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A Darwin Harbour barramundi. Picture: DAVE MAGNER

Matt Flynn's Northern Territory
fishing report: February 15, 2004

Also available in the Darwin Sunday
newspaper, Sunday Territorian

Most rivers rose again late last week, with future fishing prospects looking much better as a result.

The Mary River was about a metre under the Arnhem Hwy Bridge, while the Daly River was once again above 12m.

The Daly has been above 10m for the best part of two months now, so fishermen are optimistic about the season ahead.

On the feeder creeks most barramundi caught last week were swampies that have come down in the floods - with every passing week the fishing should improve as saltwater barra move upstream.

Offshore fishing has also been good, but rough weather has limited the number of days out.

Got One Truck City's Craig Grosvenor said some customers had made their way into Corroboree Billabong between the rainy periods and found some promising water, but there were no fish.

"However Shady Camp further downstream is producing some fish on soft plastics, but it has been inconsistent,'' he said.

"A 119cm was reported at Tommycut Creek, and a 90cm fish on the Mary River s-bends,'' he said.

"Buffalo Creek has been working well with barra on live mullet baits and East Arm creek mouths have fished well on under 2m low tides, fishing the last two hours of the outgoing and first hour of incoming, with fish up to 65cm caught on DK Eyecons and Bombers in the tiger lily colour.

"Soft plastics have been working well at culverts at Darwin River and even out at the Tortilla culverts."

Happy Micks' Charlie Chambers said the high water under the Mary River bridge meant the Shady Camp barrage downstream might fire at night for crocodile-wary anglers this week.

"The barrage always seems to fish well before a big flush goes through,'' he said.

"It's the second big flush for Corroboree Billabong too and Corroboree needs at least two flushes to work well during the dry season, so it's looking good now."

Fishing and Outdoor World's Matt West confirmed good fish were taken at the Shady Camp barrage on soft plastics and also by trolling the mouth and channel at Sampan Creek.

"My brother caught 20 fish at the top of Tommycut Creek last week,'' he said.

"The South Alligator is still fairly flooded but they are getting a few barra.

"There are a few jewfish biting in the harbour, and the harbour is also producing some good barra."

Fishing and Outdoor World's Ronald Voukolos said jewfish were biting well at Charles Point in between the rough spells.

"There were some good jewfish taken from the Bottlewasher Artificial Reef but the guys were losing more than they were winning.

"Land-based anglers caught two big barra off Cullen Bay last week and there were blue salmon off Fannie Bay and Sadgroves Creek."

Top End Fishing Supplies' Dylan Jenkins went on an offshore charter on Thursday.

"We went to Charles Point and caught a jewfish. Then we went all the way out to Lorna Shoal and caught three more jewfish and a couple of good golden snapper,'' he said.

Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Narelle Morris said four barra were caught almost a fortnight ago from 87cm to 99cm and a couple of similar fish were caught last week.

"One group lost six fish and caught just one last week so the big barra are around,'' she said.

Reidys Lures Jeff Reid said he had little to report but was optimistic now the water level had risen substantially at Shady Camp.

Shady Camp Boat Hire's Wayne Turner said the water was half way up the cleaning table on Friday and over most of the floodplains.

"The fishing was fairly quite last week but that should change soon,'' he said.

Woolianna on the Daly's Stan Traczynski said the fishing was poor as the river was at over 12m and rising.

"It rained heavily upstream but it may start settling down next week - right now it's raging down,'' he said.

"The amount of rubbish like old trees that has come down this year has been amazing.

"But the river level has been almost exactly the same each day as last month.

"It hasn't been below 10m for two months.

"There are heaps of big cherabin around now - some of them look like crayfish."

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