anyway I'd promised the boys, Jordan(Smartypants) his always fishing mate Hayden1, and also my new partners son Hayden2, that I would take them during the school holidays and as it was getting close to the end decided that the time was right, watching the forecasts for a couple of weeks, it didn't look too bad, so plans were set.
and even though the winds were blowing pretty good up around Darwin and surrounds, they were a little lighter down the Perons way.
we got everything organised, I had to cough up for the fuel but made the boys pay for the food and their drinks as well as a little for bait. I think they still owe me a couple of carwashes and details though
we headed off from the Lizzie ramp around 7.50 on Sunday morning, planning to return Tuesday arvo, big tides and hoping to get amongst a few. The wind was good, a light southeaster as we cruised out of the harbour towards Charles point, and with the tide up we were able to go across the mouth of Bynoe and in close along the islands towards Dundee, didn't head out wide in the morning as we were expecting the wind to come up a little, however it wasn't too bad and we were out at Bowra shoal around 11.30 and had a bit of a go there for some small stuff, no schools of tuna feeding to be seen, but plenty of bait schools showing on the sounder.
It was a little sloppy with an Easterly blowing and poor Hayden2 wasn't feeling so good, he ended up going up the front for a lie down....
I headed off across to some marks North of the North Peron, there were some schools of small mack tuna feeding there and we managed to bag one of those for Jewie bait later, then we had a bit of a drift and jig, again a few small cod and trickies, but nothing exciting, so I headed out a little to a spot I have marked where we have managed a few reds before, first drop and bang, a nice little one was brought up, and released to grow a bit bigger to hopefully catch next time. Hayden kept getting good hits and pulling in some great sized cod, which we let go as it was shallow enough to do so, we got a few good Trickies and a few nice Coral Trout as well as a couple of good Tusk fish on the jigs. we ended up having a great session, with a lot of small stuff as well, flag, cod etc. But definitely got a good feed in the icebox to take home. We fished just passed the turn of low tide then headed in closer out of the wind to have a go for some Queenies in the shallower water, they didn't disappoint and once again we had a ball throwing surface lures around, at one stage there were two or three of us hooked up at a time, a few good ones were caught and released, the boys had changed their trebles to single hooks on the poppers and stick baits to make this a bit easier and hopefully not damage the fish as much. We did end up keeping one that was bleeding a bit. Queenfish are great for nummus and also go well in a fish curry. After getting a little worn out casting and pulling in the queenies, and as the tide had risen quite a bit, we headed off between the islands and over to my Jewie spot and had a go for a bit on the last of the incoming tide, I managed to get a nice one in, there were a couple hooked and lost, and Hayden2 hooked his first ever Jewie, it gave him curry for about 5 minutes, but unfortunately the hook somehow pulled off the line and he lost it, he was a bit disappointed. we gave it a bit longer, but nothing seemed to be happening so decided to head out a little to one of the shallower spots to have a go, we anchored up right on the change of the tide and had a ball for about an hour. Hayden2 hooked up almost straight away and once again had to go all around the boat to fight the fish, he eventually subdued it and pulled in a ripper Goldie, it was just over 70cm, not bad in 8metres of water.
and not bad for his first Goldie!!
Hayden1 got a good one as well that was over 60cm, and we also got a few smaller ones that we released, as well as the regular grey nomads and Powertail as the tide started to run a little stronger, once they turned up we gave up and went in a little closer to anchor up.
the boys had some fun catching all sorts off the boat while we had some dinner, trevally, salmon, sharks, barracuda. I had a couple of glasses of red then passed out up the front, it was pretty cool in the evening with an easterly blowing, but woke around 2am in a sweat after the tide changed and the wind dropped off. As the tide pushed in though, the wind came up again and it cooled down. I got up just before sunup and hed to yell at the kids to get them out of bed. Sunrize was great
I cruised out to the shallow reef spot for high tide again, the kids were still half asleep when we started fishing... 
All we caught though were a few small goldies, cod, sharks and Powertail, after an hour we headed out past the Perons to have a go. Didn't take long before the first good sized Goldie came over the side, followed by another and a few other good fish, trickies, trout and Tisk fish, as well as a heap of smaller ones.
We had another great day, cruising around, getting the odd good fish here and there, with a couple of hot sessions, we went in to the shallow reef right on low tide this time hoping to pull something good from the exposed rocks with the poppers or stick baits, things that would have killed fish if it landed on them were thrown around, but we didn't really have any joy until we got to the Queenie spot again, and it was on, watching 80cm plus queenies swimming round in a metre of water and smashing lures thrown at them was great fun, we all had a ball catching and releasing a few, i sat there and watched the boys having fun a fair bit, and took a bit of video and some pics, good fun 
, Hayden2 caught the biggest Queenie he had ever got. 
After another mad session we headed to the shallow reef to try and get a couple of more goldies on sunset, unfortunately we only managed a few smaller ones of these this time, but Hayden2 managed his first Jewfish, got it all the way to the boat this time and was pretty happy, he might have a hard time beating the PB's he caught on this trip, I'm sure he will be keen to go again and have a go though 
The other pickers started to turn up, it was amazing watching the full moon rise as well with the reflection off the water
We took off and went and anchored up again for the night, cruised back up closer to Pt Blaze this time though and stayed there for the night, the boys had a bit more fun, but weren't quite as enthusiastic as the first night and passed out a bit quicker, might have had something to do with a hard days fishing and pulling in a few 
The morning was the same, i woke and got up to watch the sun come up, even better than the day before I cruised out to Blaze reef and we trolled for a bit, but no action, no birds or schools of tuna, plenty of bait around though. We pulled the lines in and headed wider out towards Long Lost, had a bit of a troll around there and managed one small Spaniard, there were a few schools of small Mack Tuna feeding again, but nothing exciting, i marked a few good lumps and we went and had a drift over them, managed to have something good eaten on the way up, felt like a jewie
we caught a few nice Trout there and a couple of cod and trickies as well around 11.30 we headed for home, there was a bit of an easterly blowing so couldn't go flat out, but as we got a bit closer it dropped off, i went around Roach reef and across to Bynoe mouth, had a quick stop there on a spot for nothing, just then the Northeaster came in and it was a bit sloppy coming round Charles POint, but once we got past there and headed for Darwin we could cruise along ok, and we were back at Lizzie ramp at 2.45 to get the boat out as the tide was coming in again.
another great trip with a few good fish for a feed and the junior deckies were all great, just ha to remind them to clean up occasionally!!
we were home at 10 past 3, and i gave instructions for them to unpack and clean up, then went and played golf with the usual Tuesday crew at 3:30
