What an awesome wet season we are having. The water finally looks like disappearing and the fishing will continue to be red hot.

Monsoon flows have dumped huge amounts of water and caused massive damage to infrastructure and roads around the area. Karumba has lost its water supply that comes by pipe from Normanton, however, the Army has flown in a filtration plant to keep us going. Our airport has been closed so we don’t have any consistent supply of mail or freight.

Other communities in our region have sealed strips that allow supplies to be flown in but we are not so fortunate and are told to just make do! Karumba is the fifth biggest port in Queensland and our prawning and fishing industry need the airport to work. Please help us by contacting your local state and federal members to push our cause. Our airport is the only non-sealed strip in Queensland.

I have spent some time travelling up to Normanton by boat to help people out and the water across the flats was awesome. The Norman River meanders up to Normanton and I started cutting corners to save time and fuel. To head across what would usually be dry ground and have 7ft of water under the boat was amazing, and the feel of passing through treetops in a boat was reminiscent of our early explorers.

Trying to find water running into creeks from the flood plane was a non-event as it was all a massive lake, so fishing the river had to wait. The best fishing was around Karumba on the culverts between the town and point sections. This fishing was red hot with locals catching bag limits of barramundi without too much trouble.

April is shaping up as prime barramundi time as the saltwater slowly gets back into the river systems. Live bait will bring home the bacon out the front so please only take home a feed and share our resources.

Another option is to go wider looking for any patches of rubble as these will hold GT and golden snapper. Please use decent gear if targeting these fish as any fault with line or gear will be shown up. I recommend using Spanyid metal jigs and 80lb mono leader tied to 30lb braid as a minimum set-up. I was very lucky to land this fish as the knot I tied let go whilst we were getting the fish out of the landing net. The Spanyid jig was in silver and blue stripe and this is my favourite jig for these fish.

It is going to be bigger than last year with awesome prizes to be given away and new additional sections for adults and kids. The main prize of over $5000 will be in a draw so you do not even need to catch a fish to win.

The Lodge Hotel and XXXX have again sponsored the event and with Anaconda and Erskines Tackle onboard the weekend of 18/19 April should have everybody in Karumba for this family fishing classic.

It is once again time to open the resort for the 2009 season.

Team Post Office got an early start with some great captures. They caught cobia to 82cm, coral trout to 55cm, golden snapper to 55cm, GT to extra large, sweetlip to 45cm, queenies to over 1m, sharks to 6ft, barramundi to 83cm, tuskfish to 42cm and various other species. One highlight was catching a good barramundi and then having to share it with a 5ft bull shark.

The weather at Sweers Island in April is magnificent with a breeze in the mornings and it drops out in the afternoons to allow fishing anywhere around the Island. They supply boats, tackle, bait and freezing for your convenience, great food and good clean accommodation.