THE PERONS WITH DAVE AND DEAN

 Early this week Dean and I headed round to the Peron Islands. I don’t get to fish with Dean as much as I used to, kids became a priority (his, not mine), so when we do get the opportunity, we like to make the most of it. We had two nights aboard the Yellow Peril which gave us plenty of time for fishing and solving the world’s problems over a couple of cans. After an early departure from Darwin, we launched at Dundee at around 7am, good conditions had us chasing feeding schools of Mack Tuna off Pt. Jenni within the hour. 

A few tuna landed, then time to keep heading further onto some wide marks off the Peron’s. We were hopeful of finding some big Spaniards and possibly some Sails, however, the trophy fish weren't there. Numerous schools of trevally were feeding on the surface, a few tuna and small to mid Mack’s as well. This continued over the 3 days we were out. 

We poked around the Anson bay side of the Peron’s for some good queenies, Jacks and solid Snapper but spent most of our time wide, looking for a trophy. We were blessed with great weather, besides a few storms and big seas, it remained calm for us. No trophies to brag about, but a man can’t complain when he’s got consistent schools of Pelagics to cast too. 

The Trevally were around the 5kg mark, with a few larger 10kg models coming aboard. They certainly test the 8wgt. A lot of the schools looked to be Tea Leaf Trevally. The schools of GT’s were smaller in numbers but bigger in size. The biggest Mack went around 80cm fork length and Queenie mid 70’s.

 

The water out wide was a consistent 32.4 C, maybe a bit warm yet for the area to reach it’s pelagic potential, we only came across one school of Long Tail Tuna which surprised me. Another thing that stood out was that schools of fish we found on the sounder deep or mid water would not take flies sunk down to them, they would only eat when they came to the surface. We were lucky they were feeding on the surface often. I guess the trade-off for this time of the year is the fishing may not be at its peak, but you don’t get blown off the water, well, only if you get caught in those isolated storms (I forgot how steep the swell gets in Anson Bay during a blow). 

Overall, we ate well, drank well and caught bucket loads of solid fish. We are lucky to have such great fisheries on our doorstep. 

Can’t wait to get out there again.

Dave