My year on Bathurst Island, NT

96cm!!!! so close yet so far! The scene was set for a simple boating trip and the main aim was to get my mate Kev his first Barramundi. He has come close a couple times but managed to drop a few. We succeeded in getting kev his first this day but before that happened, a moment of pure joy.  Kev's first Barra I was fishing an unknown snag. This meaning I hadn't fished it before and wasn't sure if there were any fish on it. a couple casts in and boom! a hit from a good sized barra and I handed the rod over to Kev so he could land it. I reckon this fish was in the 75cm range. unfortunately the hooks hadn't been set all that well and after a jump the Barra spat the Lure. Not to be deterred I threw the lure back into the same area of the snag. I was not really paying attention not thinking there would e another fish there when all of a sudden it felt like a freight train was on the end of my line. My drag was set fairly hard and line was just peeling of...

ARE YOU OK?? (RU OK) Some days suck. Some days at work you look forward to the end of the day. Tuesday was mental health afternoon. The day was taxing  and about half way through I got a text message from a mate across in the primary school saying he felt like going fishing and we should put the boat in that afternoon. 1st Barra hit hard and was a good little fight We have been doing research on a creek for some time now and we thought it was time to try out our theories. so off we went, got the boat ready and launched it. the battery needed replacing so we quickly did that before powering away to the creek. the afternoon session was great. An hour and a half and we had 6 fish in the boat. All fish hit hard, especially the Barramundi. We landed 3 good legal Barra, a Mangrove Jack,  A little Blue Salmon and a Good size Snapper. Justin with his Barra. first pass on the new snag With 14th September being RU OK day in Australia Mental Health is very important t...

Some of you that follow this blog might know Hovo, most of you won’t. And that is a terrible shame. A teacher, a father, grandfather and husband. Lastly, my mate. I thought I would have more time before I would have to write something like this about Jim and I really wished I didn’t have to. But my old mate Jim Hovenden passed away on Father’s day this past Sunday. He was fighting Cancer for the last 18 months or so and at first we all had hoped it would be a successful fight but we soon found out it would be a prolonging of life more so then beating the disease. I am saddened by his passing. Really set me back even though I knew it was coming. I was walking to work when I got the text informing me of his passing. I was speechless for about an hour. All I could do was think of Jim and his family. He was a family man and spoke of his kids and grandkids fondly even when the times were tough. He often posted pictures of them on his social media site and looked really happy. ...

You ever plan a trip away with friends only to have it blow up in your face? Well I just had one! I will try to keep it short, however to fully tell the tale I might have to get a little deep. I live on an island in remote Northern Territory of Australia. Bathurst Island to be exact. it is about 80km offshore. About 50 miles in the old money. two friends and I drove about 65km to the other side of the island to go fishing in my boat to a place called Ranku.  the drive took about 2.5 hours as the dirt road is pretty badly rutted and quite rough. By the time we got there we were tired and ready for food and a couple of beers. we stretched out our beds and set in for sleep with alarms for 5am.  sunrise over Ranku from the Ranku School up bright and early to a gorgeous sunrise and a feeling of a big day ahead. We launched the boat a little 4.2 meter side console with a 50hp Evinrude ETEC on the back.  We got out and found some juicy snags straight away. we co...

Night time fishing adventures Fishing in Crocodile territory during day light hours can be a hair raising experience at the best of times. They stalk the boat. Sometimes you don’t even know they are in the water with you. One minute its calm water, next, there are set of beady little eyes looking back at you. Size of Crocodiles vary on the two islands. I am not sure if I have mentioned the famous “Elvis” a roughly 5 metre croc that saunters of the coast of Parnappi where campers can see him from the front door of their tents. Crocs out there are always very quick to make themselves visible when there are dogs on the beach. There are a couple small crocs that travel up and down the main beach area (nothing more than a pebble strewn shoreline) where barges land and offload their cargo and where we as fisherman launch our boats. These are around 2 – 2.5 metres long and not overly aggressive. They have been hooked on during fishing trips, often being mistaken for massive ...

Apologies for this late post as it was written before the holidays, but then holidays happened. This post has become even more prevalent with the loss of some music industry icons recently. Cresting the Wave….. Term two blues. It’s never an easy task teaching… those that say it is easy are usually lying or just super prepared and organisational machines… I am neither unfortunately. Working in a school with English as a second language and in a different state/territory that I have been used to is hard. Purely that….Hard It has taken some time to get used to the many differences here in the Territory/Tiwi Islands and I didn’t want to paint a bad picture about it at all. This entry is not about that. The school itself here is doing amazing things. The people who work here do amazing things day in and day out. The support for each other is tremendous and forthcoming without judgment. I have struggled a bit this term (term 2) with what I have come to deem it as “crestin...

On into the wild we went. Chasing one of the most iconic Australian fish species....The so far elusive Barramundi  ( Lates calcarifer ) The Tiwi people call Barramundi Arlaminga I on the other hand, call them the most fickle and hard to catch fish, while being one of the most exciting to catch.  I have been fishing land based and in the newly acquired boat "Queenie" a few times now and each time I have always kept the bait caster at the ready to flick a multitude of lures at snags, flats, gutters and drains. All to no avail it would seem until an adventure into a new creek system on Melville Island side of Aspley Straight. Aptly named 3rd creek as it was the third creek on that side. Access to the creek is a bit dicey on low tide and you have to transverse between the island and a sand back that has trees on it, effectively a small island itself. (See below) the passage to get to 3rd Creek on Melville side Once into the creek it is obvious that fish...

Term one has been completed Term one has officially ended. The lack of blog entries is testament to the busy nature of teaching during term one. That and the increased amount of time spent fishing in the many new wonderful spots being revealed each time I head out to fish, whether that be in the new purchased boat (more on that later) but also land based fishing at one of the more picturesque places visited on the island so far. The students are resilient and slow to trust. The high turn-over of staff this year has seen new methods, faces and names introduced to them. However, the students are funny, intelligent in different ways and sometime volatile and angry. I will never possess the knowledge or skills that some of the staff here at Xavier College have. Our leadership team steer a very tightly run ship with a mixture of discipline and rule. However this is vastly outweighed by love, empathy and huge amounts of patience when a student is having a particularly bad time tha...

Fishing Adventures – A man and his boat One of the major draw cards besides beautiful water holes, camping and sunsets to die for is the fishing. A long term passion of mine. For anyone that knows me will know I love fishing in even the most treacherous of weather. Here in the Tiwi islands, fishing has been a culturally significant event for many years as the Tiwi people rely on fish, turtles and Dugongs for food. Turtles and Dugongs are still caught around the islands and eaten as traditional meals. This is something I have yet to witness. As a non-Tiwi person I am unsure how I would feel witnessing the capture and eating of a turtle or dugong. On to the fishing…. It has been a love-hate relationship so far. I came prepared with what I thought was enough gear to catch fish. I was wrong. Very wrong. I quickly found out that I was lacking the required fishing gear, knowledge and ways to fish. So my first trip into Darwin saw my first Baitcaster ready to catch Barramundi purchas...