REPORT FROM THE STIGS HALL PASS TRIP.

See The Stigs blog at http://swoffingntwaters.blogspot.com.au/
Monday, August 25, 2014

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!