Lukeanna

Hello from Arnhem Land, been a while since my last post, but have been getting into the fishing and camping up here. Zthe weather is really good up here at the moment, and the Mack's are going stupid out there. Have uploaded some photos and will addd more later.

Yep the development rd, or as everyone up here calls it, The Track - Understatement of the centry!- Is closed now, we came in mid December, Saw Buffalo's Wild Donkeys and Heaps of Brumbies as well. Amazing part of the world. I can just about see the Wharf from my Office Roberta, it kills me when I see blokes out there catching fish and I'm at my desk We were out there about a month ago, working on the loader and the garfish were that thick I reckon we could have walked back to shore on them!!

Thanks everyone, I didn't tow the boat over, it was trucked to Darwin and put on a barge to Gove, and they did some damage to the motor cowling We came in on the Arnhem development rd, what a drive, must be one of the last true adventures in the out back left I reckon, 700K's of dirt rd and creek crossings! Loved it! Lots of people come and go by the sea, it is the only real stop between Cape York and Darwin it is definately on my to do list !

G'Day It has been a while since my last post, but have been busy driving half way across Australia to Gove NT. I took a job up here and now we reside in North East Arnhemland. The fishing is great up here and as we get into it more I will add more posts and photo's. I have added some photo's of my new boat, we brought on the way up here, we are over the moon with it, it has proven it's self well off Cairns in some very ordinary weather. Any way, see you next post.

Excellent fish at an excellent spot, the fishing up there this summer has been fantastic, we achieved some PB's and had plenty of big feeds of fish as well!

Thanks again for the replies, Re. the Garfish, I make up a burley of Sauagae mince, breadcrumbs, tuna oil and the end crust bits off a loaf of bread, it can be frozen in bags big enough for one session, when out fishing, I then fill a bucket and sit the whole mix in sea water, over time the mince becomes water logged and I throw spoon fulls over every ten minutes or so, the heavier bits sink and the other is distributed through out the water. Anyway, this usually attrachs the Garfish up at forster, and it doesn't seem to matter how fast the current is. My prefered bait is bread and I always have a rod set up with a pencil float in the boat for this type of fishing. One thing I have learnt, is always use the small suicide pattern hooks rather then the long shank ones, I reckon the hook up rate is 2 : 1 in their favour. Also I find fishing with one hook is more succesful then with 2 droppers. I simply cook mine by shallow frying them in really hot olive oil, mmmm love em. Thanks Matt

Thanks for the replies, all the fish were caught on Striped Tuna. I have been using Mullet, but my uncle put me onto the Stripey and it worked a treat. Matt

G'Day, we had another week up at Coomba Park with plenty of fish and swimming. Good Flathead again and some really big Bream, biggest Bream went 43cm, caught under the oyster leases in the main channel leading up to Coomba. Heaps of Garfish, one of my favorites Plenty of Shovel Nose Sharks, but as we haven't yet found a way to cook them so they are at least edible, we let them all go. No crabs this time but there must have been close to 100 pots out in the bay and channels, so they must still be on. good fishing Matt

G'day, I spent a lot of time on Brisbane Waters when I lived at Saratoga, I reckon the 2 best spots I found were just on the northern side of the St Huberts Island Bridge, any where along the island side of the channel, best on a run in tide, and the other spot is the short channel between the bensville broadwater and the Kincumber broadwater, it was always good for Flathead and bream. Good luck, it gets a bit busy up there.

Thanks for the replies, I asked Roberta just before we went up about the lake and what was biting, don't gto Forster without her insight I reckon!! I forgot to mention in one 2 hour sesion we caught 13 Shovelnose Sharks/Rays? We keep one to eat on the reccommendation of another person on the water, but found them hard to skin and not really worth the effort when cooked. Do you guys have any Ideas on cleaning and cooking these fish. Thanks again for the repies

G'day, just got back from Coomba Park and a week and a half of family fishing fun! We got up there on Christmas afternoon and went straight down to the wharf and caught 12 good Garfish and 2 really big Mullet, we ate the gars and took the fillets off the mullet and used the frames for crab bait, and pulled 6 big blue swimmers the next day, all in the first 2 days!!. We fished the oyster leases for some really good flathead, (my young bloke got a 53cm one) and a few nice flounder, we spent a day outside on a charter and the kids had a ball as well as getting heaps of fish. Final tally end up 38 keeper flathead, 47 blue swimmers, 8 keeper bream, 2 keeper whiting and 4 flounder, there was 18 of us up there and at one stage our little cottage looked like Coomba Park camping area!! We had heaps of fun and the kids never turned the telly on once, if they weren't fishing they were swimming, playing cricket or on their bikes. We really love it up there, the fishing is sometimes just a bonus to being out on the water in Wallis Lakes, wih Dolphins and Sea Eagles and any number of other creatures to look at.

Thanks everyone for the replies! Roberta, We have a Quinne Dory but my brother is looking into buying a yak as a christmas present for his wife . But I would love to catch up for a fish, I have seen a couple of blokes in tricked up boats throwing SP around the Oyster Leases, so I will give it a red hot go when we get up there. I have broought some 3" Gulp Shrimp and Shads in Nuclear Chicken, on a recommendation from some blokes at work. Thanks again everyone

Hey Slicendice, we have never fished Smiths, but we had a coffee at the cafe there and the young fella serving us said they had just opened the lake to the ocean again as it was start to get to high, he also said that the prawns and bream were going mad. I reckon we will give it a try over christmas

Olitay, there is a small general store that sells fuel, bait, cold dinks and beer etc. And my wife reckons they make a pretty fair Latte as well. It is a really quiet little village, with heaps of Kangaroo's, (more roo's than people I reckon) we have, on more then one occassion, had to move them away from the clothes line in the back yard to hang stuff up.

This story is tragic, I take my son (10) fishing from Stockton Breakwall quite regularly, I will be taking extra care in the future. We can't begin to imagine the pain the family and friends of the man and his 2 children are going through. My condolances to all who have been touched by this. And gratitude to the heroic efforts of the second man who tried to help.