Pete's Itch - but it gave us an awesome day!

This is a large blog entry – but what a day we had!

Enjoy.

So Peter has an itch!

No cream needed just some time on the water focusing on billfish fishing

He (and me a little bit!) have been carrying on for ages about catching some billfish

The ever increasing comments on the local FB page for such, a constant review area after each weekend

Quite exciting to read the billfish being caught, the numbers seen and teased up to behind the boats

I also keen to give it a try - but the hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours .........

.......... Trolling teasers etc not in the top 100 spots of my "to do" list

Plus the fishing would be mostly trolling lures - the “dark side”, and I have become a fly only guy in the majority (99.99%) - not in a snob way but if I am going to spend time and money - I might as well do it the best way - Fly!

Finally got him to stop talking about it during pre-outings for fresh water fly comp - even though during 10 hours days of fresh water fishing amongst lilies --- it still came up while catching tarpon which make a great trolling bait for billfish and macks

Plus for the last several months the wind has been nuts

But for this weekend I think everyone of the five days leading up to it we ummmmed and aahhhhed about going, not going, going, not going

I was not the keenest for the whole idea and what it takes - been there done that in my younger years! You know when you can get away with drinking with mates till you only have two hours sleep left in the night, then get up at 3am to be on the water before the sun rises and still fish a marathon the next day 

I will extremely work hard for my fly fishing time and my mind was totally on September's Salt Fly comp - a bit of OCD coming into that. I just didn't want to be distracted by dark side fishing which chances of actually catching the target fish was so low. But there is also the chance of acres of tuna, one report complained about the a plethora of metre long queenfish taking the lures, then there are macks smashing rigged baits meant for the bills, others spoke of pelagic trevally - schools of thousands - I was sure these could give us some better fishing, (like fly fishing!) Then trolling all day for nothing. Then there is the ugly rough ride back to the boat ramp in afternoon wind that also given its usual direction - twists the boat off the trailer - uuggghhh! 

Even the tide and wind seemed against it - we almost decided Sunday but then a new forecast pointed the better day being Saturday, I think twice I said I was out – but Peter kept tempting me.

So the actual possible act of fly fishing on the water in between trolling became too much and Friday night saw me at Peter's place, placing gear into the boat and sitting down to watch a few videos on fly fishing and bill fish fishing till age and the long week got me into bed

And don’t you hate when you set your alarm but wake up half an hour before the alarm goes off!!

Only 5 hours sleep - how will this old man cope??

Shortly after 4am, we had the boat hooked up and food and gear loaded in a blink and were off to fuel up on the way to Dundee

We had a “wonderful” time at the servo up the road from Peter's with fighting long-grass locals standing/fighting in front of the entrance to the servo, actually walking almost into Peter's truck screaming and swearing at us. Once past them and paying for the fuel, an ice addict was smashing up the shop in the servo - due to the attendant not wanting to give him a discount on the milk. But you get that at 4:30am in the morning at Truck City.

As we drive through the darkness towards the boat ramp at Dundee, we solve all the worlds problems and debrief the weird bits of our jobs, wives and lives to each other. a great time of  dumping the crap in our lives - quite refreshing. What get said in the truck stays in the truck!

We finally arrive at Dundee beach ramp with only a couple of boats in front of us. The tide dropping but plenty of water on ramp so launching was easy as. Best thing about being at the ramp pre-dawn after an hour or so driving - is the guys there are serious fishers and most of the guys launching know what they are doing and the ramp was trouble free. No sideways trailers taking up both lanes - awesome.

By the time Peter got a coffee (terrible he said) and I got the ice from the Dundee beach shop - there were ten to fifteen boats lined up in the queue, it was a bit tight jostling the boat amongst the others in that small area - due to the efficiency of the launching boats several were launched and waiting to pick up the car drivers

While waiting for Peter to park his ute - I punched in the GPS coordinates for a location 39.6km straight out from the beach. It was a spot given on the FB page for NT billfish that a guy had raised 13 billfish for 9 hook ups and 6 to hand.

While a little swelly in close that flattened out halfway to spot, the sea was oily calm with no wind. Without seeing any sea life along the way, we arrive on the spot and set out teasers and a couple of bullet head pink skirted lures and starting trolling around the GPS mark. The water  very very clear and 80 plus feet deep

The rising Sun was as always this time of year - Spectacular!

Tiny bait was everywhere near the GPS marks. The surface was constantly dimpled by some sort of micro bait and occasionally slight larger bait was eating it - we saw no big slashes of any sort of predators 

We trolling around for a while avoiding the multitude of areas with feeding dolphins. There were several groups of 10-15 members in each. So cool to see them, most groups had small juveniles with them - super cute to see ones a third the size of adults,

this is a pod of dolphins I am pointing it at (cameras suck from what you can actually see at the time!) 

