Two outings in the same day, for no fishes...

Hi there,


Yes you read it right, I was lucky enough to do both in the same day: East Point from the rocks in the morning, and East Point from the sea in the evening...
And what did I had for dinner later in the evening of this glorious day, you may ask?
Chicken soup because I could not get any good fish in two fishing session!


So now you know, no need to hurry to the pics...


In fact I should have known from the start that it was going to be a beautiful day, but without any glory on the fishing front.
First I woke up early, got out of a nice and warm bed, to got in the dark and cold night to one of my favourite land based spot...
And what did I found on my way to it?
A closed door:

Bad fishing omen

So yes when you arrive full of anticipation and found a door that should have been open about an hour ago closed...
Any wise man would read it as a sign from the fishing gods, and quietly return to his beloved, and a warm bed...
I wasn't wise, I was greedy and saw it as a challenge.
So I quietly sat and waited...
Finally a guy came and opened the door, just as I had started to leave, so I though: Great now the action will start!


Well it didn't...


First I arrived there while it was still dark.
And walking on the rocks, I started to see crocodiles every where:
" No there was no dead tree there the last time I was here, this must be a croc! Flash of the torch light on it: Driftwood...
Ho my god this one is surly a croc! Flash of the torch light on it: It just a rock that must have been there for the past 80 000 years..."
And so on, I guess you start to see the picture by now... I was just croc obsessed and could not relax as I had planned too...


And when the first light finally came I started by using a big popper and in the first few cast I saw a very big fish come to it and splash around it and bump it a few time, but it didn't hook. I don't know what it was but was big enough to get my heart racing...
And that was the one and only action I got for my effort for the morning...
Nothing else.


The water was clear, flat, and no wind it should have been a perfect morning.


So I went back home relatively early and spend the rest of the day with my family.


Then in the afternoon my friend Carl called me and asked what I was up to...
This is often a sign that the next question is going to be: "Do you want to go fishing?"
And it was !
So a quick plan was made to hit East Point from his boat in the end of the afternoon early evening.


So this is what we did...
And the idea was that from the boat we would be able to target the school of Tuna, Mackerels or Queenfish that I didn't saw in the morning.
Well, like in the morning, flat and calm sea, very clear water, and not a bird or fish in view... Like a beautiful but deserted sea...

The no fish sunset.

Not to be defeated, we though that we would catch some little reefies and use them as live bait all the while keeping some rod at the ready with chrome slices for when the pelagics would come...
Yes we did got some reefies and used them, but the pelagics never came.


We were entertained by all the little reefies, mostly Parrot Fish and Stripy that kept eating our squid bait, but the big line stayed untouched.
Then, I started to see the tip of my rod with the Parrot Fish at the end (yes I was trying to replicate Double Haul great catch from last year at the same spot, same technic, same bait, that how he got a +14 kilos Spanish Mac...) starting to move. I looked at the float, and I could see it turing in circle, faster and faster...
Then... ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzing the thing went of!
Quick I grabbed it and started what I would describe as a good and very honest fight, with us starting to shout and scream like two exited fisho who finally see with excitment the action for which they came for.
The call was made for a nice but not huge mac, but when the thing was finally under the boat, it made a very fast and powerful run, going in all direction at once!
Ha! 
This might actually be a very nice mac in fact!


Then I got him back to the boat again as we saw the colour of it...
A medium sized shark.
I should have taken a photo of it, as I don't know what specie was this one, it was not a black tip. 
He was kind of brownish, with a white belly and teeth big enough to already grab a finger or two if we weren't carful.
Even if I do enjoy eating a shark once in a while, with shark being more useful in the sea than in my plate, we released it.


And back to the little reefies action it was...
Then it was Carl's reel who started to sing, and this time we said: I bet you that this is another shark!
And... It was...
But as we were debating who was going to get the hook back from this new set of fangs, the shark obligingly spat back the bait and the hook.
Nice job!
So with that Carl didn't even had to rebait his line and just chucked it back in the water.


Five minutes latter, his line started to peel of again!
Another battle and another shark at the boat side...


Now some people would say: "Another stinking shark!"
But not us, in fact it was still some good and fun action.
And was certainly better than nothing.


And just as it came close to the boat, it did just what the last one had done and spitted the bait and hook again.
Talk about luck!


So once again Carl was able to chuck his line back in the drink without re-baiting it...


