Lynne Fry with a fine spanish mackerel from wide of Bynoe Harbour Matt
Flynn's Northern Territory Barramundi fishing has been picking up with the warmer weather, but there are still plenty of mackerel and tuna around. Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said inland barra fishing had improved. "The water temperatures are starting to rise again and fishing quality will steadily increase again,'' he said. "There are some good barra being caught down the Roper River in both the fresh and salt water. "I was there three weeks ago and it was definitely cold weather then but even so the fish were happy to chase lures to the back of the boat. "Fishing guide Russell Kenny caught a 20kg barra down the Daly River a week ago. "Another Daly guide Warren White has been averaging seven fish a day down there. "Mud crabs are starting to run up the Victoria River now, with good jewies and salmon taken by people bait fishing. "There was a 78cm barra caught in Katherine Gorge recently, which is a good catch." Fishing and Outdoor World's Ronald Voukolos said tuna had been consistent in the harbour and further afield. "Mike Walsh of Gurus Fishing Safaris has been catching plenty,'' he said. "The eco tour boats also have reported seeing lots of tuna schools. "Mandorah wharf has produced some mackerel and also the Stokes Hill Wharf - everyone is buying chrome lures for them, with the small sizes best, and it's best to do away with wire as you get more hook-ups even though you lose the odd fish from bite-offs. "There are jewfish around at the usual haunts with Dundee fishing really well. "One boat reported a 28kg jewfish from the Peron Islands. "There have been some big jewfish caught on the Peary wreck in the harbour. "Corroboree Billabong has been steady, with inland billabongs such as Alligator and Red Lily fishing quite well. "Fishing guide Mark West reports loads of GTs and big mackerel close in at the Vernon Islands. "It's been a good year for pikey bream and we are selling loads of prawns for bait." Fishing and Outdoor World is having a Loomis night on Tuesday at 7pm with Peter Horrobin and Graham Todd who are going to show some products not normally seen in shops, with casting demonstrations at the back of the shop. Top End Fishing Supplies' Steve Compain said one of his charter boats had a great day at South Gutter with 20 golden snapper to 8kg. "The other day the same boat caught a 20kg mackerel and a few days earlier a 27kg monster. "The jewies slowed on the small tides, and will improve as the tides pick up - we did get nine jewies on the last night charter. "Generally the fishing has been pretty good, even over the neap tides. The real low tides have been at night lately and they are good tides for jewfish. "Our other charter boat has been fishing the pinnacle off Lorna Shoal and getting a variety of fish." Leaders Creek Fishing Base Deneise Edwards said spanish mackerel, GTs and golden snapper were caught last week. "There has been the odd barramundi around in the creek but mostly small,'' she said. "Salmon have been doing well in the creek. Crabs are still slow with a lot of smaller ones. "Queenfish have been good - there was on really big one caught on Wednesday and a big jewfish that was caught outside in the channel." Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Bob Morris said barramundi were biting last week. "Five were caught in Hope Inlet by one crew and there was an 87cm barra caught at Spot 8,'' he said. "Another boat went up to Spot 6 and caught two barra on Sunday. "There have been plenty of salmon being caught by fishing bait. "Crabs have been patchy - some people get them and some don't. "The Rock has been quiet but it should fish well for big barra in another month or so." Bob said Shoal Bay Boat Hire offered a secure boat ramp useable for a fee if people were concerned about security at nearby Buffalo Creek. Tom Kontis of King Kontis Fishing Tours said he caught school jewfish in Darwin Harbour on Thursday morning, but it had been otherwise fairly quiet. "We are getting school jewfish to 5kg in the deep water,'' he said. "We had as little as .3m movement this week and the fishing is usually hard when it is like that. "There have been tuna schools pass by but they looked like small fish. "We have had mackerel hitting fish on the way up so they are still around but they are not taking the baits we put out for them." Got One's Craig Grosvenor said Dundee had been fishing well. "Goldies have been caught to 55cm on squid baits on the offshore reefs, usually on the turn of the low tide,'' he said. "Also at Dundee there have been mackerel to 1.4m caught on red head and H50 Halco 190 Laser Pros. "Corroboree Billabong has been loads of saratoga. The Peron Islands have been good for spanish mackerel to around 10kg, with one crew also landing six jewfish to 15kg, red emperor and some goldies. "Charles Point is producing jewfish to 15kg. "The Daly River has produced some big barra around the S-bends over the past week, with a 105cm the biggest. "The East Alligator River produced a superb 25kg barra off the crossing on a Snapback soft plastic lure." Charlie Chambers at Happy Micks reports that early in the week Chris Errity and a co-worker from fisheries took him out fishing for the day on a tagging program. "The aim was to catch and tag as many spanish mackerel as we could,'' he said. "The road into Leaders Creek was sensational and the prompt service from Chris Edwards at Leaders Creek Fishing Base was excellent. "We launched the new GS Marine 5.6m Extreme built for fisheries early in the month and headed for the mouth and out to the Vernon Islands. "The tides were neap and conditions looked good until we got to Smith Reef and found the water clarity was a little ordinary to say the least. "We trolled big lures around for the best part of the day. "We got a lot of hits with only a handful of hookups. The best fish for the day was a 12kg GT. "It was caught casting a chrome slice on the surface. We landed several fish for the day. "With four different species. We caught two giant trevally up to 12kg. We caught a mackerel around 7kg and two nice queenfish the biggest around 10kg. "We also landed a blue salmon which would have weighed about 4kg. "I think that we had a pretty successful day considering the conditions. "It is a pity we couldn’t get on to any other macks but it wasn’t from a lack of trying. "The wind was pleasant all day. At the strongest point it was blowing about 12 knots - just enough to start a small chop. "If the
water clarity was a little clearer I believe we would
have had a much better day. At the end of the day that’s
fishing." |
