Species
Landed: Barramundi, mangrove jack, fingermark, queenfish
(3 species), king threadfin salmon, blue salmon, steelback
salmon, golden trevally, tea leaf trevally, brassy trevally,
giant trevally, fringe finned trevally, tilley trevally,
gold spot estuary cod, black spot estuary cod, barracuda,
doggie mackerel, narrow barred spanish mackerel, broad barred
Spanish mackerel, longtail tuna, cobia, black jew, giant
herring, pikey bream, coral trout, sweetlip, stripey, wire
netting cod, black cod, tusk fish, small mouth nannygai,
large mouth nannygai, red emperor, long finned snapper,
remora, grunter, tomato cod, dart, archer fish, tarpon,
catfish (2 species), shark (3 species), ray, longtom, wolf
herring. (48 species).
Sighted:
dolphin, dugong, rays, manta rays, sharks, turtles,
sea snakes.
Crocodiles
Sighted: Plenty starting to show, best day 19
Report:
This
fortnight saw a huge list of species with Michael and Ross
raising 38 on lures, mainly while jigging offshore, and
the doctors reported a massive 45 species from their 5 days!
It just
goes to show the fantastic diversity of species available
in the local rivers and Gulf. The run-off from the late
wet season has seen the best barra action in the rivers
that I’ve witnessed for at least a couple of years with
heaps of barra ‘boofing’ bait in many areas, particularly
on the last of the run out tide.
We’ve
had some great barra action in the Hey, Embley and Pine,
with 3 of the lure casters from the doctors group scoring
around 35 barra, 8 jacks and plenty of archer fish during
a hectic session early last week. A couple of big salty
barra were taken along the foreshores, the best going 96cm.
The mangrove jacks have been taking a few lures home with
them, with most of the fish measuring from low to high 40’s.
We’ve
also had some great sessions on blue and king salmon, particularly
on live bait, with the best kingies going 90cms plus. The
offshore scene is bubbling along steadily but should go
ballistic at any time. Still, some of the action has been
frantic with tuna, mackerel, queenfish and trevally getting
stuck into the bait schools.
On some
days, the sharks have been eating 8kg tuna and 15kg Spanish
mackerel like lollypops and the lure losses have been well
into double figures per boat. But we’ve managed to keep
most parties supplied with plenty of tuna sashimi and beer
battered mackerel when required. Good numbers of cobia have
been landed, a couple of the best around the 20 kilo mark,
with a couple of big ones eaten by sharks.
The
cobes have continued to snavel big soft plastics with 3
being hooked in quick time off the bottom at one particular
location. Some massive queenfish, up to 14 kilos, have been
biting on trolled lures, jigs and cast poppers closer inshore.
Queenies of this size are very hard work and their jumps
spectacular.
Poppers
have also raised a couple of mega GT’s (they’re still swimming!)
and even a big Spaniard around the 15kg mark. The inshore
reefs have been teeming with small mackerel plus plenty
of estuary cod, coral trout, stripeys and fingermark.
Michael
and Ross brought their heavy jig gear and landed an impressive
array of big fish but were still beaten by some that didn’t
want to play the game. Their tackle boxes were much lighter
on the way home! So it’s been a couple of very busy weeks
up this way with big smiles the order of the day.
I did
hear a couple of return clients talking about having their
best fishing trip EVER, and that’s the results we like to
provide!
BarraDave
Donald,
Dave
Donald SPORTFISHING
