Darwin Harbour Long Tail and more

So Chris Wardrop showed up five minutes early - just how I like it
Straight to ramp 10 minutes away and we were launched before the sun was up
Hopefully on our way to some of Darwin Harbour's hot spots I wrote about in two recent blogs

Given it was an hour after high tide and sun just creeping up on the horizon - Weed Reef was the obvious first up choice
It was a magic morning with conditions almost perfect!

Chris hadn't fished Weed Reef before and luckily for me the fish were exactly where I said they would be!
Fish started blowing up the surface is several spots on the reef

You can see easily in the picture below the pressure line caused by the edge of the gravel bar forcing water upwards. To the bottom left of image you can also see the "tongue" that forms flowing away from the gravel bar - this is the place where most of the water funnels through. Best yet the fish are usual always here - if they are about!

Chris caught three fish quite quickly, I lost three just as fast
Chris had one trevally on and a large brown smudge of a shark chased after it - then the whole area seemed to shut down almost like a switch was pushed.

We stayed around a bit longer chasing sporadic bust ups. Then we caught a few more at west arm side trees but tide was dropping fast.

Given is was an exploratory trip with Chris, we popped back over the Harbour to the deckchair foreshore area and worked slowly up to Doctors Gully. I showed Chris a few more spots and while there we saw a few slashes right next to a few small mangrove a few hundred meters east of Doctors Gully. There is a shallow rock bar coming 90 degrees from shore that at certain tides seems to hold baitfish and the predators that eat them - I have caught some macks and queenies here on a regular basis. There are a few blogs about the goldens that can also be caught at this location too hereabouts.

It is also the place I anchor up and start berleying bread for mullet and milkies. This as the tide drops and they leave the feeding area at Doctors Gully to hopefully work their way up my berley trail to me and my bread flies, but really boring stuff waiting for them and I go through several loaves of bread. But worth it as once a big milky is hooked as they are one of the fastest hardest fish out there!

Back to the splashes in close to shore............
These splashes turned out to be large diamond mullet, but Chris did spy a very small barra but no hook up.
A bit later as we drifted along the edge getting distracted by more very large diamond mullet, we both saw a larger barra just mooching along in a foot or so of water.
Chris saw it first as he was already casting as I pointed it out to him - I should have cast first spoke second!
The cast he laid out seemed perfect with a nice lead in front of the fish, the fly should have ended up past the line the fish was travelling and in a few strips would be right in its path and at the right height.

But at the last moment despite the fly line landing softly and dead straight - the leader and fly kicked towards the barra and almost hit it on the nose. It was one of those 'J' casts that happen because of the subtlest movements of the rod tip during the cast (not always planned either). The Barra zipped off very spooked, but it was cool to see this barra within hearing distance of a major city. That Barra got bigger as the day wore on too with each jibe and joke I made about the incident! And I did give Chris such a hard time for rest of day about that cast!! (lol)

Glad it wasn't me that got the cast to that barra as my cast would have most likely been wasted given my nemesis relationship with barra - would have been very embarrassing.

We kept moving out of the harbour with the tide, checking a few spots
We soon found our selves at East Point, particularly the Fanny Bay side.

Here we found working birds and some nice queenies under them to stretch the kinks out of our fly lines and practice our rapid casting - as they were up and down and gone quite rapidly. So you had to be quick to get a cast in.

The queenies were feeding quite aggressively and very willing to take the fly

Clouser, surf candy - it didn't matter

You just had to get it in the right place at the right time.

A lot of fish on the sounder so at times you had to sink the fly deep to get a response if nothing was happening on the surface.

The surf candy below did the trick often!

We almost didn't think we would get any given as when we first found them - this dopey yellow painted tinny drove straight through the erupting water where the fish were feeding. Some boaters have absolutely no idea. or just devalue queenfish to a pest fish and don't care. But who wouldn't want to catch a few silver flashes so willing to take a well presented fly or lure!

We left them biting and proceeded to Lee Point

Just the other side of East Point we found the water frothing with fish and the sky filled with active birds. it was a massive school of long fringe finned trevally (10-20cm) which we managed a few casts for no result before they disappeared but it was impressive to see so many fish blowing the water to a froth with their activity

Once at Lee Point we found some lure tossers in my favourite Spot

The fish were busting up behind them and they didn't even put a cast in!

We managed to put the boat in a good spot near them (casting distance from their boat)  and soon had a few nice mackerel to hand. Chris had a large mackerel (spanish maybe given size?) take his fly metres from the boat and cut him off (no wire traces today). Aside from losing the fish, it was awesome to see the large fish follow the fly and as Chris increased the strip speed of the fly, the mack responded and rushed forward to devour the fly. - and SNIP went the leader - then the mack disappear in a splash and boil in the water right behind the boat.
It left Chris almost speechless!

