“Starlo, I ’ve organised a trip out on a charter boat chasing a few jewies” Emma Cartwright explained as we chatted on the phone.

“Sounds great!” I responded. “Who else is going with us?”

“Um,” Emma paused for a second. “Just you …and eight women. Is that okay?”

“Is it okay?” I laughed. “Does a one-legged duck swim in circles?”

As it turned out, the day was the latest in a series of regular ‘Reel Women Adventures’ that Emma had been organising over the past few years., and I was very lucky indeed to be invited to tag along on one of these special excursions.

Emma Cartwright created the ‘Reel Women Adventures’ concept to cope with the overflow of ladies trying to get themselves a berth in her annual Reel Women’s Barra Classic, run each September in the Top End.

“In the first year of the event,” Emma explained to me, “I could only take entries from 250 ladies, so rather than apologising to the rest and telling them they couldn’t come fishing, I decided to give them another option. It was really important to me that if a lady expressed a genuine interest in fishing, she was given the opportunity to do so.”

Since early 2003, Emma has run about a dozen Reel Women Adventures. None have been advertised. Instead, they’ve been organised whenever sufficient demand arose, with word quickly spreading through the female fishing grapevine. On several memorable occasions, ladies have booked one of Emma’s adventures as an alternative to the standard hens’ day, opting to go fishing rather than partying at a local pub.

Locations for the Reel Women Adventures conducted to date have included Darwin Harbour, Corroboree Billabong, Dundee Beach and, on this most recent occasion, some offshore reef patches an hour’s run south west of Darwin’s Cullen Bay Marina.

We loaded our gear (which I noticed included a copious amounts of ice and chilled beverages) aboard the good ship ‘Tsar’ at about 7.30am on a warm, sultry morning, negotiated the lock gates at the entrance to Cullen Bay and set a course for our first fishing spot, full of the child-like enthusiasm that grips all genuine anglers at the beginning of a new day on the water.

My companions were eight wonderfully enthusiastic women ranging in age from almost 10 to er... let’s just say ‘50-something’, shall we? We were in good hands, too, as the ‘Tsar’ is the flagship of a tidy three-boat fleet operated by a top-notch Darwin-based outfit called Equinox Bluewater Charters.

The guys from Equinox have a solid reputation for both producing the goods and taking care of the resource their business relies upon (the fish!). They certainly lived up to that reputation on the day we spent with them.

Our primary target were the big black jewfish or northern mulloway that call those warm northern waters home. From memory, the girls accounted for close to a dozen of these great-looking, hard-fighting heavyweights, releasing several and keeping enough to ensure everyone had a generous pack of fillets to take home. Heck, I even managed to boat one myself, and hardly any of the ladies mentioned that it was the smallest specimen of the day. Seems its only us blokes who are totally fixated with the size issue!

A modest by-catch of golden snapper (fingermark) and stripeys or Spanish flag rounded out the day, along with a couple of pesky little whaler sharks and catfish, ensuring that there was barely a 10-minute stretch without a bent rod in evidence somewhere round the rail.

The ladies fished extremely well, demonstrating an amazing touch when it came to hooking these sometimes timidly-biting denizens. What impressed me even more, however, was their wonderful sense of camaraderie and shared enthusiasm – epitomised by the genuine delight when one of their pals scored a bigger fish than theirs. Totally absent was the bravado and one-upmanship so often associated with a boat load of testosterone-charged blokes in a similar situation. It was all a bit of an eye-opener for me.

Above all, the girls (and they each became girls once they got a fishing rod in their hands, just as men become boys when they fish) enjoyed themselves immensely. It was a fun day, and I definitely sensed that this aspect was more important to Emma’s team than how many fish they caught. The whole experience still makes me smile now whenever I think about it.

So, would I go on another Reel Women Adventure if I was asked? Mmm. Remember that one-legged duck I mentioned earlier? Well, it’s still swimming in circles!

Article by Steve Starling. Steve is perhaps Australia’s best known fishing identity. He has co-host “hooked on adventure”, is former editor of “Fishing World” and “Canadian Sportfishing” magazine. Steve writes for “Modern Fishing”, “Small Boat Fishing”, “Freshwater Fishing Australia”, “Saltwater Fishing”, “Rex Hunt Fishing Adventures”, “Fly Life”, “Sydney Afloat”, “The West Australian” newspaper and edits “Fishing Australia”.

This article has been provided for publication by ReelWomen Fishing & Adventure Magazine. Unauthorised use or reproduction is strictly prohibited. All material is © Break Loose Publications Reel Women features fishing reports from across the world and joins women on their fishing and outdoor adventures.