Bobj

Feeding a few red-browed finches on the back porch, Mackay, Qld

And here I was, thinking that ST KILDA was the capital of Melbourne, Australia.........Bugga.

Caught quite a few of them in Australia, where they are called crocodile long toms, or stout long tom. (Tylosurus crocodilus) They grow to 1.5 metres and 5.2 kg. They have blue bones and are fairly good eating.

Looks a lot like Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, about 120 km from me, as the crow flies. Several day trips out there from Shute Harbour and Airlie Beach.

Seven iron for height, three iron for distance. Got a new "buffo belter", a wooden staff, 5 ft long which reaches most of the vermin in the bushes around the house. Trouble with hitting them is that they have a virulent poison in glands on both shoulders and it can be sprayed into eyes. Another way to kill them; dig a hole about 18" wide and deep. The tur....er toads drop in, then ordinary concentrated dishwashing liquid is sprayed on their backs. The liquid spreads over them and they die.

Yup. Jo and I had to go to the Darwin a couple of months later and the devestation was complete, I vividly remember a car in a swimming pool at the motel we stayed at.......It was blown over a 3 ft high fence. Complete streets were cleaned up.....no houses anywhere. There was a toilet bowl perched 12 feet up on a 4" pipe; nothing else in the street. We had to give our names and address to the police and report as soon as we arrived, due to the looters, those lowest of low vermin.

We missed it by that much...... The nearest land to the big cloud formation is the Whitsundays. Got 20 knot winds right now and just a few drops of rain. Newt, some American experts were comparing "Larry" to "Katrina" that devestated New Orleans, saying that it was worse. Wati is sitting 650 km off shore at the moment. If it keeps moving on its original course, it will hit Townsville.

The SA democrats lost 1 seat.......they have zilch in the SA parliament now.

Sunrise over Brampton Island, Whitsundays.

As a bit of an interest, this is the size of lures we use for the impoundment barra, 12+ ft and 20+ft.

G'day mate, chances are that the barra and big murray cod are well fed with the numerous bait-balls that abound in the impoundments. Undoubtedly, some big fish prey on smaller cousins. A photo of a large bait-ball, bottom left and barra above and behind the bait-ball. From Kinchant dam, Mackay. Reasonable to say that the barra are in the 40-60 lb class.

Excellent, mate. Just ordinary blokes doing an extraordinary job. A hobby of mine, growing tropical orchids; this is cattleya "Slim Warner" The thumbnail is a dendrobium "Shannon"

Here you go...........had to use the fishing table as a background. Hope the smell doesn't put you off.

No, it is a sliding snood for variable live/dead baits when fishing for snapper (Chrysophrys aurata) in Australia. Will post another pic later to show the proper hook set-up.

Some whitling ducks came to tea, along with the lorikeets.

Here is another "snood"

A few of the local residents (rainbow lorikeets)

A couple from Australia. Sunset over Peter Faust dam, Qld. A Northern Territory Sunset.

Not quite right. In natural conditions, they do need salty/brackish water to BREED. However, 1" fingerlings are stocked into about 12 dams in Australia, mainly Qld., and do very well indeed; so much so that there are thriving guiding businesses going where the barra dams are. Our local dams, Kinchant, Teemburra and Eungella, hold many thousands of barra and are restocked each year, on a put-and-take system. The warmer, the better for growth rates. For instance, Kinchant dam (100 ft above sea level) was first stocked with barra in 2000 and now, the barra are in the 50-60 lb bracket. This one is 56 lbs and 1.13 metres long and was returned to fight another day. Teemburra dam is 1000 ft higher up the valley and was first stocked in 1995 and the barra average 25 lbs and 97 cm. Another thing is that there is so much food in the dams that the baitfish flourish as well. So, it is possible to have a viable barra industry in England.....providing there is warm water all year round.

G'day mate, if you want to emigrate, go to Queensland. The Vics and New South Welshmen are coming to Qld at the rate of 1000/week. Vic has just about shut out all sea fishing with marine parks (labour gov.) NSW is doing a similar thing and buying back the trawler licences....then selling them to other commercial fishos. We have that fabulous stretch of Great Barrier Reef, the weather is always perfect (shut up, chevin ) Fishing in dams costs about 14 quid a year to fish in any of 29 dams, no licence for fishing in rivers, or sea. The southern end of the Whitsunday Islands. Vrfish has a very poor reputation for the fishos and the SA democrats are really a toothless tiger; indeed, there was a questionnaire put out by a fishing mag where each political party was asked the same questions, and the democrats and greens were the least interested in fishing. http://www.yaffa.com.au/fw

A photo of a goodoo weighing in at 70 lbs from Copeton Dam, northern NSW

Strewth, mate, too bloody right.

G'day mate, that piece of info was originally aimed at the carp in Australia, which is a declared noxious fish in some states. http://www.carpbusters.com.au/carpinfo.html only a very small percentage of Australian fishos dislike the redfin. However, about 97% of the fishos detest the carp; so much so, that there are annual carp eradication competitions. The proceeds, (carp) go to the fertiliser factory and the money made from the comps, goes into the stocking of native fish.

Here is a link for the murray cod: http://www.murrayriver.com.au/fishing/cod.htm Unfortunately, when the early settlers discovered the eating qualities of the MC, they took virtually every fish they caught. It is still the norm to take the fish today Incidentally, the modern trend is to call the murray cod "goodoo", it's aboriginal name, or, greenfish.

G'day mate, indeed, some native freshwater fish grow to more than 22 lbs. We have the murray cod that grows to 100 kg, the yellowbelly grows to 24 kg, the salmon tailed catfish grows to about 35kg and the mighty barramundi grow to over 40 kg Personally, I believe the reddie size was a bit of an overstatement.