Had a mate in town for xmas and was keen for a trip so we took advantage of a small break in the weather and headed out wide. With the amount of the debris in the water from the Rocky floods travelling at night was not an option so we just headed out for a day trip approx 70kms NE of the Keppel islands. The fresh water stained the sea for the first 45kms but it soon turn to crystal clear blue water and the fish played the game for most of the day and as you can see it was pretty much glass for most of the day.

Cheers Harmsey

Onya Harmesy looks like an awesome session. That bait ball is awesome.

Awesome pictures and great fish.

Yep, thats the poop. Makes NT reds look like kindy fishing. Amazing that you can still catch fish like that over there. Top effort.

some great fish harmsey....

Some quality fish there Harmsey.

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Excellent post, good to see that some can still get on the water this wind is driving me spare (but at least no flood).
Looks like a lot of fun there, great stuff and nice shots.

A question for CS though, why on earth would you be amazed you can still catch fish like that there!!!

In relation the reds over there is the size limit still 45cm (almost 4kg) or have they increased it I am out of touch abit there now. From what I have seen and read they just dont, as rule get that big in the NT waters. In the centeral and south eastern Qld waters it is quite common for 7 to 12 kg, and much much bigger (have seen 16kg fish) fish, to be caught. Not sure why, it might have a bit to do with depth that we fish oput of trailer boats, but even at in the flat top and more remote reports a fish approaching 10 KG seems to be quite a milestone. Strange really.

I would get bored catching reds all the time

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To answer it simply its just population and fishing pressure that make me supprised that fish of this quility are still available.

I havent fished Queensland much so dont know a lot about it other than research and such that I can read from other people (Unlike here where I have experianced it). Its just that a fish of that size would be fairly old and slow to grow so the chances of them getting to that size would be limited i would think. Queensland has a fair amount of fishing pressure as do most bigger and more mature states unlike the NT that hasnt had to deal with the population yet over a sustained period of time . It seems that the fish population on the outer reef around queensland is still fairly strong as many people still go there and catch good sized reds and Nannagai. The NT fishing has slowed remarkable and the size of the fish has dropped a lot as well in my oppinion already and I think that the research from fisheries would back this up.

I beleive that the size and ability of anglers to still catch the fish in Queensland is because of the deeper water and I would reckon that harmsey is fishing at least 60m due to him catching goldband snapper (Please correct me if I am wrong Harmsey). I think that the fact that the continental shelf isnt that far away also helps for the bigger fish as they can drop off into deep water where not a lot of people have the ability or the want to fish. The NT doesnt realy have this capeability due to the ancient land bridge between Australia and Indonesia. I know that the trap fishermen in the box get plenty (probably not as many as Queensland) of ten Kilo models and some as big as 15kg out in the deeper waters wide of the NT. Places that are accessable to trailer boats that are deep enough are far and few in the Territory. In saying this I dont know why we dont get more Reds in North/South gutters and the Bathurst Trench. I have seen a few but not the size or numbers you would expect. Perhaps the water is too dirty and the bottom isnt right for them with a lot of mud on it but who knows.

It seems to be that any "colderrrrrrr" water species that are found up north are smaller. Ie whiting, bream, flathead, blue swimmer crabs and of course Red Emperer so it is possible that this plays a part in the smaller fish size.

Ill shut up now as that is a lot of talk for a short answer.

Generally I reckon your pretty close to the mark, I also to think the reef recruitment has a lot to do with it. I guess the comment regards the whole spectrum of speicies is fairly correct when you think about it, add grunter to the list as a big time indicater.
But hang on a minute, we are not crediting the fisho in question with enough points for ability yet either are we, and it does make a lot of difference.
The other aspect is fish managment as well, they are a little further down the road with it I guess, but have come from some pretty dark days in the past.Cheers CS

That's just Harmsey doing his bit for flood mitigation. Every time he goes fishing with the big esky the water level around Rocky drops an inch and a half

The biggest tropical fish are often found in the southernmost part of their range, dunno why.

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The biggest tropical fish are often found in the southernmost part of their range, dunno why.

That is a very interesting observation Matt, cant really think of any logic for it though, and would even hazard a guess actually.

Is this proven with other species from other places Matt?

Yep, I think the NT has to be careful because we dont have a shelf or a extensive reef system or the bad weather that help replenish or protect the fish in some way. We need to protect the stocks more and do it before the stocks get bad. Its easier to help now rather than later. In saying this its got to be done in a people friendly manner and not like that paper "what hell looks like" that Matt posted.