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Duane Trouchet of Darwin's North Australian Barra Fishing put this happy customer onto several big Chambers Bay barra

Matt Flynn's Northern Territory
fishing report: February 29, 2004

Also available in the Darwin Sunday
newspaper, Sunday Territorian

The run-off is well and truly under way, and it looks like Top End rivers could fish very well over the next few weeks.

The mouths of Tommycut and Sampan Creeks below Shady Camp are already producing monster barramundi, with several fish over a metre caught last week.

Some metre fish were caught along the rock outcrops on the west bank of the South Alligator River mouth last weekend, on the opposite side of the river to popular Big Brooke Creek.

Big Brooke Creek itself produced some big fish, but only on the turn of the bottom of the tide.

The Daly, Roper and Victoria Rivers are still, but by all accounts will fish well soon if there is no more extended heavy rain.

The Adelaide River remains quiet, although there was a spark of hope with two 90cm barra reported from the mouth of fickle Manton Creek, and some smaller fish in the creek below the Manton Dam spillway.

Shady Camp Boat Hire's Wayne Turner said the Hiller family caught about 30 barra in Tommycut Creek last week.

"There are heap going out this weekend and fishing the mouth,'' he said.

"There is still a lot of water out there and about the same as last week and the road is slippery as hell.

"The tides are good this weekend for the mouths - that's when they catch the monsters."

Fishing and Outdoor World's Matt West said most reports were coming from Shady Camp.

"There were some good fishing caught last weekend but with the neap tides this weekend it should be better,'' he said.

"We were there last Sunday but it was dirty and silty.

"There have been good reports from the mouth of the South Alligator River with one fisherman catching eight fish over a metre over two days.

"He caught 60 fish altogether.

"There was an 11kg barra caught at Clear Creek on the Daly River but the river is very high."

Ronald Voukolos said the Daly River mouth had produced some fish, with a boat leaving from Channel Point to the mouth.

"They only caught some fish but they were big ones.

"There are also heaps of queenfish in the harbour and people have been catching them on fly off Larrakeyah.

"Another angler caught 82cm and 65cm barramundi in Bleesers Creek last weekend."

Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Lucy Watkins said a metre barramundi was caught at North Australian Fish Finder's Spot 6 last week.

"Two other fishermen went to the Little Howard River on Tuesday and caught two good barra,'' she said.

"On Friday morning another two went to Spot 6 and caught another barra.

"They have been catching them all on livebait.

"The mud crabs are running well and fishermen are catching big bucks at Spot 5 and Hope Inlet."

Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said there was still too much water in the Roper, Victoria and Daly Rivers.

"The water was 2.2m over the Victoria River Bridge on Thursday and the Roper River road was blocked at the Strangways,'' he said.

"The Katherine River is rising again because of rain we had on Thursday night so that will affect the Daly River downstream.

"Fishing has been pretty quiet, although the culverts have been fishing well with 15 barra to 70cm caught at one culvert on the Roper Hwy. These culverts will continue to fish while the rivers are up high.

"But it's going to be a good run-off this year."

Reidys Lures' Jeff Reid said Tommycut Creek was the place to go.

"The fish might only bite for a while at the top or bottom of the tide and then they turn off,'' he said.

"I know of a 1.08m and 1.18m caught at the mouth of Sampan Creek last week.

"I heard of some guys who spent the night at Tommycut and caught a lot of fish around 80cm on fizzers.

"I think this March will be a boomer month."

Dundee Blue Water Charters Des Puddey took his first ever February offshore charter into Fog Bay last Saturday.

"It was a calm day and we caught heaps of fish - we caught all the normal reef fish including golden snapper, trickies, red emperor and cod, but pelagic fish were the surprise as they were everywhere,'' he said.

"Spanish mackerel were everywhere.

"We brought home six and put a lot back.

"They were all in excess of a metre long.

"We gave up fishing by about 3pm.

"The golden snapper were out from Point Blaze and the mackerel were around the North Peron Island area.

"We also caught a jewfish well offshore north of the Perons.

"Another boat caught a big red emperor of about 7kg which is a big one for here, and two nice big cobia.

"There was boat fishing at Bowra Shoal that did alright on the goldies.

"We were also catching a lot of salmon out at Point Blaze."

King Kontis Fishing Tours' Tom Kontis went both barramundi and jew fishing last week.

"Every trip was a success - it was a great week,'' he said.

"We got jewies to 16kg fishing two wrecks within the harbour.

"A highlight was a massive 4kg tarpon caught on the bottom in 35m of water near the Six Mile Buoy ground.

"It came up out of the deep water like a rocket.

"We also caught some jewfish off the wrecks out in deep water.

"We have also been catching a lot of small hammerhead sharks - they are great sportfish - out of all the sharks the hammerheads seem to perform very well."

Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Chris Edwards said there had not been many fishermen out last week.

"The ones who went during the week caught only a few small barra and salmon, but this weekend's tides are much better,'' he said.

"The big tides last weekend were not good for here. The creek always fishes better on neap tides.

"We have had a professional crabber in here getting plenty of crabs.

"No one has really been trying for prawns, but they are around too.

"The weather has been quiet here all week with very little rain."

Tackle Up's Joan Miller said barra were caught off East Point last week to 78cm using mullet strip baits.

"There are lot of threadfin and blue salmon in Middle Arm and some crabs too,'' she said.

"Everyone seems to be going golden snapper fishing this weekend.

"The crabs that are being caught are really full of meat."

Got One Darwin's Craig Grosvenor said many fishermen were using 16A Bombers in green and gold at Shady Camp.

"And two 90cm barra were fish were caught at the mouth of Manton Creek on DOA Terrorisers,'' he said.

"Manton Dam under the overflow has been producing barra to 70cm on soft plastics.

"The harbour is still producing on the flats during spring tides on low tides of about 1.5m.

"Mangrove jacks have been caught at East Arm and at the top of the Elizabeth River East Arm on red-headed DOAs, with the biggest fish going a mighty 55cm."

Top End Fishing Supplies' Steve Compain said the blue water was still producing loads of snapper, jewfish and coral trout.

"I heard of six big mud crabs out of the Catalina Creeks and some more out of Elizabeth River.

"Shady Camp has been best for barra but is sporadic."

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