The O'Reilly's hit Mardugal

It was good to get back to Mardugal Billabong after an absence of some so four or five years, it’s always been one of our favourite places and now it appears to be the favourite of every bloody caravan and camper trailer tower in the country! Anyway we managed to find a patch of ground not to far from the boat ramp so we could leave the boat in the billabong each night. An early session on Saturday morning gave us an insight into how difficult the Toga fishing was going to be for the remainder of the weekend. Water temps were down around 24 – 25° and didn't really move from that all weekend. The Togas just wouldn't come to the surface and when we found them they were holding (shivering?) deep in the timber. Weed guarded things sunk into the timber received some half hearted attention and we finally managed to boat a couple of Togas and I unfortunately managed to drop a really nice Toga, estimated 70 ish cm, right beside the boat. Back to camp for lunch and a granny nap and then back out again for an evening session.

We fished again on Sunday morning but the wind was up early so I guided (rested?) and drove the electric so Marisa could get a decent shot at the snags  and it was worth it as she managed to boat a couple of Togas including a nice 62cm fish.

For those twitchers around the place there was some great bird action out there including a big white breasted seas eagle swooping down to grab a small barra from the middle of the billabong and only a few metres from our boat. Good to see!

Although the pictures showed the early morning mirror that Mardugal can be, the wind unfortunately came up relatively early and blew right down the billabong all day. We only managed to boat five Togas in three sessions but we dropped at least another ten but that’s how fly fishing for Togas can be.

We noticed that a couple of things have changed since we were there last;

1.      Although there are lights in the ablution block at camp ground 1 they do not work and there is a sign outside stating that if you want light in the ablution block after dark you have to supply your own. Strange considering the lights work in camp ground 2.

2.      The great grey army have discovered Mardugal, big time. Fortunately they didn’t bring boats so we had the billabong pretty much to ourselves.

3.      The grounds aren’t as well kept as they were under the previous caretakers ... perhaps a product of Mardugal’s popularity?

4.      The cut through to Jim Jim Billabong is a bit tight in a couple of places .... just something to watch.

Anyway that was our weekend away and we’ll hit the place again before we leave the NT in late Oct. (Maybe staying in a nice air conditioned room at Cooinda)

Cheers

Lyle and Marisa