About as big as wild barra get ... Alan Donald with his catch from the East Alligator River - note the crocodile bite near the tail Matt
Flynn's Northern Territory Barramundi fishing continues to pick up across the board, and it will continue to improve until heavy downpours set in. Offshore fishing has also been good, with many anglers are taking advantage of the generally calm October weather. But barra are where it is at, both in the billabongs, along the coast and in the rivers. Top End Fishing Supplies' Steve Compain went to South Gutter on Thursday night and reports superb jewfish action on a rubber squid lure despite fishing in deep water on a big tide and a dark moon. "It was a 7m tide at 7pm and we went to South Gutter and on first drop caught a couple of 7kg snapper ... then we went to another spot and caught a dozen jewfish to 15kg ... most were schoolies of 5kg,'' he said. "I was using River2Sea rubber squid lure with two hooks and a glow stick in it - I dropped it down and jig-jig bang! There were hits straight away ... then I took the glow stick out and jig-jig bang! Every time we dropped the rubber squid down it got hammered, even in the dark with no glow stick the fish found it easily and it got slammed. "We fished the turn of the top of the tide and there were fish everywhere. "I went out on Tuesday last week - we went to The Rock in Shoal Bay for the low tide and caught nothing - another boat said they caught a 92cm and 94cm barra at high tide in the morning. "We went to the Little Howard River and caught 10 crabs in 10 minutes but they were all jennies and only just legal but they were everywhere like fleas on a dog, hanging off the pots when you pulled them in." Fishing and Outdoor World's Matt West said the fish have been biting well close to the ramp at Shoal Bay Boat Hire with barra reported to 88cm. "The rockbar at Hope Inlet has been fishing well too by trolling,'' he said. "The harbour has been pretty good in Middle and West Arms in particular. "The inland billabongs have been producing barra and saratoga on fly and lure, including a couple of 90cm fish reported from Corroboree. "Hardies Lagoon has been producing some fish too with visiting celebrity Leyton Hewitt catching barra to 5kg by casting with Mark West of Hooked on Fishing Safaris. "They could see the barra tailing in the reeds as it started to warm up during the day. "The East Alligator Crossing usually produces on these bigger tides. "There have been big goldies at the mouth of the South Alligator." Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With the fishing was improving fast, including in the Katherine River. "There have been barra to 77cm caught in the Katherine River in the Donkey Camp hole but the fish have been biting right up and down the river, with black bream too,'' he said. "The Victoria River is starting to fish too and there are loads of mud crabs down the bottom toward Growlers Rockbar, although some have been caught as far up as Big Horse Creek. "The Roper River is fishing really well in both the fresh and tidal sections with one angler catching 18 fish, the biggest 94cm, in the freshwater section. "The McArthur River is starting to fish better now although it has been fairly quiet before - a group from Darwin who caught four barra there over a metre the same time last year did not manage that when they visited this year ... they said they thought it was still a bit early. "The Limmen Bight River has been fishing well, producing barra, grunter and jewfish. "People visiting Lorella Springs Station this year have been doing very well on the Rosie River." Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Bob Morris said barra were now biting well on lures. "There are also lots of crabs but they are mostly jennies and smaller crabs,'' he said. "There are more bucks now than a couple of weeks ago but it is still hard work finding the big ones. "The barra have been biting ... I have not heard of any real monsters lately with a 94cm the biggest caught last week but there are many fat barra in the 70cm to 80cm range ... I caught about 20 barra last week on lures. "We caught a 93cm threadfin up the Little Howard River on live bait ... that's a good fish. "There does not seem to be anyone much out here fishing The Rock at night which is unusual - most people go in the day when it is less productive. "There are prawns in the bay now that are big enough to eat - we got about 2kg of them the other day just cast netting at a creek mouth." Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Deneise Edwards said the road in had been graded during the past week, putting an end to the corrugations of the previous week. "There was not a lot happening on the big tides but last Monday tricky snapper, cod, golden snapper, redfish and doggie mackerel were caught,'' she said. "There have been barra caught around the mouth of the creek, and blue and threadfin salmon. "The mud crabs all seem to be a bit small now." Got One's Craig Grosvenor went to East Arm last Wednesday. "We worked hard and only boated two barra, both small, and some small trevally at Hudson and Reichardt Creek, and most people we spoke to reported the same thing,'' he said. "The Vernon Islands fished well on the last neaps for loads of big golden snapper ... one crew moved from lump to lump and kept catching fish, they also caught jewies to 16kg, and lots of sharks. "There have been good reports from Shoal Bay with big threadfin salmon - one boat reported catching three about a metre long on Just Unders and live bait - an RMG Skin Deep in the H70 colour produced a metre barra at The Rock, as well as some in the 70cm and 80cm range. "A 91cm barra was caught at Corroboree Billabong on Sunday on a Reidys Little Lucifer. "There have been heaps of small barra at Alligator Billabong in Kakadu, caught at night using Storm soft plastics. "Charles Point fired this week with jewfish to 12kg. "I have had a few reports from The Narrows on the Adelaide River over the last neap tides with jewies and barra." Dundee Blue Water Charters' Des Puddey said the weather had been reasonably good out at Fog Bay over the past week. "We were out Thursday and caught red emperor, cobia and mackerel - the cobia was over a metre,'' he said. "The reds we got were not really big but they were all a good keeping size. "Goldies were a bit scarce - we did get one big one. "There's always
people fishing out wide of Fog Bay now - we had a group
from Katherine last week." |
