I just returned from an interesting trip to Borroloola in the NT. The trip was a follow up to one I did to Centre Island 2 years ago. We selected the first two weeks on November which suited everyone. We had people from New Zealand, Darwin, Adelaide, Toowoomba and Ayr. In total 10 people and five boats. We launched from King Ash Bay and headed straight out to the old Weather Station on Centre Island to find a group of guys already residing in the old shed. They were kind enough to let us pitch some tarps off the front of the building for shade.
Anyway the Barra were a bit sluggish to bite. They hit lures down deep but nothing in the above the 2meter range. Everything was down in 4-5 meters of water. The previous trip you couldn’t raise a fish on lure. The lack of bait in the bay made it hard on the live bait fishing side of the house. But we were able to get hold of some mullet. There were only a few Threadfin and the odd Queen fish to be had, which was unusual. The previous trip it was hard work getting beyond the queenies and threadfin to target the barra. There were plenty of small sharks to get past though, they were nearly in plague proportions at times.
The water temp was about 31 degrees and the fish were heading for the McArthur River mouth. It looked slow going in the river mouth for the diehards but the islands were producing if you had a go around the rocky headlands and colour changes in the water.
Most of the Barra were in the 70-80cm range with the odd capture and release of the 100 cm variety.
Talking with the locals there, Centre Island has now been handed over to the traditional owners for their keep.
Anyway an awesome trip resulting in one broken back boat trailer and one drowned 5.0 meter Quintrex Hornet put to the bottom of the bay by a croc. It appears the croc wanted a ride overnight and got itself onto the back of the boat, resulting in some pretty amazed looks in the morning as we awoke to see one said boat with its bow pointing to the sky and its 100hp 4-stroke under 3 feet of water . We dragged the boat up onto the beach and proceeded to dry her out. We didn’t know how long the motor was under but even with the ignition off you still have battery power applied to the starter motor and trim relays. Well there wasn’t a Bus Bar (power supply) left, so we jerry rigged up the electrics, pulled the carbie manifold off and dried everything out. We turned the motor over by hand and there was no water in the pots. We bled the carbies of water, connected up a 30lt fuel tank as the underfloor one was full of water. With the help of a can of Aerostart and damn good luck it started. We got the trim/tilt working and went fishing that afternoon. The Yammie ran on 3-4 pots every now and again, but it ran. We had to disconnect the voltage regulator as it started to put out some nasty smells. The guys got her back to King Ash Bay the following day with only once having the motor kick itself in limp home mode. With a small time at idle she kicked herself back into life and off she went again at full noise. It’s amazing what you can do with 16 gauge wire, aerostart, a basic tool kit, a lot of good luck and a few beers.
What a trip.
Dex
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