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Fishing and Outdoor World's Matt West with a Darwin Harbour jewfish

Matt Flynn's Northern Territory
fishing report: February 22, 2004

Also available in the Darwin Sunday
newspaper, Sunday Territorian

Some big barramundi were landed at the mouth of Tommycut Creek and above the South Alligator River's Arnhem Hwy bridge last week ... these catches hopefully mark the start of some exciting run-off fishing.

Most other rivers are too flooded for fishing, with the Daly, Roper and Victoria Rivers  unfishable now.

The South Alligator and Mary Rivers remain the best bet.

I visited the Adelaide River last week for a quick look and found some great floodplain run-offs holding baitfish, but only a couple of small barra were seen feeding.

The satellite photo was clear over the Top End last week and dragonflies were already out in force, but it is still February and there is every chance of more monsoonal weather.

Fishing and Outdoor World's Ron Voukolos said everyone was talking about a 127cm, 25kg barramundi caught downstream of Shady Camp on Wednesday.

"They have also been catching metre-long threadfin salmon and barramundi to 80cm at and near the Tommycut Creek mouth,'' he said.

"There are plenty of smaller fish up on the barrages.

"There have been some good fish coming from the bottom of the South Alligator River, with one angler catching several fish to 80cm.

"Another boat up on the South Alligator floodplain caught nine barra in a session.

"The Daly River is high and was at an incredible 13m last week, which hopefully bodes well for the month ahead.

"Offshore, there are still some good jewfish being caught close to Darwin.

"There have been plenty of blue salmon biting in East Arm creeks."

Top End Fishing Supplies' Dylan Jenkins said the Adelaide River was still quiet.

"It has been rare to hear of fish being caught there,'' he said.

"But the shop's charter boat cleaned up at Lorna Shoal on Wednesday with eight jewfish to 15kg a cobia about 5kg, three trout, a few quality goldies

The fishing did not stop. The action was constant all day.

I saw a cane toad when I was coming home from Shady Camp on the Darwin side of the Mary River bridge.

There has veen been a couple of small mackerel caught off East Point.

Equinox Fishing Charters' John Jordan recently took some Ghan dignitaries fishing.

"There were nine people on board for a four-hour charter - talk about putting the pressure on us - anyway the fish didn't let us down, as within two hours we managed to put each person onto a good jewfish. Eight jewies at 14kg and one of 13kg,'' he said.

"Also last week, we had good weather again and more jewfish and snapper on the
bite around Bass Reef and Lorna Shoals.

"The boys have been coming back with good catches - maybe this rain has helped everything.

"The water had a slight swell in the morning and flat as a tack in the afternoon, very pleasant.

"But small boat owners who wish to travel to these areas must remain cautious of the weather, as it can turn quite nasty out there and there is still some big storms hanging around."

Leaders Creek Fishing Base Deneise Edwards said four big jewfish were caught last Sunday from out the front in ther channel - they were 14kg to 17kg.

"They were very happy chappies - they said they could have caught more as the fish were firing,'' he said.

"Apparently there are some crabs are available now.

"The road is still OK - there was a conventional vehicle out here this morning.

"There have been a few smaller golden snapper and salmon."

Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Bob Morris said one customer caught 13 barramundi in a session last week, keeping five.
"They were mainly small fish and were caught on livebait up at Spot 6,'' he said.

"There was a 90cm fish caught at The Rock along with some salmon during the week.

"Crabs are starting to show up in numbers and some of them are full.

"We got one last Sunday that was 196mm across the carapace.

"They are getting about one crab a pot which is not bad at this time of year.

"A lot of the run-off has stopped though - there is a little at the top of the Howard River but that is about it.

"There is plenty of bait up the creeks.

"We went prawning last week and got 4kg of prawn in a few throws of the net and they were eatable size."

Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said access to Victoria, Roper and Daly River was limited because of flooding, so few people were fishing.

"It won't be good for fishing for a while now, except on the culverts,'' he said.

"The Roper River was 10.4m at Roper Bar on Friday and was rising and had already cut places off along the road.

"The weather map shows we are probably going to have some clear weather this week.

"I reckon the run-off this year is going to be excellent - even if we have to want until the end of March."

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