After another few minutes, his rod that he had just nonchalantly rested on the boat gunwale started to go: click... click... click....
So I told him: Your fishing rod is about to go for a swim...
So he took hold of it and immediately Bam! The pull was very sudden and very violent, and the line was broken before he had the time to do anything.
Yes if he hadn't grabbed it a second before it would definitively have gone for a swim...


So with the darkness descending upon us, we decided to go back home early, without any fish, but still having had a good time and a few good laugh on the water.


So What did I learnt from this two fishless trips in the same day?
Well, that sometime even in perfect conditions the fishes are not biting.


But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.

The Scarecrow

Hi there,

Yes this past weekend my little one made a scarecrow.
She went to the garden with mum, Ms. Frugal Down Under and when she came back, she ran toward me full of joy to tell me everything about it, and the conversation went like this:
"Dad we made a scarecrow!"
"A real one?"
"Yes a real one!"
"One that scare the birds?"
"No dad! We made a nice one..."

Well I had to go and see this nice scarecrow for myself, and I did that during my lunch break today.
And I may say, that yes she do look like a nice one.
Here she is:

Made by Dolly and Mum.

So now I do know that my little one wanted a nice and kind scarecrow who would not be mean to the birds... Yes it kinds of defeat the very purpose of a scarecrow...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me

No fishes but two question.

Hi there,

This morning I went fishing with Sarrge who picked me up at home and gave me a lift to our fishing spot of the day, and back. 
We had chosen to fish the Cullen Bay Rock Wall as the tide seemed to be good for it, and didn't got any fishes.
Except a little Long Tom that I had hooked on the tail with a chrome slice, and that Sarrge tried to use as a live bait.
And a little Scat that I got in the cast net and tried to use as a live bait too.
(Yes we had somehow planed to put some line in with live bait on, while we were going to cast our chrome slices to the schools of pelagic that we had anticipated to come in contact with...)
But we didn't see a single bust up, or any bird working on a school of bait or any thing remotely exciting on a piscatorial point of view.

The place was really calm and relaxing, still we could have done with a fish or two...

Yet I did made two pictures, as I was standing on the rock wall: first one looking on my right at Darwin with the sun rising, and the other photo literally seconds after the first one, looking on my left, in the direction of Mandorah, with the moon in the sky.
I might be a bit of a simple mind, but to be able to see these two things at the same time, in the calm of the rock wall and flat water that we had there on this beautiful and cold morning, that the kind of things that I love in Darwin, it makes me feel happy to be alive. 
The Darwin side with the sunrise was all warmth and light. While the Mandorah side was all cold and night lights, in the dawn of a new day.

Sunrise over Darwin.

The moon over Mandorah.

Like two opposites facing each other, one being chased by the other.


So now, back to the topic of this post, the two question.
Is a small Long Tom potentially a good live bait?
Is a Scat potentially a good live bait?
Do you know?

As I very rarely fish with live bait, (as you may have understand by now, I am more of a lure person). I am basically wondering if we did stand a chance or not to have caught something this morning...


But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me

The Ofmer Rambler 120F DR

Hi There,

I just got a new lure given to me by the good guy from Ofmer fishing lures in Australia, and the lure is the Rambler 120F DR.
And this is a nice lure, when I look at it, my only regret is that I didn't have it when I was fishing on the Daly River 2 weeks ago. As I am pretty sure that it would have produce over there.
I don't know if you remember, but I had already done a post some time ago about the Ofmer lures. Well, this is the same quality of lure, with a very beautiful finish, and some really strong hooks. And this one has a clear and see through body and paint.
Ok, no more game playing, here it is:

The Ofmer, Rambler 120F DR.

This is a floating lure of 120mm (4.7244094 Inches), it weight 32 g. (1.1287668 ounce) and dive to a depth of 4.5m. (147.6378 feet). It has a wobbling and rolling action.

It also has a magnet system in it, which can move the weight inside of the lure, for better longer casts. Very cool to see it through the clear body of the lure.

Now my big question, is will it be any good when chasing pelagic at  full speed, or is it more of a Barramundi lure?

To this I will be able to answer only once I will have made a few test with it.

So yes it is time to go out there and do some research!

I know, this is a hard life...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Longtail Tuna on Spin Gear

Hi there,

I was lucky enough to get invited one more time on Double Haul's boat today.
And it truly was a great day on the water, with my first ever Longtail Tuna on spin gears.
With a lazy start at around 9 am which had left me with plenty of time for a proper breakfast.

