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