Queenfish at Six Mile Buoy

Started a bit earlier this trip and the tides very different to last trip – as in that this trip was neaps instead of the spring tides of a week ago. Low tide was before dawn and only a bit over a metre of movement to the high at 10:30am

These tides made chasing the million dollar Barra hard – and for someone like me who could not catch a Barra (let alone one with a red tag!) to save his life – impossible!

I don’t “live bait and wait” under a canopy, or blindly toss or troll lures - sooooo boring!!! Troll all day for two or three fish – no way. But cast a fly or two all day for a few tiny fish – any day of the week

The flats would also have far too much water for sight fishing too.

So current lines and rock bars were my options – as too the ever present Darwin bread and butter species – Queenfish or Brassie Trevally – I really just want to catch fish don’t care what they are.

I head out into harbour from East Arm ramp and immediately there is a swell and once past the army/navy loading ramp, the harbour chop is soooo annoyingly thumping into the bow of the boat. The weather report was wrong again – wind direction and strength of it!

I hug the shoreline past the cinema and the esplanade areas of the city slowly – thoughts of a very bad day with nothing appearing - let alone being caught - invade my mind

Given direction of wind, the sloppy chop and swell – I head to the Mandorah side of harbour hoping for some calmer waters – but quite slowly due to size of swell and chop

Still nothing seen

I remember the previous night’s news and its fishing report mentioning tuna and queens at the Six Mile Buoy

Although present for the last five months - I doubted the tuna were about given the time of year and water temps but visiting Mandorah and then going by the buoy (hoping tuna are actually about) on way to East Point and then onward to Lee Point - a viable option

Nothing at Mandorah but in the distance birds showing around the buoy – WOT time – yeehaaahh!!

When I arrive five or six boats working the area – all metal lure tossers

Some yahhooos come racing in hammering into the chop almost throwing the guy on the bow into the water with every bounce, they charged right into amongst splashing fish (and through the other 5-6 boats already working the pods) – typical young dickheads – they have a few casts – no results and then they take off ‘full boar’ again further offshore – bye bye and good riddance.

Thankfully the remaining boats work the fish better – casting from edges, aligning boats ahead of the feeding fish as they feed into the current and wind. It’s tough fishing with the swell and chop even standing to cast. Line blowing off casting deck – once almost wrapped the fly line into the slowing ticking over motor – very lucky!

The splashes are queenfish whom are under a few hundred birds in an area 300-600m NW of the red Six Mile Buoy – lots of 40-50cm fish, some 80-90+ but some much bigger - some look HUGE!!!

I use the tactics mentioned above too – I putter the boat to in front of the pods and drift back into them. I cast to the edges of the mayhem – first one I catch is an 80cm size but the fish it pushed aside to take the fly basically out of its mouth – damn! - was humungous and I mean it – it made that 80cm look puny! Very deep in body, at least 1.5 times the size of the 80cm version I hooked onto.

It wasn’t all tight lines and fast fish – as I cast short, I wrapped leader around rod tip, I would chase a pod and when I arrived the fly line is sooooo tangled, at other times impatiently I would cast one side of boat after they had disappeared - for them to blast around the surface only a rod length away on the other side of the boat just as the fly line lands on the water in the opposite direction!

Rookie mistake after rookie mistake – you wouldn’t think I have fly fished for over 35+ years.

But it gets me every time – the sight of fish actively feeding – splashing, slashing, fins on top of the water, seeing large fish, the flash of their broad silvery flanks - every time it makes me tremble, drool, and lose all bodily control of my arms and hands til I have no coordination!

And in turn I missed many fish- deer hunters call it buck fever.

I got broken off on a couple too, this on very, very strong fish – I have to be gentler and take the time to bring a fish in (when will I learn????). Would have loved to have measured how big those ones were as they were soooo strong compared to the 80-90s I caught – they fought down deep too not like the little ones, cavorting across the surface with leaps and jumps when hooked.

Time flies and the world disappears from the mind, as I chase the pods for four hours, the lure tossers come and go – not amused enough with the larger queenies as most only get the 40-50cm size but for my time I get 7 of the larger queenfish for the day, with the smallest that first one of 80cm, the biggest was 94cm. I had heaps of follows and was regularly changing flies – interestingly I had more luck with large flies than my usual safe bet for the harbour – the 1/0 silicone surf candy

I was also catching heaps of the small queenfish (didn’t even tally these) – they are so super keen for the fly and regular get the stripped flies off a big queenfish already chasing the fly – Man! I wanted those big ones

You could see them surfing in the wind chop waves and by waiting till the right size is about and casting to specific fish – and if the stars aligned and the fishing gods are smiling - I would get a bigger one - sooo much fun and all in sight of the Darwin city skyline.

