Darwin harbour queenfish bonanza
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:57 pm
I've only got a 4.3m boat so long trips out to the rig etc aren't really an option, so did several trips to 6 mile bouy, few days in a row and it was a case of 3rd-time lucky. Finally cracked the tide, wind, moon, water temp, bait, gear and luck puzzle of variables you need to catch a bag full in the harbour. We landed a 54, 76 and 82cm queeny, got busted off by a couple of others (including a large mac and a 3+ metre shark). Having caught enough to feed ourselves we left with fish still on the sounder, and still on the bite, didn't want to be greedy. Kids had an absolute ball. One of the other game changers was a brand new Motorguide with anchor lock - an hour or two either side of the tide change held us in place with pinpoint accuracy.
Had sashimi as soon as we got home, beer battered fillets for dinner and marinated numus overnight - eaten the next day, bl..dy delicious! (lemon & lime juice, soy sauce, splash of vinegar, red chilli, salt & pepper).
In case anyone's wondering we were using frozen herring that we'd netted off the Nightcliff jetty the day before (for anyone with a boat there's been massive schools of baitfish just off Nightcliff recently, just glide your boat into the middle, toss your cast net in & get a bucket full). We found the best rod/reel combo for the queenies was a Tyrnos reel on a short Beast Master rod, 30 pound braid with 40 pound leader. All our lighter gear nearly broke with these fish!
Have seen schools of tuna and queenies busting up randomly around the harbour so seems the dry season fishing is on, so for those that aren't having any luck out there, all I can say is "persistence pays off".
Had sashimi as soon as we got home, beer battered fillets for dinner and marinated numus overnight - eaten the next day, bl..dy delicious! (lemon & lime juice, soy sauce, splash of vinegar, red chilli, salt & pepper).
In case anyone's wondering we were using frozen herring that we'd netted off the Nightcliff jetty the day before (for anyone with a boat there's been massive schools of baitfish just off Nightcliff recently, just glide your boat into the middle, toss your cast net in & get a bucket full). We found the best rod/reel combo for the queenies was a Tyrnos reel on a short Beast Master rod, 30 pound braid with 40 pound leader. All our lighter gear nearly broke with these fish!
Have seen schools of tuna and queenies busting up randomly around the harbour so seems the dry season fishing is on, so for those that aren't having any luck out there, all I can say is "persistence pays off".
Top effort , Six mile can turn up some great action 
