Welcome to our November report. We have been busy enough despite not knocking back too many bookings as tourist numbers dropped off a tad. As a fisherman coming up from down south, November is a good time to visit to coincide with more consistent weather. This more favourable offshore weather extends all the way through summer in the far north. We had some absolute glorious days and the remainder were easily fishable whether it was along the coast or out wider. Put it this way, I can only recall one day where we had to transfer a booking to another day. Along the coastline on our 4hr half day trips we kept peppering away at the nannygai and grassy sweetlip schools. It’s not unusual to boat 30-40 fish a session so there was plenty of action.

The one thing people must realise is the coastal reefs are a nursery where they begin their life and you only see some fish per trip reaching the minimum size (nannygai) of 40cm to keep. The rest are released to grow that bit further and we love running into them again later in their life on the wider ground once they get up to 7 kilos and well beyond.

I arrived at an assumption years ago that the local coastal reefs are simply that, a breeding ground where the fish grow pretty quickly before heading further offshore to get bigger and fatter. It could not be further from the truth that it is fished out, once a certain size is reached they vacate the area for wider and deeper country. Anyway for most visitors it’s all about catching good numbers of fish, releasing a lot, having a great time and to take home a keeper or two is just fine.