Sootys on the lake

[Dick Pasfield]

Spent a few days on the lake stirring up the sootys this week. Today we got a lazy 30mm of rain, not much by standards across the country at the moment, we just hapened to be in it from midday until dusk when it started to come down pretty steadily.  We were all a bit chilled by the time we got back to the ramp.

Fish were pretty willing, most were pulled out from from under the canopy and the rest from small gaps in the weed beds.

With the rain we might just get enough stream flow to get up into the creeks by foot on the weekend, fingers crossed  

[redline]

some good looking fish there mate, do they fight well?

[Fitzy]

Nice fish, awesome photos Dick. When you say "the lake" are you talking the small one or the big one further up?

What camera are you running? 

fitz..

[Dick Pasfield]

Yeah they go pretty well redline, not much subtlty about them eat and run back to cover. Jack mentality.

Its a EOS 50D Fitz and the lake was the little tacker Lake Kununurra. Its about 65ks long and plenty of that is fish heaven .

[Binder]

I didn't even know you got sooties over there.
Good size specimens to! I reckon they go really well. Love fishing for them.

[Scott Mitchell]

Great to see you & Matty on the fly 

So many fish - Scotto

[Dick Pasfield]

Mate of my nieghbour, was over for a week and enjoyed the lake very much.

[redline]

mate they look like a barrel of fun to catch

[A Marshall]

Nice photos again Dick. I'm hoping to get my first sooty while I'm in North QLD, any tips on catching them in floodwaters

Cheers Andrew

[Dick Pasfield]

Nice photos again Dick. I'm hoping to get my first sooty while I'm in North QLD, any tips on catching them in floodwaters

Cheers Andrew

Yes, look for clear water running into the river system. Like that little waterfall in the shots

[Dick Pasfield]

Another day another dozen or so. Took to the creeks up the big lake over the weekend. first arvo they were hitting everything and everything.  Got some nice fish, nothing under the 40 mark.

Today headed back and the fish were all glum and sad.  Every pool we hit over a 10k walk they did little else but fart around.  The big fish all stayed low, only a few of the mid 30 size played the game.  Funny how you can get two days looking the same but chalk and cheese.


This was one of the more aggressive takes of the day taking a cicada pattern off the surface.




One fish, with his mates sitting back to watch takes a gander at the same pattern next pool up................





...........and the result.





One brief moment of madness, four fish in as many minutes










Shore patrol





Some of the small inflows we fished, day one there were bow waves and fish all stacked up underneath them.  Today they were as quiet as.






Downstream to where the lake and the creek meet.





Upshot is it's still a bit early for the creeks, another couple of weeks and a 100mm or so and it'll be all good .
 

[estuary girl]

Stunning fish with even more stunning scenery to match Dick.
Can I ask what conditions in their territory changes the colouring of the fish?
Those first few pics they were so dark but the other's so much lighter.
Is it the depth that they hold in on bigger bodies of water,compared to smaller streams?

Thanks again for the top pics!!

Cheers.
Toni

[Dick Pasfield]

Hi Toni

Colour seems to be influenced by both size and environment. The bigger the darker and the more stressful the environment the darker as well.  Background colour of the leaf litter etc could have an effect as well but that's a bit hard to determine because of how that changes metre by metre.