While Donny’s boys had a quieter day overall, it total between the two boats they still got close to 100 barra for the day and as today is Donny’s birthday, I’m sure we’ll hear something about a birthday barramundi when they return.

Some photos from Day 1 below. More photos and update to come throughout the week.

© KEKOA Sports Fishing 2012. Content including images not to be reproduced in any form without permission.

Pizza Base

Firstly make your pizza base – I prefer to make dough in the bread maker and refrigerate for several hours – and roll out ready for your topping.

Prepare the fish ceviche

Finely slice about 500grams of fresh raw fish (I like mackerel or wahoo for this recipe though any white fish meat will do as long as it is sashimi quality fresh).  Marinate in combination of lemon/lime juice for 30 minutes with a dash of olive oil. The juice will ‘bleach’ the flesh of the fish.

For Pizza ‘Sauce’

Caramelize 1 1/2 brown onions and 4 cloves of garlic in plenty of olive oil over low heat. Once its cooled mince the oil/onion/garlic in a food processor with half a tin of artichoke hearts, a couple of strips of roasted capsicum and a few olives.  Add extra olive oil until you have a saucy consistency.

Spread the ‘sauce’ over your pizza base.

Then add some grated Parmesan and mozzarella as well as some chopped flat leaf parsley (for colour) and pop into the over to cook.

Once the pizza is ready (browning nicely on top as well as crisping up underneath) pull out and add your fish ceviche as thick or thin as you wish.  Squeeze some lime over the top and slice to serve.

© KEKOA Sports Fishing 2012. Content including images not to be reproduced in any form without permission.

Joe joined us barra fishing for the first time last year, and caught not only his first barramundi (or a hundred) but also the barra bug. This year he brought along his father Paul and younger brother Matthew to share the experience.  This year we fished the Ducie River to the north and although we were hounded by some strong south-easterlies all week which made some of the drains fishing a challenge (casting up wind) we had some glamour (still) mornings, some incredible flats fishing and some unbelievable surface lure action (despite the wind).  Joe estimates we finished the week with over 300 barra.

I was lucky enough to have been invited to fish along side Joe (hence the delay in posting as I’ve been fishing!) and we had some great days on the water and some great experiences. On the Wenlock River for two afternoons running on the tide we had the barra boofing all around us and some marlin-like explosions on the surface lures.  Joe also hooked up to a couple of absolute stonkers in the snags in the morning which wiped him out in the tree roots, but managed to pull this 85cm (above) from out of a tree.  And we got some great video footage (to come).  One of Joe’s goals was to catch a barra on the surface and he worked hard to perfect the ‘walk the dog’ action and I watched as he did that and caught one after another, after another, after another on one particular drain in the afternoon. It was a great sight to see.

Meanwhile Paul preferred to live-bait but had his go at casting lures (on one tree/snag, they pulled off 22 barra, most of which were caught by Paul) while Matthew happily flitted between the two becoming more proficient on the lure action as the days went by. His best was 87cm on live bait and 73cm on the surface lures.  Donny says that Matt was also the ‘big fish attractor’ in the snags losing his share of big ones there as well.  On the second day, Paul and Matthew came back to the boat early surprising me with their arrival. As Paul told me, they’d already had a great day and caught so many, it was the perfect way to finish up!

© KEKOA Sports Fishing 2012. Content including images not to be reproduced in any form without permission.

The boys started the first day with a more modest goal of a ‘half-metrey’ but smashed it with a 78cm on the first fish!  While there were several good quality fish to follow, overall fishing was tougher on the neap tides that the hot run we had last week. Hopefully they get stuck into them today!

Update: Its been a great week of fishing and I’m happy to report the boys are hooked and there has even been a ‘near grander’ with Bomber bringing in a 97cm monster today!  We are about to head out for the last session before the end of the trip, for the high tide at 5pm and will be finishing the day how it started – in the dark – as the boys elected to rise nice and early and take advantage of the SUPER-moon today to fish the high tide at 4:30 (see the pic of the moon below). Its been a great week, the boys have got some really nice fish (more than 250 barra all up) and have been an absolute pleasure to have on board!