Most of the macks were greys - some big, most medium to small in size. The guys we found anchored up right on my favourite Lee Point spot asked us what flies were we were using and commented on their regret for not bring their own fly rods. I gave them three silicone surf candies to tie behind their Halco twisters for hopefully better results.

The fishing went quite after a while and we thought to go to Mandorah in search of more locations and hopefully actively feeding fish

We only got 300-400 metres in that direction and we found mackerel breaking the surface gorging themselves on small baitfish --- and better still a few minutes later TUNA doing the same - yeehaaah!!!.

We chased them for a while in amongst a guide boat with three anglers in it and a young couple in another plate boat - all jigging for the tuna and other species. The sounder was thick with bait from top to bottom. Also seen on sounder was some large fish close to bottom. The water depth about 10-12 metres.

Both of us (well me mainly) were having the casting jitters - you know the adrenalin is racing and you rush or as you head towards a porpoising school of tuna - you tangle your line on your tip or catch the fly on something and by the time you get it sorted the pod is gone. Frustrating you even more!

So I did some deep breaths, tried to cast smooth and slow with deliberate intent - then the line started to flow better and land further with far less effort and rush.

I was using my TFO eight weight with a RIO full sinking line. The fly was a size 1 silicone surf candy that I use so much in the harbour so often.

In amongst a few pods working an area, Chris and I were discussing which tuna pod to chase - as we had one pod to the front of the boat and one to the rear, each just out of casting distance. We had the guide boat chasing the rear pod and the couple's boat out the front both within casting distance, it was tight around those tuna. I laid out a quick cast to the pod in front and let the fly sink while talking to Chris on our choices. We were about to go chasing the larger pod to the rear and as I started my first fast strip of the fly line so we could shift, I came up tight - awesome! yes! yes! yes! YES!!!!!

That first run was exhilarating, my heart pumping, my exuberance untapped
This is what it is all about!
The right cast, the right boat work (thanks Chris)
The right fly you tied specifically for this purpose and you are on, hooked up
The line is tight, the backing is singing off the reel through the guides
(150m out of the rod tip in seconds!) woooo! hooooo!
So much fun you are smiling on the outside and on the inside!

Despite using an 8w and only a light leader (with quite a few wind knots I might add), I was muscling the fish back to the boat. As the sharks we had seen early were always in my mind.

After the first run we expected a second but it didn't happen - maybe the 30.8 or so water temp. Instead it slug it out around the boat. A couple of times i had to put the rod under the boat as it took a surging run to the other side of the boat.

I remember looking at my watch at the hook up - 11:20am, and when Chris tailed the fish at the boat, I looked again 11:29am. Seemed so much a longer time than that as the strong fish slugged it out close to the boat and just wouldn't come to hand for quite a while. My bad elbow also certainly was telling me I was working too hard on the fish and felt quite lucky to get the fish to hand.

Just love this head shot - great photo Chris!

What a relief to hold that awesome fish and pose for a photo, then release it back into the water to fight another day. I did quite a few fist pumps as it swam away.

We chased a few more pods, over a wide area but no more luck on the tuna
The slashes in closer to Lee Point were we mostly macks but some were small pods of tuna that we did find but they were getting more and more skittish as the day wore on.

We started back to inside the harbour, visited Mandaorah but not much found, showed Chris a few more possible spots but again nothing found.

We came back to Cullen bay and Kaitlyn Bay, looked at the usual spots - nothing
So headed to ramp but via Wickham Point. There we saw a few slashes behind the rocks and mangroves, so did a quick investigation but no luck again.

Nothing showing at Shelley Island, so we skulked along the newer section of East Arm wharf where the gas supply ships load up. First pass showed a few fish on the corner on the sounder, so we doubled back and gave it a few casts. My first cast must have gave a fish a sore lip as it went nuts once it got off splashing about on the surface. From the corner Chris put a nice cast between two pylons and got an instant result. The fish fought like a trevally which is what we expected to cathc from such a location - it fought deep with lots of tail beats pulsing up through the line but it came up a silvery 65cm queenfish - a PB for Chris. I picked up a small queenie for my girl's dinner a couple of cast later.

Next spot was as we head back to ramp around the back of that new earthen wharf being built out from the old east arm boat ramp. I really wonder how they got the environmental permission for such a huge 'road block' to tidal flow from the area behind it - this wharf seems to extend 3/4 of the way to the small island out from the new East Arm boat ramp. If we keep impacting out nursery mangroves throughout Darwin Harbour like this - the system will change negatively. I hope this sort of development doesn't continue repeatedly til the fishery is dead.

So, an average day based on fish to hand ratios, but a great day on the water due to a couple of fish we caught, the craziness of predators frothing the water around us at several locations, better yet catching fish on fly while the danglers (bait)  and tossers (lure) fisherman didn't.

Thanks to Chris for the deckie role, I really needed a SWOFF and that tuna made my day!

Until next time - all of you - just get out there and give it a go!