Billmack
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Posts posted by Billmack
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20 hours ago, JonD said:
Some pretty long runs even from the northern end of the island for us. It's about 80k by water to where we camp and then often 50k each way to reach some of the less fished reefs. It's such a good feeling though being up that way and so different to northern QLD even though similar species are on offer.
I do wonder how long it might be until we ever get to such trips given the local indigenous areas we travel through.
Yep, it’s typically 30k from the boat ramp to each of the mouths to the gulf, of which there are many. Many fish to be caught before the mouths though.
I used exactly 4l of 2 stroke oil in a Yamaha 15 hp, at 100-1, that’s 400 l of fuel, but we did fish a lot 😎
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Isaac Ct throws out the challenge, immediate response from Yowie. 🤣
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2 hours ago, Scratchie said:
Some pretty envious people looking at this post! Me included 😁
Fantastic report and what a way to spend your time. Thanks for sharing!
cheers scratchie!!!
Thanks, we are still the lucky country.
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12 hours ago, JonD said:
Great to see you having fun I the sun up north. Was really looking forward to getting up there at the end of next month and heading out to Vanderlin but looks like that's way out of reach now.
I think we need to take the opportunities presented to us with border control, even though the timing may not be ideal.
Many fish caught out around the islands, fog was a nuisance apparently, I don’t go out that far.
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15 hours ago, mrsswordfisherman said:
Great report for us to look at
I saw there was a group turned away recemtly that were close contacts of a Covid-19 positive person in Woolies at Katherine. Lucky they turned them away from KAB.
Still hoping to get there one day! We had to turn back last year before pandemic.
They are fairly vigilant, it is an area that is under federal govt control rather than state govt due to the aboriginal communities.
Yes it was busy this year, many doing what they couldn’t do last year and many camper trailers use it as a rest up from the savanagh way dirt roads. By all reports the whole of the NT was chaotic with travellers.
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Not many reports happening, so thought I’d add one.
Headed off on the 5 day trip to KAB for an 8 week stay in covid free NT. Two border passes in hand, the QLD border near Barringun not manned but the NT border at Camooweal was.
The weather was great as usual 15-30’ most days, wind was especially mild this year, which lead to a few annoying early morning fogs.
Many first timers find the KAB creek and river network difficult to fish, but having been there a few times it becomes easier, but many forget it is winter. Water temps this year varied from 20-28’.
This year mudcrabs were plentiful with most people getting a feed when wanted. We boated about 8 Barra, dropped a few mid air as is to be expected. Cod were in good numbers and the 550-600 sizes gets you a big feed. Other regular species of jack, golden snapper, grunter, golden trevally for sashimi, barracuda and the barrel rolling black tipped reef sharks keep things going. Bank fishing at camp was ok too with fish being caught and the odd battle lost with sharks for some entertainment.
An interesting day was when we boated 3 barra, trolled past 3 snags, in 3 different creeks, once up current, offering it the lure on that side of the boat, with no takers, then on each occasion I turned around to go down current past the same snags, and each Barra took the different lure, in this case a Storm Barra in red, black and silver, much to the annoyance of my partner, who as I reminded her, had her chance with the first pass 🤣
We went back to the same snags two days later with the same tide conditions for a donut.
Not many pics but a few to perhaps see why I love this place
We considered staying longer, but covid was moving to the NSW outback, so we left with two border passes in hand again, but no borders were manned, given we where coming from safe areas, that’s understandable.
Back home now and reality has hit with lockdowns, low temps and cloudy days 😢
Looking across the MacArthur River from camp
It is rather cold heading out in the mornings, the clothes slowly come off
one of many feeds of crab
this is was our camping neighbors dusty boat, they had a dog and the dog smell attracted the croc
Yes, I’m croc wise😎
fantastic bait and not too bad on the chew
A few fillets for the vacuum sealer
hope you enjoyed the pics.
BM
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This is from this years Club Marines policy renewal offer.
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Club marine have it, but there are conditions as to how the boat is stored.
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Try this approach
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+ 1 for the motorguide, Xi3 spotlock, hand held remote, with quick release bracket $2350. Can’t fault it.
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Ummmm, he did say South of Sydney....not Sydney
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Yes, thank you, never caught one myself, but research says you are both correct. This one is simply not very sooty. 😉
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Caught in freshwater by others in the Wilton River NT, the Wilton feeds into the Roper River.
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Amazingly NSW is the only state that dosn’t measure crabs ACROSS the carapace.
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Happy wife, happy life. 😉
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On 3/2/2021 at 2:48 PM, noelm said:
Nothing wrong with a feed of crabs and Whiting, and being on holidays makes them twice as good.