We launched from Dina Beach boat ramp, and first went behind the deck chair cinema, where we saw someone scuba diving between the little mangrove trees. Not something that I would enjoy myself, being way too afraid of the crocodiles to do so.
But the action on the fishing side was not really hot, in fact absolutely freezing in the sense that we didn't see a single fish...

So we went to Emery Point, where we quickly got onto some little trevally.
Double Haul must have out-fished me something like 5 to 1 there, but it was still very fun, and we put them all back in the water.
Just as we were on our way to leave the place direction East Point we saw Doors Off which I didn't recognise at first, because he was not in his boat. He told us that he already got a Tuna and a massive GT. I hope he got even more during the rest of the day.

So we went to East Point and didn't see any fish over there either...
And I started to wonder if I should have kept a few of these little Trev to get a feed for my little family...
With the lack of Action Double Haul made the decision to go to Lee Point, and this, was a very good decision.

Not long after we arrived there, we saw a school of tuna breaking the surface.
Before I could get my act together, Double Haul had made a cast and was on!
I was then hesitant to cast as not to interfere with his fish, when he told me to: "Cast in there mate, they are still around".
I did not wait for him to repeat the invitation and my little chrome slice flew trough the air and landed what I estimated to be too far...
So I retrieved as fast as I could thinking that I had missed my chance, and bang I was on too!

I am on.

Double hook up of Longtail tuna. And we boated the two of them!

Double hook-up's result.

Mine took nearly half of the line on the spool of my little reel, and I was wondering when would it stop. Then when he was close to the boat it looked like he was foul hooked by the tail, but no it was because during the fight he had wrapped his tail around my line.
This was my first longtail tuna on the spin gears...
I liked the Mactunas, but now I like the longtail ones even more.

Then I changed lure, I put the same one, but instead of a treble hook at the back of it, it had a single hook, the idea was that as I had secured a feed, I was from now on going to try to minimise the harm done to the fishes, and be able to safely release some...

And we then saw another school of what was very visibly some Tuna, and we casted to it...
And I got a Spanish Mackerel, the biggest one I ever got on my spin gears, and he didn't even cut my line. I had my line cut by smaler ones in the past, so I was pretty happy to boat this one.

Spanish Mackerel on spin gears.

Specially considering that he had the lure so far done his mouth that we had to cut the line before putting the fish in the esky, and I got the lure back only when dispatching the fish in the evening back at home.

We also tried to troll for Macks, but it didn't work.

After trying for Tunas and Macs for a little while more, we finally decided to go back.

So we returned early, before the masses and didn't had to wait too long at the boat ramp. The parking lot at the ramp, had been empty when we arrived in the morning, and now at 3:00pm was full.

So yes, that was a great day on the water, thank again Double Haul, I really had a good time chasing some of my favourite fishes.

And guess what I had for dinner tonight?

Tuna Sri Lankan way in the wok.

Yes I cooked it before Ms. Frugal Down Under and Dolly came back of the Happy Yes Market. And I loved eating it!

And yes I did get slightly sunburnt on the back of my neck.

But hey, It could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Pimp My Reel.

Hi there.

Yes I did pimp one of my reel last week.
My little Shimano Curado 201E7 to be exact (the one I use for Barramundi fishing).
And nothing too bling, it is all under the bonnet.
You won't see any thing from looking at it, and here is a proof of it:

The reel under the banana trees.

So what has been done to this reel you could ask...

Nothing too flashy to look at.

Well, first the aluminium drag was changed for a stainless steel one for a smoother action. 

Then the factory drag washers have been replaced by some Carbontex ones for a stronger action. Allowing me to put more weight on the fishes.

And to finish it up the reel has been spooled  with yellow high visibility 30lb. braided line.

As you can see, there is not much to look at on the outside, most of it was done inside of the reel. It still look the same old reel full of scratches, but has in fact become a mean fishing machine. 

That the way I like it.

After about three year of duties this little reel finally received some well deserved care and attention. In fact it cost me a lot less than buying a brand new reel, but its performances are now much better than what it ever was.

So have I already caught a monster Barramundi with it since it has been modified?

Nope, not yet...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Top End Barra Series Round 2

Hi there,


Last weekend was the Top End Barra Series round 2, and it was going to be a Barramundi bonanza.
Well, yes it was a great weekend, with some great fishing and some great people!
Thanks again to the guys who put their energy in organising this thing for all of us to enjoy!


