Jump to content

5th May Darwin Harbour

werewolf

By werewolf
in Saltwater

Recommended Posts

werewolf Newbie

werewolf

Posted
Posted

Dad and I boarded our “Fish Darwin†charter boat at roughly 5 pm. We steamed into the harbour for about 15 mins before dropping the pick on our first mark, a wreck that sits about 4 m about the bottom in 30 m of water. The weapon was 80 pound braid, paternoster rig with heavy mono leader. The bait, half a pillie and half a squid pinned to single hook around the 4/0 - 5/0 size. The target, NT Black Jewfish!

After reaching the bottom on the first drop, I engaged the drag and it took about 10 seconds before I felt the bites coming up through the braid! The deckie warned us not to strike early as jew like to play with the bait, not that I had to worry about that! After 3 seconds of bites all hell broke loose and it was all I could do to hold onto the rod. The fish pulled a lot of line against the rock tight drag and I just gritted my teeth and held on! Whenever the fish paused I took the opportunity to pump on a few metres of line and after a tough battle I finally had colour! A nice sized jew!!! The deckie gaffed my catch and hoisted aboard a 11.2 kg, 115 cm Black Jew! New specie and a nice size too!!!

The next drop down I didn’t even feel the bite, I just desperately clung on during that first painful run. This fish felt a bit smaller but after fighting the fish into what I though was mid water the line went limp, the leader hard worn/cut through. Damn.

Third drop and I felt the taps through the line and waited patiently. Nothing after a few minutes so I decided to wind in. Snagged and I could feel the fish too!!!

The first three drops were the only action I had, and during the trip Dad had a couple big hook ups and was busted off. There were 11 peeps fishing on the charter and all else that was landed was a jew around 60-70 cm, a few undersized Golden Snapper, a grunter or two and about half a dozen small cod. I guess I was pretty lucky then!!! The harbour was pretty flat too. I asked the deckie if it is normally so smooth and he laughed and told me that it is the roughest he has seen it for ages! We headed home at around 9:15 PM or so, with 6 kg of jew fillets in the esky:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ash Newbie

Ash

Posted
Posted

Dude, i am so jealous! Very nicely done!

Just a question, as i havent been there before. All the shows i see about catching Black jews have had them only using bait. Is there a reason for this? Did your guide mention why bait seems to catch more?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
werewolf Newbie

werewolf

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Ash I don't see why you couldn't target em on lures, mulloway are apparently a very popular target with lures if you know what you are doing.

The spots we were fishing in Darwin Harbour were around 30 m deep, and there was heaps of current so a lot of lead was used to hold the bottom. I guess you could get massive jig heads and give it a go...

The only other thing I can think of is that the visibility is only supposed to be a couple of meters, so maybe jew hunt by smell...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...