Centre Island memories

[Dex38]

I thought I’d share a fishing trip with you all. (original went with the server crash but I've added some more)

In 2004 and 2005 I packed up the boat and headed for the McArthur River specifically King Ash Bay. A group of us head for Centre Island and its surrounding area after fishing the McArthur and Carrington Rivers.

We fish the rivers in mid November but we never really did any good. We pick up a few Barra and Mangrove Jack but no hot bites. We would push up to Borroloola itself and fish every snag up and down the river. You would see plenty of fish jumping but no hits. Live bait in the river is more miss than hit, so lure fishing is the way to go. We had more luck up near the mouths of the rivers and creeks than around King Ash Bay. I’ve not seen too may large crocs in the river either. But the locals have a few stories of dogs and cattle getting dragged.

The weather is quite good that time of year, but if you head out to the Islands then you need to move in the mornings as the wind picks up of an afternoon and makes life a bit uncomfortable in a tinny.

King Ash Bay supports a small local community but more dependant upon it is the visitors. There is a petrol station which sells a heap of gear with another convenience store located a short stroll from the camping grounds and King Ash Bay Fishing Club.

The run from King Ash Bay to the mouth of the McArthur is very simple; you will pass a lot of the grey nomads that are still there trolling up and down near the mouth as you get out into the open sea. The channel out of the mouth is an experience and one that must be accompanied by a GPS. There are small markers (small tree trunks) which mark the channel and a few marine buoys also. The channel runs out to sea away from Centre Island before you can head back to it. This is the issue when you come back in. You see nothing but mangroves and it gets quite confusing, therefore the GPS sorts it out and makes life that little bit easier.

The mud flats which sit either side of the channel out the front of the river hold Dugong, so belting through there you will need to be careful.

Our destination was the Meteorological Hut on Centre Island itself. You can see it from the mouth of the McArthur as you head out, shining in the distance. Once there you had the luxury of a hut which is about 15m x 9m long with verandas on the front and back. The beach in front of the hut provides safe anchorage but the tides affect your access a bit. There was a large rain water tank which users kept clean and plumbed to the roof. There was porcelain down by the beach which made life that much easier on the island. The huts’ cement floor and kitchen sink just topped everything off. There are snakes on the Island as one of our Kiwi mates found out. He would high tail it quicker than anything I’ve ever seen when he saw one.

The fishing is pretty good out there. Not 400m away is a hole which the Barra hold up in. Picking up bait at the beach before you launched was not difficult at all. You can drag your deep divers around or live bait the rocky outcrops and pick up Barra, Snapper, Threadfin and the odd Queenfish. Every now and again the reef sharks move in and spoil the occasion but that is normally something telling you to move on and try the creeks around the corner, or the next bay, or the next whatever.

We stopped on the Island for a week, keeping all our rubbish and taking it back with us and placing in the dump at King Ash Bay. People would come and go; there was plenty of room to share and many stories to tell and to be heard of a night. A lot of fisho’s head out to the Islands and troll around a bit before heading back. They were missing out big time. It’s an awesome feeling getting out of bed at sun up to stroll 30m to your boat and be on the fish in 5 minutes.

By using deep diving lures, 5m plus in and around the rocky outcrops you will raise a few Barra. If you feel like a lazy day, drop a 6/0 circle hook over with a small running sinker sitting on top of a mullet and you are in business pretty quick. If you can get away with it, using no weight at all seemed to be the trick, but the sea gulls out there monstered a lot of bait that were too scared to head to the depths and remained just under the surface.

In 2004 you could see the mud crabs moving around on the big lows out the front of the hut, but in 2005 we could only get our hands on a few.

These were my first trips in the pursuit of Barra and I suppose I’ve been spoiled as I hold these experiences as a measure.

I believe Centre Island has been handed back to the traditional owners now, so I am unsure how that affects access.

[landlocked]

good on ya dex for putting that back up, made my day. cheers