Sea Fishing in the Northern Territory

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With all of our bags packed for Cairns we checked out of our hostel and headed to Darwin's waterfront before our afternoon of fishing.

The waterfront was reminiscent of the restaurants around the friendship gardens in darling harbour, although a little smaller and they have the added features of a wave pool and a man made lagoon with a shark/croc net.

After a couple of quick pictures we headed to Cullen Bay Ferry Terminal to pick up our afternoons fishing charter. Lochy the skipper soon had us crushing out to sea to catch the tide as it turned as this would probably provide the best chances of catching anything.

With Amy giving us a quick run through on what to do we baited our hooks and cast our lines in. Straight away Jo was in on the action, and with a little help from Amy she landed the first catch of the day, a Golden Snapper which apparently tastes good so that would be dinner sorted!

Soon after several of our fellow fishermen and women hooked some pretty impressive examples of Rock Cod and Jewfish, although unfortunately Will was still without much more than a few near misses with his bait being stolen! Jo threatened to take a 2-0 lead over will when she hooked something, although the crafty fish managed to foul the line on the sea floor. It was one of our fellow fisherman catching a Jewfish for the first time he participated in the apparent tradition of eating its heat; even though it appeared as if it was still beating as Lochy cut it out!

With the tide changed and the bites drying up we moved away from the gas lines we were fishing over to a location further down the coast. With Will keen to catch up with Jo he was quick to get a line in and soon had a fish on which was pulling extremely hard. The fish was moving around the boat a lot and tangled up with the other lines overboard. Still trying to pull the fish up Will was determined to catch a bigger fish than Jo but to his dismay the fish broke the tackle leaving Will somewhat frustrated! Amy quickly got the problem fixed and Wills hook was baited up and in the water with another bite following, although they believed it would have been the biggest Jewfish caught if we got it aboard. Focused on landing at least one fish Will reacted quickly to another bite, and although there was a tangle with a couple of neighbours lines who weren't quick enough to reel them in, Will landed a Black Tip Reef Shark. Although he was no man eater his teeth proved a little too daunting when it came to photo time with Amy suggesting it best that she kept hold of it before returning it to the sea.

As we'd all had close encounters with our scaley friends it was time for a spot of lunch, so in Aussie fashion Lochy cooked up steak sandwiches on the BBQ!

With lunch eaten and dinner caught we headed back towards the ferry terminal, anchoring up to a site close to where we started. Although the fish finder was showing lots of fish below us we weren't getting many bites, so after an hour it was time to reel in and head for home.

As we had nowhere to call home for the night we headed for Mindil Beach for a shower in the public facilities. Fortunately for us there was a night market on, so after sprucing ourselves up we walked around the stalls and found ourselves a good Samaritan who agreed to cook our Snapper. As Lochy said this fish was particularly tasty we had it cooked on its own on a hot plate and weren't disappointed. Definitely the freshest thing we have ever eaten!

Having seen the sunset whilst enjoying Jo's catch we made our way back through the market to catch the bus back to the hostel to collect our things. With an early departure to Cairns in the morning ahead of us we caught a taxi to the airport and settled in for the night.

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