Rod Hemley with a jewfish from the front of Leaders Creek Matt Flynn's
Northern Territory Fishing was superb last week, with the Daly River finally coming on stream with loads of barramundi, and big mackerel and jewfish biting offshore. The now accessible East Alligator River started producing barra, but not in the same numbers as the Daly. The best fishing on the Daly was downstream between the main rockbar and Clear Water Creek, but the creeks further upstream will no doubt start fishing better this week as the river falls. To top it off, the South Alligator and Mary River below Shady Camp continued to fish well, with the mouth of Nourlangie Creek best on the South and the stretch near the boat wreck at Shady Camp producing several fish over 1m. The famous Shady Camp S-bends have not yet fired in a big way, although some people have noticed big fish in this area on their sounders. Got One's Craig Grosvenor said he fished Corroboree Billabong on Tuesday and caught loads of small but very fat, healthy barra. "I went to the Little Finniss River the next day,'' he said. "I missed the tide but I got six fish around 75cm just trolling at the mouth. "I headed back to the reefs out the front and caught a few blue salmon. "And then me and my mate caught three monster jewfish on red-headed RMG lures cast into just 4m of water. "It was high tide and we got them one after the other. "We got spooled the first time. Every third cast we would have a jewie. "I tried other lures and the fish would not take them except a soft plastic with the same red and white body. "The water was quite clear and it was nice and calm with an offshore wind. "We packed up after we landed the third fish. "At the South Alligator River a friend caught a 1.02m barra on Saturday on an RMG 125 in gold at Nourlangie Creek and a 1.30m barra was caught the same day by someone else. "To top it off there have been mackerel off Anglers Reef and the Lee Point artificial reefs and I have had a report of a sailfish hooked out there." Top End Fishing Supplies' Steve Compain said that while barra were biting almost everywhere, big jewfish were going silly last week off Lorna Shoal. "I've never seen it so good - we had 10 fish in the boat by 9am - it was ridiculous,'' he said. "We have been checking out some new spots and the fishing has been amazing. "There have been lots of mackerel too, so its not all barra fishing at the moment." Fishing and Outdoor World's Ronald Voukolos said the Daly River was the place to be. "There have been plenty of fish caught, mainly on soft plastics,'' he said. "And the first stretch below Shady Camp has been good for fishermen bouncing soft plastics slowly along the bottom. "There are also a lot of fish being caught in Bynoe Harbour, with one crew catching threadfin and barra on Just Under lures worked really slowly. "There are plenty of big jewfish and goldies offshore and Equinox Fishing Charters has been doing really well on them. "I just hope other people are doing the right thing and going a little under the jewfish bag limits while the fish are biting like this. "The East Alligator River does not seem to have fished that well but it might improve. "Corroboree Billabong is producing a lot of smaller fish. "There are plenty of snapper around in the harbour - the slack of the low tide seems to be the time to catch them - you just have to find a lump in deep water." Happy Micks' Charlie Chambers said the South Alligator was producing fish at the mouth of Nourlangie Creek on big tides. "Troll large, shallow lures right at the change of low tide,'' he said. "The Daly River has been fishing really well down as towards Clear Water creek with fish over a metre at night on Skitter Pops. "There are some good run-offs between Alligator Head and Clear Water Creek that have been fishing really well. "The best fishing was between the main rockbar and Alligator Head. As the river gets lower the fishing will improve at Elizabeth Creek and the other creeks upstream. "There are good salmon in Bynoe Harbour with several fish caught at Phoenix Inlet on Terminator Twos in Colour 15. "The East Alligator is accessible now and Magela Creek is pumping hard. "At the top of Magela Creek fishermen have been getting barra from 60cm to 80cm. "There are good run-offs on the right heading downstream with six or seven small creeks over a 3km stretch about 10 minutes travelling time below the main rockbar - these run clear on the incoming tide. "There have been quite a few fish over a metre caught at Shday Camp near the boat wreck just downstream from the main barrage. "A few of the guides caught big fish trolling there last week." Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said it had been very busy over Easter. "We had to open on Good Friday because people coming up from down south desperately wanted to buy fishing gear,'' he said. "A lot of southern people have heard about the good wet season and have come up early to catch barra. "A lot are heading towards the Daly River. "I think the tourists are becoming more educated about our seasons. We are seeing more boats than I can remember. "The fishing has been good over Easter, with Roper Bar producing 80cms, 90cms and 1m barras, and at one stage there was 50 people fishing from the bar. "But the fishing is slowing down now as the water drops. "Soon the fish will take up residence in snags. "The biggest fish I heard caught from the bar was 1.07m but there were bigger fish caught downstream, including Tracy Murdon's 1.12m barra. "A 1.28m barra was caught at the Victoria River at a fishing competition and the next biggest was 1.18m. "The Vic is fishing well and is
ready for trolling. "Kids are having a ball catching juvenile barra in the Katherine River. "People also need to be aware of cherabin pot rules: fisheries enforcement officers are now checking cherabin pots - you are allowed five per person up to 10 per vessel, all with name and address attached. "Apparently there have been people coming up from south with 50 to 60 cherabin pots and taking large quantities of cherabin south. "Fisheries are cracking down on this, and on resident campers who move fish out by road so they can stay under the bag limit. "Thankfully the great majority of people do the right thing." Borroloola Boat and Fishing Club's new president Ken Melville said the Easter Classic competition was hampered by rough weather. "It was a bit rough and bouncy - a few went outside but we had to skip and dodge the storms,'' he said. "We had 278 entries this year compared with 240 the year before." The biggest fish were jewfish 3.74kg, barra 7.78kg, coral trout 1.78kg, red emperor 1.4kg, golden snapper 3.08kg, salmon 3.16kg, queenfish 4.96kg, GT 5.82kg, bream 1.1kg, mangrove jack 1.54kg and moonfish 1.28kg. John Hamey was champion angler with a total weight of 13.62kg.
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