© KEKOA Sports Fishing 2012. Content including images not to be reproduced in any form without permission.

© KEKOA Sports Fishing 2012. Content including images not to be reproduced in any form without permission.

This morning they pulled close to 50 barra in less than two hours and had a similar session yesterday. After a quick rest back on mothership KEKOA its then off to the drains which have produced some nice fish, especially for Jeannette who has a few 90cm range fish and is hoping to knock Eddie’s 117cm from the drain last year off before the end of the week.

© KEKOA Sports Fishing 2012. Content including images not to be reproduced in any form without permission.

Vic and Glen have found some revenge, and fishing with Donny, assure me they have not only caught up but taken the lead. Now they just need the photographic evidence to support the claim!  Photos from Donny’s camera to come.

And two more days fishing to go!

Update: With the tides neaping out for the rest of the week, we moved down to the Archer River for the final couple of days fishing and the boys got a quick session in yesterday and tell me it was very hot fishing (Glen got three barra in three casts but a nervous fourth cast messed him up for a quadruple!) They are keen to get out on the water this morning and I look forward to hearing how they go. We had some pretty good rain overnight so here’s hoping the bite is still on today!

© KEKOA Sports Fishing 2012. Content including images not to be reproduced in any form without permission.

As for the barra fishing, Bradley is leading in the largest fish stakes and are getting in a morning flats session before a quick lunch at the boat and heading out to spend the afternoon on the drains.

Update: Bradley tells me that on their boat they got 154 barra for the 3 days of fishing (with Capt. Luke) and I’m sure team “Smokey” with Donny wouldn’t have been too far behind. A great three days with the best bite late in the day on the drains – even the cook (me) got in on the action when the boys invited me along for an hour – we got 44 barra in just over an hour!

© KEKOA Sports Fishing 2012. Content including images not to be reproduced in any form without permission.

The Little Archer also produced some good pockets of smaller (around legal size) barras as well plenty of saratoga and mangrove jacks. The Ward also fished well earlier in the week on the tides with a couple of 100 fish days to start us off again.

© KEKOA Sports Fishing 2012. Content including images not to be reproduced in any form without permission.

More photos and report to come as the week progresses.

Day 2: Another 100 barramundi added on Day 2 with the sun shining and not a single shower to provide a cool break. And another few mud crabs so the mudcrab lasagna for Sunday night is looking good again!

Today is ‘change teams’ day and Glen and Brett, who are fighting it out for top dog at present, are fishing together.  Brothers Chris and Dave likewise will be joining forces today and were strategizing this morning for a come from behind win.

Day 3: Glen and Brett cemented their lead with an impressive day on the water managing close to 70 fish in another 100+ fish day.  I think Glen is leading on numbers and Brett and Chris on keepers and Glen has the biggest fish, followed closely by Dave – but who’s counting   Brett even managed to catch two fish on the one lure yesterday hooking up a barra on the back treble, and then a salmon on the front on the way in (photo below).  The boys asked me to add some of the food pics. We’ve definitely been enjoying the fresh barra for dinner and I smoked some as well to make smoked barramundi quiches for morning tea which were a hit!

Day 4: We moved out to the Pennyfather River for a change of scenery and fishing. Chris and Dave, fishing with Luke, found a bunch of small barra and mangroves jacks in clear water upriver and were sight casting to them. Brett and Glen fished the mouth with Donny for queenfish and caught close to 35 throwing slices and popper and chased a big fish for 15 minutes before getting it to the boat.
Day 5: We fished bluewater back to Weipa. It was a great day on the water and flat calm and the boys had a steady rotation of Spanish mackerel coming into the boat (and a ginormous dirty barracuda giving Brett the biggest fish of the week gong). No billfish sighted but we’ll try again next week!

© KEKOA Sports Fishing 2012. Content including images not to be reproduced in any form without permission.