Fishing Victoria Forum

G'day all. My Father (John Mapson), Kim and Rod O'Toole and myself completed a 5 day Barra and Bluewater fishing safari with Darwins Barra Base. This was my Fathers third, Kim's second and Rod and myself first safari.

We arrived at Darwin Airport, from Melbourne on 30th April. We were picked up by Allan Beale, owner and head guide, and taken back to their B&B in Malak for the night.

Woke up at 5am, had breakfast, loaded the Cruiser and hooked up the 7.8m alloy boat fitted with a 250hp V6 four stroke Yamaha. Oodles of fishing room and quality Shimano fishing gear.

Arrived at Dundee Beach and launched the boat. Headed to Peron Islands in the hope of catching large Back Jewfish. We caught our bag within in 1.5 hours of being anchored on the spot. First was caught within 1 minute of anchoring. All were over a metre in length.
Fished a few reefs on the way back to Dundee Beach and caught Golden Snapper and Red Throated Emporer. Round trip for the day was 200km. Stayed in cabins at Dundee Lodge for the night, as the Womens Barra Classic presentation was on. Our guide Allan had done tuition charters with a couple of the teams and wanted to see how they faired. One team cam fourth.

Next morning packed all the gear into the boat and headed to our Mothership, Barra Botel, at the mouth of the Finnis River. Unloaded our gear and then fished the Finnis River trolling for Barramundi.
That night we enjoyed freshly cooked Barramindi for Dinner.

Next day we headed outside for Spanish Mackeral and Reef fish. Largest Spanish MAckeral went 120cm, also picked up a Mack Tuna casting a metal slug into a bait school on the surface.
Spanish Mackeral for dinner. We also caught several Fingermark Bream and Golden Snapper on some of the reefs.
The last day and a half we fished the Finnis River for Barramundi and landed plenty each day, although we never caught the metre Barra.

Thursday afternoon we headed back to their B&B at Malak for the night.

Friday we had the morning to sight see around Darwin. The returned to the B&B and packed our frozen fish (15kg each), grabbed our bags and Allan dropped us off at the Airport to return back to Melbourne.

This was the best organised fishing trip I have had the pleasure of going on. Allan knew exactly where to find all the fish we caught and gave excellent advice. I can recommend Allan and his team to anyone who wishes to head up North. Their website is darwinsbarabase.com.au

Image of my 120cm Spanish Mackeral.
Regards,

Mappo.

Great report with some awesome fish in those photos mate.
Now that's what you call a fishing trip! :thumbsup:

whoa, what a trip mate, well done and cracking effort on the guests and the hosts.
now if you dont mind, what was the damage for a trip like this.

cheers

The trip cost roughly $5000 and that included everything except for Alcohol, sunscreen and Insect repellent.

Looks like a great trip what an experience. My mate and his wife were there on the 21st of April for similar results. One of these days I will have to make the effort and go. Well done

That would be my trip of a lifetime, some great fish there and a good report to boot, cheers davo :thumbsup:

Great stuff :a_goodjob: :a_goodjob:

great report nice fish

So jealous right now.

Definitely a trip of a lifetime