The start of the 2009 season of Live-a-Board Fishing Charters has, to date, seen some fantastic fishing with a variety of trips organised for the specific interests of each particular group. The first trip of the season was a 6 Night Ultimate Barra and Reef Fishing Safari with a group of 6 blokes up from Phillip Island and Wonthaggi, Victoria.
This was mid-March fishing trip and we prayed that Darwin's unpredictable weather would be kind to us...and kind it was! It just so happened that the wet season finished early this year, so the run-off was also early. Perfect for a mid-March fishing charter to the mouth of the famous Daly River.
The plan was to fish the Daly River and it's estuaries for 3 days chasing barra and then head back to Darwin for a night before hitting the reefs and drop offs for some bluewater action for another 3 days. We took Northern Exile as a mothership and towed 2 tinnies, parking up near the mouth of the River. Each morning the boys would take off in the tinnies, with our barra guide, and hit the river and creeks targeting the elusive barramundi. But elusive it was not! Over 50 barra were hooked each day, the largest being 97cm, almost got that prize metre barra. Something to chase next time.
So much fun was had by all, that they begged and pleaded to stay barra fishing for another day. So of course we accommodated and the guys made the most of the extreme barra action. We changed the itinerary to stay out for the whole 6 days, rather than have a night in between in Darwin. The last 2 days we concentrated on blue water fishing and saw a savage session on the Spanish Mackeral - a great fighting fish. And a highlight was teasing up a Marlin to the back of the boat. We're now right into this half of the season with beautiful weather and awesome fishing, and the second half of the year is booking up fast. Happy Fishing!