Darwin Harbour (20141221) with visiting son and his girlfriend

Quite an overcast morning with storm and lighting off to the north

Luckily this storm passed around us much to the relief of my son Bradley and his girlfriend (Casey) visiting from Sydney. Given it was Casey's first  time to Darwin, she was still pretty enough paranoid just about Crocs jumping into the low profile boat I have but I assured her I had not seen any in the harbour for quite a while (funnily I did see a 3.5m one off East Point two days later!).

After a quick ‘look see’ at Shelly Island and Wickham point for naught surface action wise, we popped over to Weed Reef

We got a few smallish giant trevally but nothing consistent. With the wind dying back to almost nothing, we then crossed back over harbour for Katlyn Bay.

                                                                                                             

I was hoping to maybe find the Golden Trevally I have found in the bay previous trips but alas no Goldens this day. When first there, there were  a few medium sized Milkies (70cm or so) hoovering down algae scum off surface in one corner of the bay. However, given my guests were not SWOFFING nuts like myself, I left the harder to catch Milkies alone and instead we chased the small queenies marauding some very small bait at the other end of the bay.

The baitfish being attacked were smaller than I have seen before, only about 3-4mm deep in the body and about 35 to 40mm long. My son was using a small as possible soft plastic but could not match the hatch size wise and still have something with enough weight to cast on the threadline outfit he was using (seems he has forgotten all the fly casting I taught him when I was married to his mum 15 years ago - but then again he was only five at the time!).
So I place a small ball sinker onto his 20lb leader that was tied to his main braid line and tied on a small calf tail based clouser onto his rig. Instant success to say the least. Even his girlfriend (not at all a fisher person on her own account) caught a couple of the small but plentiful skinnies continually bursting the surface with frenzied feeding activity.

Wanting something larger for them to tangle with, we headed towards East Point but nothing seen there so continued on to Lee Point.

As soon as we got to the reefs of Lee Point, a tight pack of about 20 sea birds could be seen working the pressure wave edge created by the dropping tide as it pushed up against the rocky outcrops that parallel the Lee Point headland. We caught some nice 30-40cm GTs and some 50cm queenies while casting to the water under the squawking hovering birds. However, the stiffling hot and humid conditions as well as the fight between wind and tide creating a rocky motion in the boat, got the best of Casey and so I headed back into the harbour dropping her off at Nightcliff Jetty where  my wife picked her up and took her home. The son and I headed the boat towards  the boat ramp at East Arm to meet them at home.

However the tide was way way out 0.5m and the ramp was high and dry. Giving at least an hour before we could even think about hauling the boat out of the water.

Great! More fishing.

We popped back to other side of harbour to Weed Reef again. I haven't been on the harbour at such a low time and we saw reefs and sand bars that I didn't know were even there. At Weed Reef we managed a heap of small trevally – (Giant and Fringed Finned). There were also heaps of really big (and I mean big mother big!) Milkies actively feeding the area. These were not working in waves sucking down algae off the surface but viciously slashing and turning to get at whatever they were eating. They were not interested in the algae flies I have caught them on before, nor the tiny white clousers cast repeatedly in their direction after a boil on the surface used in the hope they were eating the tiny baitfish we had seen earlier in the day at Katlyn Bay. I have had a large Milkie off Lee Point take a large clouser (lost that one as quick as I  hooked it!) while chasing queenies, so they do take flies other than scum  flies.

Frustrating ourselves with these big Milkies eventually saw us heading back to take the boat out but a short stop at Wickham Point gave us some more mini GT action and queenies to delay going to the boat ramp. This occupied us for about an hour. Eventually seeing the time was way after we should have been back, we again started towards the boat ramp at East Point.

However, when zipping past the wharf side of Shelly Island we saw a heap of slashes and bust ups on the surface off the corner of the island this had us stopping for another few casts (or twenty!). Two hours later we eventually headed for the boat ramp, as it took that long for the action to slow down (it wasn't because I was worn out and too old for catching fish as my son suggested!)

The water on this side of the small island near the loading wharf comes from deep water up over the shallow rock bar on this side and goes back down into more deep water. The effect on the water created all sorts of  pressure waves and turbulence – one that must disorientate the baitfish making them easy prey for predatory fish like the GTs and queenies patrolling this stretch of water.
see diagram here abouts for location tips

Cast after cast received hits and takes - giving bent rods and heaps of laughter and smiles from us both enjoying some good father/son bonding. It was great action in the strong flowing incoming tide – for which the hooked fish used well to their advantage to make them seem much bigger than what actually came to hand.

