Gentlemen's Hours

From Dave Krantz

Can't beat a gentleman's hours jaunt on the harbour



and Mario

The salty keepers were feeding hard on the smorgasbord of bait during today's outgoing in the Harbour. Here's two out three we landed for as many hours fishing. Thanks to super guide Dave 'The Mad Professor' Krantz for taking me out. - Fadge

Evolution

FIRING AT MANINGRIDA

From Alex Julius

Here's the 106cm barra James Bradstreet caught yesterday fishing with guide Lennie Sibio. Apparently lost one bigger the next cast. His group of 12 caught 733 barra in 3 days. Dave Thomas, our Lodge Manager, also sent through a "rough" photo of the Boys' scoreboard as they are very competitive. Today's their last day then James reckons they'll be tearing Darwin Town apart tonight before flying back to Newcastle and elsewhere in NSW tomorrow. 

BUSY AT SHADY?

From Emma Cartwright

Its getting busy out at Shady!!

LEAVING THE SHALLOWS

The hunt for barramundi always keeps me focussed on those dropping tides, this Barra at around 80cms was not playing he was leaving.

But you never lose the memory of the moment 

This weekend is perfect to hunt a good sized Thready or Barra, see you there

                                          
                                        

                                           
                                                            I Wish, " that's what happened".

SHADY WITH TOM AND WATTY

Shady Camp 27-3-14

After my little incident at Corobboree billabong where prop met rock at 6000rpm (and thanks to Frenchys Marine for getting me back on the water in just 1 day) I thought I had better take the boat for a quiet run before what is shaping up to be 35 days straight guiding, tough life I know.

The thought did cross our minds to head downstream to the mouth of Sampan creek to rustle up a feed of Threadys that were no doubt getting harassed by the other 40 odd boats in the car park but the tide was low and we didn't have all day so with that in mind, upstream we went.

Tom was gunning for a junior world record for oxeye tarpon and I was keen to give the all tackle length a nudge so we had a few casts and a little troll (dark side) and before you know it Tom is hooked up to the new pending male junior world record oxeye tarpon.

Landed, weighed, measured and released only time will tell but it is very exciting for us.

We got plenty more but none that i thought were worthy of the length record so we moved back to the barrage for a flick before home.

After catching eight or ten cute little barra on small plastics I grabbed my LJ Custom fly rod out and paired with an intermediate sinking line and a Rodgey Dodgey liddlebitalfbig pinkish thingo (I'm sure that's what its called) we had a ball catching our fair share of feisty little babies up to about 50cm.

The picture below is Toms first ever fish on fly and a barra at that!

What a day off school for him!

We did have to snap out of our games for a short while though when a bag full of steak and spare ribs decided to wade the barrage putting us out in the open with a leatherman, fly rod and one big hat between us and certain death! Fair to say he didn't care about us too much until he got a whiff of my citronella marinated carpet in the boat.

Fair dinkum though, with a pending world record, first barra on fly, wrestling a buff out of the boat and plenty of creamy soda in the esky this place is not only a paradise for hard core fishos but kids not to mention their super proud dads! 

We are so lucky! I hope that place never changes! 

Strike Hard Strike Often

Watty

KEEPING COOL

From Jono Shales   This looks like a good idea for up here?

Post by Exmouth Fly Fishing.

A NEW MAGAZINE

Something new 

Vicki Winter-Lear‎Australian Women In Fishing

An online magazine run by women, free to subscribe and great reading. Some fantastic stories from women sharing their journey's in fly fishing. If you get the time I suggest you have a read. Even if you are not into fly fishing you will feel like you are there experiencing what these ladies are experiencing. Hope you like.

Dun ~ The Magazine

Dun ~ The Magazine: The Online Women's Fly Fishing Magazine showcasing female anglers from around the globe.

DUNTHEMAGAZINE.COM

WHAT A BALL - CORROBOREE

Just back from Corroboree, what a ball we had, bit of a rough start though, Cathie had me up at 8am which was horrible, then we had to rush breakfast and got out to Corroboree about 10am.   There were three other boats there and they were fishing on the 'dark side'.  We spoke to them a couple of times and they apparently could not get a fish in the boat.   We didn't have that trouble.  Bloody tarpon, to use Watties description, there are a gazillion out there.

