Darwin fishing trip

[Dave71]

Looking at heading to Darwin in the 1st week of Oct. Any advise on a charter. Would like to do a one day trip offshore and one in the estyries/rivers.
Dave

[LBGaddict]

I'll take ya! fishing charters. Steve Goodhew 0407764283. Fishes estuaries and inshore

[Salty_Dog]

G'day Dave71,

Every Fishing show pushes http://www.arafurablue.com.au/

They might be great, but i went with the charter company that are right next door.

http://www.equinoxcharters.com.au/ They were cheaper and it was a great day out.
Big dew Fish and plenty of Finger Mark Snapper, great spread for lunch and as much free soft drink as you want.
Bring your own beer, friendly crew, clean boat and all the gear worked.

Not sure about the fresh water charters, there seems to be hundreds of them once you get there.

Give the Milk Fish a go just outside the fish feeding too, great fun on light gear with just bread as bait.

[Dave71]

Thanks for the info. I will finalize the details of the trip with THE ONE WHO MUST BE OBEYED. Once that task has been completed I will be in contact.
Dave

[robersl]

Hi Dave a pm sent highly recommend this guy and number i supplied to you

shane

[BrandonH]

Thats a good question for me too:) lol I am heading up this saturday but haven't had the time to organise a charter:( what are these charter companies like for last minute bookings?

Also if anyone can give me a good Landbased spot for Queenies I would appricate it!! Taking the large flick stick loaded with 30lb braid. Will be giving the jetty in the CBD a go but have never been to darwin b4 so don't really know how far away these places are..

Dave, Is it next week your up there or the following week? if its next week we should catch up for a fish ;)

cheers
Brandon...

[robersl]

Brandon the jetty is only about a 1-2klm from town in the heat buggar to walk a lot fish it at night if you get a chance go to mandorah on the ferry hourly service i think it leaves from cullen bay and fish the jetty there for every thing they had a photo of a shark on the steps in the local darwin paper the other day people trying to get the ferry to work and kids had this live shark thrashing on the steps lol

shane

shane

[Dave71]

I am looing at being in Darwin between the 04-09 of October.
Dave

[BrandonH]

Bugger! I will be leaving on the 4th.

[Dave71]

Thanks for the info. I will not be able to make it to Darwin due to land lord commitments in Townsville.
Dave

[Tailortaker]

I was in darwin a couple of weeks ago and went on an evening charter with "fish Darwin" they were pretty good, we mainly chased fingermark but I hooked up something big that snapped a 130pd leader after a 10min fight. My Mate took me fishing at corrobberee (spelling) for barra and i noticed that the barra base guides work very hard to put clients on to fish.
Cheers TT

[Salad Fingers]

My Mate took me fishing at corrobberee (spelling) for barra and i noticed that the barra base guides work very hard to put clients on to fish.
Cheers TT

Yeh it's been a tough time for barra overall during the last month, really starting to fire up now though. September is always a bit hit and miss. I know I wouldn't wanna be a barra guide on the off months up here! :)

[poddy mullet]

Give me a bell on 0427 454 357. I organise charters for darwin sports fishing companies. Cheers, poddy mullet

[BrandonH]

Hey guys! back from a week up there and loved the place:) I ended up doing a half day charter... Not really what I wanted but the price was right and they could fit me on with 2 days notice lol. Company was darwin reef and wreck. Boat and gear was good and well layed out, the skipper although a bit young said that the harbour had been fishing bad so took off to some ground just outside and west of the harbour. we fished on the first spot for a couple of small spanish flags, then onto another spot for more of the same. then he motored in closer to the shore and we started catching more but still small stuff. 2 blokes out of 11 caught a nice Jew each (about 4kg) but taht was it. an hour ride out and back takes a fair bit of time off a half day charter:(

I'm not really complaining about it as I know it can be a little hit and miss especially if your only fishing for a couple of hours... Next time I head up I will be organising it on good tides and have a nice 2 day charter setup b4 hand;)

I made up for it fishing from Fishermans warf!! caught a number of small GT's to 45cms and a heap of Queenies the same size, but also got 2 over 60cms which went like rockets!!! Tried Stokes warf but found it a little hard to fish from that height. I did get a couple of enqueries from Queenies but they didn't want to strike, only follow then shy away. (notice the Gt below had a wire trace hanging out of it!!).

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs221.snc1/6832_144160833705_592383705_2517762_3508470_n.jpg

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs201.snc1/6832_144160853705_592383705_2517765_629110_n.jpg

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs201.snc1/6832_144160858705_592383705_2517766_6272749_n.jpg

cheers
Brandon...

PS: I couldn't believe the amount of Archer fish swiming around all the warf's and poontoons in and around darwin!! was amazing:) also your mud Skippers grow dam big too!! I saw one that would have been near 20cms long:o

[b j p]

Thanks for the report. A mate of mine who used to live up there said there is a company from which you can hire small tinnies etc and that if you're chasing Queenies and Trevally there isn't any point leaving the harbour as they're always there in plague proportions. He just said, like you seem to have found, that size will vary depending on the time of year.

[Salad Fingers]

Hey guys! back from a week up there and loved the place:) I ended up doing a half day charter...
... said that the harbour had been fishing bad so took off to some ground just outside and west of the harbour. ...

2 blokes out of 11 caught a nice Jew each (about 4kg) but taht was it...

I'm not really complaining about it as I know it can be a little hit and miss especially if your only fishing for a couple of hours... Next time I head up I will be organising it on good tides and have a nice 2 day charter setup b4 hand;)

cheers
Brandon...

PS: I couldn't believe the amount of Archer fish swiming around all the warf's and poontoons in and around darwin!! was amazing:) also your mud Skippers grow dam big too!! I saw one that would have been near 20cms long:o

Hi Brandon,
Firstly congrats on getting up here and getting stuck into it! More the merrier up here doing this sort of stuff i reckon. It's a fantastic place up here and I love it too!

I just would like to emphasise (sp?) the stuff about the hard reef fishing in the harbour. It's almost totally 100% because of the Charter operators and pro fishers that the harbour has such poor reef fishing. Jewies don't appreciate being totally fished out of a single area. Only now are the charter opperators figuring this out, now that they have to drive so much further to catch anything bigger than 30cm from the bottom.
It's a tragedy what has happend to the reef fish fishing up here.
The professional jewie fishers that hammer charles point every year don't help either.

Day charters are now going as far as Lorna shoals/Bass reef (prolly 60/70 km out) daily, and sometimes as far as the peron islands. Over the years they've just pushed further and further out and the fishery has never recovered.

I don't have a problem with fishing charters at all so long as they treat the sea with respect.. and they are now slowly becomming more sophisticated and smart with their fishing, introducing a 1 jewie per person quota, it's just that the damage has been done and will take years or possibly even decades to recover.
One positive is that this year has probably been the best in a LONG time for coral trout captures, hopefully it is indicitive that the overall health of the system is improving... we will wait and see..

[frenzy]

have been with equinox twice , both time cleaned up on goldies and good jew.
few reds thrown in and plenty of laughs with the crew.. highly recommended