My son and I had an absolute blast casting our flies into the the tip of the disturbed water and letting the flies drift along the face of the pressure wave before starting a staccato type retrieve. Every cast receive some sort of attention. Many, many times we had double hook ups  and raced each other to get the fish in and cast before the other could. We didn't keep score, just enjoyed the constant action and father/son rivalry ---  AND HEAPS OF SLEDGING! over dropped fish or a retrieve that didn't get a take from the frenzied fish.

One fish my son caught a 40cm queenie with a couple of small bites out of its back (quite recently from looking at wound). Which was quite interesting to my son who had to take a picture of it.

So a slowish day to start with but still lots of fun and a few fish from each spot we gave a cast or two - that ended in a great last couple of hours for the trip of non-stop ‘a-cast-a-fish’ action.

Here is a bit of a video clip of the days trip.

             

I will be out again in two days time with my regular fly fishing deckie Canadian Peter Cooke.

Blog report and a bit of video on that outing - up on this blog soon.

20141019 - Lee Point Trip Report

So was given Sunday morning off (again!)
And as much as I whinge about my wife she does let me go fishing quite a lot!

So just before 6am saw us launching at Nightcliff Boat Ramp
Just launched! As still quite shallow at the end of ramp when we launched given low tide in a little over three hours at 9:35am.

The wind was only slight, from north-east but predicted to increase at midday
We headed for Lee Point for the couple of hours we had

As soon as we arrived birds were working the edges of the reef lines running east west across the front of Lee Point land based rocks.
We were hooked up multiple times in a short period of time

Tarpon, Trevally, Queenfish and Mackerel were all mixed in  together -  creating a lucky dip to what would come the boat. the tarpon were most enjoyable, Having not caught them in the harbour since I got a few landbased off east point to 63cm on surface poppers a few years ago, it was nice to get into some very fit, thick shouldered tarpon - man are they good fighters for their size!!

Large shoals of baitfish were working their way through from the harbour proper towards Shoal Bay. The east west parallel reefs that are evenly spaced in line with Lee Point land based rocks funnel the baitfish and concentrate them making them easier targets for the pelagics.

While there were bust ups all over the place, we found one spot where the they were regularly attacking the baitfish - the large number of birds above this action helped us know exactly where they were.

We had some 50cm queenies get almost eaten by some monster fish while getting them in. Once a trevally of at least a metre and another time a metre plus cod (see video for brown blur of Cod as it swiped at the queenie).

We were into fish or chasing fish for most of the the few hours we were at Lee Point.
A great morning of SWOFFING indeed

The Mackerel were bigger too (well than previous trips anyway).
Here's Peter with of the better one's, he got this one on a tube fly with a trailing stinger hook.

On getting back to  Nightcliff ramp around midday - the water was still fairly low. So much so the boat before us once on it's trailer could not get up the ramp and had to dump itself back into the water to wait on the rising tide.

Given the flat end of the ramp, even I had to put most of my ute into the water to get my boat on - at least I had four wheel drive to get it up over the edge of ramp (unlike the previous boat which was twice my size and only a two wheel drive light ute to tow it!)

we were happy to be off the water as the wind was now absolutely howling from the NW, outside the shelter of the small rock jetty at the ramp white caps were everywhere. It would have quite unpleasant out there in my low profile Stessl Protracker

It had been a really fun morning trip with heaps of fish caught, lots of double hook ups and a varitey of species coming to hand. Surface and subsurface flies used - mostly silicone surf candies by me (no epoxy like a normal surf candy, just a thin layer of clear silicone over hook shank and tail material tie in point, with prism eyes added and a few layers of nail polish to give it a crisp scale/shell like feel to crunch of fish teeth)

Bring on the next trip!  (got to do those gold bomber tying instructions blog, promise - soon!)

*********

10min summary video of what happened for the trip

Lee Point-Darwin Harbour report 24th Aug

I almost went back to bed Sunday morning! mostly from frustration.
Because.....
On Saturday there was so little wind in the morning that even a light mist was clinging to the ground on the oval near my house
The trees were as still as I had seen them for a month
I actually dared to raise my hopes of a glassed off morning on the harbour on the next day!

However........on Sunday morning at 5:30am the trees were basically bending over to the wind! Palm fronds flaying about in the strong wind - BUGGER!!!!

