Bring it on Indeed!

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

"Bring it on!"

With the moon showing opaque through night time cloud cover, midges out in full force, only a sheet required for camping, water at almost 29 degrees, and the only wind being the afternoon sea breeze, is the build-up here?? If so “bring it on”. Had the weekend down at Bynoe and can report the good times are back following one of the most disappointing Dry’s during my 15 years in the Top End.

If the build-up is here then the fish are happy because they came out to play. With the big tides this weekend I played Russian Roulette with the flats in Turnbull Bay and around Indian Island in glass-out conditions and was rewarded with good quantities of Barra boated and heaps seen. Threadies seen but could not entice them to eat. While the fish landed and seen were not big it was good fun. My prediction is if the temperature continues for a couple of weeks the larger fish will show. 

Can't remember when I saw calm water this year!!

More flat water

Great to see a number of other Mobsters out there enjoying the conditions and also getting amongst the fish.

Restocking the freezer

Beware if camping at Sandpalms as there must be a ghost there as my Mossie Dome was mysteriously relocated 50 metres into the scrub while I was out fishing!! Did the “White” boat see anything going on?????

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

Tight lines

Jim Churchley

THE STIG - LEE POINT AND ITS PELAGICS

More of the same awesomeness at Lee Point and its Pelagics

Last weekend found Peter and I off Lee Point from early morning, waiting for the reef to impact the flow of water  (usually an hour or so after high tide) to create that lovely ripple on top of the reef that seems to excite the pelagics in the area.

Wind was 5-10knots most of the day. Varying from almost calm water to white caps and then back again. It would have been quite rough in my shallow profile boat but in Peter's 4.8 Formosa  - a lot safer - even though standing on the high front deck was like a roller-coaster ride.

Firstly, we tried clousers like usual but fish quite tentative
After an hour or so we switched to the silicone surf candy I had been tying lately

So excited at the fly, see above, were the mackerel that on the first cast of it while waiting for it to sink a little, it was hit on the drop without any stripping on my part and I came up tight to a good fish
Then one fish after another come to the net, the fly body was quite durable, the tail not so much however even with the barest wisp of goat hair fibres left - the fly was attacked savagely.

Queenfish like the fly too. We were managing three or four macks to one queenfish numbers wise. But the same sized queenfish fought much better.
Other species also thought the fly perfect - stripies, trevally, golden trevally, small blue bones, butter bream, fringe-finned trevally, yellowtail pike, garfish all coming to the net.

Overall, we enjoyed four hours of non-stop tight lines and double hookups (and losing the fifteen candies I had tied on friday before the weekend and resorting to clousers again - Peter used pink/white clousers and I used white/grey clousers). I did try my epoxy surf candies but while catching a few fish, just not quite with the same enthusiasm by the fish as they did for the silicone version.

By 2pm Peter and I were absolutely exhausted from catching fish - seriously!!! Sore arms from fast stripping the flies. Though a lot of fish were caught on slow or stationary flies drifted near the edge of the reef or dumped into a feeding frenzy of pelagics and bait. It wasn't just one spot, as we did move a few times to find that perfect water and feeding fish but no more than 50m here and there depending on tide direction and water depth over the reef - which influenced where the fish were feeding.

It was the best fun anyone could have while dressed - (even though the fishing was the same result as the last two previous trips). Again we hardly saw any other fish being caught by the one or two boats nearby - but then they were not SWOFFING!

We had planned to go after tuna after an hour of fishing Lee Point for a few fish in the esky, But with fish busting up all along the reef, the chasing of sporadic and inconsistent tuna, spread over a vast area of water - just didn't happen
Maybe next time

Which may be a while - as wife has the next two weekends exhaustively timetabled and planned with family stuff (i.e. me looking after the kids while she goes out! That wasn't the arrangement in the marriage vows/contract was it?)
But I do get a whole weekend three weeks from now for the brownie points I will earn - maybe Bynoe or Perons (if tide OK for Perons boat ramp).

Until I tie more flies or use them in the water - tight lines.............

Pommy cop’s croc shock

Pommy cop’s croc shock while getting his photo taken in picturesque Territory setting

• FRED MCCUE
• NT NEWS
• AUGUST 20, 2015 4:24PM

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A former London cop had a shock brush with a croc while getting his photo taken in picturesque Territory setting. Picture: Bruce Magilton

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”.

READ: MASSIVE CROC CALMLY SWIMS ALONG WITH PET DOG IN ITS JAWS

“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.

