We put the boat at 6pm and headed off out of the harbour. A bit sloppy but kept going and things settled down pretty quickly. Soon we were travelling along nicely at 22kts. We got to Afghan shoal and decided to drift along the drop off ad try some jigging and bottom bouncing. We did no good there adn decided to keep going to Cape Fourcroy where we anchored over night. We did not fish this area. Should have after reading the report of big goldies being snapped over there. We were exploring so not a real big issue.
Sat morning we got up and motored through a some great water out to the trench. We trolled skirts around for a while checking out the trench as it was my first look at it. Quite impressive piece of water. The water was filthy and not really any good for trolling. We found a decent current line littered with debris and followed it for a while with no joy. We found a floating tree and had a look at it. We tossed a few lures around it and a few fish came out but did not look too hungry.
The amazing thing about this area was that there was no life at all. Saw about 3 birds all day and they were transiting only changing direction to have a laugh at my lure spread!
We were thinking of heading into Port Hurd but decided instead to continue up the west coast and check out a few of the creeks before heading around into the Apsley Straight. About 1 hour after making this decision, mother nature decided to humour us with 10 - 30kt winds...lovely. That area really blows up too and is not nice. We had a look at a few creeks but again no signs of life. By 3pm we had arrived in the Apslet Straight. I was now in familiar (and smooth) water. We headed straight down to a known jewie spot where we would stay the night.
We drifted across a big hole and ended up with 3 jewies up to 50lb. Not a bad effort, but not as good as it can be. We caught absolutley no goldies and a heap of small sharks. We awoke on sunday morning and worked our way down the straight to Nguiu. We looked at a few creeks and got nothing but a few small trevs. Again the lack of life amazed me!
The wind was really picking up and there was a nasty little chop forming up the straight. I was not looking forward to the trip across to Darwin if the straight was rough! We were pleasantly surprised that the water was almost glass all the way from Medina Inlet to Six Mile ground.
We got out to the north of Fenton and trolled some skip baits around for a while with no joy. The water was clearing nicely but again no birds. We came across a few small baitschools but none we were being worked.
At Fenton we droopped a bibless off the outrigger at about 20m and had a look for some macks. The sounder was showing some promise when the line set loose from the downrigger clip. No fish. On pulling in the lure I noticed some big teeth marks on it...damn.
We gave up at about 2pm and motored back into Darwin. As usual the tide was running out and the wind was running in...lovely recipe from some speed humps.
All in all it was a great trip. Only three jewies to show but exploration trips can bea bit like that. In total we covered 450km for a total of 260lt fuel. Not bad at all. Would prefer 5 - 6 days but jus shows that is is capable in 2 1/2 days! Best thing was that the trip was not really planned. You tend to overplan trips such as this and always carry a whole heap of stuff you don't use.
Plan to do it again before the year is out...maybe we will go the other way.
Lobster
By the way...has anyone got any info or spots to fish over there?
