Sunday Morning Harbour Gold

[Jerro]

Hi All,

It’s been a while since my last post mainly due to not catching much or nothing to write home about so I hope you get some enjoyment out of this read and the photos.

It didn't take long to get a yes reply from good mate and neighbour West Coast Rossco when asked if he wanted to come for a casual Sunday fish at a recently found little bit of ground (spot x) in the harbour that has given me lots of reasons to question why I have spent thousands on fuel travelling miles out to less frequented fishing grounds but for poor returns.

The spot its self is unremarkable on the sounder but geez it has given on the past few occasions since I stumbled across it one night after a solo harbour trip where I picked off a nice Trout, small Goldie’s and Tusky on a big tide much to the Brides delight in me finally bringing home some of her favourite table fair (she has good taste).

Anyway it was gentleman’s hours when Rossco and his young bloke pulled up at around 8am and with an incoming tide and high around eleven we weren’t in too much of a rush to get on the water and just as well as the ice stop on the way had me thinking about the lack of winch handle that was safely still tucked up in my rig (rookie error). After a quick trip back home we were off to the boat ramp.

With the boat launched with the help of the winch handle we left Dinah into a slight South Easter much to the enjoyment of my eldest daughter and Rossco’s young fella, its times like these that I hope they look back and appreciate going fishing with their grumpy dads (not always grumpy just sometimes).

20 minutes later we were at spot x and I was quietly confident that we would at least get a couple of red fish to keep the kids amused and hopefully pick off some Goldie’s for the dads. With the pick down it was all about the kids for the first 10 minutes making sure they were all set and they were familiar with their kits and keeping hooks out of hands.

Things were a bit slow to start off with no arches showing on the sounder but patients apparently is a virtue and Rossco’s young fella soon had an enquiry and hook up with a nice little Spanish flag coming to the surface to be greeted by one happy little boy, a few quick photos and back down he went. Not long after my little girl had a screaming run on her little outfit and with some help from dad up came a beautiful little Tusky that put a smile on her face from ear to ear and to mine as well, I’ve been trying for years now to put my wife onto a Tusky but she just hasn’t been able to deliver so for my daughter to get one before her was all the ammo I needed to give her a ribbing when we got home.

A few words were spoken between myself and Rossco about the lack of attention we were getting in the fishing department when again my daughters rod has been smoked with braid ripping from the small spool, this was definitely a job for dad and after a couple of minutes and calls of shark from Rossco we had a small black tip reefie firing up the kids with the excitement of seeing their first shark by the side of the boat.

So the dads were now sitting at 3 zip and I wondering if and when spot x was likely to offer up a bite let alone a fish for myself or for Rossco for that matter, well just when I was contemplating grabbing a coldy from the esky I was absolutely wacked from below having me call it early for another black tip reefy with Rossco being more optimistic. After a short fight all the way to the top I have seen colour and the largest Goldie I have ever caught in the harbour has come to the surface, with a quick grab of the 80 pound leader a nice 4 kilo Goldie was on the deck of the boat to holler and hoots from the dads and kids. After a couple of quick photos I noticed that the sounder had lit up and there was a good show of fish moving directly below us with Rossco hooking up and landing a beautiful harbour Trout with me making the call for photos to be taken later while the bite was on and knowing Goldie’s how quickly they can shut down.

For the next 15 minutes baits were smashed, fish dropped, some landed and with everyone getting in on the action of a red hot bite and just like that as quick as it came it shut down with only red fish left to strip our baits and many calls of “Im looney fishing” (no bait on the hook). Once again spot x has produced the goods and Im so happy and proud that my daughter has well and truly caught the fishing bug, her first Tusky and her first Goldie with Rossco equally as proud with his young bloke landing a couple fish in one of his few outings out on the blue. Im pretty sure Rossco had a great day on the water as well, to catch quality fish like we did on Sunday in the harbour goes to show how lucky Territorian’s are to have such a great fishery on the door step of Darwin.

I hope you enjoyed the read.

Tight lines Jerro

[NinjaFish]

Great to see you living the dream Jerro and thanks for sharing. There's still some good Goldies around at my (spot x's) at times, and when I take the guests out to them they usually do all the catching. To be honest, I'm still to catch a Trout in the harbour so its great to see one.

[West_Oz_Rossco]

Best 4 hours fishing in a very long time mate.

[Lats]

That is simply awesome

[Matt Flynn]

Great read and a great trip, thanks for posting

bl..dy hurts tho, I had to order a seafood basket recently ... bogus crab stick, bogus calamari, piece of shark ...

Territorians have exceptional inshore fishing.

[goldfish]

Top harbour effort mate, good to hear the kids were onto a few aswell.

[West_Oz_Rossco]

and I ask myself again, why would you wanna live anywhere else but the territory

[steve29]

What a great read loved it. Its always good to see the little ones fish nothing better. Great catch for the harbour wouldn't live anywhere else

[balou]

Well done love seeing kids catch fish...

[ozdodge]

Good on ya mate,

Thanks for posting

[RedDevil]

Great work mate.

[fishhunter81]

That is a ripper harbour session!

[tristan.sloan]

what a cracking session!

[theodosius]

Well done

[jeffish]

That is a great harbour catch , Nice one