Endalgut Island on theTropic Paradise

The last charter This year I did was on board the Tropic Paradise extremely comfortable and great crew on board. Destination Endalgut island.

This was where I had guided early years when there were not enough Fly fishers on my survival list'I got to refine my lure fishing and growing Flyfishers in this magnificent piece of estuary working out of " Stenny's Big Barra Safaris " Camp.
Here the Mini Mini and Murgenella creeks are  on the Southern end and the massive mangrove system of the lower Cobourg National park on the north.

The trip over which I had joined in with my guests required the boats to be towed from Darwin it got rough and while I sat and drank coffee and ate scotch finger biscuits there was a steady run of people throwing up out the back,at times in the three boats you could see one the middle boat dissapeared and the back one was up in the air somewhere,hard to sleep watching that.

That over, the calm waters of the Mini Mini were a welcome sight,first day we landed numerous Barra and Salmon till the wind came up and everyone gave up and headed home to eat then sleep (or vice versa )

Some days hard others a dream, plenty to see and cast to,the big Queenfish were still where I used to find them,in fact everything was still where I used to find them

.                                                          TROPIC PARADISE
Food for thought this a great boat and maybe the mob can field up to a dozen drive down the south and link up with this boat as a base, I  will explore that option.

Graeme

Global warming ? A random observation

                                                                Rising Temperatures

The one thing that struck me about 2013,2014, 2015 was the variation in temperature range as experienced in  previous years.

For a couple of decades I have been acutely aware of water temperatures and there relationship to fish activity.
Lets deal Barramundi here because most other fish do not have the  attitude that they do in fact
the pedantic pricks will use the most minimal excuse to not play the game fairly and when you spend up around 140 days on the water this is a real pain, great tides great location and may I add great guiding means jack shit when the temperature plays havoc.

Remember Julius Sumner Miller and he's program 'Why is it so ? '
Barramundi have a temperature range that is in affect 21c to 36c,outside that and in the cycle of life they would probably die

Drop into a Barra Farm and ask an 'expert', in a controlled environment where feeding is paramount to productivity they will feed aggressively between 27c and 30c at 32c they slow activity and at 35c there bio systems start to shut down likewise in reverse 25c they slow at 21c there in deep shit 

What ever you do avoid asking about Oxygen saturation levels.

El Nino year ?must had a few in a row then, November for me was a shocker, out there some days I had 31c and 35c on the flats this  was becoming a bit to frequent and the results were showing.

I abandoned Crab Claw for the last set of tides and went elsewhere.

Having said all this the Barra were obviously seeking thermoclines and occasionally would come into warmer water for a brief period,fishing deeper I dredged the odd fish but I wasn't happy, visual casting is my chosen field and the numbers in the shallows were not good at all .

Ignored by what some say is about 1.2m

Bynoe Harbour this year certainly showed that the water has warmed considerably and more consistently and earlier,September the water started heating up and it wasn't uncommon to find 30c on the flats ,likewise as in previous years winter (late June to August) it wasn't uncommon to get 22c  to 25c the last few years it didn't happen 26c was the lowest I encountered.

What to do ! ,fish deeper or go home,with the recent rains it will bring the temps down but I dread a dry spell running in to March,recent rains are nice and might give some normality Nearly Christmas and  Monday Tuesday this coming week will be the pick for me.

Graeme

You will love this if you live in Darwin

On first glance, Darwin Harbour appears much like any other Australian port, but a new geographic survey has documented ancient geography and ghostly shipwrecks in unprecedented detail.

Click on 'Darwin Harbour' to see this great link




Cheers Graeme

NT FISH STOCKS UNDER ATTACK - by JACK WHITE

Jack White is one of the young guns in the Mob and here is an article that he submitted for a school project and it must give heart to all of us that want to see our fishing paradise, remain just that, a paradise. 

Jack with an elusive 'Dart'

Does the Territory really need more fisherman to admire and plunder what is on offer in our local waters, asks Jack White.   

Survey's provided by NT Fisheries show that Golden Snapper (Fingermark Bream) and Black Jewfish numbers are quickly diminishing around the reefs of five hot fishing locations including Melville Island and Bathurst Island.  This is believed to be due to the influx in recreational fisherman over a period of seven years and the impact of commercial fishing.