But with the usual optimism (studpidity?) SWOFFERS seem to posses overpowered the logic of strong winds and I drove to my mate's place near Nightcliff boat ramp - at the time I was thinking Option 2 and Saratoga at Corroboree that I discussed in a previous blog would have been a far better choice

On launching the boat - I still had issues because if the wind was this strong now, it would only get stronger through the day as with almost every other day this month of August! So what was the point, "go home now", my logical mind was saying but my casting arm won the argument and we ventured forth.

In the positive, it was much better launching at Nightcliff, it saves 35 minutes run time to Lee Point than if we had launched at East Arm. In the negative, the ramp is not a steep ramp, quite shallow and with my large tyres that I have on my trailer it means the back tyres of my ute are three-quarters underwater - not good for any metal on my truck! (even though i spray everything at back of ute with lanolin spray)


After a short 5-8minute run to Lee Point at 27knots average, there was 20-30cm of wave chop but the smoke in the air created an awesome pink globe type sunrise gradually, changing to orange then to yellow that was spectacular to watch and was enough to keep us fishing

Then miraculously the wind started to dissipate, the chop died down and it turned in a great morning

Very large schools of big garfish were breaking the surface and large slashes by predators were inducing them to jump about. Smaller bait were also around too, mostly hugging the rock bars at Lee Point that were being exposed by the dropping tide. The predators were herding these food sources against these reef/rock bars

The deckie was racking up the species scoreboard points by catching a variety of reef species - snapper, stripies and parrots on clousers but thought he would go to a large fly and had instant success on the grey mackerel about - but in the crystal clear water watching them follow the fly, slash at the fly, come steaming in from the side and swipe at the fly, or follow the fly right to the boat and then turn away or drop into the depths out of sight - all this kept us casting and casting for a couple of hours.


I went the opposite way  to my deckie and was using a small surface candy size 1, that I would normally use for freshwater tarpon in the billabongs and hooked a few mackerel myself. One took my fly as I paused my stripping to look at something and I just came up tight, only a few metres from the boat. Happened a second time  too but I got cut cutoff so easily on my 20lb fluorocarbon leader. At other times a fast strip of the fly got the macks excited and worked well hookup wise.

Almost every cast and retrieve brought some interest from the large number of grey mackerel about
I did have one quite large Spanish mackerel show show interest in the fly I was casting, so easily different to identify from the grey mackerel in size, markings and colour - it followed the fly right to the boat and its rapid turn caused a swirl of water that was as large as my 4.7m boat - so awesome to watch in the clear water of this neap tide - of course it would have been much better had it hooked up!

We only lost a few flies, so didn't bother with wire traces - the fish were not exactly leaping onto our flies, almost like they had full stomachs and were window shopping with out buying anything

A sporadic pod of longtail tuna starting busting up three hundred metres away but before we got there some lure tossers (and I do mean 'tossers') drove them away, or down?, by driving their boat through them a few times. A kayaker nearby was just as frustrated by their lack of skill in maneuvering their boat upwind and drifting into casting distance from the pod - especially given all the paddling he had done to get there amongst the longtail pod about 1.5 km from shore.

After a few hours of these grey mackerel herding bait against the rock bars and following our flies half halfheartedly, it was time for something else, something bigger, somewhere else - and with the wind still very low in intensity, we drove across the front of harbour looking for birds working  but sadly found nothing. We did get chased along by some naval vessels impressive in their size and weaponry. There was about four larger sized frigates or missile cruisers entering the harbour as we cross it - hoping we were identified as masked gunmen racing our 'speed boat' towards them..

Off Mandorah point on other side of harbour and its outer rock bars - we again found nothing, so we travelled along the shore line and rock bars looking for some action
On a rock bar 200 meters south of Mandorah I had a follow from a 50-60cm barra which woke us from our fishing stupor. The shape of the head, the silver side and that obvious yellow tail made it easy to identify- bugger - missed my nemisis again!

Peter got a small hand sized queenie, while I got a small coral trout on the surf candy, its iridescent blue spots brilliant in the bright light. Both fish taken from very tight up against the rock bar.

