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Unusual catch ... Tom Kontis of King Kontis Fishing Tours with a harbour crayfish

Matt Flynn's Northern Territory
fishing report: May 23, 2004

Also available in the Darwin Sunday
newspaper, Sunday Territorian

It's been a week of weird weather and unusual catches with tropical crayfish, a tail-less barra, a monster Lee Point mackerel and even a rogue Darwin Harbour tuna.

But the place to be has been the Daly River, where barra fishing has been superb.

Even newbie tourists are catching metre barra on the Daly by simply trolling the S-bend area at the turn of the tide.

The goodwill generated by the superb Daly fishing will help the NT's fishing tourism industry, after two lean years.

Fishing and Outdoor World's Matt West said the Daly River was working best at the turn of bigger tides.

"Dave Silva got quite a few good barra on Monday by trolling deep lures around the S-bends,'' he said.

"He caught six fish over a metre and the heaviest was only 102cm yet and weighed 19kg.

"There are plenty of small fish throughout the river too.

"The fly fishing competition is at Corroboree Billabong on the Mary River system this weekend, and it should see good catches as the billabong has been fishing quite well.

"Ronald Voukolos caught 40 barra at Corroboree on Tuesday, mostly small, and some big saratoga. Most of the fish were caught on soft plastics.

"The Mary River Bridge Lagoon has been producing a few barra, including some of a decent size.

"On the bluewater scene there are mackerel around the East Point rocks, mostly schoolies with the odd spaniard.

"These usually appear in the early morning and late afternoon and have been caught by drifting pilchard baits out.

"My brother went to the Vernon Islands on Thursday and caught heaps of GTs and queenfish."

Top End Fishing Supplies' Chris Rainbird confirmed the Daly River was going off at the S-Bends, with the Crazy Deeps in fluoro green working well, as well as Elton John colours.

"The Rob Gaden 15+ in the fluoro is also working well,'' he said.

"The charter boat has been doing well on jewfish from wide of Charles Point to Lorna Shoal, the biggest recently going 18kg.

"We just use squid and pilchards for the jewfish.

"There have been a lot of broadbar mackerel around Bass Reef and spaniards to 8kg off the Bottlewasher at Lee Point.

"Mud crabs have not been around in big numbers - we are not selling a lot of crab pots.

"There does not seem to be many tuna around as yet, except for a big one caught with King Kontis Fishing Tours.

"There have been a few barra caught on the Adelaide River rockbars above Goat Island."

Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said fish were being caught across the board, but the Daly River remained the outstanding venue.

"The tourists are huffing and puffing about the weather a bit - they are not used to rain at this time of year - some Top End areas had 50mm on Thursday night,'' he said.

"The Limmen Bight River has been fishing well with one southern group catching seven fish over a metre ... they said they could not do a thing wrong as the fish would always come on the bite at a certain stage of the tide.

"The Roper River has been fishing well too and the Daly River is going ballistic.

"All reports from offshore suggest jewies, trout and goldies have been biting well, but there is a strong wind warning for the Gulf of Carpentaria now, and it looks like it might blow for a few days.''

Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Bob Morris said there were still plenty of barra around.

"The front of Spot Number 6 and Spot 5 are good but you have to fish livebait right into the snags now as the water temperate has dropped a bit,'' he said.

"Crabs are steady, you'll get your feed, but Hope Inlet remains very quiet for crabs.

"Salmon have been quiet this week, which is unusual as there were heaps last week.

"We have had shocking weather, with cold and rain.

"But the road has been graded so its a good drive in.

"The Howard Springs Tavern Social Club Fishing Comp is on this Sunday, so that should be interesting."

Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Chris Edwards said it had been rainy.

"Not too many fishermen went out last weekend but the weather calmed down with the rain,'' he said.

"There have been a good number of salmon in the creek, including a big threadfin brought in and a mob of blue salmon.

"I got some snapper and jewies around the islands on Monday.

"There are plenty of crabs now and bream are running too.

"The crabs are all along the creek now, both up high and down near the mouth.

"It might be a bit choppy out the front this weekend but you can always fish in the creek.

"Someone brought in a barra that a shark had bitten - they tried to get the barra in the boat but they could not get hold of it.

"They called another boat over with a landing net and the fish weighed 10kg without its tail. They brought it back and took some photos."



Got One's Craig Grosvenor said he went up the Adelaide River on Wednesday and caught barra on the rockbars above Manton River.

"We got about 70 small barra on green soft plastics, and three fish of about 63cm on 10+ guns and roses Classics,'' he said.

"It rained really hard too - we had a soaking.

"Darwin Harbour produced good fishing last week with 80cm queenfish taking flies in Middle Arm during the incoming tide.

"Barra to 65cm were taking lures on the harbour using shallow Bombers and Just Unders.

"Threadfin salmon have been taking the new RMG Skin Deep lure with fish to 80cm around the Middle Arm rockbars.

"Catalina Creek in East Arm produced barra to 75cm on shallow minnows and Little Lucifers at the bottom of the tide and the first hour of incoming.

"Mud crabs were prolific in Catalina Creek last week, using fish frame baits on the incoming tide.

"The Peron Islands have been producing good mixed bags with jewfish to 20kg, golden snapper, trickies, cod and the odd parrot fish.

"Corroboree Billabong has been consistent with plenty of small barra and the odd 75cm fish mainly at the S-bends and near Catfish Island ... Spearheads, Little Lucifers and gold Bombers have worked well there on the slow troll.

"The Daly River is still hot with many tourist first-timers landing the magic metre fish. One couple scored a 105cm, a 108cm and 110cm on their first day out.

"Larger fish appear to being at the S-bends.

"The Reidys Judge 008 has proved to be a winner on the Daly."

Reidys Lures Cheryl Reid said tourists were reporting that the Daly was fishing well.

"The tourists from the Daly have been telling us they are having a wonderful time catching heaps of fish - it's great news for the NT,'' she said.

"Our mate Clarky caught a huge cod down at the Finniss River last weekend.

"It took a lure that was trolled deep. They took some pictures and let it go.

"Some Kakadu billabongs have been producing barra."

Happy Micks' Charlie Chambers said there were many small to medium mackerel between the Vernon Islands and Melville Island coast.

"There are some up to 20kg but most are around 10kg and are easily visible with birds over them,'' he said.

"Lee Point has been producing a few mackerel off the Bottlewasher Reef.

"A monster 27kg mackerel was caught off Lee Point on a live garfish on Tuesday.

"The Daly River has been fishing really well at the S-bends on the change of the tide.

"One group hooked and landed 12 fish for the day, including two fish of 80cm-plus.

"There is a heap of snapper being caught off Emery Point around the 1kg size."

Tom said he cut the cray in half and grilled it.

"It was beautiful,'' he said.

Tom Kontis of King Kontis Fishing Tours says harbour fishing has been outstanding in recent days.

He has put customers onto a 12kg tuna, a crayfish and numerous big jewfish.

Snapper to 4kg have also been biting in the harbour. 

"The tuna took a small bait on the top dropper above a hooked stripie,'' he said.

"It took a long time to get the tuna in. The big tuna seemed to be on its own as we did not see a school.

"Ever since I have been using its flesh for bait and catching loads of jewfish.

"I caught a crayfish on a piece of squid, and the hook was actually stuck in the crayfish's mouth.

"It's not the first time a crayfish has been caught on a squid bait - tropical crays are supposed to be herbivores but they are quite often caught on flesh baits. "

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