In the long term, this issue will not only affect recreational fisherman, but also charter operators and commercial fisherman.

A five-year protection plan has already been established and has shut down five popular fishing locations: Melville Island, Bathurst Island, Charles Point, Lorna Shoal and Port Keats.  The personal possession limits have also been lowered to 3 Golden Snapper and 2 Black Jewfish.  But is it enough?

The Million Dollar Fish scheme, to encourage tourists to travel to the NT and fish in our waters, can't be good for the future Golden Snapper and Jewfish populations.  The inexperience and limited education that 'Southerners' have about legal fish sizes and fish sustainability in the NT is a substantial problem.  Unfortunately, many have no concept of 'catch and release'.  Charter and guiding operators are faced with continual dilemmas of letting their clients know that it is not right to keep their fish when it is the size of a successful breeder.

In saying that, Golden Snapper and Black Jewfish are known to suffer from barotrauma when caught in a depth of ten metres or more, meaning that it would be a waste to release as the chance of their survival is slim.

Should commercial sectors be allowed to fish the protection areas?  Commercial fisherman cull fish in masses for the demand from restaurants, fish markets and the cat food industry.  Is the need for fish that large? 

Commercial fisherman primarily target Barramundi and King Threadfin Salmon, however a common bycatch is Black Jewfish yet not Golden Snapper.  They have particular zones to fish and have a season of 7 months.

The Amateur Fisherman's Association of the NT (AFANT) discovered that commercial fisherman were still operating in the reef protection areas, "this was despite governments repeated assurances that all stakeholders; commercial, recreational, indigenous and tour fishing operators were required to 'share the pain' and be excluded from fishing these areas to aid in the protection and recovery of at risk reef fish species." says AFANT President Warren de With.  Recreational fisherman are permitted to keep 3 Golden Snapper and 2 Jewfish at a time, whereas commercial fisherman fish on an unsustainable level with no limits at all.

Great size Golden Snapper, 2015 

Unfortunately they are unable to target different species due to the use of nets, as there is minimal guarantee that a Snapper or Jewfish will not be caught.  Perhaps, to keep things fair, all fishing must be excluded from all stakeholders in the protection areas to allow the fish to develop growth in both size and quantity.  Shortening the commercial fishing season may be a good alternative as this would raise the demand for fish and also their prices, creating a sustainable income for the fishermen.

Healthy Jewfish caught in October, 2015 - Photo by Rod and Rifle Tackleworld

Long time flyfisher's Cathie and Roger Bassett, spoke of an entry in Captain Cook's journal where his sailors caught fish in their nets.  However, when the nets were brought ashore the indigenous people, who up until then had been peaceful bystanders, suddenly became disturbed and gestured threats to the sailors.  The sailors retreated leaving behind the net.  The indigenous people then began reducing the catch by two thirds and releasing these fish, thereby ensuring that the sailors only kept what they needed and not the entire catch.  This is a great example of the 'catch and release' method that is used today and sustainability at its best.

So, in order to keep the actions fair and just, a 'happy medium' must be found where everyone in the fishing community and industry 'shares the pain' because we are all held accountable for the decline of two of the Territory's most beloved eating and sporting fish.  Assuming that many people would oppose the introduction of fishing licences, let's do our part and show our concern for the welfare of fishing in the Territory!

Yellow Waters

Last weekend ventured out to Yellow Waters to try my luck. The drive out was met with a nice cooling storm at Jabiru and was to be the first of a couple of storms to eventuate over the next couple of days.

Rain on its way!

Fished both Home and Yellow Waters over the weekend with Home providing fish that seemed to be in much better condition and were much more receptive to the fly. Yellow Water stock was very visible but would shy away from the fly, frustrating to the max. Don’t know if the water temp had anything to do with it, Home 30-31 degrees, Yellow Waters 32-34 degrees.

Great fish to catch!

While the numbers of fish caught came nowhere near to that of my last visit about a month ago it is a great place to visit at this time of the year to sight all the wildlife that has congregated on the billabongs. Crocs by the hundreds with one taking my largest fish of the weekend, estimated at 70-75 cms, right at the boat, came out of nowhere. It then spent the next half an hour trying to evade other crocs that wished to have a feed also. Hope it did not have a Million Dollars stuck in its back! Waterbirds covered the water surface and often wondered if their activity of landing and taking off en-mass had anything to do with the Yellow Water fish being timid!

