North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

I headed out on a solo trip to the Blue Holes on Tuesday, launching from Buffalo Creek. It was a bit lumpy on the way across, but I love the performance of my Top Ender, it slices well and falls way more gently than my old boat. As I neared Gunn Point I backed off as I've heard there are bommies everywhere.
The tide was still quite high, so I slowly putted up into the outer blue hole then over the reef and into the inner hole. Once in the inner blue hole, the water smoothed out and it was sheltered from the wind by the mangroves on either side. I sounded around for a while getting a feel for the shape of the place and approached the smaller blue hole. I didn't cross into it as the water was only 50cm deep and I knew the tide still had a few metres to fall. The water clarity was good, but with the overcast weather (and rain for much of the day), I made a few large shadows in the about 2m down. I cast a KO weedless lure (what I had on at the time) and two of the shadows launched themselves at it. I hooked up solid on my 2-5kg rod and soon the drag was screaming. Luckily the fish turned from the mangroves and headed to the deep water. As it came back past the boat, I could see that it was a massive GT, maybe 15kg. I had to follow the fish around a bit with the motor to avoid getting spooled. As it tired it began to do deep circles of the boat. After a 10 minute fight, the line went slack and I pulled up a straightened hook. Bugger! I've had a bit of trouble with larger fish on KO hooks, I'm not impressed with their quality. The lures are deadly though!

I cast around trying to find the GTs mates with no luck so I headed into the mangroves. Everything about the blue holes is different to all the places I've fished around Darwin, it's a beautiful spot to have to yourself! Some heavy rain set in so I put up the canopy and flicked to the magrove roots, but all I could see in them were bream. The heavy rain cleared so I went back into the blue hole and cast the edges as the water poured off the flats over the coral.
I caught a small trevally and saw turtles, sharks and rays. Back at the smaller ble hole, the tide was falling off the separation and I anchored up and walked across the coral to cast into the hole. There were a bunch of sharks in there chasing my big popper, which was also boofed a couple of times by some big cod. As I had lunch I soaked a few big strips of trevally at the mouth of the major creek for not even a nibble. I then motored to the outflow of the hole, an impressive sight! quite narrow, harsh rocky edges torrents of water surging through! I anchored again and walked the edges casting my popper with no luck. As the tide slowed (1m low) I drove out of the hole with eyes searching for the jagged rocks, thankfully not hitting any. The blue holes were up to 34m deep, but the water in the channel between them and the Vernons is 60m deep in places and very close to land.

It was still too soon to enter Buffalo Creek again, so I putted around the reefs around Gunn Point just watching the sounder. Arriving back at Buff Creek there was almost no water in the channel, so I went back to a reef I had found nearby on a previous trip. I soked some more trevally and caught a shark and a tricky snapper before getting back to the ramp with the rushing incoming tide. A bit of help from a bloke fishing at the ramp made it easy to get the boat back on the trailer.

Although I didn't catch a lot, I had an amazing day. It was one of those solo trips which really recharge you, as well as an adventure to a new place. I'll definitely be back!

PS Thanks to 86 for your great posts on the area!

Great post

Chase GTs a bit and a 15kg GT would straighten many a soft plastic hook..

Cool post mate ,lots of info I,m sure you will smash a few next trip.
Gotta love GTs ,brutal on tackle

Ahh, the secrets well and truly out now 86.

Top post, gotta love that place.

Damn!!!

Great post theodosius, some good pics, just a couple of things missing, fish!! Lol

I'm sure if you go a few more times you will get amongst them, those big Trevor's really go hard, and usually always find a few

Hey 86 good thing them blueholes are a long trip otherwise could get crowded

Also great report theodosius , next time you will slay it

But really does it matter!

cheers Craig

Cheers for the report and photos,