Bynoe for not much...........

Had to head out to a meeting with some people Saturday to Dundee
The wife was coming and she said why not take the boat with us - I have to be only asked once (if that) for two things - sex and SWOFFING
Best thing yet, her mother was going to take her and the kids home, so I could also have some quiet while I fished
So of course I said - "well the boat is already hooked up to the ute!"

I checked the wind forecast - 5-10 knots till midday and tapering off to dead calm by three pm
Tides weren't looking too bad either - high just before dawn, low of 2m at 11:30am
Should be a good weekend and no troubles getting boat back on trailer due to no tidal water at ramp

However the fishing gurus on the radio said it would be a great day for fishing - surely a precursor to a bad day! (I didn't listen to my pessimistic side!)
Saturday night I caught up with regular deckie - Canadian Pete at the Sand Palms pub
He and his wife brought along their camper trailer for us to stay over night in

We had a great Saturday afternoon chatting and carrying on, then watch a few new fly fishing video clips I had downloaded recently
Then had a great meal (as always) at the Sand Palms pub

There was a bit of hen's night in the motel area that carried on for a while but at least it wasn't rap music they were playing - rather my sort of music = aside from their raucous singing attempts, I quite enjoyed the music selection being played.
Although 80 meters away from our camping spot - they went on for all hours
Thank goodness I had the ear plugs in and I slept all night

Come 6am up and got the boat ready - lets go!
The Deckie forgot his coffee  - sad for him!!
Dawn with the the smoke haze of the dry season made for an awesome sunrise

Wind was up a bit but that was predicted - we kept heading to Bynoe mouth hoping the weather forecasters had got the wind forecast right

We first fished the flat at back of Turtle Island (Turkey Island on some maps) but water clarity was very poor and together with wave action proved spotting a fish before they spotted us - impossible

Not that we saw much - no bow waves, no scattering bait as predators attacked them
round corner into a creek we found some bait but not much else

Peter as usual, kept casting and casting into edges of mangroves where we were hoping for a barra
Peter eventually hooked up and we thought with the first glance of the flash of silver and shape of tail - Barra at last we thought - if a little small
But when finally in the net it was just an Ock Ock or Javelin fish -
While not the wanted barra it was still a new species for Peter

We ventured over to the flats on inside of Turtle island and here large bait were being absolutely hammered by something quite large. huge shoals of bait were spraying and leaping over the surface but we bottomed out on mud getting to them and I had to hop out and push

We were seeing a few slashes and managed a baby Queenie or ten. a few baby Trevs too

But we were wanting and waiting for the calm conditions to venture further out into the mouth of Bynoe Harbour and chase tuna if they were about
But the calm conditions didn't arrive as expected

We fished Simms reef but it was wind blown, rough and seemed empty
Round on the flats side of Simms we did have a cast at three large blue bastards but the flies were wrong, they were cruising and soon departed the flat after our feeble attempts.

With wind not even looking like slowing, we went through the ugly wave chop (slowly) and eventually got to Hutt Point. Here again the small baby Queenie were there on a reef covered with a meter of water - providing a few minutes of fun. The tide was coming in and the fish moved and so did we

I did manage a new species fish for myself - a bat fish

It took the small white clouser on the drop - quite unexpected

The wind still was not dropping significantly as predicted but at least no white caps, so we took a chance and went back the 6km back to Simms Reef

However, again it was empty!!!!

So we ventured back towards the boat ramp via the inside of Indian Island towards Milne Inlet and its boat ramp near the Sand Palms Pub
We did had some moments of excitement on a few rock bars out of wind on west side of Indian Island along the way as the tide pushed over them creating funnel and current points
A slash here and there kept us casting but again for no luck

Final stop for the day was Knife Island and what we call the Bucket on the north east corner
Its a L shaped rock bar that usually always hold fish. but not today.
However the flats leading to the west did hold a million or so baitfish
but not many predators
We caught a few queenies but small again
We saw a few real tiny mackerel few jumping but that was about it

I thought with the wind forecast, and the tides  - plus it being Bynoe would have made for a great fishing day
but it was not the case
Maybe it was the several days of cooler than normal temperatures

Whatever it was - IT SUCKS!!!!!
Several times I mention we would have been better fishing Darwin Harbour as at least we would not have the one and half hour drive home.
Having said that Bynoe is an awesome fishing location =- well most times!
And any day SWOFFING is better than sitting at home

So go tie some flies and get out there!! - flies can't catch anything if  they are not stripped through the water

BSSS Day 2 report

BSSS Day 2 - (sorry not a lot of pictures as just average size fish caught, lots of them and too busy chasing points for the comp - even forgot to turn my head cam on!)