On 3/2/2021 at 3:50 PM, Yowie said:Sounds like a good holiday, all those critters are good eating.
Shame you could not keep the reddie, that is a good eating size.
Yes a professional holidayer, aka, retired. 🤣
Yep Donna, I don’t stay in many CP’s, but this is a great clean park, helps in our covid world.
We live in an amazing country, with an amazing fishery, went for a bottom bash yesterday outside Jervis Bay .
Cheers.
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Hi All,
I had been waiting for the covid windows to open to revisit this amazing area. They aligned, and off I set on the 2 1/2 day drive. Two night time stopovers and I’m there early afternoon on the third day.
I had both border passes needed, no check point going into Victoria and a quick check at the SA entry.
I stayed at arguably one of the best designed and appointed caravan parks in Oz.
The bay is known for its King George whiting, blue swimmer crabs and calamari.
The boat is now a 370 Quintrex Dart, still with the 15HP Yamaha, also an electric has been fitted.
Like most areas, fishing is dependant on the wind, and it can be windy here, but there were ample days to fish. Mostly acceptable weather, one wet day, and a couple of 40’ days thrown in for the three weeks I was there. Launching for most boaters at this park is at a firm sandy beach about 1 k away.
No need for a day by day description, but I managed to find the whiting schools and you can pull in 5 or 6 in one spot, but then sometimes just the one, and sometimes several moves are needed to find any. Find the sand patches, and a slow retrieve does it. Size isn’t huge in this bay, a good one is 380, typical is 320-350. Standard rig used, 12 lb trace, but what may be different is I use a K/L 1/0 black magic circle hook.
Blue swimmers are abundant, there are several professionals working the bay, but the crabs are in near plaque proportions, with 3 drop nets you can get your 20 in 3-4 hours, all male and full. Or, as your fishing drop a net over the side. One day I watched the crab move onto the net, before pulling it up. 3 times.
Calamari are plentiful, although I only caught them for bait, 1/2 a small squid will get you 10 whiting. But they make up the third part of my crab, whiting and squid pizza.
Razor fish (razor clams) are in the shallows, and I had never tried them before, I had heard mixed opinions, but I enjoyed them, a bit like a scallop.
Snapper are protected in SA at the moment, and of course as my luck would have it I had to catch one whilst whiting fishing, released. Proof of just how good the circle hooks are, shown in the pic.
I also did a day trip to Smoky Bay jetty for the gars and some local oysters from Smoky Bay oysters.
That probably sums the trip up, trip back home was again 2 1/2 days with stopovers on the The Murray and The Murrumbidgee. Happy to get some unleaded fuel at Mildura for just under a dollar a litre.
Cheers.
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Hey Scratchie, don’t know you or your young bloke, but it seems a tad unfair for an obviously talented footballer to get an injury in such a way. I’m sure he’ll come back stronger for it
BM.
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This crabbing boat passed me at full throttle on the Mary River at Shady Camp many years ago, I was in my own world trolling, scared the bejesus out of me. And then there was the wake.
A lot of horse power for back then.
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Lots of travel blogs out there for good tips. My rule of thumb was to stay where I needed to stay to see what I wanted to see, some will be exxy some not so , all the jet setters are now towing caravans, so supply and demand will dictate
I think your targeted specie will be in your second trip after your return to Sydney, more than likely charters, assuming your not taking a boat, and sounds like you’ve purchased your tackle already.
My best tip would be for SA, for whiting, squid and blue swimmers, all available land based and from jetties, every bay seems to have a jetty, the jetties are a great communal get together, Ardrossan one of the best. Check your regs for traps and types of permissible baits, etc
ooroo
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I claimed through Club Marine a couple of years ago, damage to the hull due to skipper stupidity (me). Seamless process.
JonD, I understand your pain, but for insurance companies to include the types of items you lost on all insurance policies, this stuff would be falling overboard every day, and policy premiums would be exorbitant.
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You can purchase hooks singlely (?) designed for ganging, no eye opening required, thread the barb through the eye at about 180’ to the other hook.
😎
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1 hour ago, motiondave said:
Who in their right mind would tag a fish for that much. More a publicity stunt.
NT Tourism have done it for the last 6 years.
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Was there in 2014, didn’t fish, but learnt of the dangers in some fishing spots. The sign is what greets you on the way in, and I spoke to the guys in the other pic, who said they just avoided a wave minutes earlier, although the sea looks calm. This platform has several memorial plaques on it for those who didn’t see a king wave coming. But I’m sure there are safer spots on offer.
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Port Hacking
in Fishing Reports
Posted
I’m beginning to think Yowie Bay’s name came from Yowie, not the other way around.