Glen Wilson with a whopper barra from Shady Camp, caught on a DOA Baitbuster Matt Flynn's
Northern Territory The fishing competition season is now well under way with the Barra Nationals held on the Daly River last week and the Katherine Big Horse Creek Barra Classic on the Victoria River this weekend. Last week the sad news of a fish kill at Magela Creek on the East Alligator River was eclipsed by some great catches at the Barra Nationals. Swarms of small barra have been reported in all the rivers, which is great news for future years. Unfortunately it has been hard to get lures past the little fish. Big mud crabs are on the move now, and jewfish are still biting hard on the offshore patches. Bad news is that the dry season south-easterly has come in, making offshore fishing difficult, and stirring up the bankside mud on the big rivers. Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Bob Morris said large queenfish, jewfish, mud crabs and even spanish mackerel were being caught in Shoal Bay. "There were two spaniards caught near The Rock of about 12kg, in very nice condition,'' he said. ''They were caught on floating baits at high tide. ''Several queenfish over a metre have been caught. ''There were two one-metre barra taken at Spot 8 last weekend. ''Fishing for barra was great until the neap tides, but the tides are picking up again. ''The mud crabs are started to fire up there have been a load caught of big ones caught already. ''Most of the crabs are being caught in the creeks with the guys fishing the flats at the front not doing that well. ''It's been good here for the past three weeks for crabs. I put six pots out the other day and got nine and they were all a good size. ''We also have a web site now at www.shoalbayboathire.com.au Top End Fishing Supplies' Justin Altaras said the blue water had been fishing well with big jewfish and snapper. ''Jewfish are still right across from Charles Point to Lorna Shoal - all over the place,'' he said. ''The biggest jewfish lately have been up around 16-18kg. ''We have not seen too many mackerel - we had one day where there was a heap of them but then we haven't seen them much since. ''We got a good coral trout on Tuesday. We are not get heaps of them but the jewies seem to be everywhere. ''We get the snapper on the top of the reef and the jewfish are on the deeper edges. ''We had a sailfish come up at Lorna Shoal, but we never hooked it. ''At Lee Point there have been some golden snapper caught. ''There are lots of small fish at Shady Camp being caught on soft plastics.'' Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said the Roper River fished really last weekend for one crew who caught two 23kg barra, a 20kg, an 18kg and two 12kg, among others. ''And they released all the big ones,'' he said. ''They caught quite a few other sized fish as well. The creek they fished was the last with run-off and the barra were just going ape. ''They caught 22 fish on the Friday, the biggest 88cm, and then on the Saturday the fish came back on the bite half way through the incoming tide. ''I went down on the Sunday and Monday and we caught 43 at the same spot but they were from 50cm to 60cm. ''It shows you just have to be there on the day as on the Sunday they did not catch much. ''On the Friday the said the fish bit at 2pm and on the Saturday they fired a little later at 3pm. ''What was surprising was that at the bottom of the tide they could not catch any fish. ''If we could work the barra out we would millionaires. ''There are still loads of juvenile barra in the Katherine River ... no one can remember seeing so many; they are on every rockbar, weir and creek mouth. ''People are catching 20 at a time. They are fat and aggressive and lures like double-tail grubs are working well. ''One customer told me he was walking toward a creek mouth and he found hundreds of barra going off and they caught 50 or so and kept just one - five of the fish were over 75cm, so there are bigger fish in there. ''The Victoria River this weekend will host the Katherine Big Horse Creek Barra Classic - the river looks right and the tides are perfect but the wind is now blowing a gale which is not so good. ''It's cool now here in Katherine - we are back into the dry season weather today.'' Aurora Kakadu's Peter Wilson, about to leave his beloved barramundi fishing for a stint of living in Alice Springs, said there had been jewfish caught at the mouth of the South Alligator River on the smaller tides. ''Upstream there have been big barra boofing in the top half of the river but they have been hard to catch,'' he said. ''You can see them feeding though. They are making big explosions in the water but you throw a lure and don't get them. ''There is still the odd good fish at the mouth of Nourlangie Creek and on the the top rockbars. ''It was a great run-off this year - the best since 1999-2000. ''But I went out for two hours on Wednesday and I only managed to bag three fish that together would have made the legal size limit of 55cm. Another half a dozen and I would have had an entree!'' Fishing and Outdoor World's Mark Ost said there were lots of small queenfish at East Point last weekend. ''And a few small mackerel have been caught at Lee Point,'' he said. ''Bruce Huckstepp was at South Gutter and reported loads of small spaniards. ''Mackerel and jewfish have been feeding out the front of Bynoe Harbour. ''Corroboree Billabong has been producing some barra.'' Shady Camp Boat Hire's Wayne Turner said the barrage area was going off with trolling producing the biggest fish, and the fish were fat and fighting hard. ''Everyone is catching a fish now, although many are small,'' he said. ''The barrage has been working well with green soft plastics - I have seen fish over 80cm caught, but they look like swampies and I would not eat them. ''They barra are really fat and healthy and even the crocodiles are fat from eating like kings. ''On the freshwater side two of our clients caught 150 small fish in one session. ''Its looking good for future years.'' ''The Sampan gutter and around the other side of The Narrows, where the second barrage comes out, has been good. ''The S-bends have produced some fish. ''The mud banks are catching a few anglers now, and some people have been stuck in boats for six hours waiting for the tide. ''The Sampan mudbar is huge now, and has grown substantially from last year. ''For lures, pearl and red and white soft plastics have been going well. Classics and the good old Bomber work too. ''The Reidys Judge has been good. ''We are now selling the lures that we know are working.''
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