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ARNHEMLAND BARRAMUNDI NATURE LODGE

As an aside, Dave and Glenn used drop-shotting soft plastic tactics on light gear and hooked all sorts of things, including blue salmon, trickies, Spanish flag and tuskfish.

“The plastics outfished bait on the bottom,” Dave told me.

Ashley McKeon reckoned he had a ripper of a fishing trip, with the word “ripper” turning out to be a bit of a pun it seems.

Ashley and some mates were invited on an overnight Charles Point fishing trip on George David’s 8 metre boat.

Early in the evening, Ashley’s brand-new Penn 320 combo was ripped over the side by some oogly from the deep.

Luckily he had a spare, and the evening progressed with an assortment of quality reef fish coming aboard.

“At about 5.00 am, George did his shoulder in on a 16 kg jewie, and told me I had to pull up any fish he got on to,” Ashley explained.

“Almost immediately his line bucked and I started to pull it in.

“There was definitely something on, but it didn't seem to fight at all, and was very easy to pull up,” Ashley explained.

Unbelievably, they had hooked the Penn 320, and this was after a complete tide change, so the boat had moved a good distance from where the rod originally went overboard.

The line still had hooks and sinker attached, so Ashley baited up some fresh squid caught off the side of the boat earlier and dropped it back down.

It hardly hit the bottom before being smashed by something big.

That something turned out to be a 5 kg red emperor, the prize fish of the trip.

Over the next 10 minutes, Ashley proceeded to pull up a big saddle-tail snapper, a blue tuskfish and a huge cod, and later during daylight he caught a 13 kg mackerel.

You’d have to agree that Ashley certainly did have a “ripper” of a fishing trip.

Talented Darwin fly fisher, Cathie Bassett, had every reason to be excited after landing a 102 cm longtail tuna on the long wand.

She cast to and hooked the trophy fish beside the sand flats outside Cullen Bay lock.

“It took me an hour to land it and I broke my 10-weight flyrod right at the end of the fight, but at least I landed it,” she told me.

Michael Walsh of Guru’s Top End Fishing Safaris has been braining all manner of quality fish in and around Darwin Harbour .

Michael launches from the Ski Club ramp and last week found a mighty giant trevally for UK visitor, Maxi Collins.

Also caught were big queenfish, longtails and Spanish mackerel, and all on the troll.

Michael promotes catch and release during his half and full day tours, although clients are always permitted to take home a feed.