Most times the bigger fish were 20-30m from the main melee of splashing, froth and baitfish leaping out of the water. I focused on these pods. The fish cruised about rather than rushed about – then when the moment came they crashed the baitfish rapidly and then resumed their casual cruising style. 

Except for not hooking them up every time - so cool to watch in the clear neap tide water

I was after a few fish for a cook up for the family the next day - so I knocked a couple on the head 

and placed them in an ice slurry but all the rest went back into the water after a few minutes of keeping the fly line tight before coming to the net

With wind, swell and chop increasing - I was off the water by midday – fish prepped for the next day’s family lunch by 2pm – boat clean, gear stored, batteries on charge – enjoying some aircon before the chaos of my kids coming home after a day out with their mum.

Who would live anywhere else? Gotta love Darwin and its fly fishing opportunities!

Go on – tie some flies and go get them wet – even for easy always there ‘bread and butter species’ like queenfish who are more than willing to ignore your mistakes like they do mine! Far better than sitting at home thinking about exotic places and species - and the money needed to chase them!

                                                                                                                         

not much but here it is

Not much

But here's fishing report from weekend

Launched east arm in predawn light

So nice to b on water again

High tide and not much wind to speak of - just how i like it!

A longer run into town and then to the boat ramp now that we are living in the rural area and not a few kms up the road at our old Anula house in the northern suburbs but it matters not as I putter the boat along, setting up the gear and me - to get all ready and tied down before heading WOT to the planned Weed Reef and later West Arm behind it

But only 300m off ramp I see rampant Queenfish in the size range of 50-60cm, all over the sandbar off island just in front of the East Arm boat ramp the bait and thus the predators appreciated the scenario,as the outgoing tide pushes over the sandbar projecting into the current of the tidal outflow, focusing the bait to a smaller area

This trip was all about cobweb removal and maybe a few fish for kids and cats - both love some fresh Queenfish fillets

So into the Queenfish melee I cast – awesome cobweb removal indeed

Better still Caught three in four casts

One didn't really count as foul hooked in side but it too went into the kill tank filled with an ice slurry 

So good to have a tight line again – just feeling that vitality of fish attacking the fly near surface and its reaction to hook ----    soooooo awesome!!!!

The quick action, so close to launching - causes the world and its issues rapidly fade away into background – just what I needed!

Fish abound, with many chasing the fly on each retrieve - but finally the fly on the end of my leader was snapped off right at knot, that tell-tale curve on leader tip tells the story

Must have been a nick in it from a previous fish’s teeth

I look around for the ….. …. …. …. ….

Hey!!!! Wait a minute! – BUGGER!

I had forgotten the bag with all my flies and leader material - so too my Polaroids

Luckily the wife heading to town for morning and a message for when she gets out of bed at 8-8:30 is left for her

But I had to wait a while for hte hand over of this vital equipment 

That meant no Weed Reef tide turn at dawn and given the bottoming of tide not long after I get the tackle box and polaroids - no good even trying West Arm too shallow by then -  - c'est la vie. (I prefer fly fishing the drop of tide just out of mangroves)

So I start using whatever flies I had stuck to boat carpet on previous trips until the queenfish action dies off

I then head towards East Point hoping a few fish found and the couple of flies I have left found in the boat last a few fish each.

At East Point I find hundreds of Milkie's are hoovering the surface for the some sort of scum in the top layer of water

Mostly groups of twenty to thirty fish, that merge into larger groups, but also threes and fours too – all over the tip of East Point

That's a large pod of milkies behind the rod tip, swimming towards the boat

They swim mouth open taking in water like a whale shark sieving their tiny morsels from the water - their large rubber lipped mouth almost out of water all in rows many fish wide shoving each other to get the best morsels.

Question - how do such large fish (some were easily 1.2-1.5 metres in length and very very thick in the girth) - get so freaking large on such miniscule food items - I suppose - a lot of it. The several hours I frustrated myself chasing them, they were constantly feeding and hoovering.

