Category Archives: Nothern Territory

Blue Salmon at Leeder’s

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Went out on a sunday so haven’t had much of a chance to type it up. Went out to Leeders to go Jewfish chasing! Caught lots and lots of juvies out of the reef… goldies, sweet lip, blue bones, jewies, grunter, every species you can think of. Just tiny! Got some good blue salmon (which are delicious imo, most people don’t like them unless they are fresh)

Got:
Me: One medium blue salmon
Mud: One large blue salmon and one small blue salmon
Mud’s 10 year old daughter: Massive (64cm) blue salmon

Story of the trip:
Watching the girl fight the salmon! They fish was giving it a red hot crack.

Boat problems:
Woke up and one tyre on the trailer was completely deflated. I couldn’t change it to the spare as my spanner wouldn’t grip it (as I found out) so I pumped it up and went off. Had to do it a couple of times on the way home. Bought a new tyre and put nuts on it so my suzuki tool can do the boat.

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Alice with her big catch

Bynoe with my mates

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Had some mates up here from Queensland so took a day off work to take them out to Bynoe

Got:
Me: Small cod & bream
Mate: Nothing
Matess: Reasonable Queenie & bream

Story of the trip:
Driving to the ramp in the dark and this guy is coming the other way. I took probably a second too long to turn my overlights off. He starts flashing and flashing me. “Take it easy” I thought. We pass each other and in about 5 seconds I slam the brakes on. A tree has burnt out and has fallen across the road. I dropped it back to about 60km before impact. My side the trunk was up to my thigh, so I swerved onto the other lane and went over the smaller section. Bullbar broke a bit of the tree off. Got away with a punctured tyre. Pretty lucky really. I changed the tyre while mate cleared the road. A couple of chaps who came by pulled over and helped with the tree. Crazy.

Boat problems:
I thought I was in the clear… but when I got home the electric motor wont unplug. Not sure it really needs to. But weird. Plus the $250 for the tyre 🙁

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Zero wind for most the day, the you could have skied across the harbour

Kakadu and Litchfield without the camping

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Did some serious kilometres with this one.

Had some friends from Queensland up, due to space in the car restrictions, we stayed in Jabiru for the night. We drove from Darwin to Maguk for a swim. We went to Ubirr for sunset, then to Jabiru to watch the mighty Kangaroos comeback against the evil Bombers. The next morning we went down to Bukbuluk, and spent most of the day in Gunlom. Afterwards we went to Ikoymarrwa, then onwards home. Stopped at Emerald Springs for dinner, it’s a pretty good roadhouse.

If you’re familiar with geography of Kakadu, you will see that we added about 300km needlessly by going back and forth, mostly because we wanted to see Ubirr at sunset, and stay in Jabiru. Next time I will stop at Ubirr on the way and stay at Cooinda. Much more sensible!

A few days later we went to Litchfield. Saw the usual spots – Florence, Wangi, Buley Rockpools in the termite mounds. But we spent most of the time in Tjaynera which was empty the majority of the time. Nothing better than an empty waterhole!

Went back to Mindle markets on that Thursday, there were some dolphins playing in the water at sunset entertaining the crowd. Pretty hard to photograph, but I did my best!

 


Claire and I in Maguk


Claire at Ubir


The four of us at Gunlom


Dolphins playing in the water

 

 

Elizabeth again

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Tides were horrible for Bynoe & Leeders, thought I would give the Elizabeth a crack again

Got:
Me: Catfish & Stargazer… that bad I have to name these
Mate: Nothing

Story of the trip:
Probably the sounder but since I want to keep it positive I will say the crab pot. One of my pots went missing and I found it about 1km from where I put it in. Seems a lot of weed got stuck in it and caused it to get washed out.

Boat problems:
Zero water which was good, all the stuff I fixed last weekend worked, especially the strap for the fuel tank… but the sounder died 15 mins into the journey. Really getting frustrated with the boat. This is something that I can’t fix so will have to take it in. A few of the other things like radio died as well, though the CBD which is on the same circuit was working. I was launching at high and retrieving at low so no sounder made it nearly impossible to fish, as I didnt know if I would get stuck somewhere or not.

Snap:
Missing thanks to photobucket

 

Elizabeth River

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Was talked out of Leaders Creek trip due to distance. Apparently the Barra had been going off in the Elizabeth. The Elizabeth has always failed me, but it is about 20 mins (as opposed to 1 hour 20) each way and has an awesome floating jetty.

Got:
Me: Large shovelnose shark. It kept banging its head from side to side which make me think it was a snapper.
Mate: Smaller wobble shark
Mate’s mate from Spain who had never fished before: 41cm Jack! On a small white plastic on a reel with 80lb mono as I didn’t have a spare light one… haha

Zero crabs too. Am starting to think these home made stainless steel ones might be dodge… might get a collapseable one or two as a quality control.

Story of the trip:
The wind! The Elizabeth is quite sheltered yet it was still difficult to even made it out to a side creek. It dropped off in the arvo but was something fierce in the morning. I hate getting wet!

Boat problems:
ZERO WATER!!!
Looks like I have solved that one…
and…
– handle fell off the winch
– lost the ability to go left or right on my leckie
– noticed when I filled up my petrol tank that it now constantly drips due at the connection. (Unsure if connection or jerry)

*sigh* not having the best of luck

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