Hey Folks,
It's been a while since I last posted, so I hope this finds everyone itching to get amongst the action, casting arms warmed up and ready to rock and roll.
Apologies for not having any pictures, perhaps next time I'll take a camera. Oh well, I know a picture is worth a thousand words, so stiff your gonna get a thousand words!! Only kidding.
My good mate and ex step brother, the winner of the prestigious Corroborree Cup was in Darwin for a couple of days last week and decided to hang around for the weekend, so what to do?
How's Bynoe sound? For a day trip? Sounds bloody good I reckon.
As usual a couple of beers to catch up, a couple of bourbons because it tastes good and oh well, the servo is close so we'll get fuel at Sand Palms in the morning, they open at 5:30 or 6 ish, well they do when we are out there for the Stakes anyway!
For those that frequent Sand Palms more than I do will see the error in our ways. You guessed it, parked by the fuel bowser at 5:30am, not another soul in site, or light inside the pub for that matter. After a while it was getting light enough to read the trading hours on the door....Saturday 7:00am - WTF.
Oh well we crossed paths with Jim heading out.... after Sand Palms opened, grabbed a toasted sanger and some fuel and headed down Milne by 8:00 (that's after a 4:00am rise, leaving home by 4:50, at Sand Palms by 5:30 and a quiet nap for an hour and a half!! Best laid plans hey?
We headed out to Knife, and 4 other boats had the same idea, so declared that too crowded and headed to the bottom of Indian. We got into some nice Goldies, GTs and small Russels snapper, but on my 3rd cast I felt the familiar bump through the rod and then weight, but not much else. I was using a bead chain eyed, size 2 clouser, so was nowhere near the bottom. The weight seemed to struggle and take line, but generally just felt weird! About 20 seconds later a Hawksbill turtle popped up, waved it's right front flipper at me and politely asked if I wouldn't mind pulling the hook out. Of course I obliged, since he asked so nicely and then dropped him back in the drink. With a wave of his good flipper, he swam off.
Let's check out the entrance to Turnbull Bay, I know a good spot over there and off we went. Jim's right, by now it was glassed off and magnificent to be on the water again. We pinned a couple of nice goldies and queenfish at this spot and then headed back over to Mawson Inlet for a look around for a Barra for tea. Mawson looked great, the water was a bit murky, but the tides were pretty big, so we started working the drains just as the tide was dropping out of the mangroves. I should mention here that Craig hurt his right wrist (you can think what you like) and couldn't fly fish, so he was tossing softies (again you can think what you like) alright soft plastics (stop it) let's call it the dark side.
We spotted a few Barra and caught them, the best was 70cm, the others just legal or just under, but ended up with 6 boated, and 3 dropped....all bar 1 of these on the fly. Craig hooked one and jumped it at the boat.
We bailed out around 2:30 when the sea breeze kicked in and we were home by 3:30, actually no we stopped for a beer at the Litchy on the way home.
That was Saturday, on Sunday we headed to Middle Arm and worked hard until the 1st 2 hours of the incoming and finally found a couple of barra in a small side creek near the Middle Arm boat ramp.
All up a good weekend and some fish for the freezer, whole Goldie in the Webber on Saturday night cooked with home made rosella chutney and lemon, For tea tonight we are going to try crispy skin golden snapper. Sound good?
Happy days,
Dion
LIFE is never dull for a Territory cop, even in the tiny community of Warruwi on the Golburn Islands, 300km east of Darwin.
Sergeant Paul Maccioni and Senior Constable Martin Bond are entrusted with keeping the peace in the community of 500. Sen-Constable Bond, a Pom who spent 19 years as a London bobby, has just earned himself a new nickname, “the Other White Meat”.
“He’s as white as,” Sgt Maccioni said of his partner.
But it’s not just Sen-Constable Bond’s complexion that won him his new handle.
A brush with an inquisitive croc at the local boat ramp the other evening has also helped.
“Young Marty was standing at the end of the barge landing. It was quite picturesque and I said, ‘mate, I’ll take a photo’.
“He’s turned around and he’s faced me. And I’ve taken a photo. And he’s walked towards me.
“And as he’s walked towards me, this bloody croc has popped up behind him, stuck its head out the water and done a U-turn and swum off.
“And I thought, ‘geez, what a cheeky little bastard’.
“I reckon she was just saying, ‘bugger off, this is my turf’.”
It’s one of two crocs in the area.
One is a 3.5m male and the female is 2.5m.