Julie
Sutcliffe caught this golden snapper with Equinox Fishing
Charters Matt
Flynn's Northern Territory Several metre-long barra have been landed at Shady Camp, Daly River and even the Adelaide River. But that's only because the usual February monsoon has not materialised and productive fishing conditions have begun early. Some optimists are saying the rain will come in March - but past experience has shown that late heavy rain is not half as good for the fishing as a steady fall through Dec/Jan/Feb. Of course, the fish will not disappear into thin air because it has not rained - fishermen will just have to change their tactics this year. Got One's Kane Dysart said he went to Shady Camp on Thursday night and saw one lucky group land two huge barra, one on the freshwater side of the barrage and one on the saltwater side. The fish were 1.07m and 1.05m in length and were caught on soft plastic lures. "A few other fish were caught mostly on the freshwater side,'' Kane said. "Downstream at the Sampan Creek mouth it has been mostly threadfin salmon. "The Adelaide River fished well upstream and downstream on the last neap tides. "One crew landed 10 barra from 60cm to 70cm on the Adelaide casting and trolling the snags and rockbars above Goat Island, and there have been steady reports of jewies at The Narrows. "There have been plenty of barra in Shoal Bay's low tide holes with gold Bombers and Tilsans working well - there have also been some big mud crabs. "Reports from the harbour have been few and far between - I think most people are going down the track to fish the rivers." Charlie Chambers of www.happymicks.com.au said he had a great session on the Daly River river last week. "Our goal was to test some River2Sea products and a new baitcaster from Xtream - a hard day in the office - the weather was beautiful at about 32 degrees and only four million flies - what I call perfect conditions,'' Charlie said. "We launched the boat on sunup and didn’t stop until we reached Clear Creek. On the way down I noticed the creeks were pumping dirty water. "No Fish and Elizabeth were both dirty when we went down on the outgoing tide. "When we came back later the tide was pushing in and nice tea-coloured water was coming from No Fish and Elizabeth. "We fished the top of Clear Creek for the day landing more than 25 barra and loosing about the same. "Paul was hooked up on a big fish early in the piece but lost it moments into the fight - the barra swirled, breaking the surface - I would say 95cm. "The biggest fish we landed was 78cm and most of them were over 60cm. "It would have fished a little better later on when the tide changed to runout but we had to move for home. "The lure of the day was the River2Sea’s Live Shad. It caught about 70 per cent of the barra. "Kevin Eccles and I fished the mouth of Shady Camp a couple of days ago. We did great, but if we landed what we hooked we would have done better. Kevin hooked and lost two big fish over a metre. "One of them was nudging 120cm. I had a strong hookup on a metre fish. I also landed a nice 90cm barra. "A few days before Kevin spent the day there as well and his crew caught a 112cm fish on an RMG Scorpion lure and a 116cm on a Classic. "Kevin also caught a 106cm fish on an RMG Scorpion, which in the panic forgot to take a photo of it. They also hooked a few nice jewies trolling for barra which is common down at Shady Camp. "A few of our customers were at Shady Camp as well. They told me they had a great time upstream fishing on both the outgoing and incoming tide. "They said they hooked more than 20 fish for the day most of them around 70 to 80cm. Most of the fish were caught on Bombers and shallow Classics lures." Fishing and Outdoor World's Matt West said the Daly River was fishing best with lots of fish of 70cm to 80cm with most coming from Elizabeth and Clear Creeks. "Not much run-off is happening on the Daly - there are no Waterfalls off the banks - on the uesday it was a bit dirty as it had risen a little,'' he said. "Shady Camp has been good around the mouth for salmon but only a few barra. "Most barra have been in the first kilometre below the barra. "I saw three metre fish caught at the barrage on Wednesday night on the top side. "The two on the top side were pretty black but the fish from the salt side was silver. "There are fish to 6kg being caught consistently on the top side. "The South Alligator has been fairly quiet - the East Alligator has been fishable because the Magela went down but I have not heard any reports. "Darwin Harbour has produced some barra - there have been two reports of 90cm fish being caught and there are plenty of full crabs about in Shoal Bay. "One anglers off Charles Point said he saw the biggest mackerel he has ever seen off Charles Point last week which too a stripey at the boat." Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Bob Morris said jewies were going mad at The Rock. "Two boats went out on Thursday night and caught three each and they were blown away by others,'' he said. "There have been plenty of barra about but no one is fishing for them. "The barra are all over the place - the Howard and Little Howard Rivers and Hope Inlet. "Most of the barra are average size but there are lots of them and there are plenty around the 70cm mark. "The jewies have been all around the western edge of The Rock. "The crabs have come on in the last week or so and some of them are nice and full. "Prawns have been quiet - I don't think there has been enough rain for them." Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Deneise Edwards said neap tides and good weather saw spectacular fishing inside and outside the creek last week. "There were double-hook-ups on golden snapper coming up to and during the neap tides,'' she said. "Some of the regular fishermen said it was the best it has been for years with plenty of metre-long jewfish, big golden snapper and salmon. "It has been absolutely brilliant for jewies out the front. "Last weekend was a very busy weekend for this time of year with lots of fishermen taking advantage of the tides and good weather - the weather was mostly like glass. "There has been schools of mackerel seen. "The fish were caught everywhere - at the islands, Cape Hotham and the front of Leaders Creek. "The creek was fishing unusually well even for fish normally caught out the front including barracuda, queenfish, salmon, barramundi, jewfish, snapper, parrot fish and even redfish - everything seemed to be in the creek for a few days. "Some big crabs have been caught down near the mouth. "Barra are still not brilliant but they are being caught." Equinox Fishing Charters' John Jordan said golden snapper were biting. "You still have to hunt them down though,'' he said. "We have been fishing Charles Point, Bass Reef and Lorna Shoal. "On Friday clients
landed five spanish mackerel of about 7kg mark, a coral
trout about 3kg, and 11 jewfish averaging 12kg, with one
weighing 17.5kg, and quite a few goldies. "We hooked a huge groper the other day which was released. "We also caught a big queenfish off Charles Point on a bottom bait - we get a few mackerel like that but not often a queenfish."
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