Their eyesight also must be absolutely awesome as you would expect with such large eyes per head size, for when I stood on bow of boat casting a de-eyed clouser made with olive and green polarfibre - they saw me move instantly. (The hook too heavy increasing sink rate - sadly for any real action to occur). Even the slightest movement of the fly rod would cause them to spookw

But I keep casting chasing and casting hope for the luck that wins a person the lottery every other week

Results - mostly spooked fish (nearly always!)

I found lying right down in boat - not even sitting in a chair the best to cast, this would have the fish feeding 10m or so from boat. While standing up to cast further, only saw more spooked fish. At least now it was poor casting spooking and not me standing up and casting - poor casting performances, like landing fly on the head of lead fish or lining a couple beside it and them racing off like the hounds of hell were after them - thus spooking the rest of the pack!! bugger!!!!

Soon it was time to get flies off wife at Cullen Bay Beach but it was straight back to Milkies for more torture

As more flies to experiment with now - I tried several scum flies for only more spooked fish

Switched to a deer hair bread flies - for two half chances – takes but no hook up

Then a popcorn fly (white foam ball and a dry fly style white hackle each end) I use to use these for east coast mullet, the foam bit as the floating fly trailing a white nymph, this back 15 years ago in Newcastle and its Swansea passage when catching sand mullet berleyed up with cheap no frills bread. Some nights there would be 20 or so SWOFFERS from the Newcastle Fly fishing club (now defunct as it was, not sure what’s there now, though I know Singleton Fly Club still going strong, and on the Australian Saltwater Fly fishing Forum I hear of guys still chasing those sand mullet over the weed beds a couple of hundred metres to the eastern side of the bridge at Swansea)

But just the foam ball this time 

With what seemed like a hundred casts later and one fish minding its own business just slurping along - swims into fly, swims it right into its open gob, and before it can react I strip strike (helps that it was swimming away from me at the time) and I get the most awesome run from such a gorgeously vital fish

100m of flyline and backing races out as such a fast rate it is mind blowing

Then all goes slack - bugger!! Hook too old and no real point on it - time to tie a few types of milkie flies!

So disappointed with the torture of the Milkies – I head out to Lee Point but it's a desert of any surface action, very dirty and choppy conditions - add to that the wind was really picking up

Time for home!

On way back in and off the main shipping wharf I see unexpected flashing lights of blue and red – I am not driving my car! There shouldn’t be any lights like that on the water!

It is not as if this boat can break any speeds of warrant! 

(lucky I didn't run for it - the cop's "rubber duckie dingie" had twin 250hp engines on the back - my 10+ year old 60hp Merc would have died with just the thought of any police chase across the high seas!)

The water police pull up beside me, one spoke to me and the other signalled over another boat to pull along side. They were checking safety gear and fish catch compliance - but no breath test as yet - as per latest news about alcohol law changes being discussed in 

Sadly - no V sheet or Epirb he points out to me - but that last one not required as I don't go offshore far enough in my shallow sided tinnie

My flares expired 09/17 - bugger one month out of date

He tells me all good for today, but get them replaced ASAP - I also had on board my old ones and he took them to dispose of them – been wondering what to do with them – had them in the boat since I bought the new flares a few years ago!

I still have two hours before enough water with rising tide

What to do????

The gap between Shellie Island and wharf had a few slashes and I occupy the time remain with countless casts and waiting for line to sink before retrieval

Dredging yes but it got me a few more Queenfish and Brassie Trevally 

Looked bigger when in hand - trust me! 40-45cm most of the Brassies

That’s enough – back to the ramp it is

When I left the boat ramp car park it had three trailers in it

Now from the water it looked very full

As such there were about ten boats waiting for East Arm ramp to have enough water to be usable including to water cops from earlier who had given me a visit and a reprieve

So I anchor off the little island 300m out from ramp to clean my fish and prep it for fish fingers for kids and offcuts for cats

The fish survey guy was at the ramp again, asking locations and catch rates of the fishos exiting the water. He was surprised by the number of fish I had caught - as not many of the boats returning had anything to add to his survey data but locations fished. He was particularly interested in the milkies that had tortured me for hours - saying that bit of information had made his day - not the torturing but the numbers of milkies present at East Point.

So, great to be on the water again after all that painting of the new house, other work for it too, and then moving in on the Sunday of last weekend (thanks Peter (his wife) and my brother in law for the help!)

Till next time – Fresh or Salt is the question of next outing. ???????

Harbour or Vernons - or Corroboree or fresh side of Shady????

Post note my cats ate their fish fillet off cuts so fast and were so content afterwards they had no dignity left, as u can see in the pose below