Darwin Offshore - way offshore

So Friday night I had a lure tosser mate needing a deckie at short notice

So why not? - I could fit in some SWOFFING during the 'tossing'

But you want to go where???? HOW far out?????

Up at 3:30am, to the mates place to load and get to ramp to meet the other boat we were to be travelling with
So we could launch early enough to cruise out to a spot closer to Bathurst Island than to Darwin Harbour.
65 plus kilometers out of Darwin Harbour
The wind would like usual increase as the day progressed and we hoped to get a few hours in casting and trolling before it did.

The sea was a little swelly in the darkness, with waves rolling towards us as we motored out to our spot, so it was not a fast run out to the spot
However, as the sun rose behind us, the seas calmed a little

We could see the dim light in the distance of the top of the rigging of the drill platform we were hoping to find fish near - and we start to get excited at the potential fishing the guys in the other boat had been experiencing during the week

The lure guys I was with were hoping for large macks like one of them had experienced earlier in the week, but they were not there.

What we did find were countless queenfish (50-60cm) working in several packs on the up current side of the platform - and the countless birds hovering and diving over them

There was also a large pack (20-30) of meter plus thick as my arm Longtoms. several were hooked.

Occasionally, we saw macks but no consistency
We did chase some tuna for a bit a few kilometers from the platform but they were just teasing us - popping up then scattering when we arrived - several times!

What was consistent were the hundreds of trevally (with 5 trevally species that I caught - Trevally Scad, Giant Trevally , Tea Leaf Trevally , Brassie Trevally and another I didn't know the name of skinny but deep in body, pearlescent glow to flanks like a  diamond treavally but wrong shape to be one of those more like a silver treavlly but didn't know they existed up here, mouth wrong for that species too)

All these trevally species were tight up against and around the piers of the platform and within the shadows cast by the platform. Casting up current of the front pier, and allowing the sinking line to do its job of taking the fly deep, followed by a fast strip that saw multiple bogies chasing the fly almost every time.

The fat gutted 'tea leaf trevally' shown above were the most fun - most in the 50cm range were very, very strong for their size! But a few (a few that I never got to the boat mind you) were easily half that again as big, if not more. These bigger fish went straight to the anchor lines of the platform and the various cables under the water around it - bastards@!#$#$%& but the 'bestest' of fun regardless of the lost flies and shredded leaders that needed to be re-tied several times.

The queenfish were not too bad either. Literally thousands of them around the platform, especially in the shadows, but also 300-400 meters away with several large packs roaming the area and splashing about as they devoured baitfish.

Additionally any cast of a lure by the tossers - or in my case a fly - along the border of light and shadow on the water repeatedly had multiple fish competing for the cast object as it was rapidly retrieved. We also enjoyed the shadow as it was a pleasant surprise to be out of the blazingly hot sun so many kilometers from shore!

Haven't had that much fun - in what seems ages   - fish absolutely everywhere
Even though the tossers were not entirely focused on the species I was - they wanted big macks or golden snapper off the bottom

I didn't care what I hooked up to - as long as I was hooked up!

Here is a video of a bit of the action near the piers.
Hook ups, very bent rods, very tight fly lines, losing fish (several times), then hooking more fish before the fly gets to the surface - sooooo much fun!