Tag Archives: boats

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!

 

Shady Camp Crowded

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The spring-high looked pretty good for Shady Camp. Mud and I decided to head down to the same spot that we did so well on. Wow, oh wow, four weeks can make a difference. Last time there were one other two boat there, this time at 8am there were seven.

No doubt everyone has been through this before, you live in Darwin, travel 2.5 hours to a remote location, and it is bow to stern crowded.

Unsurprisingly, the fishing wasn’t as good as last time.

Frustratingly, it was especially bad for me.

Looking around at the other boats, most got a fish or two, but it seems I can declare that section overfished. But who knows, things vary from day to day, maybe soon it will be going off again.

Mud hooked a very large barra, around 80-90cm at the start of the day. He fought it for a bit, unfortunately it broke through the leader. I suggested the drag wasn’t loose enough (see previous Shady story) but I guess these things happen, I think he is going to start rocking 80lb mono.

When the tide turned and started dropping they came on a bit more. Alice got the first fish (had to pass it to Mud for a second to get it from under a snag, see video) but she was pretty happy getting the first fish of the day. Mud soon hooked a fish and handed the rod over to Alice, she didn’t have too much trouble getting it in, a nice 67cm barra.

At this point there was a certain debate about what to do with the fish, I didn’t realise my boat was a democracy, and it was let go.

Another fish was hooked which wrapped itself under a snag, my guess from the jump was around 55-60cm.

Other than that I was standing there casting for 6 hours straight with nothing to show for it!

Ah well, always next time.
Got:
Me: Nothing, two hits, but zero hook ups
Alice – Mud’s daughter: 1 58cm barra, 1 67cm barra
Mud: Nothing, though hooked the 67

Story of the trip:
The way that that tiny stretch that we found last time had turned into nav-point-alpha for most of Darwin.

Boat problems:
Went great! Pretty happy these days

Snap

Nibble, Chomp, Spit

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The tides didn’t really suit a harbour run, but I won’t travel to remote locations alone, and Marko was keen for a fish but due to time constraints could only do the harbour. But I took it as an opportunity to check out a lot of places I always thought “this would be great on a high”. We hit a small island first and there was plenty of life. Saw a few trevelly around, got one real good hit. Got a few small cod. Something was busting up around some rocks but we couldn’t get there in time.

Then hit snags around the various creeks I fish in across the spring lows. Got a couple of good hits early. As the tide receded I had a nice queenie grab and spit my zerek prawn with a jighead, as I wound it back to the boat it went at it a second time (where I saw him) but still wouldn’t hook. Just when we were about to quit I had something decent grab the same prawn and nearly pull it clean off the hook, but still, no hook up.

Got:
Me: 2 small cod
Marko: nothing

Story of the trip:
Sorry to say all the near misses. Especially that queenie, I had all the ingredients for nummus too.

Boat problems:
Nothing, pretty happy each time I take the bung out and don’t get water. I might have to get rid of this section with all the luck I am having… or will that jinx me?

Snap
“Better take a snap in case we don’t get anything else”

Little fellas on the bite in the Harbour

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Thought I might spend the high on a wreck fishing with bait, get a few fish, I did not realise how hard it was match up GPS coordinates. After a bit of stuffing around we bailed and went chasing barra. Should have been doing from the start really…

We caught 3 of them, but they were all undersized. Two of them were close though. A lot of life, mostly (what I think is) threadies feeding on jelly prawns. Would have loved a keeper over Easter, I think I need to do the time to travel… also my freezer is still full from Shady so I can’t complain too much.

Nothing worse than taking bait and coming home empty… bait or fish adds at least 30 minutes to my cleaning-the-boat ritual.

Got:
Me: 52cm barra, approx 30cm barra
callmejoe: 52cm barra, 2 catfish

Story of the trip:
The fuzz came by! Got a safety check by the police. Passed with flying colours of course.

Boat problems:
Nothing… and after adding that silicone spray it seems I can easily launch it myself

Snap
So close!