Aramia River, August 2 - 9, 2017

If one was to observe your average fisherman from a neutral view point you'd surely come to the conclusion that he was a complete nutter, what brought him to the point of madness would be up for a discussion that would never come to a concrete conclusion. Was it the hours of researching spent on the internet or reading magazines in all their contradictory glory that pushed the poor bugger over the edge? Or possibly fact that he takes 200 lures on every trip but only fishes with the same four lures that he always uses? It could be the highs and lows of fishing where he swears he's having the worst days fishing he's ever experienced when suddenly a monster hits the deck and it becomes the best day on the water since one of our hairy ancestors figured out how to make a fish hook. The human mind is a fragile thing and surely cannot cope with such extreme mood swings. When you add the fact that the human race has split the atom and walked on the moon but has trouble tricking an animal with a brain the size of pea, you start to realise the mental health of the of the average fisherman is doing the YMCA dance on quicksand at best.

We faced all this and more on our first trip to Aramia this season. Bill, Noel, Coley, Cole and Andy where on their first Trip to PNG while Wayne, Casey, Bryan, Gary and Peter had a trip or two under their belts.

The quality of the fish was good but the fishing was not easy and coming of the back of a great Fly River trip last month there where some glum faces on the boat at times as the Bass where not co-operating and the action came in fits and starts that seemed to be very far apart with the snags and creek mouths often only holding a single fish when they would usually be stacked with Bass.

The guides had to run far and wide and pull every trick in the book to get results, as tough as things were, we still had some cracking fish with two Bass over 40lbs for Andy and Coley and fish in the mid 30's for Tex (Gary) and Curley. The stand out fisherman was Dr Bryan Pratt who at 86 years old gave the youngsters a whipping consistently landing bass each day on the one and only lure he used for the trip a 16ft Red Head Rapala X-Rap.

At one point even though he was ripped out his seat by a bass on Jed’s boat, and he fought it flat on his back on the deck and landed it like a champ. The Barra which are normally a consistent by catch in the Aramia were on a hunger strike as well but everyone besides Bryan the Bass Master landed one or more.

The smallest was PB on the trip was 85cm and the largest a 1100cm beasty caught by a very chuffed Gary, Wayne and Casey came in 2nd and 3rd with Barra at 101 & 100cm respectively.