He wanted it more than me!

While the temperature was hot it wasn’t unbearable and the evening storms cooled it enough for good sleeping under the stars.

Home Sweet Home

Remember “You’ll never never know, if you never never go. Get out there and fish”.

Tight lines

Jim Churchley

Nostalgia from the mid 80's

When I first came to the Northern Territory in 1985 it was to view a destination with then local Col Roberts (Wildfish Magazine today) the idea was to build a Floatel in the waters of Port Hurd Bathurst Island.This later for various reasons changed to the option of building a more permanent fixture that today is known as the The Barra Base.

In the process Rod Harrison and Dean Butler who were producing videos using John Haenke as the cameraman came to Barra Base and shot a video called "Top End Barra" it was during this that Rod requested that Dorothee and I  host, in part American Flyfishing Legend Lefty Kreh on his upcoming down under tour.

The upshot was a video called the " New Frontier " Harro was admiring an approach we developed in the visual stalking of Mangrove flats for Barramundi ,Threadfin and anything else that showed its nose, The tour was very successful with Goose Creek (Saratoga) being included in the Barra base section,The Drysdale, Cobourg peninsula  and New Guinea Black Bass .

The Mid 80's with Alex Julius then in the Fisheries Department and Mike Reid the Minister spearheaded what was to become a major tourism thrust that we still reap the benefits of today,Alex with Harro and John Haenke later spent a week producing a 10 Min promo of Fishing in the NT it recently was taken from Beta cam to a digital format and is uploaded here.

Names such as Alan Philiskirk, Phil Hall, Alex Julius,Gary ( bigfoot ) Simpson,Rod Harrison, Dean Butler, Lex Silvester and other locals obviously skinnier and  much younger are here.

Hope you enjoy this 27 yr old video.

 After clicking wait

 15 seconds

ROUGH PARADISE?

What a difference a fortnight can make, tides, weather, everything looked good for a great weekend, the moon was coming to its peak (see Graeme the Greys post by clicking THE MOON), but we didn't take into account the storms. It was pouring when we left Durack, the gutters were running full and the sky was black.  As usual with the rain up here we drove out of heavy rain where you could hardly see into dry clear areas where you could see another heavy shower ahead.  What a wonderful place the NT is, just to see the storms and the magnificent lightning shows.

Actually we were a bit worried, because sometimes the big storms cause some flash flooding on the smaller crossing that still exist on the road to Sand Palms, but they were as dry as what Roggie calls a  'Çamel's Fart'.  I think that's very very dry?

Poured at Sandpalms, and while we had the bungs out in the boat, we forgot to put it on a slope the next morning and travelled around with a heavy listing boat for the first day.  On the ramp when we returned it must have had a hundred or more litre of fresh water in it.  We made sure that the next day we drained it even only after a small storm, and it was amazing the water that gets in them.

Now we got to Sandpalms for the Thursday night pizza, and I invented a new one that the staff made up for me....a Salawaiian  (instead of a ham and pineapple hawaiian), it was salami and pineapple  Plus of course some of that wonderful red wine

Matt with the great wine

Friday was horrendous, we went up to the top of the harbour but there was swell coming in that you could not get through, so we turned back as the heavens opened, but the swell was the strangest, the poor old boat seemed to have trouble getting through it, so we headed back to the sheltered creeks and Knife Island.   Saw Bill and Danny Wilson at Knife Island, they had a good day, some of the best fishing according to Bill, but the swell was a pain.  They came back out the next day with the grandson, but I'm not sure how they went.

This was the smooth water in Phoenix Creek 

We had a lot of action in 'Flog'em Flats', didn't see any of the usual threadies there but heaps of barra, but with the swell the boat was up and down onto the mud, and Roggie said something rude about the waves so we moved on.  He said he was putting on a 'special prop' for the next day.....very silly.

We did manage a heap of 'Tea Leaf' trevally around China Wall and queenies, bream and trevally in the Charlotte.  Then I managed a cast at a fish that Roggie said was a black trevally in the murky water, but it was a flat head with a very colourful striped tail.

