North Australian Fishing

The new NT artificial reefs - anyone fished them yet?

Yeah few weeks back with captain. one big bait ball no action. We were only chasing pelagics tho. Going again on the 25th

Had my first look around out Lee Pt Wide on Wednesday and remembered halfway there to not believe every weather report. The standard 10-15 knots, seas to 1m and swell to .5m doesn’t always apply out there or to my day off.

Anyhow, 32 Kay’s due North from Cullen Bay direct out of the harbour mouth to the published coordinate for this area, due North is always fun with a direct easterly wind, waves and swell.

There is nothing on the given coordinates but, travelling due North to it you’ll cross over the first five modules (that I counted) and I have attached a few sounder screenshots with marks. As promised I had trouble grabbing anchor even on the start of the neaps due to rising up and down 1-2m with wind and eventually gave up settling for a drift fish at about 1knt 5 or 6 times aided by a dragging anchor wondering if I’d be able to mark a few more modules as I dragged along. Got smoked a few times so changed rods to use the Shimano Torium reel with 80lb braid and hooked this critter again and thought I’ll get a look at it at least. Wrong, 3 times I got my sinker, hook and bait back but the 5,0 hooks were nearly straight so I’m putting it down to a big Groper. Saw so many Spaniards around the metre mark coming up and they seemed to be just looking at me.

Mostly went for a look and hoped to grab a feed of Gold that are around the 40-45cm mark - I’ve seen the evidence, but only stayed for an hour as conditions already gave me a few bruises.

Great info Ninja

Great report Ninja. Sure sounds like a groper.

Hope you get a few Tangels.

I am keen to hear about the reef out the front of the Adelaide, that is an interesting location.

I’m hearing Leaders is quite busy with boats heading out to the Adelaide reef but haven’t heard how its doing. It could be just the whole talking it up like the tackle shops do to sell fishing gear though.

I used the coordinates from Fisheries FB page and I suspect they just dropped the pin in the middle of it all. Hopefully I’ll get some good water on my next break for a better look around the Lee Pt area.

Hi Ninja
Can I ask what sounder do you have?
The pics look really clear
Thanks
matt

While the thread is current thought I would give an update on the artificial reefs. All reefs are producing good amounts of Jew and a few goldies. Adelaide river reef cluster is the one that hasn’t produced as well as the others - mostly just pickers and sharks. Some “ in the know” fishers may have better info but my understanding is thatFisheries research have shown good Jew on most reefs but not the Adelaide.

my understanding is thatFisheries research have shown good Jew on most reefs but not the Adelaide.

Might end up being a cyclical reef given it's location outside the mouth of the Adelaide.

It is surprising jewies have not showed on it in numbers, I thought this one would be a good jewie reef because of its location.

MattLang wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 2:45 pm Hi Ninja
Can I ask what sounder do you have?
The pics look really clear
Thanks
matt

Those screen shots taken from a 12” Lowrance Elite Matt.

I’ve done a lot of circle work out there and gridding trying to find some more but without luck so far but have found, marked and fished some pretty good ground.

Web site says there are 116 mods in groups of 4-5 over the 4 sites.
If this is correct and evened out there should be 29 mods over each site so... at least 5-6 groups out at the “Lee Point Wide” grounds. Each group approx 60m from the other...

My last visit over the neaps saw these waypoints busy with enough boats including the Charter boys to keep me moving and looking around for some more.

As soon as I find them I’ll post em up.

Fished the gutters reef a few times lately.
Some nice goldies and a reasonable trout,
buckets of red fish, stripies and trevs are annoying
Went out last neeps by myself and got two good mackeral, heaps of trevs and a heap of big red fish in 2 hours of fishing
Lost a few sinkers to the mackeral,
A mate fished lee last neaps for a 2 jewies and some nice goldies.
The weather has been good lately so might give it a hit again this weekend.

The four custom-built NT reefs have been in now for more than 18 months and would be getting a good crust on them, any further reports?

The one out the front of the Adelaide River is in a different sort of habitat to the others, curious how it is fishing. Still just pickers?

I saw a report of a few reasonable goldies coming from the Adelaide reef. Still haven’t heard of any Jewies from this one though.

The lemon sharks and tiger sharks love the Lee Point one.

Three tigers were circling the boats last time I was there…

Cheers

Video of three years of growth on the new(ish) engineered reefs ... https://fb.watch/gY-9rEKkyf/

Howz the species makeup turning out on the various reefs?