The West Kimberley coastline is pristine and untouched due to its remoteness. The only fishing pressure it receives is from the occasional large long range boat.
EXTENDED FISHING SAFARIS
We offer 3 - 14 day long extended liveaboard
sport fishing safaris from Derby. On a charter we
travel the Kimberley coastline to many different spots to give you a taste of what the
Kimberley has to offer.
We have a 16m mother vessel KING
TIDE and custom Barra boats. Most of the fishing is done from
the smaller boats as they can access all areas and are manoeuvrable when we have
to chase a big
fish.
KING TIDE is used for bottom fishing and
trolling and apart from that she is our comfortable home whilst on the water.
Our safaris can cover the coast from Derby to Wyndham which is 600 nautical miles of the most untouched fishing grounds in Australia. Most trips are in and around the Buccaneer Archipelago which is home to 1000 islands as well as bays, rivers, estuaries creeks and reefs. Also available later in the year are game fishing trips to Scott Reef which is a coral atoll 170nm off shore. Here the reef is surrounded by 400m+ Oceanic waters and is home to Marlin, Saifish, Tuna, Wahoo and a huge range of coral reef species.
Many of our charters start and/or finish in the Buccaneer Archipelago in which we fly you out on our charter floatplane.
Our group sizes are kept small for your comfort. Our vessel is surveyed for 23 passengers but we only take 8-10 on a fishing safari. If you have a larger group we can still do a charter for up to 14+ people upon arrangement.
SPORTFISHING
We specialise in light tackle sportfishing
which includes lurecasting, saltwater fly, trolling, livebaiting and bottom
fishing. All of our fishing is catch and release with only enough
fish kept for meals.
We supply all of the fishing gear or you can bring your own. Our spinning gear is Banax spinning reels loaded with braid and Abu baitcasters on Abu rods. Our heavier equipment is 15-24kg on Shimano TLD's and Shimano Beastmaster rods. Fly fishing gear must be supplied by the angler. We recommend that you bring your own baitcaster outfit if you have one and make sure it is loaded with a good quality 30lb braid.
The West Kimberley is diverse in what it has to offer. There are many creeks, rivers, estuaries and bluewater spots to fish. A days fishing could go like this;
Breakfast, then head off up a river in the
Barra boats to livebait and lurecast for Barra, Jacks, Fingermark etc.
Fish the river until the tide shuts down the bite then we move out to the deeper
water for some pelagic fishing, trolling and casting for Mackerel, GT's, Queenies
Tuna, etc
Lunch and a swim at a waterfall then back into the pelagics until the tide gets too low. We then head back for the creeks or anchor on a lump with the mothership and fish for some bottom dwellers such as Fingermark, Saddletail, Black Jews, Cod, etc. On the low tide we collect some Black Lip Oysters.
Back to KING TIDE for drinks and nibbles before a fresh fish dinner.
We encounter a lot of species and on a 7 day trip we would average 30 different species and sometimes over 45.
There are many opportunities for Saltwater Fly fishing and most species we catch on bait or lure will also take a fly.
Our trips offer more than just fishing.
Along the way you will swim in waterfalls, visit and fish in some amazing places
and you will be continually
awestruck by the scenery. We also have many
Eco/Fishing safaris which gives you the best of both styles of trips.
You do not need to know anything about fishing to come on a safari, we will guide and teach you about tropical sportfishing along the way.
FISHING STYLES
Some of the fishing you may encounter includes the following.
1 Trolling deep reef edges for GT's, Coral Trout and Mackerel. The trick is to get the boat to the deeper water to give you a chance to land it without the fish smoking you on the reef.
2 Casting poppers into hoardes of aerobatic queenfish with double, triple and even quadruple hookups a common thing.
3 Deepwater jigging for XOS GT's. We Probably land about 5% of the fish we hookup doing this and a great spot is aptly named the ATO where its just a normal session to lose upwards of 60 or so rigs. When we land these beauty's the losses are soon outweighed with a hooter of a GT.
4 Going 'Commando' for big Fingermark. This is especially exciting as we fish a sheer coral reef edge whilst trying to hold the boat in the strikezone against massive currents and if you don't turn the fish on hookup its 'goodnight Irene'
5 Fishing off the back of the mothership on a Coral lump for Black Jew, Saddletail Seaperch, Fingermark, Cod and more.
6 Using small reef fish as livebait for big Mackerel. This is great surface sightfishing action.
7 Using the heavy rods off the back of the mothership at night for some big sharks such as Hammerheads, Whalers and reef sharks.
8 Walking a remote beach and flycasting to Golden Trevally and Queenfish.
9 Bait fishing using live and deadbait in the creeks for Fingermark, Salmon, Jacks, Barra and more.
10 Jumping off the tenders to fish rockbars for Barra as the rising tide breaches the bar and the fish go mental for a short session.
11 Catching every single species available on a piece of plastic shopping bag or home made beer can lure after one of our onboard lure making comps
12 Casting poppers to big GT's for some amazing surface action.
13 Lurecasting for Barra around snags, gutters, mangroves and rockbars.
14 Trolling rivers for deep dwelling Barra
15 Fishing the tops of rivers and creeks where the salt and freshwater meet on the last of an incoming tide in superb surroundings.
16 Casting lures into waterfalls created by the receding tide off the tops of massive reefs for all sorts of species.
17 Chasing schools of tuna in the tenders and casting jigs at them for some light tackle fun
18 Jigging rattling lures at the base of snags for some interesting Barra hookups.
19 Casting poppers and fizzers at night to Barra and hearing that amazing boof as they hit your lures.
20 Catching all of the available species on fly.
21 Getting spooled by unstoppables that have you wondering what size submarine just hit you.
22 Catching a feed of Mudcrabs without getting muddy.
23 Trolling skirted lures and Gars for Sailfish, Marlin and other gamefish
and much much more.
Click here to find out about some of the species we encounter
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