This flathead took the 'barra'fly 

Typical Tea Leaf

Friday evening was 'Schnitzel' night at Sandpalms...they were amazing, Roggie and Marty had to have their pork chops though. All with that wonderful red wine.

Saturday we all headed up to 'Jim's secret spot' but the weather was horrid and the sea was worse.  Lord Jim had managed barra in Jim's Bay???, and Big Dave was at the secret spot, (when we got there) but there were only spasmodic queenies and wolf herring.  The other boats had headed into the creeks out of the rough sea and as usual the Brokenflagens killed a pig.  The Triple J boat ( Jenni, Jon and Jack) got some fish and we were late to all the spots, why??, Roggie had decided to put that 'Special Prop' on the night before.  Well! it worked until we got into the waves and swell then the motor would not go over 3800 rpm.   I didn't say, "I told you so"...but that prop is going to the Sea Gods to fix.

We had to  limp back in a terrible sea, to a safe beach, where, with the boat rocking up and down, all over the place, Roggie put the old prop back on......fixed the problem.

We left the secret spot and went into a couple of creeks, one of them was alive with barra, we first saw one about 80cm and then as it swam into clear water realised that it was with a school of smaller barra.  We threw everything we had at them...no good.  Back to the every reliable Knife Island and there were birds everywhere with small macs jumping all over the place, but all we could manage was those bloody queenies.  Roggie keeps telling me that I'm whinging, because most people would love catching a heap of them, but I know its so good up here, so I can whinge.  I know...I'm spoilt!

The Brokenflagens heading into the 'storm'?

Lord Jim setting up as it clears

That evening there was a lot of planning, and decisions to make if we would go out the next day because of the horrid sea.   The predictions were great, just like Friday and Saturday, and after drinking to the fish Gods and Marty doing a 'Fish' dance. (Something like an Irish Jig done by a German..which is what it was)...and all of us, except Jenni who had an injury from bike riding, decided to take on the rough sea for Sunday.

Marty doing the 'fish Gods'dance....(a German Haka?) ..it worked!!!

The Stig, Canadian Pete getting the 'drum' and the map references?  

So the next day arrived, no black clouds, fantastic...

Looks good....fingers crossed

Fish a cast!!!

Sunday looked great, we went with Double J boat down into the harbour, and stopped at one of the rock bars that usually goes well...it didn't disappoint, Jack and Jon were on double hook ups and it was a fish a cast for a while.   Roggie always says you shouldn't leave fish to catch fish, but we wanted to show the boys around, so we went to a few other spots that can fish well.   Jack managed to get the barra to chase him, but it wasn't until we got onto the flats (I think Jim calls them Jim's flats) that he got his first barra, small but a barra but no red tag.

You could see fish moving in the shallows for 100 feet either side of the boat, great, but not a lot of fish.

Jacks barra on an EP fly.

A bit different to the previous days...smooth but really really hot.

Keeping under the Great Northern shade.

The Minchins got barra and salmon ...

Add caption

and the Brokenflagons had a ball...

A PB Jack for Jus

Marty with one of the barra

A beautiful morning.

Some exotic fly fishing

Hi guys

Greetings from London. Hope all is well in the Top End. I'm guessing the weather is probably a bit warmer there than where I am!

Thought you might be interested in these shots from a mate of mine, Mark Pettini, who has been sending me pics from his fly fishing trip to Argentina in a successful attempt to make me jealous.

He has been getting some incredible dorado on the fly over there.

One to put on the bucket list for any flyrodder.

Cheers - Dave Krantz

SEVENTY TWO STILL OUT THERE

Yes, four (4) of the tagged barra have been caught, but that leaves us another seventy one at $10,000.00 and one at the $1,000,000.00 mark.

This weekend looks good for tides and weather if you are a swoffer, wind may be predicted to come up around mid day ie the sea breeze, but the low is before the wind comes up so the flats should fish well.  Not sure what fly to use, but we have translucent green/brown and green/yellow/white which did well a fortnight ago.

here is the info on the tides etc

and the wind?????

there is a mob of us heading to Sand Palms, because its time for Bynoe to give up at least one $10,000.00 fish...we hope, but in any case, its always  'Just for Fun'.

The Bassetts