Nice goldy in Darwin harbour

[dantt]

Managed to get out both days this weekend, pretty tough going on Saturday the weather was ordinary which limited fishing at a really low tide to the creeks. Only managed vermin on live baits, the hundreds of casts with every lure known to man proved useless.

Sunday we decided to hit the harbour and try some of the artificial reefs. Not a lot doing on the sounder and a couple of drops got nothing so headed to a patch of reefs and found some good ground. Had a hot little 15 min or so session, unfortunately only landed 1 fish. I had another 2 on and got busted off twice using 7" plastics. Can't wait to hit the spot again next weekend and see if I can land one. The fishing up here is a lot harder than I anticipated, I'm slowly starting to work it out.

This is my house mate Matt's goldy. Got it on a dead mullet single hook, went 610mm.

[Old Scaley]

Thanks for the report. It is a good reminder that no matter how good the location is, it takes time and effort to realise the potential. Looking forward to seeing more reports as you get to know the tides, times and techniques.

[batman]

Mate

Great catch!

Have a crack at the Milk Fish just south of the fish feeding centre. About 100 yards past the no fishing zone, you have to scale down a rope to get to the spot.

Take 3 loafs of very fresh white bread, on first light start burleying up and they will arrive. Use bream gear and a unweighted size 2 Gamagatzu hook, pack the fresh bread around the hook and cast it out and tease the milk fish. They are a quite hard to hook, if they feel that hook they will spit it so get ready to strike. Boy when you hook up and hang on! Pound for pound the best fighting fish I have ever caught!

Oh by the way, use 15kg+ leader as they tend to bounce you off the rocks a bit!

Also....stand a bit back from the water because there are crocs in the Darwin Harbour, if you find the spot I am talking about there is a nice high clump of rocks that you can stand back from the water...remember crocs can launch very far out the water so just be very alert when fighting the fish.

Give it a crack!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dantt]

Cheers Batman, I have gone chasing milkies around the rocks near the dinah beach boat ramp, get plenty of them and huge sea mullet on the surface but can't hook one. Can even see them suck my bread into their mouth and spit it out just as quickly. I've tried jagging, letting them take more, doing nothing haha, hoping to hook one soon they look unreal and have watched heaps of youtube vids that show how hard they go! Will definitely give that spot near the fish feeding place a go, I am pretty keen to anchor up outside the no fishing zone too to chase them.

Can't wait to get out again this weekend, really unusual forecast again for minimal wind, going to try Lee Point again want to try and boat a few spaniards!

[batman]

Mate

the key I think with Milk Fish is using the Gamagatzu size 2 hook! The guy at the tackle shop said because the Milk fish are a plant eating fish they will spit anything that doesn't taste like plant. I would use 10-15lb flurocarbon, keep the line nice a tight.

I had about 6 missed strikes and a couple spat the hooks but when I hooked one I got him right in the roof of his mouth and it stuck, wait 2 seconds and strike.

I have to get a milk fish again sometime in my lifetime what a rush! Aparently there are a few really good black jewy spots in the harbour too.

[dantt]

Mate

the key I think with Milk Fish is using the Gamagatzu size 2 hook! The guy at the tackle shop said because the Milk fish are a plant eating fish they will spit anything that doesn't taste like plant. I would use 10-15lb flurocarbon, keep the line nice a tight.

I had about 6 missed strikes and a couple spat the hooks but when I hooked one I got him right in the roof of his mouth and it stuck, wait 2 seconds and strike.

I have to get a milk fish again sometime in my lifetime what a rush! Aparently there are a few really good black jewy spots in the harbour too.

Cheers mate will give that a go. Hopefully after the weekend I can let you know about the black jewwies!

[ellicat]

Good luck this weekend. Hopefully a report with lots of pics will follow.

[dantt]

Adding to this thread, had a fun morning on Saturday, fished the rising tide (big tides this weekend, 6.7m high to 1m low) on the reefs off Darwin. Did a bit of drift fishing when the tide was still coming in, then as it turned anchored up. Only took about half an hour until we couldn't fish it at anchor anymore as the current was way too strong., Tried drifting again but wind and tide were running together and we were doing about 6 knots which made it hard to reach the bottom in 35m of water.

For a couple of hours fishing we were stoked with 2 jew and 2 goldies, my first ever jewwie so I was stoked. On the water at 6.30, off by 11 before the heat of the day really kicked in. Can't wait to go again next weekend. All fish caught on servo pillies, not even a touch on the fresh mullet we caught on the way out or plastics.