Again up at 5:30am, wide open throttle by 6:15am (the deckie needed a hot coffee today!)
The species for the day were: mackerel, any trevally (Golden, GT, Tea-leaf etc all frequent Bynoe Harbour), barramundi, threadfin, and tuna. Now the tuna would be very difficult given time of year, but two species could be targeted in the same area, as well as two other. Flats for barra and threadies, reefs/rock bars for the macks and trevally (well GTs anyway).
We made for Simms reef for the macks of yesterday but frustratingly nothing for first 2 hours.

We saw a little splash on shallow side of Simms reef and after watching this for 10-15 minutes finally went over to get at least something even if tiny small as the splashes seemed to indicate.
However, once there, the water was excitingly boiling with fish and we had 45 minutes of fish after fish. GTs to 38 cm and queenies to 45cm mixed together in a patch of 2m deep water behind a sand/gravel bar. The deckie was really enjoying himself (so was I). The water tidal flow created an eddy as it curled over and around the sand bar and the fish were boiling the water with their feeding activity. There were some small macks too, but we didn't manage to get hook them. Once the water dropped a bit more (25-30 minutes later) the action died off just as quick. We moved  back to front to the occasional large slash of fish along a tide line but nothing consistent and for an hour casting no result.

The water on Sunday was mirror calm, no wind - making it quite hot. Something we hadn't experience in quite a few months. The sweat was beading down our backs as we were casting and trying all sorts of retrieves to entice the macks to bite. We saw one or two slashes of a fish or two behind the flies but action was very very very slow.

Given the ultra calm conditions we decided to head into wide open water to find some working birds.
We came across 10+ adult dolphins and one baby swimming with them.  We cut the motor and watched them for 10 minutes - so graceful sliding through the water. They were in about 4 metres of water harassing some quite small 30cm grey macks (which we could catch!), this dolphin food was skipping across the surface in 5-10m skips to escape the dolphins.

A little later, we came upon some sand/gravel bars way offshore that some large queenies were  patrolling- we got follows but no takes. Awesome to see such fish in such clear and shallow water, Must visit this spot again!

Later a massive black backed ray about the size of a dining table came by and I cast to it in hope of an accompanying GT, however the two GTs that appeared off the ray's back that chased my fly caused my knees to wobble. They were absolutely huge 90+cm plus versions. Massive in shoulder thickness and body depth. Again sadly only a couple of follows was all we got - no hookups.

The rocks and ledges nearby however were covered in fish - Stripies, Moses perch, Queenfish, and sub 40cm GTs. The deckie, thoroughly enjoying himself, got 10 or so GTs in 15 or so casts with a crease fly.  He also enjoyed a shark pinching one of his fish, after this he switched to one of my mega flies to target bigger fish. The little guys were very keen to slash at the mega fly but not the big fish.

this Moses Perch that was smaller than the fly it ate!

While he was casting around trying to catch a big one, I with my small clouser (orange over white) caught a cricket score - full of stripes, Moses perch, the occasional queenfish and small GTs - all racking up the points. I too had a large shark take a 30cm fish right at the side of the boat. While it hung onto the fish, it wrapped my fly line around several reef lumps before breaking off the leader. Luckily the fly line survived the episode without any nicks.

We had another mega GT visit working along the reef edge looking for a live meal and it also chase one of the small stripies I had on the line, but saw the boat and slithered away between the structure nearby. Peter again went to the big flies for a while, I was still catching heaps of reef species one after the other, a fish almost every cast not big but lots of them. I didn't  put them all on the scoresheet as they just keep biting and I kept casting with out worrying about the scorecard. In a moment of calm, I would write a few of the lengths of fish caught down.  We had multiple double hook ups. I really enjoyed Peter working the fish into frenzy with his crease fly and I would then cast behind the fish when the popper was removed - resulting in an instant hook up on the small clouser.

Working around the reef edges we found some queenies and macks of one reef point. The wind was picking up making it hard to hold our position. As the tide was rising, I parked up on the reef and we cast to the bubbling bait off the point. I managed to snag a mackerel in the top lip, giving me two species and thus into bonus points. Up to that time we were not comp focused, mainly enjoying a great hot bite and many species. Now things changed comp wise with two species from the list.

Peter was working his hardest to catch a mack but time was short to lines out and heading back to put scorecards in on time. Peter hooked up to something good and we hoped it was a mack but it was a 50cm queenie. Peter got all loud and excited about something. When he finally calmed down it I found out it was another mega GT that took interest in his queenie making - it look like a live bait, the GT was so large.

Peter quickly measured and released the queenie and cast back to where the mega GT had moved and instantly hooked up to it. Line tore off his reel, I put electric down, pulled plumb bob anchor in and gave chase to the fast fleeing fish. The fight was intense and just as we were getting close to the fish 20 minutes later the leader parted- BUGGER! To say the least!

