20190119 - plenty of big queenies and a few tuna offshore

So good to be fly fishing again !
As it has been a while since I have been fly fishing - and as such no blog entries
Same for regular fly fishing partner Peter

But finally - 5:30am on a weekend's early morning found us preparing the boat for a day on Darwin Harbour. Well Peter to start with for I unusually was half an hour late to his place.

Despite my lateness - just before dawn we were on the water out of Dinah Beach boat ramp
We headed straight to Six mile Buoy in the middle of Darwin Harbour on a very calm waterway
The tide was a few hours into the run out tide on tide half way between a neap to a spring tide and the usual haunts were sort out first where we have caught fish before - just incase a small fish or two could straighten our long unused leaders.

Thankfully like a few trips in 2018 - the big queenies were present and were working hard the water funneling up and over an underwater hump. Basically forcing the baitfish to congregate as they moved along with the tide.

From a distance the whirling birds and the tell-tail sign of big sweeping slashes in the water surface - indicated easily what fish was present and what size they were. Queenies and big ones!

Peter was into one after just a few casts - but they were tentative to start with. Following the flies we cast and retrieved without taking it

A change up a size in flies fixed that issue - the fly we used all day was the ever reliable Silicone Surf Candy (blog entry about it somewhere here in this blog - search for it)

Soon we were regularly hooking up, with plenty of double hook ups repeatedly occurring

All the action definitely sorting out cobwebs of not fly fishing together for a few months.

For the next spectacular action filled three hours, we were amongst very tight lines and big silver flashing fish. All so visual right next to the boat - leading cruising fish, blind casting too but so visual! So exciting!

The action was only interrupted by the local water police doing a catch and a safety equipment check. We received a recommendation to get a waterproof torch (it was there but we couldn't find it) - $350 fine next time if not in the safety kit!

While the big queenies (80cm - 90cm) were still feeding ravishingly - we headed offshore to see what we could see.

Lee Point first but nothing showing
We then head to the 'bottlewasher' area - was hoping for a mack or two for the brother-in-law to use on his new smoker - but nada!

Off in the distance we spied the latest oil rig platform in for refurbishment (??) - this one is parked only 25 or so kilometers from the middle of the harbour (the last one was 56km offshore)   
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The weather was very good - wave chop and wind wise - so off we went.
We only got halfway there and Peter spied superbly a few brown booby birds circling about 600m away. It was great observation, given the distance and obtuse angle from which we were travelling and at speed.

The water was 100 feet deep with a slight lift in the ocean floor - impacting the baitfish just like at the six mile buoy earlier in the day. Concentrating the amount of water the baitfish were travelling along with the tide as water moved up into water 20 feet shallower.

And there were Tuna everywhere along this edge of uprising water. I have always had trouble targeting longtail tuna in deep water as they sound whenever a boat comes near - but these fish didn't seem to mind our presence feeding with much abandon

I hookup second cast - and while mine was running away with very little care as to the amount of drag I was applying - we chase other nearby feeding pods of tuna - hoping to get Peter onto a fish and we could get a double tuna hookup but no such luck.

After netting mine and a few photos before a release - we set about to get Peter's tuna.

Third pod we get near enough for a cast - Peter hooks up - he enjoyed another strong fight.

Interestingly each pod of tuna had a few small sharks amongst them, occasionally a few larger ones 4-6 feet long.

To our surprise the sharks were seen to purposefully chase the small silicone surf candies we had been using all day.

I hooked four sharks while targeting tuna but was quickly bitten off each time. Quite exciting - even just seeing this type of action - amazing!

We chased the tuna for an hour or so more, for a few soft half takes but no more hook ups

The tuna then seemed to flick a switch - disappeared totally and rapidly - but we drove about looking for birds to indicate where the fish might be while the weather was still so good

A big storm was over the Tiwi Islands and another hovering over Gunn Point heading towards the city. We even got a little rain a few times - it and the cloud cover cooled things down considerably

We finally found some birds working a spot - so did a few other boats heading back from oil rig at the same time.

Under the birds we found a couple of very tight bait balls about the size of a volkswagon beetle
The attack by a couple of 5-6 foot long sharks and about a hundred tuna was spectacular. Bait flying everywhere, in the mayhem I manager only a large shark that quickly bit me off. One the lure tosser boats got a tuna - so not much caught but what a sight - sadly forgot to put my video camcorder on! bugger!

By then the wind was wind was increasing and the storms more threatening - so after a great morning with biggish queenfish and midday hours chasing awesome longtail tuna - we headed back to the boat ramp.

With great fortune, we threaded the storms that passed over Darwin and avoid a dousing from the rain.
Home by 4pm, after handing out a few of the big queenies to some old folks at my wife's church.
So happy old folks with some fish to eat, while Peter and I had one of the best days fly fishing in the harbour for quite a while!

Here's two videos of the main action moments throughout the day.

Part 1.

Part 2.