Top End Sojourn - Part 1

I thought it might be best if i split this report up into 2 sections. I had 3 days fishing the blue water out of Dundee Beach and 4 days barra fishing on the South Alligator River. Part 1 is the low down of the blue water sessions we had...friggin awesome!

We set off from Dundee Beach to make our passage down to the Perron Islands some 60kms away down the coastline, adjacent to the mouth of the Daly River. Due to some overwhelming good reports, on the way we made a detour to the Finniss River to troll up some Barra and get the fishing off to a good start. The river resembled a Sydney metropolitan system cause it was bumper to bumper boats. I came over 3000kms to fish a packed waterway in the middle of nowhere?

The river didn't let us down. We trolled through 2 sticks which i termed the goalposts and every pass was a barra. No monsters but a great start to the trip. The best went 80cms. We were using Manns Boof Baits.

We left the river and commenced to our destination. About 10kms form the island we came across wheeling birds and busting fish. No sooner had we stopped, i had a lure into the melee. Instant hookup! I had a light 3-5kg flick stick and was seriously outgunned. I looked around to see the boys rods all loaded up and smiles across everyones face. This was shaping up to be a killer trip. about 10 minutes later i had my fish to the boat. At around 6kgs i caught my first Mack Tuna. The boys landed a few decent longtail as well.

A decision was made to leave the fish biting, much to my agony, to chase the tides around the Perrons for a session on Golden Snapper. The week previous had seen a mind blowing bite occur on goldies and Mick Beare wanted a repeat dose. We arrived and deployed our plastics in anticipation. While the goldies didn't show up like they had in the previous week, Sean Cremin landed a beauty at 5kgs and put up a great fight. Bouncing plastics over the reef accounted for a variety of species and we had consistent action for the next 4 hours. We landed, goldies, red throat emperor, spanish flag, estuary cod, sharks and other ooglies.

We left the island and decided to trek over to Redcliffs where we were going to anchor up for the night. On passage once again we came across diving birds. We rigged our trolling rods and instantly i hooked up to a rampaging fish. The rpm's on the spool indicated one thing...a spanish mackeral. At 12kgs it was a bruiser and a great adversary. Trolling for the next couple hours saw more longtail and mack tuna come over the side of the boat.

We arrived at redcliffs and anchored for the night. Dad and i being keen buggers kept a few longtail for bait and commenced bottom-bashing for goldies. While i won't go into full details, let me just say the next 4 hours was the best bait fishing i have ever done. Every drop was met with a hungry fish ready to peel line off the spool. I reckon we caught over 50 goldies, 20 sharks, a handful of massive cod, and everything else that fights like a demon in the territory. By midnight i was pooped. Time for bed!

The next morning we tried to flick a few poppers around for GT's. Nothing was doing so we decided to head over to a place called Mack Mountain and Sail City. Once again on the way we came across more busting fish. It was longtail and mack tuna time again. We landed another dozen or so speedsters and headed off to find more spanish mackeral. We got to Mack Mountain and it didn't disappoint. Dad got his first spanish Mack and we got a few more tuna's. It was time to pull out the plastics again...

In about 70ft of water we drifted over a patch of reef that was full of life. Every drop of the lure was met with a positive take. We landed all manner of top end sportfish such as coral trout, GT's, Golden Trevally, queenies, barracuda and every shark known to man. We attrition rate was high on jigheads but the fun factor was sky high. The notable capture for me was a 15kg GT i landed on a 3-5kg stick on 14lb braid. The rod was loaded to the fore grip for 30 mins while the fish dictated terms. Slowly but surely i won the battle. What a fight! I saw my backing more times than a care to remember.

We headed off again in search of the elusive top end black jew. By this stage we had accumulated 21 different species and the mission was to hook as many as we could. A jew would have just about sealed the deal. It was already the trip of a lifetime in terms of fish caught. But as happens, fishing is a fickle game and the jewie evaded us. Just means I have to make a return trip to catch one.

The last morning saw more plastics action. I hooked my PB goldie at around the 5kg mark and a cracker cod. the tide picked up and the fishing died off. Time to relax and gear up for 4 days of barra fishing...

Stay tuned for part 2...