Archive for Fishing
A Day’s Fishing With Frans Van Aardt And Family
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Bathurst Island Residents & Fishing Fanatics
Frans & Angelique Van Aardt
Well my friends, today I would like you all to meet and learn just a little about a good friend I have made since arriving here at the Tiwi Islands. Frans is the Shire electrician here , while his lovely wife and fishing buddy Angelique handles the cleaning of the building contractors quarters for Territory Alliance. They have two beautiful little daughters, Ashley 10 and Demi 7 who never miss a fishing trip with mum and dad. A day’s fishing with Fran’s Van Aardt & family is a great and fun day out, they always manage to find the fish which is a huge bonus.
Frans and Angelique are both South Africans who moved to Australia almost 5 years ago now, they first settled in Geelong Victoria. Where Frans landed a job with a company who traveled to the Tiwi Islands to carry out contract work, he fell in love with the place I am told and he decided to move here with the family.
The first couple of years, the two girls were taught by School Of The Air and then some tutoring also with the help of Skype and Angeliques home teaching. They have an excellent school here now and they both attend this, an experience they can tell their children I’ll bet.
Ashley with her dad & mum fishing
Demi with just one of many she caught
The kids both managed to out fish me on the day,and I was amazed at the fact they both rigged up their lines and baited them also by themselves. I have been on a few trips out fishing with Frans Van Aardt and family since this trip . The fishing around the islands is fantastic and the family go fishing most every weekend when the weather is acceptable, I will be bringing you many more stories of fishing trips with Frans & family.
After this day out fishing in the straight between the two islands, we all had a ball bottom fishing for golden snapper and ended up with a large quantity, that we then distributed among the Tiwi aboriginals community when we returned. They appreciate it very much when you give them fish, and the older women could not stop thanking us. I actually enjoyed giving them fish just as much as I did catching them, Frans also told me he has been adopted by quite a few of the aboriginal families here on the islands and says he is just sharing with family.
I have been in the process of getting to know people on the Island and settling in with the administration at the Shire Council . I am so thankful to Frans and his friendship as I am still finding my way around & now understand why Frans & Angelique love the place so much & plan to stay until the children need to further their education at college. Well my friends,obviously I will be bringing you many more adventures as they unfold.
Before I finish up with this post I want to let you all know about some other good friends I have online who are about to set out on an around Australia adventure of a lifetime. David & Lisa Wood will be setting out with their 5 sons in a Bus they have prepared for the 12 month plus journey and they want us all to enjoy the trip with them by following their journey here >> http://www.facebook.com/NewLifeOnTheRoad or by following the regular posts of the journey on their newly created purpose blog >> Here
Well friends & readers I want to finish up here by saying just how grateful I am for the life I live and the wonderful friends I have met in my travels , and those I am yet to meet. After a day’s fishing with Frans Van Aardt and family I feel truly blessed with yet another group of life long friends, thank you both Frans & Angelique.
tight lines
Allen Sentance Fisherman
Billabong Fishing for Barramundi
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Welcome readers,friends and fellow fishermen , I thought we may take a look into Billabong fishing in the Northern Territory of Australia.
This fishing trip will be quite easy to tell as it was only 5 days ago , when one of my good fishing buddies Jason rang and asked, if your not busy mate would you like to head out into the scrub and see if we can catch us a barramundi.
Well any one that knows me would say, what a silly question to ask the Fisherman ! Of cause I said yes and Jason turned up with his 4 wheel drive and a flat bottom tinny (aluminium 12 foot boat ) on the back . It was 2-30pm in the afternoon when we headed out into the scrubby bushland on dirt bush tracks, heading for a secret little spot that Jason and I quite often go for a fish and some times Pig hunting .
I have lived in this area of the Northern Territory for the past 4 years, and I never get sick of the surrounding beautiful bushland, and country that my mate” Mother Nature” has given us. I never go anywhere without my digital camera as you come across so many wonderful sights that are at times simply breath taking, even when my wife Sandra and I walk of a morning, I carry the camera with me and have taken many great shots, that I put in my other Photo Blog .
Here is a very common site as you move around the bush in the Northern Territory
After crossing this river we went about another 25 km through the bush until we came to the banks of a Billabong which almost appears like it has been hidden in the bush. For those of you who do not know exactly what a Billabong is ……… ” It is a body of still water trapped in a section where a nearby river or creek has flooded and when the river or creek dropped back to its normal level , the Billabong is formed from the trapped flood water.”
These Billabongs can vary in depth and length depending on the surrounding country and the lay of the land itself. The one we are fishing in to-day would be approximately 1km long and averaging 2.5 mtrs in depth, so the fish that get in here from the floods that happen anually , have a good body of water to live in until the next flood comes. Billabong Fishing for Barramundi is good fun and always an out door experience, even if no fish are caught. There have been times when we had to hunt wild buffalo or a lazy crocodile before we could start fishing.
Our Secret Billabong
Well we have finally arrived 30 minutes after leaving home , and just put the boat in the water, now we need to have a cold beer or two while we get the fishing rods and lures all set up in our special way , which I may even tell you the secrets of , from time to time in my blog posts. We use a small 35 pound thrust electric outboard motor to move us around the Billabong and occasionally troll the lures if there is enough water, which there is here .
Just finish our beer and look out Barramundi
Jason Smith————–Bob Smith—————–Fisherman
This is a view of the Billabong as we get in the boat at one end you can see almost the other end of the Billabong. Also Jason tells me there are in fact 2 crocodiles in here so keep an eye out.
The water you can see is a dirty color, and it does not stop us catching fish on lures though. I love to use surface lures, and I tried here for at least 30 mins without success. Jason was using sub surface lures and had 3 positive strikes without a hookup. So we stopped the boat out from the bank , I changed to a sub surface lure that Jason lent me and we flicked these from the boat with slow to medium retrieve, making sure to cover as much of the fishing ground as possible.
Jason had another strike and no hook up, I then managed 2 separate hook ups and dropped both fish with in the first few seconds. That’s fishing as any fisherman knows , we then decided to troll again along the deeper side close to the over hanging trees and then Jason had one on. The fish fought reasonably well ,yet it did not break the surface and do the ever famous tail walk on the top as a barramundi are known for, Jason soon got him along side the boat , and yes it was a catfish of all things . We took a photo and released him very carefully avoiding his spikes.
Well today was my day, as we only went another 150 mtrs and then I had a hook up . This was a barra and he came straight out of the water and did his famous surface tail walk , which is quite spectacular to watch and part of the reason for the Barramundi being a sought after sport fish in Australia . He fought and performed well yet with so much open water and a good drag setting on the reel , he soon tired and Jason was able to lift him in with the lip grips.
A Nice Billabong Barramundi 70cm
Hey..Life is Good..
Well I was quite happy to get a fish and it topped the afternoon off, you see Jason generally catches more than I do when we are out together, and he was out of luck today. It was time to pack the gear up and head off down the track back home . Nothing worse than fumbling around in the dark and we had about half an hours light left , this little fishing trip today is very typical of one of many different things we do here in the Northern Territory . So folks I only hope you felt like you were with us here Billabong Fishing for Barramundi , and you never know one day if your passing by we may get to fish together and have a few cold beers at the Adelaide River Inn where the beer is always cold and refreshing . Will sign out now and see you soon for our next day out , stay safe and Tight Lines to you all .
Allen Sentance
Fisherman
