Terry
Roberts from Sydney caught this Darwin Harbour barra, his
first, with Michael Walsh of Guru's Top End Fishing
Safaris. Matt
Flynn's Northern Territory An inaugural billfish championship will be held off Nhulunbuy in October. And two new public launch sites have been mooted for announcement at today's AFANT meeting at the Aviation Institute in Charles Eaton Dve. The Point Stuart and Channel Point sites will both offer beach access to exciting new bluewater and inshore fishing spots. Boaters will no longer have to make long, dangerous trips by sea in small boats to fish the Peron Islands off Channel Point, or the shallow Chambers Bay reefs off Point Stuart. The exciting Mini Mini system at the base of Cobourg Peninsula will be within reach of long-range trailer boats from Point Stuart. How far progress has been made on opening these two sites remains to be seen, but all is expected to be revealed at the meeting today, from 10am. Top End fishermen need all the good news they can get right now because the vitally important monsoon seems to have dried up. The Daly River produced the only serious barramundi action last week in this rather dry February. Other than ever-popular Daly, some barra were reported from the Shady Camp and the Adelaide River. But the action has been below average overall, like the rainfall. On the upside there was good offshore fishing reported during last week's calm weather, especially for jewfish on inshore reefs. Got One's Craig Grosvenor said there were lots of good reports from the diminishing tides last weeks. "Earlier this week Shady Camp produced some fish with barra to 85cm caught on Snapbacks and Storm Swim Shads with pearl colours most popular,'' he said. "A monster fish of 1.26m was landed near the barrage as the tide pushed up. "Reports dropped off from the upper sections of Sampan Creek below the barrage as the tides turned to neap but I expect the mouth to fire this weekend. "The Daly River was a hit mainly below Elizabeth Creek - surface fizzers and Thunderdog soft plastics produced multiple hookups at the mouth of Clear Creek. "One crew hooked 25 fish in a session which made the long trip worthwhile. "Darwin Harbour has been consistent with loads of GTs in East Arm on the incoming tides, with several fish to 6kg caught in the region of the Shell Islands. "Live mullet and large prawns have produced most fish. "Positive reports have come back this week from Saltwater Arm with 10 jewfish on Thursday and two on Friday up to 15kg. "The Rock in Shoal Bay is also producing jewfish to 10kg. "The barra have been biting at Spot 6 in Shoal Bay on livebait up to 94cm." Happy Micks Charlie Chambers went to the Daly River on Thursday and we caught about 30 fish biggest 78cm. We dropped one about 95cm. We caught them all on River2Sea Bottomwalker soft plastics - we got a couple on DOAs but mainly on the Bottomwalkers in pearl and chartreusse. The creeks from the boat ramp down. Charlies, No Fish and Elizabeth were running dirty until the tide starts coming in and then they clear up. There were fish at Elizabeth and No Fish caught half way through the tide. Clear Creek was the best spot - we fished the runout from halfway down. From what I saw there were only five or six fish caught per boat elsewhere so we had a good day. There is a lot of water on the floodplains but we need some more rain down there for a runoff over a long period of time. I have heard some good reports of big fish at the mouth of Shady Camp and have seen a photo of a 1.22m barra caught at the Sampan Creek mouth on the first incoming tide on a Scorpion 150 in the 3.5m depth in bleeding mullet colours - he caught several other fish. They are getting snapper at the Six Mile Buoy to - we have been selling a lot of bait. Top End Fishing Supplies' Chris Pache confirmed the Daly River was fishing well. "One boat did well upstream so it's not all happening down at Clear Creek - people have been getting fish throughout the river,'' he said. "Shady Camp is also producing a few fish - even the Adelaide River has been producing fish upstream around Goat Island, and some on the downstream (below Arnhem Hwy) run-offs. "The charter boat has been getting snapper but not so many jewfish - the jewies will pick up in the next month or so. "The Howard River has been good just downstream from the Gunn Point road bridge." Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said Roper Bar had been fishing well. "There's been some reasonable fish caught at Roper Bar - I think about 1.2m was the biggest caught off Roper Bar this year,'' he said. "The Roper River is right down though - it looks like we are having a mini run-off this year and it might not last long - the rivers are way down on what they are normally at this time. "The Victoria River has been patchy - there have been some good fish caught off the boat ramp where the creek runs in but you have to be there just at the right time. "The Daly River is the pick of them at the moment but it might not last long if there is no more rain." Reidys Lures' Cheryl Reid said one customer caught eight barra in Manton Dam last week. "They were medium-sized fish,'' she said. "Other than that all the action has been down at the Daly." Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Chris Edwards said fishing was good on the smaller tides last week. "The jewfish are on the prowl just out the front of the creek in any hole or gutter,'' he said. "Around Cape Hotham and Ruby Island there have been some good catches of jewfish - one fellow was upset because he couldn't catch any snapper because of the jewfish. "I went out Tuesday near the North West Vernon Island and caught two jewfish - one was 16kg - and also the day after caught nine snapper, some cod and redfish. "There have been plenty of salmon in the creek. A big barra was lost on Thursday - the fishermen were lucky and saw it before it straightened the hook. "There was another fish caught that looked like a queenfish but it was over a metre long. "Sharks are on the move - you need to bring plenty of hooks. "Another group caught some nice crabs. "The weather has been really good with just a seabreeze in the afternoon. "The road is in the best condition it has ever been in." *** Gove Game Fishing
Club plan to stage the NT's first Northern Territory
Billfish Championship in 2005. The four-day event will
see anglers fishing the pristine waters of Nhulunbuy
where there are reliable populations of sailfish and
black marlin. There will be four days of fishing
with the briefing night on October 28 and fishing on
Sunday, October 30, through to November 2.
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