Northern Territory fishing adventure – tables and statistics from Daly River

One thing that is hard to find out about before a trip such as the one we have just been on to the Daly river is just what to expect and just how much of everything you will really need. Below is a list of a lot of the stuff we used, how much gear we lost, what we ate, drank etc. Hope it’s of some use if you’re planning a similar trip in the future 😉

Lost stuff

Lures- Hamish- 12-15, Lee- 15-20, Graham-5 Dan- 10-12, Mitch-4-5

Shimano Curado on a 5-8kg T-curve $600 (Dan’s)

Leather hat $80 (Dan’s)

Lip grips $35 (Dan’s, lost by Hamish)

Fishing shirt $50 (Dan’s)

Most gear lost- Dan

Most lures lost- Lee

Lost and found

Lee’s torch, missing for 5 days

Numerous cases of beer and rum

Pliers

Filleting knife

Broken stuff

Shimano raider rod tip

90HP honda four stroke engine

Hamish’s will to live- broken by mosquito’s on the South Alligator river on the last day of the trip.

Fish

Fish caught (all trip) – 114 barra, two bull sharks, two reef sharks, six catfish, five long tom, four tiny giant trevally, one small mackerel, one thredfin salmon, two very small coral trout, one archer fish in the net

Fish caught (individual, Daly only) – Lee, Graham, Dan, Hamish, Mitch (Coming soon)

Most barra caught on a single day – 23 on the first day

Least barra caught on a single day – 1 on the second day

Undersize fish – 11

Percentage of fish undersize – 10%

People hooked- One (Lee)

Number of different lure styles used- Hamish- 20+, Lee- 20+, Graz- gold bomber, roosta popper, squidgey soft plastics, Dan-20+, Mitch-10

Lure that caught the most fish/favourite lure- Hamish- 98mm black River2Sea tangoprop fizzer and 100mm black and gold squidgey fish, Graz- gold bomber, Dan- homemade walk the dog lure- by far the best surface lure of the trip- out-fished all comers when it was allowed on the water, Mitch- anything big and white and big and white- bluewater classic, RMG poltergeist, Lee- Halco roosta popper, berkley frog, squidgy fish and wrigglers

Hours fished per day- 7-9 hours per day (Daly only)

Hours fished total- between 40 and 50 hours each (Daly only)

Casts per day (Daly river only)- approx 500 per person per day

Casts per hour fishing time- between 55 and 75 casts per hour

Casts made total (Daly river only)- approx 15,000

Fish per cast (Daly river only)- One fish every 170 casts

Biggest fish- 104cm, caught on gold bomber 16A with upgraded hooks, next biggest 103cm caught on white bluewater classic

Smallest barra- 22cm (Lee), caught on a soft plastic

Most leaders tied in a day- 20 by Lee.

Leader used – about 50 metres of 60lb blackmagic, 10 metres of 80lb blackmagic

Fish caught on fly- One at 59cm by Dan

Estimated ratio of fish hooked to fish landed:

Surface 3-1

Surface while tipsy 6-1

Diving lures- 0.5-1

Plastics – 0.5-1

Insect repellents

3x thermocell (two of which were functional, one that was very temperamental)

4x three pack thermocell refills

5x mosquito nets

3x 30% deet bushmans spray can

1X 80% deet bushmans cream

Nights with thermocell- 7, sanity in the morning after those nights= good

Nights without thermocell- 1, sanity in the morning after that night= low

Food and alcohol (Daly river)

Cases drunk- 6 (5 mid strength, one full strength) (ran out at 4pm on the fifth day)

Water drunk- 80 liters (ran out at midday on the last day)

Barra eaten- 9

Barra that went into barra wraps- 9

Percent of barra caught that were eaten- 10%

Average size of barra eaten – 65cm

Packets of wraps eaten- 10

Bottles of coke consumed- 10

Bottle of spirits drunked- 5 (came back with two full bottles)

Number of soda waters used as showers- 7

Soft drink – 24 cans

Cigarettes – 3 x 50 gram packs of Champion Ruby, one pack Styvos (Daly only – Ran out at 1pm on last day)

Miscellaneous food items – $250 bucks worth

Travel

Vehicles- 1X troopy

1X Hilux

Boats- 1X 5.5m tinny with 90hp Honda

1X “5.6m” boat with canopy and 115hp Mercury.

Fuel used- roughly 800 litres (cars and boats)

Distance traveled

Water- 300-400km (Daly), 100-150km South Alligator

Road- 1000 km with all of us. An extra 3000k getting there and back for Mitch and Dan

Plane – 18000km (Hamish, Lee and Graz)

Trip of a lifetime on the Daly – priceless

Anyway, until next time

Cheers

Hamish