Mark Arnold with a Pocock's Beach barramundi Matt
Flynn's Northern Territory Barramundi fishing improved slightly last week as the sun warmed the water, but cooling south-easters from a big high pressure system offset the warming effect somewhat. The next set of spring tides will mark the start of the build-up barramundi frenzy in the harbour and along the Top End coast. There is loads of bait about in the harbour arms, and barra and queenfish have been feeding on them, but not with the vigour that can be expected in about a fortnight. Dry season fish such as mackerel are still about, and if you want some mackerel cutlets in your freezer, you had best get out on this set of neap tides. Fishing and Outdoor World's George Voukolos reports that barra were being taken in the harbour arms. "The arms are good - it's definitely starting to warm up when the wind drops off,'' he said. "There are heaps of jewfish around with Charles Point fishing really well. "People I know caught a dozen big jewfish the other night and at times their lines were not even getting a chance to hit the bottom. "Where they were fishing was shallow so it was easy to release unwanted fish un harmed." Lure One Fishing Charters' Chris Hurt said he fished the harbour on Monday and Thursday for barramundi. "The barra were there but still a bit quiet,'' he said. "On Thursday we got four but they do not seem to be taking lures in a fair dinkum way. "They were more interested in taking flies. "The very smallest rubber lures have been working well used with light threadline reels. "The water temperature was up last week. It was 28C at the top of one creek so the fishing should happen soon. I reckon when it hits 30C and over the barra really go off. "There was still a strong south-easter Friday morning and that cooled it down a bit. "There are lots of small queenfish working the creeks with the occasional big one - I think you need to use live bait to get the big queenfish in the creeks and they seem to chase the small archerfish. "For some reason in the creeks the queenfish get a bit picky, whereas elsewhere you can catch them on any old lure. "There should be mackerel around for a while until the water warms up more - I have caught them as late as October in close off Darwin." Top End Fishing Supplies' Mulga said it was "limbo land" now while fishermen were waiting for things to fire with the buildup. "The barramundi are just starting to go off in the harbour,'' he said. "I went to Woods Inlet on Wednesday and nearly every gutter had small barra in there and that will apply to the whole harbour on big tides. "There is so much bait in the harbour - the fish have plenty to feed on. "All the Kakadu billabongs are starting to produce good fishing with the building heat. "The Daly River is still fishing well with plenty of fish being caught on cherabin livebaits - the Daly snags are now becoming more exposed as the river drops so people have to be careful in their boats. "Mackerel are still abundant near Darwin - there's no one defined area where they are being caught. "This weekend the top tip would be the harbour in the late afternoon on the low tides." Kathrine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said the wind had picked up again at Katherine, and there had been some rain. "Fishing has been a bit slow - some blokes who went to Timber Creek last weekend reported quiet fishing and crabbing,'' he said. "The Daly River has slowed a little but is still producing fish on bait - Warren White reported that the Daly was getting tougher, but that could change. "There have not been many reports from the Gulf of Carpentaria because of the wind." Shoal Bay Boat Hire's Bob Morris said there were plenty of hungry barramundi about. "The biggest caught last week was 87cm trolling a Classic 150, and the same angler caught a 68cm fish down the bottom corner of the bay near the croc trap. "Peter Davies and stepson Shannon caught six barra on Just Under lures by casting off a sandbank at low tide. "There has basically been barra everywhere - the rockbar, Spot 6 and King Creek have been fishing well - just about everyone going out is getting a barra. "Crabs picked up again on the big tides with one customer getting eight nice ones - crabbing was poor before the big tides. "I have not heard of any salmon being caught last week. "The Rock has been very quiet, and there have not been any jewfish caught that I know of." Got One's Kane Dysart said the harbour had been fishing well. "One customer caught three threadfin to 75cm around the Wickham Point flats casting small Just Unders and small Bombers,'' he said. "Barra to 70cm were caught on the East Arm flats using the same method last week. "Large schools of mullet are moving into the creeks with the tides now. "There are still mackerel being caught at Lee Point mostly on livebait. "Old Man Rock has been a surprise destination for many people with both schoolie and big spanish mackerel caught off there. "Inland the billabongs such as Yellow Water and Alligator have been fishing well with night and late afternoon best on the billabongs with black Bills Bugs and Fizzers working well. "At Shady Camp big barra have been moving up on the big tides, with good fish taken at the barrage. "Golden snapper are being caught around the Quail Island ledges and Dum in Mirrie." King Kontis Fishing Tours' Tom Kontis said he caught three jewies to 16kg on a harbour wreck on Friday, as well as another three jewies on Thursday. "It was fantastic fishing and the customers were stoked that the fishing could be good and varied within sight of the city - we got three jewies on Thursday morning and then went to West Arm and caught some snapper to 2kg and two barra to 4kg - the only thing we missed out on was maybe a salmon. "We caught the jewfish on the turn of the tide. "But on Monday and Tuesday we caught bugger all - that's the way it is. "It's been very windy - it was a dry season wind - on Friday it was very choppy." Dundee Blue Water Charters Des Puddey said fishing had been slow because of rough weather and big tides. "Last time we went out we caught lots of small sharks and a few reef fish,'' he said. "Goldies have been scarce. We were getting plenty of mackerel on Monday, and we lost a monster mack next to the boat when a shark took it. "The jewie reef just out the front of the lodge has been quiet. It has not been as good as other years, yet they seem to getting plenty of jewies elsewhere. "Overall it has been a very good year though. We caught a lot of red emperor and coral trout this year, and a lot of other people have too. Cobia have been good too." |
