Darwin or Swains Trip ?

[Brogsy]

Hi,
I'm after a little bit of advice please.
For my 21st i have been given some money to put towards a fishing trip. There are currently two ideas in my mind. I have never fished at either.

1. Darwin. Interested to fish because of the variety it seems to offer from creeks, to reef to blue water. I have been told the visual and adrenaline rush fishing for queenies is awesome and should not be missed. I like this idea as it seems to offer my a wide range of styles of fishing and different opportunities to catch a wide variety of different fish.

2. The Swains. A family friend goes out once a year to the Swains for a week and has offered me a seat. Don't know anything about the place but i know their trip is penciled in for August.

Now if you have fished at either of these locations any information weather you enjoyed it, it was worth the coin, things you could have done differently would be great. If you have gone to other locations and enjoyed yourself please suggest them. Any information would be great because i don't think an opportunity to fish where ever i want for a week comes around to often.

Cheers Brogsy

[jaredluke]

I've fished swains and is abosultelty awesome. Can't speak about darwin cause I've never fished their. But I've also heard shoalwater bay is great as well. Tura charters (they run swains trips as well) go to shoalwater bay. Its just north of yepoon, I think, but you fish the creeks for barra, fingermark, jacks etc. then go to the reef and catch nannies, coral trout, pretty much any reef fish. It is in a remote area as well which hardly gets fished so fishing would be awesome.

[myusernam]

Hi mate and happy birthday. I have fished all over the reef and also lived in darwin recently for four years and did a lot of fishing as a shiftworker in a fishing club etc. You would definatley have a better trip and get more bang for your buck going on the swains trip IMHO. you will be out in a remote area each day with great fishing. If you go to darwin then you will have to go from darwin to each fishing destination. Darwin itself is ok if you live there but to go on even a single day charter etc will cost you big bucks. you would get much better stretch for your dollar and days in a remote place in the swains (remember your comparing it to darwin - if you wanted to be fair you should compare a swains trip to a NT liveaboard trip or remote fishing lodge. these are megabucks) hope this helps.
p.s you can have queenie fishing/ surface lures for pelagics at the swains only better. much better blue water fishing at the swains than anywhere in the NT. only thing you wont get is barra and you're better of doing that camping with mates and a tinny

[robersl]

Look up fishthetopend in google that is a very good site for the N/T and it gives you all options i have used them 6 of the last 7 years and give mike a call even to discuss things he is very good and books for a lot of the charter operaters up there he will ask what you are looking for and if the time of year you are thinking of going does not suit he will tell you ,saying that a swains trip is on my to do list i have heard a great deal of good things about fishing there and would be a cheaper option with airfares accomadation ect

shane

shane

[ejackulate]

Gday Brogsy i live and fish in Darwin all the time mate and while the fishing is great up here, to get to all the good spots can be very expensive and take a lot of timewhich can also waste a lot of holiday/fishing time as most spots are a few hours out of darwin. i have also fished the swains and loved every minute.For me the answer to your question would be SWAINS

Have fun wherever you go mate
rob

[goodpal]

Have done Swains 10 times and going again in late August. Had a great time everytime on the Kanimbla. I havbe also fished Darwin Harbour once on a charter and while it was a good day we didn't get nearly the number or variety we got at Swains - might just have been a dud day there.
If your Swains trip with a mate falls through we have one spot left on our trip from 27 August to 3 September. If interested drop me an email at goodpal200@live.com.au
Mike

[nigelr]

Swains, no contest.

[OldManRiver]

SWAINSWAINSWAINSWAINS

[Black_Rat]

SWAINS !

Haven't fished NT before but for 2K for the week, it's money well spent ;)


Damo

[Daintreeboy]

Marion Reef ;D ;D

[iqarus]

i did a week-long trip to the swains when i was 19 aboard the capricorn star (under rob benn charters not norval).

it was one of the best experiences of my life to date. (catching half a dozen 15 kilo spanish on a handline while a bloke with a $5500 rod/reel combo dropped 5 in a row PRICELESS)


having said that i went with the old mans fishing club, and knew most of them quite well, and had two of the best charter staff you could find in australia.

going with a bunch of random blokes could be a completely different experience, id try and meet the other blokes over a beer before spending a week on the briney with them.

[Sevric]

Swains is hard to beat. There is nothing quite like some one else doing all the cooking while you sit on the back deck with refreshments in one hand trying to catch Emperor with the other.

[Brogsy]

Thankyou to everyone who has posted, sure helps to make my decision easier thats for sure.

Cheers Ausfishers

Brogsy