Apologies for the late post, had trouble with attachments, hope they work.

A few weeks back another mate from Vic (Wadgey) and our Guide Timbo from Darwin (aka Bummer) spent 5 days/4 nights fishing Chambers bay and Sampan mouth.
Upon arriving at Shady camp we found the boat ramp pretty well full up, eventually got launched and headed staright to Chambers bay to fish the turn of the tide late in the afternoon. The trip across from Sampan was a little bumpy and we got a free wash each as the 5.3 Polycraft happily sent spray all over us as we made our way across. Upon arriving we saw 6 other boats in and around the entrance so we found our spot, dropped anchor and started flicking our ever faithful B52's in much anticipated excitment. Didnt raise much interest from down below for a couple of hours of mad casting but the bevies sure made up for the lack of fish action. Headed up the creek for the night, setup the thermocells, raintarp and had tea ...carrots and dip!



The next morning dawned beautifully, the thermocells worked a treat during the night and day 2 began with high hopes of pulling in some nice fish. The boys had done the same trip the year before and had a cracker of a trip on the same set of tides, but Bummer was concerned as there wasnt as much fresh pumping out this time around and the bait didnt seem to be around in the same numbers.


We fished all day at Chambers, venturing up the creek in the afternoon to try our luck as nothing much was happening at the entrance. We ended up with about 12 or so up to 70cm on stiffy's and B52's. Bummer hooked a nice Blue salmon while we were tied up cooking some snags for lunch, a nice feed for tea!



Night 2 was pretty uneventful, day 3 dawned much the same as before, and we targeted the entrance to Chambers again with the view to head back up the creek if things stayed quiet. There seemed to be a bit more bait around which livened our spirits, Wadgey caught a couple of rats to around 65, i got a salmon on a popper (luv seeing poppers get smashed) and another small rat, yet thats about as good as it was got for the morning session. No one else was getting much, and only little fellas up the creek so plan B was put into place
We headed back to Sampan at midday to fish the mouth and spend 2 nights there before having to calll it quits and head back to Darwin.

The trip back across went far better, pretty well glassed off. Cracked a couple of king browns and enjoyed the ride

Arrived at the mouth to see 30 odd boats had the same idea, so joined the ranks, turned on the mp3, got some happenin tunes on the go, got a fresh round of bevies and began our runs.

After an hour or so one of us finally hit pay dirt, Wadgey who had so far been the little achiever of the group having pulled in the most fish so far, had a nice solid hookup about 2km out from the mouth amongst a handful of other boats. After 5 min and a nice fight the first reasonable fish was landed much to our delight coming in at 92cm.



We trolled out from the mouth for the rest of the afternoon using B52's with Bummer and i starting to do some serious soul searching as we hadnt raised a scale of any serious size for the whole trip to date, whist Wadgey was beginning to appear to have been kissed on the d#*k by a fairy!

This was only cemented further in our minds shortly after as the "blessed one" yelled with delight as another solid fish became engrossed in his blue B52, another nice fight and some great jumps had us calling it 1 m, a club both Wadgey and i had yet to become a part of. The big girl was netted, measured 1m on the dot which had us all ecstatic for the "blessed one" as Bummers boat had initiated new Metre club member in it's midst.



After a successful afternoon we headed up past past the Botel and anchored up for the night pondering what be in store for us the next day.

Our last full day on the water began as all the others had, hitting the water as the sun come up, this time we anchored up on the west side of sampan creek mouth flicking lures and poppers as there was a bit of bait getting about. Had a great little session landing 10-12 barra up to 70cm, all nice chromies. Filleted up some for the freezer, then it was time to get out in the open water and try to notch up a few more nice girls as Wadgey had done the day before.

The colour change was holding up just out from the mouth which saw us moving around trolling in a large semi circle and a series of runs up and down the east side working our way out into the channel and back again.

The last day nerves were starting to kick in with myself and Bummer with nothing serious to show for our efforts thus far, so out came the bottle of rum , a few quick swigs each soon had us back in a much more mellow state of mind....which the fish seemed to respond to.
20 min later Bummer was the first one on, a ripper of a strike, a huge jump and lovely fight saw his first 90+cm come aboard. Upon measuring, she came at 95cm. A few quick photos and away she swam. After the release i thought i could see a tell tale sign of a small grin begin to appear on Bummers face as the stress immediately left his body and entered mine! It the dawned on me...i just could not bear to go home with anything under at least an 85-90..surely this the fishing gods would answer my softly spoken prayers that i had been muttering unbeknowns to the other two for at least a day now.

Not too much later my prayers were answered, a nice 96cm found its way to the net after a nice fight for 5 min. You bl..dy bewdy...all of us had scored something worthy of our efforts, the pressure was off and we could enjoy the rest of the day no matter what happened, well it kept happening.
Wadgey was next scoring a nice 89cm, then Tim again scoring a couple more in the high 80+ range as we found ourselves starting to troll further out from the mouth as the turn well and truly had been









We were lapping it up by now, the rum was gone, and we were back on the bevvies when Wadgey "oh blessed one" hooked a beauty in 2 m of water on his ever faithfull B52. This fish launched clean out of the water on the strike and made a sight hard to forget.
We called in 1.10 on the hookup as she was solid all the way through, after another scorching fight she was netted and come in bang on 1m, a little under our initial guess but hey whos complaining at this stage! Again she swam off strongly.


It was my turn next, another good strike (you guessed it... B52) and another 96cm model made its way to the net, measured and released.


By now it was time to start our run back to the boat ramp, got back around 4pm, loaded without any dramas, tarped up, grabbed a few travellers to get us underway and headed off. Half an hour up the road the heavens opened up, the Prado was only doing 70km/hr, it was raining too heavy to travel any faster safely, we must have had 5-6 inches, rain stopped just out of Darwin allowing us to cruise into town unimpeded which made me think...4 nights on the boat, not a drop of rain, all caught good fish....maybe we all got kissed on the d*#k by a fairy! What a way to finish off a great trip with a couple of great blokes.

Cant wait to get back another day!

Cheers

What a cracker of a trip mate! Well done! A heap of good solid fish there, cant do much better than that!

Great post Barry.

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Great write up and pictures.

Well done

(Did your mates give you sh1t when you when you were the one without a decent fish??)

great post mate, good pics of some nice big bazz. sounds like a awesome trip, one you'll be talking about 10 years
down the track. top stuff!!

good stuff, great write up and good pics there, might have to be an annual get together to remember.
Or maybe just have another better trip!!!

Great stuff, well done barry!

Cracker Of a trip Barry. Well done to you
And the boys.

Can't wait to get back put there for another crack. I just need to pull myself away from the queenies
And barra at the Adelaide river Mouth.

Well done boys, nice fish , great Pics & great writup !!

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Sounds like you had a cracker of a trip,some nice fish there and pics too........

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Great report ,well done there lads

Absolute cracker of a report Barry, great stuff.