Some of the catch from a night charter with Arafura Bluewater Charters Matt
Flynn's Northern Territory Fishing has been good across the board, with Shoal Bay producing some big barramundi, and plenty of reef fishing action offshore. Kakadu billabongs have been well worth a visit, but take care as the roads to some will probably be closed soon because of rain. Manton Dam is still worth a shot - the barra seem to come on the bite at dusk, then again about 1am, and again at dawn - but of course you never can be sure what's going to happen. Offshore fishing has been outstanding for big snapper. Big buck crabs are finally showing up in numbers in Shoal Bay. Fishing and Outdoor World's Matt West said Equinox Fishing Charters was catching mostly golden and tricky snapper and coral trout, with jewfish fairly quiet over the past week at Loee Patches and Lorna Shoal. "Wide of Dundee there have been mackerel and loads of trevally,'' he said. "There were plenty of reports of barra in the billabongs over the last weekend with Alligator Billabong in Kakadu doing well. "There are a few guys hitting the Daly River and they are catching good numbers of fishing - nothing really huge but plenty around 75cm to 80cm, mostly above the rockbar in the cleaner water. "Reports from Hardies Lagoon and Corroboree Billabong have been fairly quiet. "There have been barra around the rocks at East Point and Lee Point. "I fished West Arm last week and it was a little bit quiet but another customer did well there the same day." Top End Fishing Supplies' Steve Compain said the neap tides last weekend were good at North and South Gutter. "Our two charter boats were out there and both of them did well every night except one,'' he said. "We went out one night and caught 15 big snapper and seven jewies. "We have been getting some good coral trout and even red emperor at North Gutter. "There are still a few mackerel out there - we have had a lot of fish bitten off. "There are loads of tuna about at North Gutter. "With the bigger tides it will be interesting this weekend - there have been jewfish on the harbour, including big ones at the Town Hall. "We have been getting good reports from the billabongs. "There have also been big barramundi reported on each set of big tides at the East Alligator River crossing and just upstream. "The harbour should be good this weekend with the big tides - we are getting quite a few reports also from Shoal Bay of good crabs." Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Locky said guide Bob Edwards put a customer onto a 1.04m barramundi on livebait at North Australian Fish Finder's Spot 8. "They got it on the runout tide and it was a really nice silver healthy fish,'' he said. "There have been a lot of barra at the mouth of King Creek especially at low tide, with lures and livebait both working - they have been getting them there on neap and spring tides. "On Wednesday Spot 6 produced three barramundi to 74cm. "There have been a lot of mud crabs around especially on the bigger tides - the crabs are out on the flats - there are a lot more bucks showing up now. "We have had very little rain here - for some reason the track in gets rain but out here it is still dry. "No one has really been fishing The Rock much, and I have not heard of any big jewies or queenfish lately." King Kontis Fishing Tours' Tom Kontis went to Tapa Bay on a personal expedition last Wednesday. "I went for a change of scenery from my usual Darwin Harbour charters,'' he said. "Barra were quiet in Tapa Bay but I had some enjoyable fishing trolling the nearby rocky headlands for reef fish including golden snapper, cod, spanish flag, barracuda, GTs and queenfish." Got One's Kane Dysart said Shoal Bay was now producing more buck crabs. "One customer caught 15 and they were all full and a good size,'' he said. "Also, there have been good reports of barramundi on the Shoal Bay low tide holes. "Last weekend's neap tides produced good fishing in the harbour arms with golden snapper and mangrove jack caught on the rockbars in the Elizabeth River using local squid and pilchard baits. "The harbour's Middle Arm produced similar results, with a strong run of queenfish and GTs taking Maribou jigs. "East Point held queenfish on the incoming tide last week but were finicky and difficult to get to bite. "Fog Bay has been producing some good fishing offshore with tuna and mackerel abundant - closer inshore around the rocks a 110cm barra was landed on a Classic lure in the nitro colour. "The Finniss River produced barra last week to 75cm. "I recently returned from a three-day trip around the Tiwi Islands and the fishing was awesome - we caught countless barra to 98cm and for a while we trolled over one snaggy section in a creek and caught loads of barra around 80cm. "A Jabiru customer said localised rain has seen Magela Creek starting to flow already and a 1.3m barra was landed at the mouth and many other big fish. "A 1.02m barramundi was caught at Manton Dam on Saturday night by one of the staff from BH Marine." Lure One Fishing Charters' Chris Hurt said he did well in the harbour's East Arm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. "We got six barra on Wednesday, six on Thursday and more on Friday. "On Tuesday we fished the flat out the front of Reichardt Creek on the outgoing tide and there was a big school of barra and salmon chasing a load of prawns - you could see the fish tails coming out of the water. "The best fishing seems to be towards the bottom of the tide - we have been mostly fishing up the creeks and they have been biting on the bottom of the tide and shutting down when the tide pushes in. "We used DOA Prawns and got a lot of hits on those - they seem to be fishing the best but you have to work them very slowly. "The fish have been up to 75cm, and there have been one or two salmon working but not too many. "There are a lot of tarpon about. "There is also a lot of bait around which is making it hard - but if you put the work in and keep fishing you will get the barra at some stage of the tide." Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Chris Edwards said he had a crew up from Sydney, who were members of Leumeah Fishing Club. "They were here for nine days - they were a good bunch of blokes - their nicknames were Butthead (president), Gavin (secretary), Bum, Lionel, Rosco, Hando, Huggy and Brumby - and during their stay they caught barramundi in the creek and reef fish outside around the Vernon Islands, including six big jewfish to about 12kg. "They went out around the islands and caught some big golden snapper, tricky snapper, redfish and cod. "They caught big GTs flicking lures around the East Vernon Island. "Meanwhile, there was a metre-plus barramundi caught in the creek and released on Thursday. "But mud crabs have caught the plane and gone on holidays again. "There have been good catches around Melville Island and Cape Hotham - the boats that left from here reported catching barra, salmon and snapper." Get your fishing report into the Sunday Territorian by emailing Matt Flynn at fishfindermaps@bigpond.com |
