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A Taste of Territory Fishing
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Trip Report 28/4/06-5/5/06
by Giles Campbell
The
week prior to our arrival in Darwin was a nervous one, each member
of the group watching cyclone Monica as she threatened to cause
havoc across the Top End. It was a trip all four of us had been
waiting and saving for, for a long time. Fortunately Monica was
kind to us and she passed through as a deep low. We arrived on the
Island Explorer wondering how the weather pattern would affect the
fishing?
It Started out hot and humid with light S/E winds,
we hit the water at 7am and cruised in to the creek mouth where
we saw a few fish busting bait. Paul (our guide) put us straight
on the fish, we had a few casts with lures and hit a couple 
of
small barra straight off, with a number of queen fish also following
the lures. I switched to a fly (a pink thing) and my third cast
produced a nice barra of 75cm (my first ever on fly!). After a short
time we moved slowly up the creek to a junction where we tied up
alongside the rest of our party who seemed to be doing very well
with at least five barra and four threadfin salmon. My father threw
out his lure, as soon as it hit the water there was a great explosion
and a good size barra leapt from the water and proceeded to scoot
around the boat. Then almost immediately we heard Mark from the
other boat scream as the water in front of the boat erupted covering
all on board! This barra meant business and shot off across the
creek. After circumnavigating both boats and nearly freeing itself
on the anchor rope he managed to land a beautiful 92cm barra.
After a number of barra and threadies (too many
to count and all good sizes) we retired for lunch. In the afternoon
we returned to the same creek but moved up stream to fish a fly
for barra. We anchored in a small junction and fished the far 
bank
with a popper, and what fun, barra were smashing the little popper
every where it was fantastic fun hearing them suck the fly in and
then having them scream away tearing line from the reel. We had
another six each that evening.
The next two days we saw similar action and as
we became more comfortable with the style of fly fishing (not like
presenting a 6# for trout), we caught more and more fish and had
some great fun on the ocean side smashing jacks, barra and queenies.
Day 4 was a little slower with only a dozen or so barra caught so
on day 5 we decided to have a bit of fun bottom bashing for snapper,
we were in for a bit of a surprise! We arrived at Mals “secret
snapper spot” and dropped down 
our
baits, within two or three minutes we were getting small bites and
a few sharks came up. Then Tony bent into a big fish that took off
stripping line from his reel. Puffing hard and leaning into this
fish with all he had it started to turn and slowly make its way
toward the boat and away from the reef. Both man and fish were soon
exhausted and then we saw the culprit, a 24lb Jew fish, beautiful.
In the next hour another seven jew fish were brought to the boat
mostly by Mark, whom it appeared had a knack of catching the most
and the largest fish each day, but seven jew fish all over 20lb
took their toll and he was soon tutoring myself and mike on how
to catch the damn things. Tony and Terry did well also but two fishermen
were having trouble even hooking them (myself and Mike). Eventually
I managed a good jew fish of 23lb followed by three more and Mike
produced a beauty toward the end of the session.
I would like to thank all the crew for their help and “kind” encouragement they were all fantastic and deserve even more credit when you get to know their skipper! (only kidding Mal). These guys gave us the best fishing trip we have ever had, not bad for a first trip!
Thanks again.
Pete's Snapper makes the News
Late April - Cyclone Monica
Well the trip started with a cyclone in the gulf and heading in the direction of Gove, where to from there was anyone's guess. The guys where all here and the weather was great and with the track of past cyclones from that area being well north of Darwin we headed off with one eye always on cyclone Monica.
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Cyclone Monica |
Day one saw us on a reef south of the Islands over a day and a night session we got absolutely hammered by Quality golden Snapper, we left them biting to head for some run off Barra.
With the Barometer dropping as Monica was heading closer the Barra fishing was tough but a good couple of days were had until it became apparent that Monica was heading straight for us & Darwin.
A first for us we for the safety of all concerned the decision was made to pull the pin, head back to the safer mornings and evacuate anyone who could or wanted to out of town.
A very disappointing end to a promising trip, but the guys are all planning their return to finish the adventure.
Trip 2 2006 - Early April
Trip Report by Peter Harris
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on photo to enlarge |
Simon McGuire |
As we approached Darwin from the air the weather
report was not good. A low pressure system was forming to the west
with the potential to turn into a cyclone. I thought there was no
way we could better our trip from last year ( with 4 barra over
the metre mark and the biggest of 127cm) and there was the distinct
possibility we wouldn't make it out of the harbour at all.
