Black Jewfish are caught in abundance across the top end during the dry season with fish in excess of 10 kilo being a regular catch. These fish are referred to as "school Jewie's" due to their small size and large quantity. My question has always been - Where are they?

Before I visited the Peron Islands my largest Jewfish had been around seven kilo's, a great fish I thought, but not even worthy of a mention against Territory standards. You can imagine my excitement when Dave Woodburn, the Australian National Sportfishing Association (ANSA) Northern Territory Sportfish Tagging Coordinator phoned me and gave details of a planned ANSA Club tagging trip to the Peron Islands in search of large Jewfish. Dave was putting together a weekend tagging trip with access by road via La Belle Station. Access via La Belle meant that the road was finally open after the wet season and this would place us on the beach opposite the best Jewfish hole in the Territory (so I'd been told). The four hour drive across a corrugated dirt roads that had a reputation for destroying boat trailers combined with a beach launch site that loved to retain the odd four wheel drive did not deter Steve Jenkins and myself as we packed for the Friday afternoon departure. The plan was to drive in, fish for 24 hours solid, tagging as many Jewfish as possible, then drive out and front up for work the next day. It all sounded achievable with the thought of large Jewfish clouding our mind. In reality it was a different story.

We arrived just on dark after a few wrong turns and with one trailer in need of a few minor repairs. The dust and corrugations had taken their toll on the drivers and after setting up camp everyone was beat so it was decided an early night was in order.

Sunrise had us on the water and before the first rays penetrated the crystal clear water several Jewfish in excess of a meter and ten kilos' had been tagged and released. This was unbelievable fishing - we had dropped anchor 200 meters from shore and before the first bait had settled my ten kilo overhead reel was working overtime. Steve was experiencing a similar situation. In disbelieve we continued with a further eleven fish being tagged and released in quick succession, the largest was 1250mm and an easy 14 kilo's. Then the bite disappeared just as if a switch was turned, so we up anchored and went in search of another hot Jewie bite.

We motored around with one eye on the sounder searching for a suitable drop off as the fish don't appear on the sounder so finding a gradual slope into deep water is the key to success. As we searched we noticed another boat anchored nearby and on board was someone waving their arms trying to attract our attention. On arrival we soon found out why - one off the anglers on board had an 8/0 hook lodged firmly in the palm of his hand. To make matters worse he was wearing gloves and you could not see the wound. Now - I had read about the removal of fish hooks, seen pictures and watched as a Doctor pulled one from my sons foot, but its a different story when someone wants you to do it. This guy was in extreme pain and cutting the glove from his hand only added to his discomfort. But who was going to pull the hook - I knew the theory but just could not do it. Putting on a brave face Steve Jenkins, my fishing partner wrapped some cord through the gap of the hook, put his thumb on the eye and "presto" it was out and the poor guy didn't even flinch.

Luck would have it that we were over a perfect drop off, so down went the anchor and 10 kilo plus Jewies started coming up. These monsters were incredible but it wasn't long before two very weary angler's started to make mistakes and loose fish. It was only midday and our backs arched from fighting fish. Down but not out we moved into shallower water for the afternoon and tagged small Trevally until we recovered.

Dusk - and as we watched the most brilliant dry season sunset you could imagine, disappeared into the ocean, we were once again pulling in Jewies to 15 kilos hand over fist. I'm not sure if they fight harder in the dark or we were at the limit of our endurance, but we managed to be still there at midnight tagging fish until we lost count. Back on shore we grabbed a few hours sleep until dawn. The plan was to get straight back into it but our bodies kept saying NO!!. It was all mind over matter and as we packed up the camp the moans and groans sounded more like that of a group of imprisoned labours than that of fit young anglers who had just experienced some of the best Jewfish fishing in their lives. The tally for the 24 hours was over one hundred, that's one hundred Black Jewfish in excess of 10 kilo's with the majority between 13 - 15 kilo's.

It had been an incredible weekend but the bitumen was a pleasure to see as made our way back to Darwin with a lifetime of memories etched into our minds.