Berry Springs with the kids

Ed’s naps have prevented us from being able to travel to Kakadu and Litchfield, but Berry springs is only 40 minutes away. So we decided to head down early one morning. Claire and I were unsure just how much he would get out of it, but we knew Maggie would love it.

Well, it turned out Ed had a great time! He couldn’t do much but hang onto his Mum in the shallower part, but still thought it was a blast. And Maggie absolutely loved it. It was hard describing it to her, she seemed to think she was going into a big pool that looked like a lake. But when she got there she saw the fish and we swap downstream to the bigger pools she said in her geniune voice “this place is amazing Dad!”.

Dry Season Trevelly & Queenie Fun!

Some trips just work!

Mike and I went out together looking for some Trevelly and Queenfish action. The plan was to throw lures around – I personally think Queenfish are very underrated as a table fish, though everyone agrees both are terrific fighters.

We went out and it was one of those (great) days! We caught loads, in fact, I twice caught two trevelly on the same lure! I had not seen this before, but it is not likely not that uncommon. They swim as a pack and because of the clear water I could see a fish follow the guy I had on my hook and try to grab the “food” out of its mouth and in doing so get hooked.

Mike caught something huge, it took him a very long time to even get a glimpse of it – brassy trevelly! 74cm and it fought like all hell. Was quite entertaining too, he would get it to the boat and I would get the net out, suddenly the fish would take off and threaten to spool Mike so I would have to start the boat up and chase him down. Then Mike would win the fight, get him to the boat and I’d get the net… only to have to start the boat again. That happened 4-5 times, we started calling him the “gym junkie trevelly”.

My best fish for the day was a 58cm Queenfish (a PB).

Very happy!

We finished the day with some bait in a hole. Not much was happening when suddenly I hooked something huge! I thought perhaps a ray because of how it could stick to the bottom. But it went on long runs, so I was daring to dream I had caught a monster jewie! It took me about 20 minutes to get it to the surface, and it was a turtle. Dissapointing and also a bit upsetting, I love turtles. It went back under and the line snapped right at the point which was good, hopefully it gives it a fighting chance.

Got:
Me – 58cm Queenie, approx 6 queenies, approx 10 trevelly.
Mike – 74cm Brassy Trevelly, approx 3 queenies, approx 15 trevelly, and lots of catfish on bait!

Corroboree for Dad’s 70th

Dad was keen to go out fishing with Maggie for his 70th. Maggie was beyond excited! But the problem at this time of year is the wind. Not to mention launching and retrieving boats with the tides and the winds. In the end we went to Corroboree Billabong knowing that fishing would be difficult but the boating would be easy.

We didn’t even a bite! But we did have a lot of fun – Maggie got to drive the boat which she thought was amazing.

Darwin Harbour Fishing Round 2

Dry season appeared to come early, and I was concerned about the wind. But my quest to get Maggie into fishing is on track, we got really lucky with the weather, it was total glass out there. Tough going fishing wise… I got 1 30-35cm goldie and 1 stripy. Maggie got a 35-40cm cod, and a 20-25cm Goldie. No one else got anything. However my live bait got chomped and spat (no where near the hook) when I wound it up the estimated 70cm-80cm Cobia was following it…. gah!

Fishing with Maggie – Back in Darwin!

Claire and myself finally managed to move back to Darwin, so hopefully this blog can come alive once again. Today I took Maggie off for her first fishing adventure via Darwin Harbour Fishing Charters.

We went and it was a fairly quiet day at first. Maggie caught her first fish (I believe a grunter) and things came alive at the tide, the boat caught a couple of jewfish and some golden snapper. I hooked a couple of good sharks (probably sharks) but they busted me off.

The good news was that Maggie absolutely loved the trip and is looking forward to the next time we can go.

Maggie very happy on the water