King Ash Bay NT, again.

[Billmack]

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

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by Billmack

[Blackfish]

Great read and great photos

Thanks for posting.

[Rebel]

Great report,Super photos. Well done.

[scottyboy]

Thanks heaps mate, I really needed to see that🤟

[BigHorse]

Great report, amazing photos!

Sounds like a time that you won't forget!👍

[mrsswordfisherman]

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. 

[Yowie]

Good fishing up there at any time, AND, much better than what is happening for a lot down this way.

[JonD]

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.

[Scratchie]

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!!! 

[Billmack]

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. 

Edited August 29, 2021 by Billmack

[Billmack]

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. 

[Billmack]

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. 

[JonD]

2 hours ago, Billmack said:

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. 

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. 

[Billmack]

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 😎

[leonardgid]

what dreams are made off ,