Lionel Egan caught this barra while staying at Goat Island Lodge on the NT's Adelaide River Matt
Flynn's Northern Territory However early birds have been catching fish on various run-offs and culverts, and it's hard to resist going for a look when the sun comes out. Some barra have been caught, most notably on the South Alligator and Daly Rivers. Offshore, reef fish were not biting well on last week's giant tides, but harbour wrecks produced some jewfish. There are loads of small snapper in the sheltered harbour arms and creeks, and big mud crabs are being caught on the Shoal Bay flats. Fishing and Outdoor World's Ronald Voukolos said there were barra caught on the Daly River creek last week. "The Daly got quite a bit of localised rain on the catchment so there are colour changes at the creeks,'' he said. "It is still a bit early but the barra fishing is starting to happen. "The South Alligator River should be better now - it was running dirty last weekend - but one customer caught a 96cm, a 68cm and a 50cm barra. "There's some good clear water coming out of Nourlangie Creek on the South Alligator, along with all the water weed from the upstream billabongs. "Lure One Fishing Charters' Chris Hurt caught five barra and dropped several others all in one day during the week fishing in the Sadgroves/Reichardt Creek area of Darwin Harbour. "There are a lot of blue salmon about at night at East Point but you have to have live mullet for bait to catch them. "John Jordan of Equinox Fishing Charters reports some big golden snapper offshore - the skipper travels around from Charles Point out to Bass Reef to find them. "There are still stacks of small snapper in the harbour. "But fishing has been a bit quiet overall - hopefully we will get more rain." Top End Fishing Supplies' Mulga said many rivers were dropping so barramundi would be biting, but it was still too early. "Hopefully another monsoonal trough will come through and drown us out,'' he said. "There have been good early reports from the top of the South Alligator River. "The Adelaide River is still very dirty and the fishing is slow. "I haven't heard much from the Daly. "Soft plastics seem to be working the best at this early stage - hard-bodied lures are best after the run-off when the rivers have returned to normal. "Probably the harbour is still the best best place for barra right now as it is just a short drive away. "The few boats that have headed offshore to the reefs have reported average fishing - it's been dirty and rough on the big tides and the fish have not been on the chew. "Everyone is dying to go run-off fishing now but we need heaps more localised rain - better to polish the barbecue and drink beer right now." Got One's Craig Grosvenor said Simms Reef in Bynoe Harbour produced jewfish to 18kg on whole local squid during the big tides last week. "Flooded culverts were producing small barra on soft plastic lures, such as at Elizabeth Valley Rd, Tortilla Flats, and Whitestone Creek,'' he said. "Scotts Creek crossing produced fish to 63cm on DOA Baitbusters in blue and white, and the Scotts Creek mouth produced big fish on the last neap tides, with two fish over a metre reported. "Beatrice Creek on the Adelaide River produced a couple of barra to 80cm on soft plastics - the left fork at the top of the creek has been running clear water. "Shoal Bay has been producing a lot of fish on the snags at the top of the main creeks, where localised run-off has seen anglers in the know catching fish - livebait and soft plastics have worked best. "Golden snapper have been on the run in Bynoe Harbour - a good customer of mine had an hour-and-a-half session on goldies to 3kg on reefs around Indian Island on local squid and pilchards. "Middle Arm seems to be working best for barra with fish caught in numbers on soft plastics and shallow minnows - the left side of the arm heading upstream near Haycock Reach has been fishing well." Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Bob Morris said the tide's this weekend should see fish on the bite. "This Sunday is one of the best tides to fish the morning tide,'' he said. "There is lots of run-off with almost pure fresh water coming off the Howard River rockbar. "We went up there and a lot of sharks took our baits, so lures might work better up there for barra - when we were there on the big tides there were loads of barra boofing and crashing around. "Crabs have been good with eight to 10 big bucks for a day's crabbing - the crabs are all out the front now, you don't get many up the creeks now. "The crabs should be easier to catch with the smaller tides this week - on the big tides you have to keep pots fairly shallow or they just get washed away. "There are salmon and bream about - some of the bream have been up near a kilogram. All you need are some live prawns for bait out of the throw net. "The prawns seem to have shrunk though because they are not as big as they were two weeks ago - the bigger ones must have moved on." Reidys Lures' Jeff Reid said he travelled 115km on the Adelaide River to test a motor and while doing so fished a creek 50km on the west side downstream from the Arnhem Hwy ramp. "I cast around the creek mouth and never saw a fish, although we did not fish that hard,'' he said. "We checked all the creeks on the way back - each had water coming out but the water stank - every creek was like that, the water polluted with rotten organic matter. "Just on that observation I would say we need a lot more water to flush the creeks out. "We also went to Manton Dam which has come up almost 2m in a week. The water was dirtier than normal from the rain and we did not catch a fish. "The week before that we went to the mouth of the Adelaide River, and that was no good, we never saw a fish, and there was no baitfish either. "There were others putting in boats at the same time to go jewie fishing but they did not stay long so maybe they did not catch much either. "We need more rain right now - that will make the difference everywhere." King Kontis Fishing Tours' Tom Kontis said he caught several jewfish on harbour wrecks last week. "We have been catching jewfish on all wrecks and natural reefs in the harbour,'' he said. "Last Saturday we got seven jewfish to 11kg, on Sunday we got three barra, on Tuesday four jewfish and a cobia, on the Wednesday we caught two jewfish, and another jewfish on Thursday and Friday. "The jewfish come and go from the wrecks - one day they are there and the next day they have moved somewhere else. "There's small prawns everywhere in the creeks so the harbour barra fishing can be hard, but people who know what they are doing like Chris Hurt (Lure One Fishing Charters) are catching plenty of barra in the harbour." Katherine Rod and Rifle's Brad Whittaker said the Katherine River was at 8m and rising on Friday. "There must have been rain in the catchment upstream for it to be rising as there has been very little rain in town lately,'' he said. "I've had very few reports of people going fishing over the past week. "The Katherine River is too high to fish the crossings - people are just waiting now." Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Chris Edwards said there weren't many people out during last week's big tides. "The tides were too big for most people who come here - the fishing will be better this week on the smaller tides,'' he said. "No one has been out but it will all change this week."
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