www.fishfindermaps.com

Bastion Kap with an 86cm barra caught on the upper South Alligator River on a Snapback 5" in blue glimmer

Matt Flynn's Northern Territory
fishing report: April 10, 2005

Also available in the Darwin Sunday
newspaper, Sunday Territorian


The next week or two will see the end of the run-off on most rivers, and some great barramundi fishing is expected.

The South and East Alligator, Victoria and Daly Rivers still have some floodwater.

The Adelaide and Roper River floodplain creeks have started drying up.

Some typical dry season windy weather has already kicked in but the cold mornings that can quickly slow barra fishing down had not yet started at the time of writing this.

There's loads of jewfish about, and crabs are still running hard.

Big mackerel have already been seen at the Bottlewasher Reef off Lee Point, and the next set of neap tides will probably see spanish mackerel landed off Lee Point.

Got One's Craig Grosvenor said there were big jewfish on harbour wrecks, including a 135cm 20kg fish taken on the Ellengowan wreck in Middle Arm.

"The Mauna Loa wreck and the shipping containers near Stokes Hill Wharf have also produced jewies,'' he said.

"The Adelaide River went fairly quiet as the run-off came to an end with only a handful of bigger barra coming from the mouth of Beatrice and Marrakai Creeks last week.

"The Adelaide rockbars should be worth a fish now. The upper Adelaide River has produced fish on soft plastics such as five and six-inch Storms, Tsumanis and Panther Martins in rainbow trout colours.

"The Daly River has returned mixed reports with some crews failing to turn a scale, but others reporting decent numbers of fish from the usual hotspots such as Elizabeth Creek, Clear Creek and No Fish Creek.

"The largest Daly River fish reported this week was 97cm on a five-inch 'limetreuse' Storm Swim Shad.

"At Dundee wide there have been loads of mackerel and tuna in large schools.

"Mud crabs have been in large numbers in Shoal Bay with fresh fish frames and barra heads the winning bait.

"The Bottlewasher Reef off Lee Point has been producing - a customer was there on Wednesday and caught GTs to 8kg on floating pilchards and was busted off by big mackerel."

Fishing and Outdoor World's Matt West said Corroboree Billabong had been fishing well with some boats catching up to 40 fish in a day.

"The South Alligator River has been fishing well with plenty of water still up the top,'' he said.

"The Adelaide River is producing some fish - there were a few caught on the weekend.

"A young bloke who shops here regularly caught six keepers to 79cm by trolling Beatrice Creek.

"Shady Camp is mixed with some of the guides getting good fish.

"The Daly River has been good with a lot of fish caught - one group fished for two days and caught 80 barra but the biggest was only in the mid 70cm range.

"Ronald Voukolos went to the South Alligator River on Wednesday and caught fish to 92cm up the top.

"My brother (fishing guide Matt West) has been working at Bynoe Harbour - he has been getting good numbers of barra and threadfin salmon and scooping some mud crabs on the flats with his landing net."

Top End Fishing Supplies' Mulga said he caught an 83cm barra while trolling the Daly River on the Tuesday.

"There were plenty of people on the river - the grey nomads have arrived already and are set up for living there,'' he said.

"This weekend should be a blitzer on the Daly - you need to use big rubbers - fish wherever there is a waterflow coming in to the river.

"But you have to be patient and get in line with everyone else and take your turn.

"There are some very small creeks that drain at the bottom of the tide - we saw a place that was a tiny creek across a mudflat and there were barra and salmon piled up in an area the size of a car and every time you threw your line your lure was smashed.

"Below Elizabeth Creek any of the creeks should be good fishing.

"Redheaded soft plastics have been working well.

"The East Alligator River has certainly been brilliant - there was apparently a 140cm fish landed there and heaps of fish of a metre-plus.

"There are a lot of 80cm and 90cm fish being caught on the Daly.

"Shady Camp should also fish well this weekend."

Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said he tagged and released 140 barra in four days on the Roper River last week.

"The other boat with is caught 83 - the fishing wasn't out of control and some days were better than others.

"The biggest barra was 95cm and the majority of fish were in the 60cm to 70cm mark.

"We were tagging and releasing fish under the Billy Taylor Barra Watch program.

"We caught one 65cm barra just 24 hours later 7km away up the Phelps River, so in that short time it had moved quite a long way.

"It was caught first on a Classic hardbody and then I caught it on a soft plastic.

"That must have to be one of the quickest ever recaught tagged fish.

"We have recaught quite a few tagged fish however - I have eight certficates from where people have recaught fish I tagged.

"But it was good to see that the fish was feeding again in 24 hours.

"We fished the mouth of Blackfellas Creek and a spot up the Phelps River.

"The run-off on the Roper is almost over now.

"Tourism is picking up - but there is a bit of wind around already - the McArthur River area has been copping it."

Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Chris Edwards said there was a metre-plus barra caught in the creek on Tuesday by customers trolling the second bend in from the mouth.

"They do get quite a few metre-long barra in the creek - I can recall at least 10 or 12,'' he said.

"They seem to hang around that second bend but they also hang at the junction of the big creek on the east side.

"They also picked up some crabs and salmon last week.

"On the weekend there was a swag of jewies and snapper caught around the Vernon Islands.

"Fly fishermen were working the islands and caught some big tarpon, queenfish and trevally in the blue holes and around North West Vernon Island.

"There were a couple of big bluebone landed.

"One mob caught a load of redfish but reckoned they were no good so they threw them back - they thought they were too small and bony.

"Another boat caught a 1.3m jewfish and good snapper between the Vernon Islands and Cape Hotham.

"Bradley Kerr missed three good barra nearly a metre long at the Adelaide River mouth.

"This was all on the smaller tides - not much is being caught on the bigger tides - I think the water gets too dirty here."

Home