El Questro – Part 1 of the Kimberley

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We arrived in El Questo for the first part of our trip. We managed to get a private campsite. It was $174 for two days, though about half of that was the “park pass” that gave you access to the gorges. A bit pricey… but wow! It was worth it. It was the best campsite that I have seen. Right on a river, under some great trees, with no one around. It is a cattle station and we were a bit suprised to see a herd of cows sitting around the camp site. Most left but one was a bit bold and kept trying to come over. We shooed her away, but she would always come back. Eventually we managed to chase her off in the car.


Campsite

Moonrise by the River

The next morning we woke up early and headed straight to the thermal spring. It was a great spot to swim, with only a couple of people there we timed it really well.


Then we went to Emma Gorge. Claire nearly walked over a black snake. Usually snakes are quite scared of humans but this one was quite happy taking the path, not interested in leaving on account of us.


Emma Gorge

The Emma Gorge walk was amazing, when we got there it was far too cold to swim, but we had some bikkies and dip before heading back.

On the way back we went to El Questro gorge. It was really Jurassic Park like. Walking at the bottom of some massive escarpments all the way through. Had a good swim in the half way pool too, then headed back. The water crossing there was a bit scary, all of them are very easy but this one started easy at about 300mm on rocks then suddenly changed to 500mm on mud. But we got through without a problem.

That night we had some more fun with a swim a few drinks by our river, once again had a great moon in the blue sky. One of the neighbours was pumping music, and I went over to ask them to turn it down… turns out it wasn’t them, but the homestead. What was even funnier was, thanks to WA time, it was actually 7.30pm at night. I’ve clearly turned into a grumpy old man.

The next morning we packed up and checked the stockmans waterhole out. We had a bit of driving to do to get to the King Edward river camp site, so we didn’t go for a swim.

Wading through Catfish

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Been doing a bit of camping and other busy work, combined with a small boat, bluewater season, and a decent wind – I haven’t been fishing much. Decided to head out with Mud and Alice to Leeders creek to try to get some Jewies on the turn of the tide. We both managed to mistime what the tide would be, which meant an hour less fishing, but also an hour less on the incoming tide which was where we expected to get fish.

The catfish were on! At the start of the day it was catfish after catfish, Mud termed the phrase “wading through the catfish” as every now and again we would get a blue salmon, or a goldie. Never got the jew we were aiming for. I hooked something quite large that jumped, but it managed to bite through my 80lb mono leader.

After the turn of the tide the fishing dropped right off. Still the occasional catfish but

Got:
Me: Decent blue salmon
Mud: Slightly smaller blue salmon, impressive black tipped reef shark
Alice: Small goldie
All with lots of catfish!

Story of the trip:
Not sure, my first try at fish cakes with the salmon worked out quite well. Or perhaps not being able to land the largest fish, even though it jumped we didn’t know what it was.

Boat problems:
None for today, after a rather expensive service it was running like a dream.

Snap:

Long weekend in Wagiman Country

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Just got back from an amazing long weekend away.

On the first day we got to Douglas Hot Springs to find the camping ground was packed! I guess you can’t really expect much else on a long weekend. We found a nice spot and then went to the thermal springs. I was expecting them to be like the luke warm pools of Mataranka, but I was wrong. Parts are hot enough to burn you! Everyone sits up a bout 20 metres downstream and the water temperature is fantastic, ranging from a hot bath to cool.

Claire and I had a swim and a drink, before heading back to camp. We were treated to an amazing sunset. I used this to take some snaps of Suzi with her new roof rack. (And everyone knows bullbars double as clotheslines).

The next morning we went to Butterfly Gorge, and I managed to leave my camera at the campsite! We had been there before it wasn’t so bad. It is one of the best places to swim in the NT. I have to admit the rock hopping can get quite difficult – I am always a little relieved that Claire manages to get out uninjured.
We went back and hit the thermal pools again in the afternoon, it was much needed, as the water at Butterfly Gorge was freezing.
The Sunday night was slightly less crowded but unfortunately it brought out the camping behaviour that makes me avoid busy periods. A shame, but I would still recommend the campsite, especially to those with young children.
Got up on the Monday and headed to Umbrawarra Gorge. It took a bit of finding, but it was a really lovely spot, a nice beach next to a striking gorge. You could have spent a lot of time moving up it, but we only had a few hours, so we just had a swim and some lunch, before having to head back home.