HAG'S - 104CM "BARRA FROM CORROBOREE

Corroboree has been quiet for the last few years after poor wet seasons, but  a few good fish starting to be caught lately, I'm sure metery's have been caught in the past and Hags joined the metery club with a 104 cm from the billabong..last weekend..great fish...

THE STIG - DARWIN CUP DAY

Darwin cup day

A public holiday in Darwin last Monday - time for SWOFFING!!!!
Had 20 grey over white clousers tied for the pelagicsWhy tie one when you can tie 20..........I tie these very rough and untidy - adds to the subtlety of the fly

Peter and I head off early for Dinah Beach ramp, on the water by 6:30am as sun peaking over the horizon - and then to Lee Point again (why not, as fish always there on dropping tide)

Forecast was for strong winds all day so we thought an hour at Lee Point and then onto creeks to try for some Barra and such on mud flats as last of tide dropped out. the low was just after lunch at just a little more than a meter so we would see a lot of structure we hadn't see before or for a while so a great opportunity to explore when the inevitable wind started howling across the harbour

However, the fish were all over the reef at Lee Point.At first with so much water over the reefs (max spring tides to 7+m high at eight a.m.) the fish were spread out and tentative
But still we caught fish and were the only boat out there, other boats off in the distance but we had the whole of Lee Point close in reefs to ourselves

As the tide dropped the fish started to get more aggressive towards the fly and the bait hugging the reef
By 9am the water had glassed off (see video at end of this blog) and the fly fishing just got better and better. At times a fish a cast.

I needed a few fish for a school subject (dissection and identifying gut contents) and the variety of species proved fortuitous

Large stripies, goldens, GTs, grey macks, small narrow barred macks, queenfish, yellow tail pike, longtom and even one foul hooked garfish - a large one good enough to even fillet.

Till 1pm we had calm seas, mirror calm, and fish action all around us. Then in seconds the wind came up, shifted, and white caps pushed us off the reef.

We then headed for the creeks, however with a stopover at Cullen Bay ferry ramp for a pit stop (me) and the most awesome hot chips i have eaten in a while. Which Peter's lovely wife brought to us. We headed back out to the wind towards the creeks and we heard a loud whistle. Initially we thought it was the plethora of birds of prey (Brown Buzzards) swirling above us and the entrance to Cullen Bay Dock area, but it was Peter's wife again (man! Has she got a whistle) - in that wind, with us almost out of the small bay....

She had forgotten to gives us the prime reason for the stopover in Cullen Bay - the remote for the electric Peter had forgotten this morning. they live on the waterfront at Nightcliff but the water was too far out to get in to Nightcliff wharf, let alone the silted up boat ramp there.

Now off to the creeks....Fairly slow fishing, tide was already rising - we had missed my favourite time of tide for creeks - the very last of the outgoing tide. Just love casting to the ends of 'snake' drains and the muddy plume that flows from them as they are perfect ambush points for the predators - namely Barra and Threadfin salmon.
For the next few hours we cast and cast but to no avail. We sighted a few disturbances of bait being harassed. But only had one half take from the boil, flash and location a Barra - my Barra nemesis issues continue!
Before we knew it it was 5pm and we had been going since hitting the water 6:30am

Long day. Lee Point proved awesome again! We learnt more about Darwin Harbour creeks - soooo much more to learn .

TART 'n' TIE DAY

NT Fly Flyshers Social Mob had another great Tart 'n'Tie Day (and evening and early morning!!!).  Many thanks to Jus and Marty for their wonderful hospitality out at their rural retreat.

Many a tart was eaten including, calabrese tart, caramelised onion and blue cheese tart, hot smoked salmon and brie tart, asparagus and gruyere cheese tart and Dottie's special veggie tart. There was also Portuguese custard tarts for dessert.

A Special Presentation to Marty from Jon.  This came about from Marty's special performance out at Alligator Billabong recently! (more about this at the Chrissy Party)

The highlight of the evening was Dottie's mango and raspberry tart which had a barramundi made out of puff pastry on top.  Bloody delicious and the barra even came with a fly in its mouth!

Was there many a fly tied ?? Well.......we spoke about it a lot !!

WINDY FISH

Graeme the Grey was out in the wind last week.....still managed fish for the boys...but hard going I'm told....unless you could get out of the wind....but there are still fish being caught...cannot wait for the build up and the wind to drop....