the Icon it takes me to the image shack and there i also only see the ICON

Why not try www.photobucket.com the Sealine and Photobucket platforms are very compatible

 

[potevan]

Great post MATE! :fishn

 

[Enigma]

So I went to your blog spot and had a read.

Some absolutely amazing nature scenery. But from what i would hazard as a gues the fishing in India is as good or better than it was in India, now that was an eye opener.

 

[worldfisher]

Hi Guys,

Seems you can all see the photos now!! hope so anyway! thanks for the comments.

Glider: thanks for the offer..my next trip will be Norway to Capetown with the aim of a fish in every country. Hope if that becomes a reality I will be able to arrange a few meets along the way with some sealiners! I'm dying to go to the congo after Goliaths so will be in touch sometime,

all the best, Scott

www.worldbiker.blogspot.com

 

[Mike D]

A magic post with stunning photos, best of luck and will be keeping an eye out for your updates!

 

[Joker]

What a great adventure. Well done mate.

Fantastic catches.

Just a question. Are you keeping tally of all the different species you've hooked and landed so far. Would be interesting to see which number you have now.
Respect.

 

[Warwick]

Epic.....absolutely epic....nice one man

 

[worldfisher]

hey guys thanks for your comments,

joker, wish I had been keeping track of all the species i've managed as there must be quite a few.

will try and put up a new report soon as there has been some good fishing since the last one.

all the best, Scott

www.worldbiker.blogspot.com