We came across a group of jellybean sized tuna (figurative size description not actual) and they distracted us enough from the trolling for billfish to tempt us into a few casts with the fly rod.

I hook-up almost immediately thinking it was one of the small tuna - fingertip to elbow size but fat as one of those toy AFL footballs. But the fight is strong and deep with lots of long runs - what is it? What was under the little jellybean tuna, we hoped - longtails?

It turned out to be a good sized mack tuna – they fight as hard as the longtail – well it felt like it

Weather conditions as you can see in above photo - nothing but GLORIOUS!

A good fish too - the first fish for my new rod and reel which were prizes from the Fresh fly comp a month or so ago

We chase a few more pods of tuna working the area - quite flighty they were

In amongst one pod we see a dorsal fin - I though it a floating stick! First thought given the purpose of our outing – BILLFISH!

But turned out to be a 12-15foot brownish shark just hanging on the surface, which slunk away slowly as we got closer

We chase more pods - then we see a dorsal fin that actually really looked exactly like a marlin dorsal – excitement was huge and we got out the 10weights

But as we notice later though - no tail fin exposed - the tail of a billfish is huge and it you see the dorsal you usually see the top of the tail tip.

This time it was one of the biggest hammerhead sharks I have seen in 40 years of fishing

ABOLSLUTELY HUGE!

Across the head was massive, let alone the body

Made the previous big shark we saw look small

We gave it a cast as it sunk out of view - wanting and not wanting it to take the fly

We chased more tuna, caught some - expecting the hammerhead to appear and swallow whole the struggling tuna on the end of our fly lines.

The Tuna spread out and disappeared – and while motoring around searching for them, Peter had an extended encounter with a small dolphin who zipped about at the front of the boat. A larger one tried to encourage the younger one away from the boat - but I think it like the looks of the big Canadian standing in the bow watching his antics and hung there almost effortlessly for ages.

We saw some dorsal fins in the water a way off, almost left it as dolphins again. But they were different, acting different. On arrival new the action it turned out to be a large manta ray hoovering down the micro bait that covered the top few feet of the water surface. The manta had three remoras hanging around it and a fourth that on closer inspection was seen to be a cobia about 60-70cm long. I told Peter to give it a cast and laid the fly on or just off the back of the manta. Here is Peter Casting to near the Manta ray.

The hook up was instant. The cobia went straight back to the manta, maybe rubbing the leader over the manta's rough skin, who took off like lightning. The cobia tried to stay with it but then slowed – only to eventually wear through the leader – bugger

But again an awesome sight and experience!  

What next, more tuna chasing – which we did

But eventually, enough of that tuna chasing - we were here for billfish on the dark side - and we also had our 10weights rigged with shock tippet and large blue white clousers if they came close enough to the boat

We hadn't set up for switch baiting the billfish - this was our first trip exploring the area.

The theory is - you tease up the billfish then slap a belly flap tied up so pectoral fins are straight out - this is all sewed together so its durable with no hook and attached to a spin rod.

You slap it beside the interested billfish who mouths it and you can hopefully get it close enough to boat to cast a fly. When you take the belly flap away from the billfish - it is like taking a bone off a pit-bull dog - they get pissed off. The billfish then sees this small baitfish (your fly) land beside them and they snap it - hopefully hooking up. Well like I said that’s the theory!

So I toss out the teasers and one of the dark side rods and with Peter day dreaming tell him “billfish – remember” this gets him casting the other dark side rod and lure out – and we begin trolling again

Within minutes of resuming out troll – one of the spin rods doubles over and line is screaming off it. I am driving, Peter is up for the first billfish, I hand him the rod that is in the rod holder on my side and he sets about fighting the fish – while I then bring in all the teasers and the other rod to clear the area.

Concentrating on this clearing of the decks – I don’t see the billfish jump and tail walk several times – but I do hear Peter’s joy and excitement at what he is experiencing.

And who wouldn’t yeehaahhh and yaaahooo at the top of ones lungs!

First time out, first exploratory trip and here we are an hour or two into it and Peter is hooked up to an icon in fishing only an hour and a bit from a major city in Australia – bring that on anytime!

I did see eventually a couple of jumps and then the fish sounds. We first take it for a sail – easily done when a few hundred meters away and jumping crazily. They are the more common species caught in this area. But as it rises from the depths it is clearly see as a small black – we are both over the moon with the results

that silver smudge in middle of next image is the marlin down deep

But now to get it to hand!

We also remember the big sharks seen earlier and hope our prize isn’t chomped in half. I put on one the gloves we got in various prize packs during the fresh comp – very convenient prize indeed! This to be ready to grab that sandpaper bill when the fish gets close enough.

Peter fights the billfish easily and carefully – so super keen to hold the treasured prize of our efforts.