Given that disappointment we motored straight to the ramp to get the score cards in on time.
Both us had a great day of sighted fish, peter a few big fish on and seen - something he had been working a while on that gave him great enjoyment. With my bucket filled scorecard I was hoping to move up a few positions.

A few of the front runners of Day 1 getting their 600 point or so, I was feeling confident with my 1300 plus points for Day2 (still wishing I had gone to the flats to get a barra or threadie). In the end I managed third for the comp and for Day2, which made me mildly regret my not so good fish wise Saturday . The two in front got three species and the subsequent extra bonus points and managed 1500 plus.  points for the day.

It was a great weekend, plenty of learning curve and a heap of fish. The sighted mega GTs and queenies gave me many hopes and ideas for future trips. My flies worked well, Everyone loved the boat boxes that were donated. Lots of positives.

Not to mention - great people to fish with, as too great accommodation and food at the Sand palms motel and pub
Check out the Mobs blog site for more BSSS 2014 trip reports.
here is five minutes of the small fish action along a reef edge -

BSSS 2014 - Day 1 report

BSSS day one.
Arrived 8pm Friday, given the low key nature of the comp, no real Comp info session.  After chatting to various BSSS SWOFFERs fishing the comp, it managed to swiftly tick over the clock and we were in bed snoring by 11pm.
Up at 5:30 Saturday morning, we launch by 6:10am (awesome morning by the way!)



The five species for Saturday were: queenfish, any cod species, bream (pikey version up here), javelin or ock ock, and lastly blue salmon.

I really like the manner of scoring in this comp. All fish caught are worth 1 point per cm, but of the chosen five species for the day, you multiply the top five lengths by the number of the chosen species caught. For example catch 3 of the 5 chosen species and all the top five of those species are multiplied by 3. Really makes you think about where, when and how you will fish to catch those chosen species drawn from the proverbial hat list of 20 or so species. Best thing is it is all new the next day with a new five species chosen.

So we planned to fish the flat behind turtle island first up.  As we saw heaps of blues on this flat two week earlier - plus barra & queenies. But like last time the fish that were on the flat were very touchy and not interested in our offerings of clouser, full blown imitative prawns, and every other fly we could think of to no avail. Result of Location one - no score
We planned to then chase blues in a deep hole in a creek nearby after that but the tide had receded too far and we were cut off by a sand bar form the deep hole that always has blue in it, so what now? Location two, again no score.

With the sea flat and almost no wind about we popped the 15 minutes over to Simms reef for a hopeful queenfish before find some filling creeks on the rising tide to target rock bars for OckOck, the bream and an estuary cod - hopefully!

At Simms, we found no queenies but plenty of small Spanish macks willing to slash at the fly (but sadly, not stay tight to the reel)
We lost more flies than when previously catching macks, but we managed to fluke two for about 15 or so flies lost. Great! something on the scorecard

By now the wind was steadily increasing as forecast limited possible fishing locations
We decided then to chase some cod. But risking winds would change our plans. There is a rocky flat NW of Knife Is near the Paspaley pearl work base I had caught cod before so we ventured to it with hopes high. Once there we caught a few giant trevally off rock structure. We had one large cod chase after a 10cm GT, that got us excited for a bit - but all to no avail with the larger flies we cast to it
We drifted over the many rock bars and shallow reefs in this area. The deckie got a great visual catch of a 50cm queenfish hiding between two rock bars that came up to take his fly.

On one little rock platform bear Knife Island, I managed a first of species since coming to Darwin of a 40cm barracuda, which was quite novel to catch.
(insert image of cuda)

We thought we would head right to back of Bynoe to some rock bars to find fish but by time we got there the wind was atrocious for the location we tried. Given the wind was still increasing and it had been such a hard frustrating day, we headed back for an early swim in the accommodation' spool
The deckie managed about 150 or so points and was in 11th place, While I got a few more points to be in 10th place. The front runners were getting 600+ points.

The evening seemed quite short after the awesome group dinner as most were feeling the long day fishing in the wind. After the five species for the next day were drawn, I crashed into bed by 9pm, feeling it to be much much later! (Old man syndrome!)

Despite a below average day - expectations were still high for the next day.
More to come!

Bynoe - Simms and Turtle morning - trip report

Up at 6, on water 6:30am, arrive at meeting point - 20 minutes late (hate being late!), the meeting spot was where a teacher friend's sailing boat was anchored at the mouth of Six Pack Arm, who was spending weekend at Bynoe.

At the sailing boat, a bit of coffee for those inclined and then the bait fisherman swap some live bait and dead bait between each other, before we head off on the 20 minute run to Simms reef at the front of Bynoe Harbour.

