Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Locky with a typical bay barramundi Matt
Flynn's Northern Territory The coming set of spring tides looks set to mark the beginning of true build-up barramundi fishing in Darwin Harbour and Shoal Bay. The muggy weather marks the beginning of superb barramundi fishing both in sea and inland. Corroboree Billabong is already producing better fishing after a fairly mediocre dry season. Queenfish have been smashing into the mullet schools pushing into the creeks with each incoming tide. Soon barramundi - which were a little slow on the last spring tides - will making splashes among them. Fishing and Outdoor World's Matt West said Equinox Fishing Charters caught mackerel wide of Bynoe Harbour by drifting pilchards out the back of the boat. "Jewfish have been fairly quiet out wide over the past couple of weeks but there have been big golden snapper making up for it,'' he said. "I have not heard of many tuna being caught near Darwin. "Fishing guide Grant Hatcher caught two 15kg jewfish off a harbour wreck last week. "There have been a few barramundi caught in the harbour. "I went up darwin Harbour's East Arm on Sunday and caught some barra, so the build-up fishing has started." Top End Fishing Supplies' Steve Compain said it had been a hard week for his offshore fishing charter boats. "There was hardly any movement at all in the tides, and it has been rough,'' he said. "We have been getting a few snapper offshore but it has been a struggle. "When the tides are small we will go to deep water like North or South Gutter. "I went crabbing on Thursday with the pots out all night and the same the day before and caught only two crabs each time in the Elizabeth River. "They were big crabs, but there's just not many of them. "However I caught a 65cm barra and a 56cm on the small tides, and I was happy with that. "I think this week coming week will be excellent in the harbour for barramundi. "Wednesday's low tide coming off the neaps should be really good. "One of my staff was at Mandorah over the last couple of nights and said the amount of bait round the wharf was amazing, with big GTs and queenfish smashing into them. "A guy lost his rod over the side, and it disappeared off and came shooting back through the water - they saw it come back and cast and hooked the line up and managed to pull in a metre-long queenfish on the other end - an amazing story. "There have been a lot of squid caught off the Darwin wharves during the neap tides. "Corroboree Billabong has been fishing well too in the warmer weather, which is good news." Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said a 10kg barra was caught last Sunday in the Roper River freshwater at Elsey National Park. "The Victoria River has been fairly quiet - the Daly River is still producing fish but cherabin have been fairly hard to get so the big barra have been harder to catch as a result. "The weather has turned warmer so the fishing will improve quickly now. "I think this weekend's tides are ideal for fishing the rivers. "The billabongs are going to improve now - there are plenty of fish to be caught in the freshwater sections of all the rivers, but they are hard to get during the dry season as they become quiet in the cold water. "But it's going to be all barra action from now on." Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Cliff Watkins said barra were going mad in Shoal Bay. "Lures and livebait at low tide have been working well,'' he said. "There is plenty of bait in the bay. "Most of the barra are being caught from Spot 8 up to the Croc Trap and up towards the Howard River rockbar. "The turn of the low tide is good. "The biggest barra caught last week was 78cm. "There have been a couple of salmon caught but not in huge numbers. "With the neap tides a few boats have been fishing the Rock, but there has been no monster barra to report yet. "A spanish mackerel was caught at The Rock on Friday morning. "The crabs are not in numbers but they are a good size. "There has been a steady flow of boats here. "It's real sticky and muggy today so the barra fishing can only get better." Got One's Craig Grosvenor Kane Dysart said Corrboree Billabong had improved with fishing guides reporting barra to 10kg with the warmer weather. "They are catching them trolling the weedbeds on the S-bends using shallow to medium diving small lures,'' he said. "The colour of the best lures at Corroboree has been red head and white body which most people consider to be a mackerel colour. "Darwin Harbour has been producing jewfish on the wrecks, including the Catalina wrecks, despite the small tides. "Threadfin salmon have been working the harbour around the Wickham Point flats on the early incoming tides. "East Arm has produced loads of trevally and queenfish along the rock walls with flies, small poppers and chrome lures working well. "Mud crabs have slowed down again with Middle Arm and West Arm producing the best of the small hauls. "From Saltwater Arm boat ramp on the Adelaide River anglers have been catching golden snapper at Cape Hotham and jewfish at The Narrows, with barra to 10kg caught in Saltwater Arm itself. "Bynoe Harbour flats have also been fishing well for barra and salmon. "Crab Claw Island Fishermen's Village customers have been catching all sorts of fish off the beach at the lodge." Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Chris Edwards said two big barra were caught in the creek last week "An 85cm barra was caught on Thursday afternoon and a 1.1m on Friday morning,'' he said. "They were both caught on dead mullet baits. "There were also some threadfin and small jewfish caught. "There have been quite a few people crabbing - one boat got seven and another got six so the crabs must be back off holidays. "It's been a bit rough - one boat went to Melville Island but they caught mostly small stuff. "A boat that fished the channel on Friday caught some good-sized snapper but that was about it. "It all depends on the wind this weekend. "The road in has been graded so there is no excuse not to go fishing." King Kontis Fishing Tours' Tom Kontis said he fished only on Friday at the Six Mile Buoy grounds. "We got three jewfish to 4kg and some mixed reef fish, about eight or nine different species,'' he said. "It was not great fishing - but it will get much better as the tides pick up. "I reckon this next week is going to be a bottler, from today (Sunday) onwards. "I had a great five days before the neap tides with quite a few jewfish caught on both wrecks and deep water natural reef. "We got five in one morning and five the same afternoon, both lots caught on the turn of the tide. "I have not been for barramundi of late, but this next week should be good." |
