Mite be headed up to Gove next year

[Craig Tomkinson]

Hi all, Its in the planning stage at the moment but my mate Dave and my 3 sons and I mite be going up to Gove next year, My mate Nathan lives there and is in charge of the first 400ks of road back towards the Roper river, If we go will stay at Nathans and his misses house and camp on his lawn and go fishing and crabbing for a couple of weeks, its around 3700ks from Cooroy to Nhulunbuy I have never been there, My mate has been catching some unreel scralets and fingermark and trout only a few ks offshore in 25m of water, Any MS been there and whats it like, I have two mates there now they say it best fishing they have seen, Craig

[Bigfish]

Lived there for 15 years up unitl 5 years ago. Being a remote area tech I went to places and saw things huge majority of people will never get to witness or visit.  Fishing was fantastic. Country great. Aboriginal politics were bullShit with permits needed just to fart!!  Expensive but worth it. Road has changed a lot with new bridges making it an easy drive.. Same as the cape road.  When I first moved there it was not uncommon to have buffalo in the main street.  Fishing deteriorated a fair bit due to the bloody fly in/fly out grubs who would rape the waters and head out with eskies full of frozen fish as often as they could.  Great place and I,m sure you will enjoy.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Thanks for your honest appraisal of the place Dicko, Yes sounds like you seen it at its best then, Yes my mate says bait is dear, if I go up will take up a 400lt freezer full of good trawler squid and IQf pillies for my mate, My mate Nathan has only been there a bit over 12 months but has been catching some lovely fish, He was out 9ks the other day never seen another boat only one boat trailer at the ramp and it was our mate Wayne, Not many must fish up there when its a bit choppy, He is always sending me photos of buffs suppose to be good eating, Craig   

[GBC]

As above. Got paid to fly/drive around there. If you are still on any Pro Fisho sites, Bruce Davey off Wildcard might be able hook you up with fishing spots, he's a mackerel pro up there. We only stopped in town to refuel the helo then off out to the lighthouses/navaids. The Melbourne cup day tie ups at Groote was a close as I got to Gove when I was up there on the boats in the 80's/90's - don't remember too much though haha.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Thanks for that GBC, But the mate enjoys finding his own spots, I am the same the the joy of the hunt, I would only want a fresh feed of fish every few days as we are not big fish eaters, But my mate thats a different story he loves eating fish that is why he went up there he eats fish twice a day every day, I am mainly going just to have a look around the place as the mates has a few local contacts, and to spend a bit of time with a good mate, Craig

[Rowlie]

I came out of Gove about 3 weeks ago. The road is variable but there are 80 kph stretches and 40kph stretches. Bulmin is the worst stretch. Fished a bit but it was blowing pretty hard. Take plenty of sinkers as the Spaniards are tough on them and they are expensive out there. We did pretty well though. Had a good time and enjoyed the trip. Hope you get there and enjoy the experience.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Hi Rowlie, Thanks for that, yes my mate said its $200 for a permit just for a couple of days to crab the creeks to the north, but catch 50 big bucks out of 4 crab pots he said the crabbing is insane, Yes my mate has a 5,4m gullwing  with a 140 susyi on the back and goes out around 9ks and been catching unreel fish black jew scralets fingermark coral trout and red emperor are like fleas, he said the locals are soft as it blows 18knots all the time no won fishes much till the wind drops off, Yep the same were we fish up north of Weipa but its sharks that flog you up there, Did you stay in Gove or camp on private lands on the beach, How long did it take to drive out to the Roper crossing or did you go the other way and were you towing a boat, Craig 

[Rowlie]

Hi Craig,
We stayed at Walkabout but with the benefit of hindsight would have camped at one of the beaches. We towed a camper out via the central Arnhem road. Driving time was about 11 hours but I was taking it pretty easy. It was blowing over 30 knots when we were there but we found a charter who would do a half day before the wind really kicked in. We caught a few Spaniards, a jewie, coral trout,nanagai,emperor- enough to eat for a few days. Sharks were hitting us too.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Lovely stuff Rowlie sounds like you had a great time then and a good look around, Gee that is blowing.  I am still weighing up which way to go, as Its 2400ks and 36 hour drive to Pennfather river north of Weipa were I normally go and its a free camp with everything I need and a heap of my other mates camp there, the fishing and crabbing and hunting mite not be as good as Gove but that is not everything,  and its 3700ks and a 60 hour drive to Gove it would cost around another 2 grand just for diesel and other things for the trip and another 48 hours of driving I would love to go for a look while my mate is living there Will see what happens next year, Thanks Craig