Channel Point adventure

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Decided to head down to Channel Point to go blue water fishing for the weekend, have a camp and two days of fishing. Got amazingly lucky with the wind, I did not realise how much the boat ramp is affected by the slightest breeze.

Got down there on Saturday afternoon and launched in around 12 knots which was difficult but not too much worries. After the difficult launch I realised I had left the sounder in the car so we got to go back in. I was glad I had a poly anyway. Tried to fish the low for some Jewies on the shelf but got smashed by sharks and catfish. Plus a goldie, which was borderline, but we were in 6 metres so decided to let him go. Mud got the best of the sharks. Headed to one of the nearby islands where Alice got smoked off a lure, but we were unable to get them to bite and we were fast running out of light.

Camped the night, it is a pretty cool place, toilets and some cold showers. Had a really clear night for the stars, I think it dropped to around 9 degrees, really enjoyed it getting down that low.

Woke up the next morning. While we were getting ready Alice decided to go for a wander down at the magroves, came back holding a sizeable buck. She’s getting pretty good at chasing and catching them, little did we know that would be the best thing of the day…

We just got nothing! Hit some structure, hit some reefs marked on the map, never got a single bite. Hit the reef at about 2 metres casting some lures, got nothing. Didn’t even see a fish, even a small fish. Went back and saw some birds working a section, cast some lures but they were 20cm Blue Salmon. The wind was totally dead on Sunday, it was such a shame that there weren’t any fish in the ocean!

Got:
Me: Lots of sharks and catfish, 1 goldie, estimated 30cm
Alice: Lots of sharks, blue salmon, 1 nice mud crab
Mud: The biggest shark, catfish

Story of the trip:
Getting so luck with the wind

Boat problems:
Motor was acting pretty funny at the end, though it was pretty low in fuel. Anyway I won’t be fishing for a while 🙁 so I am going to get it serviced.

Snap

One and half days on the Tiwi Islands

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Recently friends took jobs in the school on Melville Island. We decided to use May-Day long weekend as an excuse to go and see them, unfortunately Claire and I couldn’t get Friday arvo off so we had to get the Saturday afternoon flight over.

We got our permits sorted and headed over, on Sunday me and my mate spent all day in Shark Bay. He only got his boat in Easter so hadn’t really got his spots sorted yet, with that in mind it was a reasonable day. He got a nice 70cm barra for dinner and I got a lot of fish, but they were all pretty small. It is pretty eerie fishing in a location where you don’t see a boat for the entire day, and there are zero other cars at the boat ramp!

Some highlights include:
– tom hooking a huge groper and it getting itself wrapped around a snag. It was at the surface so we gave it a shot at netting it but it scared and ran, managing to break off his braid
– a kingfisher deciding to hit my lure, lucky I was running a weedless rig and it didn’t hook it
– the mist off the water on an untouched morning was pretty nice

While we were off fishing Claire went to a nice waterfall for a swim.

The next morning we headed to a billabong. We only had two hours fishing as we needed to get the ferry back. When we got there – devastation! The boat ramp had eroded so we couldn’t launch. Ah well, might as well cast from the shore. A few casts and I had a couple of tarpon. Then I hooked a small barra! I yelled to my mate, excited that there were barra there, and he came running with the net… looked at me like I was stupid when he saw it was 30cm.

But anyway… soon we were hooking barra each couple of casts. I estimate that most were between 25 and 40cm. It was amazing fun. I landed two thumping saratoga’s, check out the story of the trip. The biggest I would estimate to be 45 to 50… I was thinking of measuring him but got a hook in the throat so I really wanted to return him to the water asap, and the tape measure was in the car.

It is how I imagine Coroborree would have been before it became Darwin’s favourite spot.

They loved a new lure, and it gave me a chance to try some lures I’m not that familiar with, like vibes and poppers.

Got
Saturday
46, 47cm barra, mangrove jack, golden snapper, catfish, cod

Sunday
A few tarpon, 20 odd barra, two saratogas

Story of the trip:
Banks can be hard to cast from with overhanging trees. So I threw my popper out and accidentally cast over the tree, so before I could wind I had to get the braid out of the tree. Once I did I realized I couldn’t see my popper… had it sunk? Well, as I would up I discovered a saratoga had liked the look of a popper sitting there doing nothing, and had decided to hook itself!