But what a glorious, picturesque place it is. Just great to be out there.

First off the water was around 29 degrees when we put in.   The water was bloody magnificent, clearer than usual, but in some spots there was a green growth algae type of thing, but otherwise very clear.

We initially tried small clousers on DNA which used to work well.  It did on tarpon...they bloody near jumped out of the water into the boat to grab them.

We went to some of the spots that often fire, but they were very quiet...except for tarpon.  So because of the tarpon we put on bigger feather flies three and four inches long.  Didn't that make a difference.

Started to get into the Toga on the edges.  They were rolling and jumping up at the dragon flies, could have got some great photos if I had any patience! There is some weed about, but it was pretty easy to fish through with a weed guard. Hopefully there might be another quick flush which gets rid of the low weed areas, but it is still fishable.

If you have kids or someone wanting to have a ball fly fishing, tie up some small flies on No. 4's for the tarpon, use a sinking line on a 3 or 4 wt and you will have the time of your life.  Whilst there are heaps of small ones there  are some big ones too.

We were both using sinking (dredging ) lines, Cathie had a 300grn on a 9wt and I had a 250grn on a 6wt, and you needed them in the current to get down, because there has been more erosion and some spots that were less than a metre deep in the past are nearly 2 metres now.

We pulled out just before 2pm because it was bloody hot, and the water at that stage was 34 degrees.  The toga were rolling and there was boofing which there hadn't been in the morning, and the tarpon had shut down a bit.   Should have fished on, but needed a cold beer.

Very busy boat ramp when we pulled out, and a full carpark?

The water is lower than it often is when the billabong is opened, but there is still heaps up on the floodplain.

This is the cut through, water is down already 

Tried to get the green film in a photo but it is not that clear.

One of the eight toga we got.

One of the five barra we got. 

You may notice that there are no photos of me.....Cathie refused to take them......... apparently because of my beard.

Tried to get the tarpon action because the water was boiling with them.

The lilies looked like a snow field out there.

Shady Trip 14th - 16th March

Myself & my son Jack did a recent trip to Shady.  Although we had fly rods the plan was to troll the mouth of Sampan for the 'Big Girls'.  Shortly after arriving I landed a nice Threadfin around 85cm's, this was the only fish we kept for a feed. Eventually I landed a Barra which was a new PB of 87 cm's.
Finally count for the day: 4 Blue Salmon, 4 Threadfin Salmon, 1 Barra & 1 Jewfish

Jack's Jewfish

Although the Barra seemed to be fairly quiet there were plenty of Salmon around.  The tide was just starting to build off the neaps & we thought we were in for a great trip.   There were a lot of fish caught on the Friday, with most boats getting into some action.

New PB 87cm's

The next morning as Jack was driving the boat he spotted some Magpie Geese.  As I was about to take a sunrise photo he yelled "Dad get the geese in the photo".   As I was about to take the photo, Jack yelled out in dismay, the geese had shat on him!  I am sure they recognised him from a previous hunting trip!  Needless to say there are no geese in the photo, I was too busy laughing to take a picture! 

There should be some geese in this photo

We returned to the mouth for many hours of trolling for only one fish.  I landed another Barra which was another PB of 94 cm's.  I might add that at this stage I had caught most of the fish, Jack was not amused!  My normal role is to provide transport, food & drive the boat! (Is that what they call guiding?)  Jack is usually the one who gets the fish………………………

We left around lunchtime to head back to the fresh to fly fish.  After an hour or so I landed a small Barra on one of Jack's flies

Another PB 94 cm's

Jack's fly did the trick

I should mention we have a new poly boat with a tiller steer motor.  Unfortunately with the design of the motor bracket if you trim it up too far you can pinch the throttle & gear shift cables against the bracket.  We had damaged the shift cable a few weeks ago & could not select reverse.  I had thought ahead & taken some tools with me just in case……….. Good thing the tools were there, on the Sunday morning the shift cable broke just after arriving at the mouth.  I put the boat back into gear with a 10mm spanner & we headed home.