So basically it started at around 3 am on Saturday morning for me (I later on learned that this was the time at which some went to bed at the Banyan farm, after doing what they calls Party Tricks, I don't know what they're talking about...) , when I was enjoying a very fresh morning breeze, waiting on the footpath for a taxi to take me to Bullet's place.
Bullet is a member of the FFF forum and had offered me a spot as deckie on his boat. 
Then a drive trough the night, and voilas! We were at the Woolianna public boat ramp. 
This is not long after that that I had the freshest boat ride I ever had since moving to Darwin!

A beautiful and cold morning.

I then made a mental note to have some socks on the next morning, and lucky you their is no pics of that. And as they say in the fishing world, if their is no pics, it didn't happen!
Fishing with socks on in the tropics?


Then we started to fish in earnest and found some lures floating around or stuck in some snag, and Bullet must have caught the first 5 fish when I started to tell myself: "This is ok, he is the skipper, it is normal that he get more fish than I, he knows what he is doing... But still I really would like to get one too! Even if it's a rat!"

Bullet working a fish.

And I finally got one! 
He pulled good and brought a good level of satisfaction to me, I was on the board!
But at 67cm only I am not sure that it would be enough to keep me on the board of the Top End Barra Series, as I was already sure that some were going to get some better fish. So I had to get back into it.

My first of the weekend.

But this first one was going to be my best of the weekend.
All my other fish were slightly (Or way) smaller than that.


Yet this first fish had given me one more first in my fishing journey: It was hooked inside of the gill. 
Neither Bullet or I had seen one hooked like this before, so I made a photo of it.
Has any of you seen that before?

Hooked inside of the gill.

I found a little Polty lure in gold and green colours, and decided to try it...
Got a fish with it!
Don't you like it, when you find a lure, try it on the same day and get a fish with it?


We continued to explore, and it was cool to be on the river, and see other people wearing the same shirt pass us by, and wave to us and all ready to talk about the day's fishing. And to tell us how it was going and where they got some fish or not. It was nice to see so many people in the search of the same goal exchanging tips and information so freely and in a friendly manner. This showed that none of the people that we met during the day were taking themselves too seriously and were more there to have a good time in the company of like minded people.


The river was full of both salt water and fresh water crocodiles.

A salt water crocodile.

A fresh water crocodile.

We saw Dingo's boat, and yes every time that we saw them they seemed to have a good laugh.
We also saw Bandit's boat, and they were on a very hot patch, were they were pulling a fish at every pass, and told us to get into it too in the same troll than them, thanks guys!
Dingo and Bandit are the two organisers of this very friendly comp.


At the camp in the evening, well it was all what a camp full of fishermen and fisherwomen can be...
And like in Vegas, what happened there should stay there, I am sure that certain people would appreciate that.
Some drank a lot, and others drank a lot more.
I don't drink, so I ate and I ate too much...
And with a belly so full that I couldn't eat any more, I went to bed in my tent. Were I slept till around 4am after what I started to wonder when were we going to fish again? Impatient like a kid...


Then we went, and sailed to much closer grounds that the previous day, but caught roughly the same amount of fish than on the first day. I even upgraded a 55 and a 61, with a 62 and a 64cm.
Now I can hear some of you starting to grumble: "What a weekend at the Daly and his three biggest fish were only a 62, 64 and 67cm?"
Well, let me tell you that on a level of consistency, this is not that bad you know...

My last fish of the weekend.

Of the fives keepers that I boated, I kept only two, so there is some Barramundi there who are growing for the next time.
the number of smaller ones that we got was pretty impressive, and made me think that in this river the Barramundi population must have been really healthy.
We must have boated in excess of 20 Barramundi over the one day and an half that we fished there.
Yes we always hear about these 100 fish session... 
But honestly over 20 fish is already a pretty pleasant score.


Just as we were leaving we saw a Varanus mertensi more commonly called a Merten’s Water Monitor. Apparently it is becoming rarer to see them in this area now, where they are becoming endangered. This is due to the cane toad invasion.

The endangered Varanus mertensi.

It was then time to go back and at the boat ramp we saw a big cherabin basking in the shallow.
And we hit the road to Darwin.
What a great weekend it was!


Thanks again Bullet for taking me aboard your fine vessel, I had a really good time.


Between the scenery, the fishing and putting new faces on some of the forum names, it was well worth getting out of bed early!

View from the water level.

So yes I did not enter the Metery Club yet (people who catch a Barramundi over a meter [3.2808399 feet], in length),


But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.