| FOUR FISH |
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After a six hour flight from Brisbane to Perth and a two hour flight from Perth to Broome we finally arrived at our hotel at about 9pm Perth time. We were too tired to be bothered doing any fishing so we got to sleep pretty quickly. The next day we tried spinning off Cable Beach for mackerel and trevally but nothing came along. We tried a few other spots but still got nothing. The water was surprisingly cold. Eventually on the third day in Broome we got three estuary cod and Gantheaume Point which we managed to see smash the lures in the azure water.
We didn't get any more fish in Broome but got to watch the sunset over the Indian Ocean while mum enjoyed a camel ride on the beach.
Sunday 5th
Finally the day arrived and after a 2-hour drive from Broome to Derby we set out in the 54 foot 'King Tide'. We were going out with the guys from Unreel Adventure Safaris for a 7-night Kimberley cruise with heaps of fishing. Luckily for us we were the only people booked so we had the entire boat for ourselves. We were greeted with a bowl full of massive mud crabs for lunch. After a 6 hour steam and a fun ride through Hell's Gates where the tides create a raging torrent, we arrived at our first anchorage. We got a few sharks off the back of the boat then went to bed for an early wake up the next day.
Monday 6th
Woke up early and shot out in one of the tenders named Crusty for some fishing. Saw some bust-ups and landed three 8-10kg longtail tuna. Mine were on a cast slug and Dad's and Benno's on trolled lures. We then went up into a nearby creek where we got heaps of cod, bream and queenies onlures. Most were on a Rapala X-Rap and a Smith Revert.
After this we tried trolling for some larger queenies but only got one hook up which dropped the lure. We got a few reefies bait fishing and went back to the King Tide for some freshly gathered oysters which Mum and Bruce had got for us. After a short steam in King Tide we went out in Crusty again to try to get at some mangrove jack on a small CK. Benno and Johno got a couple but no luck for us.
We then set out for Crocodile Creek where there is a deep freshwater pool with a good jump and eventually on to our anchorage where we landed a nice sized bronze whaler and a squid with a tube size of about 25cm.
Tuesday 7th
On this day we set out in the tenders for Horizontal Falls. The water here flows through two gaps in the rocks to fill bays at high tide. It was a bit slow so we waited for a little while for the tide to pick up. We flicked lures for around and Johno got a good sized fingermark, I got a queenie on a home made popper and Jack had a small giant trevally cut in half by a massive barracuda (5-6ft long).
Following this we started steaming towards Montgomery Reef. This natural phenomenom is the largest singular reef structure in the world and is about 15 by 50 mile in size (roughly worked out by map). At high tide there is about 5m of water covering it but as the tide drops the coral appears to rise out of the ocean. The water on top looks like a secondary ocean, a good 2-3m above the actual sea level. The water rushes off it and flows into channels where some serious rapids occur.
Obviously we couldn't leave a place like this without a fish so we flicked a few lures around and got a few cod and spanish flag. About five minutes before we were going to leave I hooked a solid fish which ran me through the reef. I managed to get him out and eventually landed a 77cm golden trevally. My 60lb leader was nearly shot by the end of it, it was very lucky to land it.
After this we steamed to our anchorage where we pulled in a few sharks and some fingermark.
Wednesday 8th
After a brief steam we got to a place called Three Ways where three creeks converge and the fishing is, obviously, great.
Here I managed my first mangrove jack on a Classic Barra 3m+, Jack got his first barra on a Smith Revert and he also got a massive 110cm longtom!
Later on we decided some fingermark fishing was on the cards. We arrived at a good spot where the water dropped from land to 35m of water in about 10-15m distance. Here we got plenty of good fingermark to 46cm, Jack got his first mangrove jack on a live mullet and a few other fish. One of the amazing things about this place was pulling in 45cm fingermark and they'd get taken by massive fish about 5m off the bottom. Our guess was 2m+ cod or Queensland groper.
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