Jon

Crab Claw Bynoe Harbour

First charter this season from Crab Claw.

Road at the moment is atrocious but will be repaired next week, the flats still have a bit of fresh colour to them but there are a lot of small to medium Queenfish and Trevally.

Encountered quite a few groups of Golden Trevally which was nice and the rock bars are carrying lots of nice sized Snapper.

Lost a few Barra at first but their showing a bit more interest this fish at 82 cm's was my first Barra for a client in 2014 and his first Barra ever

MOB NEWS 2014 No.1

Just back from down south, so have been a bit slack on the newsfront.

First, here is a bit on the Sawfish Survival programe that the Mob hopes to sponsor when we get a little more financial.  Go Kate, our Mobster film star !!!

Secondly..talking of sponsorship...a special sponsor (from South Australia) may come on board for our Corroboree Cup, but more on that later this week, and speaking of S.A.,Cathy and Crusty's niece gave us a bit of a plug for sponsorship in the State under 19's softball...Good luck Carly!

Next is

Well we can't get to My Kitchen rules this year so we will make our own up to practice for the future and arrange some social cooking days and cook offs ....perhaps any proceeds to a charity as we did with the donation to    at out last big outing.

Since last year Roggie has had a draft web page (See above) and a draft constitution for the possibility of forming an incorporated club in the future (No hurry) and he has put out the draft for the Web page on the email list.   Feel free to have some input and criticise  he will also post out the draft constitution when he has worked it out a bit better.

UPDATE:

Pete Davies

Mix 1049 will sponsor the Corroboree Cup

and

     



 Cheers for now

                              

WHAT IS WORKING AMONGST THE JELLY PRAWNS

Had a bit of a debrief on the fishing on the Harbour (both) flats. A lot had difficulty because of the huge amount of Jelly prawns around, but one boat, a white flats boat, killed a pig!!(did really well).

 Because of the large amount of Jellies, they put on flies called ' Fuzzle Scampi' that they got of Jono Makim ( you can see them on ( http://www.jonmakimflies.com ).

Apparently when the Jellies are on, a fly like this is the shot.




    

FRESH 17th-18th MAY- CORROBOREE CUP?

As we have the Bynoe Sheep Station Stakes for the saltwater, our freshwater gathering could be known as the "Corroboree Cup"  or if a sponsor comes on board, the  "???????? Corroboree Cup" .

The prize of course is a 'cup' with all the acknowledgements put on with a beautiful permanent marker pen, and full of 'Glory' for the winner.....and you could also have your name written with permanent marker on the back of the cup!!!

The Cup

An example ???

Perhaps the runner up can get a......... saucer?

We are certain that both will be highly sought after, especially as the scoring keeps it so anyone can win !

Like the "Gold Cup" for tarpon in the US, and the "Vision Cup" for trout and pike in Lithuania , we now have the "Corroboree Cup"!!

 This cup will in time become highly sort after and shall be steeped in a wonderful history.

Here is 'another' draft score card and I think there will be big bonuses for those who can catch extra of the 'other fish' but that is yet to be finalised, but if you get five of them, say 500 points, six of them a 1000 etc. so everyone has the chance of winning.

More on the scoring as we get closer, but just fill in the coloured boxes!

Rules are: Have Fun

No limit on fly fishers in the boat, within safety limits and laws and regulations of the NT,
and subscribe to the basic rules for fly fishing....... "Casting and retrieving must be accordance with normal customs and generally accepted practices."carried out in  like the old motto, 

"A rod in the hand,

not two in the boat"

The dates of course are........17th & 18th May, 2014 based at Corroboree Park Tavern

GARFISH FOR GT'S

Jon Makim Flies with Jono Makim 

With several customers headed out chasing big flats GT's it is time to expand our offering, first up a Garfish pattern, should prove tempting to Geets all across the seas I'm hoping!

WATCH THE SNAGS

Roger Sinclair

Recent pic from the South Alligator, note the floating "snag" that appears in the lower right hand corner. The "snag" bobbed up while we snapped this pic but neither Glenn or myself saw or heard anything, it was only until I looked at the photo..........!