The wind gods are kind with hardly a breeze about, though strengthening towards midday.

Arriving at 7:15am at the reef, the high tide is covering the reef, the only sign of its presence is a plethora of tiny bubbles rising to surface, even though hours after it was submerged by the incoming tide. Additionally, due to impact of the tidal flow water pushed up from the depths against the side of the reef structure, concentrates the flow of water and creates a rippled edge to indicate the reef's position (easily seen in left side of the image here and in video footage).

first queenie of morning

Queenfish are herding bait against this line and slashing periodically into them giving me something to cast to. My baitfish colleagues are on the drop off edge drowning baits hoping for the big broad barred mackerel that are suppose to be about.(PostScript: the friend on the sailing boat got one big meter plus Mack, trolling a spoon behind the back of their boat on way back to Darwin in afternoon, and another friend who went offshore, Dundee wide, had large packs breaking the surface with their feeding activity and lots of birds above them, showing where to troll)

Back to subject of Simms Reef, hoping it to be a sign of a good day starting - on the fifth cast of the morning, I catch a small queenfish. Within the first half hour I have 6 queenfish to 40-50 or so centimetres to hand and released. Larger periodic bust ups are occurring on the edge of reef drop off 50-60m away but nothing consistent enough to encourage a move. The danglers (bait anglers) have nothing. The score ends up - 6 to zip, in favour of the feather tosser!

Nothing else for the next two hours, the splashes get less, the wind increases and the reef gets exposed but no more fish. As Simms Reef gets exposed by about a metre of rock and sand bar, it is usually when I get more action but it isn't the case today - time for some flats fishing in the lee of Turtle island.

In hind sight I should have gone straight to the creek and channel behind the island for a hour or so as the water is just leaving the last leaves of the mangroves but instead I fished the couple of small bays on SW side of the island itself. Because by the time I decided to do that, it was high and dry and I couldn't fish it like I had planned

Still in the bays of turtle island, I had one good reaction from a 70 or so centimetre barramundi to the BFCW fly. It was lying very still but yellow tail highly visible in about a meter of water, I saw it too late not 5 or so metres from boat, and the boat despite turning off electric motor quickly continued to drift towards it with momentum taking me to within 2 metres of the fish. A good cast for a change, and as the fly landed near its head, an immediate response from the barramundi as it flared its fins and moved to the fly 30cm away. The fish followed, followed the slowly stripped fly, paused,  followed - before it sees the boat so close to it and flashes away. And that was only the first 10m of the two bays - I was beginning to think my barramundi nemesis days might be lifted this session.

However, 7 spooked and 3 unseen till too late to see barramundi (see later for details) - a nemesis they still are but I did greatly enjoy myself on the journey this time rather than being frustrated by it. But what an hour it was stalking these fish in the bays!

Once so busy watching the fish inshore, I missed three large barramundi hovering in deeper water over a small cluster of boulders on the other side of the boat till my peripheral vision saw them rapidly leave for waters untraveled by black sided boats with a poor sighted, big ugly man on it.

I also saw a big threadfin accompanied by a couple of smaller ones, herding small baitfish with their long chin filaments, the baitfish were 3-4cm and leaping above the surface to escape the predator corralling efforts but as I moved closer the threadfin where spooked by wave slap on the hull (?) way before I got into casting distance.

On the flat opposite the entrance to the Six Pack boat ramp arm, I was moving the boat along the flat after barramundi in the corners of snake drains and along comes this easily metre plus dark shape harassing baitfish along the way. It was a very large queenfish, a single cursing the flats. Again a poor and rushed cast from me, lands the fly on its head and it scoots off rapidly to deeper water. From the episode I learnt to look more closely and careful, along with a few glances further along in case another comes my way. One did (same one?), I had 6 or so casts at it - for a follow or two but no commitment from the fish - I think I needed a different fly on than the BFCW fly. In such shallow water the big fish was half on its side - it would have been absolutely gorgeous mayhem to hook up to such a big fish in such shallow water! All a 100 meres from deep water! Hopefully, next time.

With wife and two young kids at camping ground awaiting my return, I was off the water around midday and packed up heading home by 2:30pm. (PostScript, one of the bait guys I was with stayed out a bit longer and told me the barramundi up one creek he visited went absolutely off  with barramundi 'boofing' loudly and everywhere for about an hour, shortly after the turn of low tide began - not that he got any!)

Overall great day, even though not great numbers or size of fish. The added bonus of the 6-0 scorecard to the SWOFFER, the great sunrise and no wind during the morning session, the awesome flats stalk and cast (poorly cast most times I might add) to sighted fish on the flats, watching one fish react so positively to the BFCW Fly. I'll have more of that any day.

Can't wait to get on the water again! !!!!!!