Fortunately the weather favored us and we headed off towards our
first stop at Melville Island. Plenty of barra were caught and a
few big ones were left behind in the snags. With a load of fresh
fish and muddies we decided to keep moving east around the Coburg
Peninsula. As we awoke and had breakfast we were in awe at the beautiful
surrounding we had awoken in. The day was looking good. We set off
with our guide , knowing that the tide wasn't quite right but we'd
give it a shot. After persevering for a while in the bay without
much luck, our guide suggested we give the reef a go.
We began trolling and casting but were only getting some small cod
and spanish flags when we decided to drop the anchor and give the
bait a go.
Our guide drove around for a while with a keen eye on the fishfinder
until he found a likely spot and immediately we hooked into some
red throat emperor and golden snapper. JB, my fishing partner for
the day, and I were having a great time but our guide wasn't happy
with the size of our quarry. Once the big catfish moved in, our
guide made the decision to move. "If we move in to deeper water
we should get some bigger fish". Little did I know how right
he would be.
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29lb 94cm Golden Snapper |
Taking his time selecting a likely spot and with
an expert touch allowing for wind and tide we anchored right over
the designated area. The Emperor and Snapper were bigger but so
were the catfish who put up a surprisingly good fight. Then all
hell broke loose. Thinking I had just caught another 'catty' I really
put the pressure on wanting to get this thing off my hook so I could
catch another quality fish. Our guided was busy netting a fish for
JB, so when the fish finally showed himself for the first time I
was the only one who saw it. He looked big to me but I had no idea.
Having fished all my life I tried to suppress the adrenalin running
through my body. I knew it wasn't over until the fish was in the
boat. Very calmly I said " get the net and net this first time!".
When our guided saw the Golden Snapper for the first time he said
he had never seen or heard of a snapper that big, that's when I
knew it was something special. With an expert touch and some muscle
the fish was landed in the boat. The release of adrenalin was almost
too much for me. With my hands shaking I had to sit down. Then the
call was made to the mother ship.The Golden Snapper we caught weighed
29 pounds and was 94cm long.
The rest our fishing expedition was spent around Croker, Oxley and
Lawson Islands catching 20 pound queenfish and +30 pound Giant Trevally.
It was a real buzz to have all the guys fishing in close proximity
of each other with plenty of double hook-ups on these spectacular
fish.
With a bit of teamwork and some expert local knowledge, that day
became a special one for me and one I'll never forget.
Trip 1 2006 - Mid March
The first trip for the year saw us heading over to Melville Island fishing the Quanipir Bay, Johnson River area and some of the nearby reef systems.
On board was regular clients Craig from Ballarat Toyota & his son Shawn & Jimmy and his grandson Kale. Also onboard were first timers Don & Andrew both from Sydney & Russell & Joe from Vic.
Both Shawn & Kale showed Dad and Grandpa how it was done as you can see from the photo's below. A great variety of species were caught with the Jewies on the last day topping off what all agreed was a great trip.
I guess we know we are doing something right when most of the guys who hadn't fished with us before are threatening a return trip in the near future.
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March 2006
Well the intentions were good but unfortunately we didn't get it together enough last year to keep the reports up to date.
Well it' a new year and all things being equal we will be updating this page regularly, our first trip will be in mid March so check back soon for the report.
December 2004
8 day charter to Mini Mini System with great tides and conditions only a couple of rain storms encountered throughout the day.
Tim Elliot from South Australia landed 5 Barra over the magic metre mark the largest being 109cm and Dick Vernon landed his personal best Barra of 102cm coming close to the metre with 2 fish at 99cm and another at 98 cm.
We landed 47 fish larger than 80cm for the trip as well as some large Black Jew Fish trolling lures and sight casting and landing Threadfin Salmon to 5kg
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November 2004 - New area Survey
We took a couple of American Fly Fishers on an exploratory trip to check out some of the smaller systems and islands on the Coburg Peninsula and found some great fishing.
Randell and Kate are exceptional fly fishers and had no trouble getting Barra, Threadfin, Mangrove Jacks, Queenfish and Trevally on fly.
We spotted some really big Barra up some small creeks but couldn't get them interested but fish between 65cm and 90cm were in good numbers.
On the last day of the trip our off duty guide Jason hooked landed and released a 121cm monster, all in all a great area for future charters.
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