Ram Road Trip Part 5

I’ve travelled a paved road in my RAM 1500 to the Rocky shores of the Fitzroy River.

The RAM certainly lives up to its namesake when it comes to performance on the job. It easily tows my yellowfin 7000 and rack mounted Hobie from South Queensland’s Gold Coast to the tropic Capricorn climes where Rockhampton is situated on the Fitzroy River. Even though it flows through a city and appears to be a murky muddy stream the Fitzroy is a watercourse that holds plenty of fish species. I’m putting my Yellowfin 7000 in at a Rockhampton ramp along with Rocky local and good mate Dean and his son Kai. We’re targeting Threadfin Salmon which love lurking in muddy fast flowing rivers and estuaries along Queensland’s East Coast.

In the Fitzroy, Threadfin Salmon chase prawns so we point the Yellowfin upstream to Dean’s Prawn Garmin hotspot. The first chore is to obtain some of the Threadies favourite tucker.

Prawns are found in many Queensland Rivers. They often ball up around jetty’s and pontoons so these areas are prime prawn hot spots. Cast Nets can be used in Queensland and make it super easy to collect fresh and live bait. There are two types of cast net. If you are looking at catching fish then a cast net with a bottom pocket is the way to go. As the net goes over the fish they try and push their way under the sides and get caught up in the bottom pocket, The second net is designed primarily for catching prawns. Prawns don’t run along the bottom but flick up eventually getting caught in a top pocket. They are great fun to catch and every fish alive loves to eat them just like us. Once we caught around 30 or so it was time to put that tucker to a Threadfin taste test.

A Solid Threadfin Salmon caught on a Prawn. These fish have long whiskers and have adapted to hunt in discolored water. We were hoping to do battle with one of these speedsters but we got a huge surprise when Mr Barramundi turned up. We spot locked the 7000 Yellowfin plate boat with the 112 pound Minn Kota to allow us to cast around some old pylons from a wharf demolished in a past flood. There was plenty of bait action all around as the tide poured in. Small fish were eating our prawn baits, then all of a sudden Kai’s rod buckled over and out of the water came a big Barra. It jumped several times as Kai was struggling to get the powerful fish away from the snags. Kai was doing a great job of keeping the fish away from the nasty structure along the bank when all of a sudden a Bull Shark appeared from nowhere and was slashing at the fish. We were screaming wind, wind, wind as Kai needed to get the big fish away from the shark and into the net. Kai did a great job and pulled the Barra from the Bull Sharks jaws and kept it swimming all the way into the waiting net. We couldn’t believe what happened and Kai couldn’t believe his luck. His biggest Barra to date close to the magic meter mark.

It was a great catch now all we needed to do was take a quick picture and put her back in the water. The picture tells the story of one happy boy and his fish. Its amazing how quick our day turned around. One minute we were cast netting for Prawns to catch Threadfin Salmon the next Kai is hooked up to the fish of a lifetime pulling it out of the jaws of a 2 meter Bull Shark. If you look closely at the Barra you can see the issing scales as the sharks teeth tried to penetrate the Barra’s armor plated scales. We spent time moving our boat close to the shore and some bottom structure to release the fish in a place where the Barra could hide from the Bull Sharks present so far up the Fitzroy River. A great day out in the 7000 Yellowfin and an adventure young Kai will be able to tell his grand kids about when he’s my old age.

The bull shark bite marks that couldn’t penetrate the Barras hard scales.

Back in the Ram 1500 Truck and off on another adventure through north Queensland. Im off to Hinchinbrook Island next week on an awesome drive to catch up with my old footy team mate Paul Green the current Cowboys Rugby League Coach and top guide and mate Ryan Moody. Catch you then !!