There was a dark patch of rock in front of the rock bar (95% exposed at this time of the tide) that turned out to be a school of about 20 largish blue bastards handing behind a rock down current of the tide that was starting to come in

Peter (the deckie kicking my butt in the scorecard today!) inquired about what they ate and what fly, so I got him to tie on one of my BFCW (Bynoe Flats Crustacean Wannabees) as a possible crab/prawn food source. On second cast Peter thought he had snagged the fly, only to have the 'rock' start to move about. He had hooked one of the bastards,sadly the fly come lose after a short run - bugger! Peter was impressed by their strength (so looks like we will be targeting them more often now and tying some more crab like patterns - see future blogs for my feeble crab like fly attempts).


So on that action, we cruised the flat around the corner of this rock bar searching for more bastards, but found trevally, well we spooked trevally, some more spooked bastards. Peter did get a small coral trout on the BFCW fly.

The water was crystal clear but I am using the chop and flash of sunlight on it as my excuse for spooking more fish that I got to cast to.

Later we moved our way further into the harbour with the wind hurrying us along and we found some working birds and got some more grey mackerel behind woods inlet. (that's the point at front of Woods Inlet behind the coral trout, in the right of picture)

Without more indication of fish activity we moved over to Weed Reef and again found nothing.
By this time the wind speed and white caps on the waves was increasing rapidly. So headed  for the leeward side of the harbour near the naval base. There we got chased out of the naval area by some seaman in one of their inflatable pursuit boats - first time in five years I have been chased out of there, weird? might have been due to the extra naval presence in harbour.

With wind still increasing and large swell coming straight down the harbour from the north - plus no fish activity showing we headed back to Nightcliff ramp
With the expected strong winds finally arriving - the assaulting waves and wind wash that we pounded through on way to Nightcliff ramp wasn't much fun - it was a slow wet trip back - but hey its better then working on a Sunday!

Now to start planning the next trip!

'Hall Pass' awarded to me, finally! - now where to go SWOFFING?

Ok, I have been a good father and husband this week and even though I have time constraints due to a an essay that is due shortly...
I have earned a 'hall pass' to go fishing this Sunday - but where to go?

Option One: Darwin harbour
The tides are ones I like - neaps tides working towards spring tides with Sunday's high of 6.4 just before sunrise at 5:55am, low of 2.4 m at midday.
This is good as I can fish first light at Weed Reef or other rock bars like Lee Point for pelagics as the tide starts to drop then fish the harbour arms for some flats species - be home just after lunch time - but hopefully action continues and I can fish the rising tide and the current lines for more pelagics till late in the afternoon.


The only minus is the wind forecast - with 5-10 knot winds first up with patches of higher and lower wind speeds varying through the day - thinking about it its not too bad of a forecast if it stays true.

Would be on the water 6:30am with the predawn light and out to Weed Reef by 6:50am, We would choose actually location we fish first by wind speed and direction and time of tide.

The next decision would be which boat ramp and that depends on where I choose to fish first up to target pelagics like queenfish and treavally - so the first fishing location is down to two places - Lee Point (as too for the bonus of possible Broadbarred Mackeral and Longtail Tuna) or Weed Reef and its usually dependable species.

If Lee Point it would be from Nightcliff but you need a 2.5m tide to retrieve the boat - so that's a mid-afternoon ramp return option with this tide which can also be a problem if wind increases and I cant put in till tide rises.

Otherwise - its East Arm ramp which is good in all but the lowest spring tides - and to take advantage of the low tide flats and other locations to fish on the way back into the harbour as the day progresses.

So option one is looking OK

Option Two: Corroboree Billabong
Tides are not the issue but water temp is - its been quite cold nights recently, down to single digits in the rural areas last week but day time temps at in low 30's. Plus it is a long drive  (am I talking myself out of this option already?).
In the positive wind is less of an issue as less intensity in an inland wind and lots of curves in the billabong to find a point get out of wind. Plus the wind can help with some very good drift lines along the edges of the lillies and weed beds

And I do love my Saratoga fishing, and if we left home at 6am we could be on the water by 8am just as the sun is warming the water. We might miss out on dawn topwater fly action which always worth a long drive but the fish will get quite active between 9am-3pm on sub surface flies and the warming water.

Option Three - Vernon Islands.
Still trying to get here again!!!!

But my inexperience and possible increasing wind have me scared off this option. It can be pretty intense wave action here due to wind and tide in between the islands - especially in my low profile boat. I might wait till the calm weather returns at beginning of the wet season for this much longed for trip. (What an old and soft wuss I am becoming!)

I will chat to my 'deckie', and a friend who might bring his boat, to decide what option we will take.

Fishing report in next blog - hopefully with some fish in it!