It finally comes beside the boat and I mess about a bit trying to get it in the right position to grab the beak – it is still a little feisty and I remember a friend who got speared in the forearm by a small black that tore the arm apart as it flicked its beak that had penetrated between the two bones in the forearm. With this in mind I carefully lead the fish by the leader till I got a good shot at the beak – all the time hoping the hook held!

Once the beak was held, I wasn’t letting it go – it struggles a bit but soon I had it lifted into the boat for photos and high fives- woooohoooo!

What a feeling!

Peter was over the moon – one of his goals when coming out here to Oz to work and live was a billfish and now he had one in his arms – the look on his face, the joy was palatable

We put the fish back in the water and revived it - turn it on side for a better photo but then upright to ensure reviving properly 

 Then we had the joy of watching it kick and swim off, awesome! It don’t get much better!

(except if it was on fly) but it was an exploratory trip, first time hunting billfish so not bad at all

So back to trolling again – boring! I stopped driving for a while and had a nanna nap while watching the teasers – felt much better after that!

We had a very slow mid-morning. A few hours of nothing, not even bait showing.

I almost talked Peter into heading inshore to some reefs and getting a feed on fly,

Luckily, he decided to go back to first GPS marks and have another look around. Peter is the slow methodical one, I am the ideas guy, the planner, the “what’s next” dude. Even while hooked up and fighting the fish - I am looking for the next thing to catch, I am also in a hurry for the next bit of good water. Peter is the “one more cast” guy – that usually gets him a good fish in most cases. He slows me down to enjoy the fishing rather than my rush about style – a good pairing for fishing partners

We found some more jellybead tuna – and we hope to find the bigger ones underneath. Sadly, the trolling gear as packed up or we would have trolled about the feed fish as we knew there were large predators below them.

As we approached the feeding frenzy - I was hooked up again to a very strong fish – I got it to the boat then it took off with a renewed vigour of massive proportions. It had been fighting deep and now rocketed to the surface – as it hit the surface it got absolutely smashed by a huge shark 

The Shark we presumed had chased it up to the surface and bit clean in half. I got the head to the boat for a photo and we saw the clean cut and curved bite mark. Looked like the shark took it tail first and bit clean.

We lost several fish to sharks during the day

I toss the head back into the water and watch the shark fishing his meal 30foot down in the clear water

Then we see in the water around us thousands of bludger trevally following to the side of the feeding mack tuna. Small mack tuna are breaking the surface, under them big mack tuna, beside them the trevally. For certain the billfish would have been nearby circling.

I did get one decent mackeral, only one we saw for the day, while casting to side of feeding area, I saw it zip from the side to take my fly, cavort about when it felt the hook point – then it took off at a n incredible speed. It cut my mono leader with about 150m of backing – that took for ever to wind in while fishing all about me could be seen.

As we circled a pod of feeding tuna with the electric – we were astonished to see this massive black marlin swimming beside the boat – at least 6feet in length, so beautifully coloured, it flashed its silver, its darkness and iridescent stripes as it eye-balled us – don’t know what else it was doing other than that in the way it behaved. It did this for what seemed ages.

 this picture just doesn't do the situation justice - you could have tagged the fish it was that close to the boat at times.

Peter had a 10w ready with a large 4/0 blue white clouser it clearly reacted to and followed for a bit but eventually ignored several times – what a knees weakening sight that was.

I even cast my 8w to it and it followed my silicone surf candy for a bit that filled me with terror and excitement all at the same time

This thing was big. So thick in the body. I think 6 feet long was an underestimation. And here I am, what a silly bugger casting an 8w at it! What an idiot but it would have been a few second of absolute glorious marvellousness to hook up! And lose it!

We after another hour or so of chasing the trevally and mack tuna on fly – you can only catch so many but every time they would pop up we would chase – almost irresistible not to have one more cast.

We even put the reefs to north of Dundee beach into the GPS unit, but the active tuna proved too tempting.

However, after twelve tuna for me and 5 for peter – we started heading back in with time and sun running out

But what a day – one I didn’t want to do!

Tuna, sharks, manta ray, cobia, dolphins everywhere, mackeral, trevally

Did I mention the numbers of sea snakes that we saw

Sights, sounds, awesome sunrise – all within a hour or so of Darwin

What a place we live in, fish in!

Who would live anywhere else!

Now if I can get Peter to focus on flats prep for the Salt Fly comp in September and leave the billfish alone – I suppose we could fish the springs offshore and the neaps on the flats! What am I saying that will mean wind issues, early start for fish that are hard to catch! Ridiculous!

video up soon - sign up for email updates in top right side of blog. going to be lots of SWOFFING over next three months - two of flats and prep for the Salt Fly Comp, then the Comp early Sept and then back to Billfish and offshore outings