North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

headed out to north gutter on the saturday morning weather conditions were perfect and the water glassed off as the day went on few times during the day water was like an oil slick for as far as you could see only thing breaking it up was the tuna and birds that were around there was tuna and large bait balls everywhre out there had no luck until about 11am when the left outrigger was slammed..no messing about just a huge flash and a large splash
and then the real screaming at first thought was big tuna but the line just kept screaming off the real then it come out of the water twice about 40m behind the boat and it was a good sail really big actually i would have said easly over 2.0m i called it for about 20 kg could see the skirt in corner of it mouth then set the drag and then line went slack not long after the last tail walk and it was gone..... had one other possible sail smash a skip bait same scenario no beak bashing just a large flash come up from under a teaser then broke the line from the out rigger managed to freespool it and when struck was nothing bait come back with large squash marks half way along it but wouldnt call it a definate sail
and also seen a free swimmer when i finally gave in and dropped some jigs down onto a massive red cloud that had been in the same spot for 3 hours on the sounder
all we managed was a heap of trevally a small macks and heaps of sharks out of it and everything we pulled up had teeth marks in it when we seen the free swimmer was a mad rush to get all the teasers and bait back out
seen another boat out there in the arvo called ONE MORE BILLY if they are on the forum how did you go any luck ? sorry to ramble on so much i was
excited first sail i have had behind the boat in more than 10 years hahahahahah

Hi Doug,
Thanks for the report, nice to hear a bit of action out there!
Cheers,
John.

30/11 sail city. Perfect conditions plenty of bait includeing 100mm long billie lollies, blue as can be water n NOTHING FOR 4HRS.

Sunday 13th Feb, fished South and North Gutter ending up at the top of North at the turn of the tide around midday, masses of small bait with spotted mackerel carving it up. Sighted one big black 100kg+ sunning himself near the schools couldn't raise him. Good sign for the early season though I hope we see a few more that size this year, assuming he was working the macks as they were just nice for a good sized fish.
Cheers,
John.

John,

When you are trolling the South and North Gutters, are you finding more success up the centre in the deep, or along the edges where it drops off?

Wherever we find the bait is where we will concentrate our efforts but as the season progresses you will often find that bait will often congregate in the "cul-de-sacs" formed by the depth contour lines on your gps, these quite possibly co-incide with current upwellings and lines hence the bait concentrations. The Billfish appear to be in close proximity to these cul-de-sacs as well even when not actively feeding. The contour known as the Witches Nose off Dundee is a particularly notable example of this.
Cheers,
John.

No worries, thanks for that. The hit we got on Saturday was along the North contour of the South Gutter as you turn to the North West and head up to what looks like an underwater island. Right on the edge of that island. Will check the Cul-de-sacs next time.

18/3 bowra wide to longlost. Nothing nothing nothing n more nothing. Very strong nw current pushing almost black water in to around 6nm out front of the lodge, lost of flotsam and fresh weed in the water. Complete lack of bait on the inshore grounds. Saw 1 small school of macs n 6hrs of trolling n thats it.

02/05 fenton area. Raised two, hooked one, converted none.
Great way to break up the barra madness of late.

Cheers DH, got me hooked!

Monday 2 May, fished Fentons and North Gutter. Went 2-2-1 with one Sail to the boat around the turn of the low at the Fentons end of North Gutter. No bait in the area at the time, raised one fish in the middle of North but too slow on the uptake and he faded away. Masses of bait and Macks at the top of North Gutter, plenty of Sharks too! Full report to come.
Cheers,
John.

Deepblack,

I was out past the spot I saw you on Saturday (the Maroon Blue Fin when the Mackies were on) and saw quite a sizeable Sailfish free jumping. He jumped at least half a dozen times. Fantastic to see. It was at about 9am on Mon morning. I was about 5 miles further to the North West from the spot I saw you on Saturday. There was an obvious difference in water clarity and he was not far from the edge. There was a lot of bait around, but not much being balled up. Just thought I would let you know that one was in pretty close.

Hope you are catching plenty. Great to meet you out on the water.

Cheers,

Doors Off

26/4 Bowra and Sail City all the way to Sail Hwy atrocious conditions with 1.5m chop on a 1.5m swell in a 20Kt SE. Went 1-0-0 and only lucky to see the beak for about 2 seconds. No bait and no birds working.

What I found interesting was the water clarity compared to last year. The other day it was green with a lot of rubbish suspended in the water whereas last year it was beep blue in the same areas and same time of the year. Might take a few more weeks for the Daly freshwater to clear up.

this was our highlight for the billfish comp this year could be the smallest sailfish ever caught ??? about 5 kg 1m from fork to bottom jaw
took a big skipping gar with a small flyingfish head on it missed another on the same hook up and that was all we had up for the 3 days
worked a small bait ball for a hour before this fish played the game had dolpins rounding up the bait ball down deep and 10 friggit birds circling 4th pass over the bait ball we got a hookup can see the small pink flying fish head in bottom pic fish was caught at sail city and 430pm

Sail or Black??......or long-tom??

Aye, juvenile blacks have a dorsal like that.