North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hi all, new to this forum and somewhat new to Darwin fishing. Will be making my 4th trip up to your beautiful part of the world in June for two weeks as my folks live out lee point way and I'm keen to do some more fishing. On my previous trips I've done a couple of charters, a fair bit of land based (east point, Cullen bay, mandorah, lee point etc) and also hired a boat for a few days and blindly fished the harbour. All of which has so far produced a fair few queenies and a good sized slatey bream but not much else. I'm absolutely dying to get onto some good sized GT's or a spaniard etc but I don't even know where to begin. The old boy has just bought a small tinny (4m), I've got good gear I'm bringing with me and plan to smash the tackle shops hard as soon as I arrive, all I need now is someone to point me to the fish! (As if it were that simple!)

I'd consider myself a fairly experienced fisho here in Queensland but I'm all at sea when it comes to the territory so If you can throw me a few tips I'd be very grateful!

Cheers,

Steve

Gday steve
That time of year you should do ok around Anglers reef just off
Lee pt, for some Macks and some good reefies. It's an easy trip out
from Nightcliff ramp or even over to East pt wide, and also the Rick mills
area. Burley up some gars or catch some small Flag for live bait on a balloon
should see you right amongst em. Best times early morning and late arvo on a neapish tide (clean water) .
Get your self the FFF book it has all the gps marks in it for these areas .
Also have a good spin stick at the ready ,should be some good long tail tuna
around to.
Good luck.

Steve, firstly welcome. I normally use sanmar with 4 hook gangs (macks will generally hit the tail of the bait or livie first, so sometimes with 3 hooks, they will get the tail, but miss the hook).
The Bottlewasher off Lee Point is usually productive this time of year for macks, if you get there as the sun comes up, float a bait (or livie) about 3 metres under a ballon. Once the sun comes up more, lose the ballon and just send it out the back unweighted.
I'm also a fan of burley, just use rabbit pellets (for bulk), cheap catfood (tuna or seafood flavour) and fish oil. Just beware, this can attract sharks, but I have found it a lot more productive than not using it. The added benefit is you dont have to be exactly on the spot, Bottlewasher can get crowded on a good day.
There is some good structure close by, apart from the bottlewasher itself, so dont be afraid to sound around a bit if there are a few boats on the wreck.

Hope that gets you started, might see you out there one day.
Good luck.

Hey mate, seriously just go to dundee. Nothing else compares unless you go wider.
Give me a call/pm if your keen, ive got a 5.3 plate seajay and will be out there around that time. Might have a deckie spot available. Hopefully able to get out his weekend if wind dies down

cheers
Scott

Thanks Jeffish and Sharkbait for the tips on the spots, sadly no sounder on the tinnie so will be using my phone to navigate but I believe my old boy has that fff book at home already so ill be bringing that along for the marks. Those techniques you mention are similar to ones I use here so good to know I've got a head start there, ill also be keen in that case to try some micro jigs and plastics as I've had some success here with those as well (though fish are few and far between down here these days)

Scottie, I've been down to Dundee on a quick day trip in the car and what a beauty of a spot that is! Walked along the shoreline for a while casting poppers but the sun was a bit too high by then for them to work but I did spot a golden or two prowling along the edges! I may just take you up on that offer, I have my own 5.3 at home so I know what's needed from a good deckie! And I'll bring the beer

I reckon Scottie is on the money. Dwn harbour can be hard work and even experienced fishos go home with nix from time to time. Having said that once you get it sussed you can get to the point of reasonably expecting to get a feed. Dundee wide however almost guarantees good fishing. The only way you could go wrong is by being me : )

No worries steve, its really is just crazy fishing out wide. I have a rule if I drop a bait that isnt absolutley owned by something in 30 secs I consider moving.
Just got new red emp and coral trout marks too off a dundee local so very keen to try them as he reckons goldies are a pest there lol
Ill swing you a mark or two if you want mud. ive been lucky enough to be given a heap over the years that produce so ill return the favour. Most are a minimum of 20-25kms offshore though

That would be very decent of you Scottie. Thanks

Firstly welcome. I would seriously consider getting a GPS /sounder. I live on mine. Especially with pelagics when they are not feeding on the surface. You can still find bait balls sub surface and float baits or drop jigs down to them.

Dundee is awesome but you will really have to pick your weather windows this time of year with the boat you have.

Pelagics close to Darwin I would use small tides as Jeffish said. Premium live baits can be an effort but they can also make a trip. While the live bait is out the back doing its thing drop down small metal jigs from 30-80g and bounce and rip them throughout the entire water column. You will be surprised at what jumps on them

Pm sent mud

x2 for a sounder and GPS. You can suss a lot of reef out that you other wise wouldn't know was there from a chart plotter. And a sounder is a must for territory waters as tides will catch you out a lot with out one.

Blue holes would be a good adventure on spring tides for ya. Lots of variety and potential once you learn them.

Cheers guys, definitely agree on the sounder but not my boat so will just have to put the pressure on my old boy to get one, if it doesn't happen for this trip then i will just have to make do using my phone to find the marks. Starting to get the idea that the techniques are similar to what I'm used to down here (which shouldn't be a surprise really, they are still fish) but the tides seem to play a much bigger role up your way in terms of choosing a spot, so I'm sure all of your advice so far will be invaluable. 3 weeks to go now and I'm itching to wet a line, ill make sure to post in here with the results! Thanks again.