GROOTE EYLANDE TURNS IT ON!:
If you are one of the many anglers who like a bit of adventure, then you will be excited to know that Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory is now easily accessible to anglers, with the opening of Dugong Beach Resort and Escape Sportfishing Lodge.
Groote Eylandt is the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, with tropical savannah bush, beautiful sandy beaches and countless rocky headlands. Surrounding Groote are a number of smaller islands, together making up the Groote Archipelago.
With spectacular coastline, shallow flats, bommies and rocky headlands, one of the biggest challenges is deciding which part of the surrounding waters to fish first. If you want metre-long queenfish, monster GTs and big Spanish mackerel then Groote Eylandt has it covered.
Andrew “ET” Ettingshausen, Rob McCulloch, John Slaughter and I had an awesome session recently, where we were actually trying to avoid hooking big queenies while targeting trophy GTs with big poppers. You know the fishing is good when you are trying to avoid hooking up!
ET was fishing with 50 lb line on a 20 kg heavy-duty spin outfit with a locked drag, yet these fish were taking line like pulling dental floss from its packaging. After getting blown away twice in quick succession, he was determined to land one of these monster fish and decided it was time to upsize his tackle!
I took the opportunity to have a go, and it wasn’t long before I was hooked up. It was the same scenario I’m afraid — the fish took one almighty run and even with my hand on the spool to apply extra drag, I just didn’t stand a chance. We saw one big flash of silver and it was all over. John was in stitches of laughter. Damn they fight hard — I don’t think I could have counted to three in the interval between strike and bust-off.
By this time, ET had an outfit ready with 80 lb braid, and was ready once again to tangle with the mighty GTs, but it was not meant to be. ET didn’t get another shot at one of those monster fish on that day, but you can be sure he will be back.
For some lighter tackle action we fished a series of shallow bays, dotted with bommies. Working shallow lures produced some quality mangrove jacks. The deep edges and channels also produced golden trevally and queenfish — a real handful on barra tackle when surrounded by braid-busting bommies.
Coral trout can be caught on diving minnows in shallow water, or in deeper water by jigging. On occasions ET had up to 6 coral trout all chasing a popper — talk about survival of the slowest!
The largest tidal movement around Groote is 2 metres, making it great for lure and fly fishing. Rob, Escape Lodge Manager, spent an extra week on Groote for a bit of reconnaissance, and over a few days he caught big GTs, coral trout, barracuda, Spanish mackerel, northern bluefin tuna and queenfish.
His group managed to land a dozen fish off the beach on fly, and hooked the icon sportfish for fly anglers, a giant herring, but unfortunately that one got away. I hear you, another fisherman’s tale — I am just going to have to trust them on this occasion. Fisherman are never wrong, you ask any one of them!
The bottom around Groote is a minefield of great reef fishing structure. You don’t have to travel far before you are ready to start jigging. Some of the prime species include huge reef-dwelling mangrove jack, red emperor, nannygai, golden snapper, black jewfish and some monstrous cod. It is a bit like a lolly jar — you never know what colour will come up next.
Barramundi are also on the hit list for most anglers. Although the immediate surrounding waters of Groote Eylandt do hold barra, the Blue Mud Bay area on the mainland is where the barra action is best. There are major floodplains feeding various rivers and estuaries, all of which produce quality barra at times.
To top it all off, the bottom end of Groote Eylandt also offers light tackle fishing for sailfish and black marlin. Groote Eylandt Game & Sport Fishing Club holds their annual Billfish Tournament during the later months of year, and there is plenty of billfish action on offer.