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This blue salmon catch was in Darwin Harbour with Tour Tub Harbour Fishing Charters

Matt Flynn's Northern Territory
fishing report: February 8, 2004

Also available in the Darwin Sunday
newspaper, Sunday Territorian

Fishing prospects improved last weekend with the opening of Shady Camp below the barrage, with most fishermen surprised by how little water was left on the lower Mary River wetland.

There were not the usual throngs of keen anglers there for the opening this year, perhaps a reflection of the siltation that has marred Shady Camp.

Boats had to take care getting through the shallow Tommycut cutting - unusual for February.

But some monster barra were caught and many smaller fish, including some taken on poppers at night by anglers braving the abundant crocodile population.

The heavy monsoon that was expected last week did not eventuate, and anglers are now praying for more rain to top up the floodplains.

Elswhere jewfish have been on the bite in the few calm spells.

Shady Camp Boat Hire's Wayne Turner said at least six one-metre barra were caught last week.

"One fishermen caught three over a metre on Monday and Tuesday,'' he said.

"He was just off the barrage fishing from a tinny in the deep hole there, but he did not say what lures he was using.

"You can't quite cross the barrage on foot.

"There were quite a few people going back home unhappy, but I know of at least six barra over a metre caught by the more diligent anglers. They are fresh water fish that have just come over.

"One was caught off the second barrage.

"The road in is slippery but pretty good."

Got One Truck City's Craig Grosvenor said a 10kg and 15kg jewfish were taken at the mouth of the Adelaide River off the crabbers' camp using Black Magic bait jigs loaded with squid, fishing the change of the high tide.

"The Daly River has been quiet, with five small fish around 60cm caught at Clear Creek last Sunday.

"The Catalina wrecks in East Arm produced a 12kg jewfish at high tide last week and some saddletail snapper and small goldies.

"There was also a 92cm barra caught near the T-wharf near Stokes Hill Wharf from the foreshore rocks on a gold Bomber lure."

Lure One Fishing Charters' Chris Hurt fished the harbour's East Arm on Thursday last week.

"There's been a boof here and there and a few threadfin salmon about. There's some tarpon getting about as well,'' he said.

"I resorted to rubber lures instead of flies - the little Storms and the rubber prawns seem to be working.

"I think the best day this week will be Sunday."


Fishing and Outdoor World's Ronald Voukolos went to Shady Camp last weekend for the season opening.

"We caught about a dozen small fish,'' he said.

"It was neap tides and the water was quite low and I felt the area needed more rain.

"We could not get up to a lot of the barrages we wanted to fish.

"But some big were caught. I saw a 20kg fish landed at the mouth of one of the drains in Tommycut Creek, hooked on the troll.

"There were some good fish but it definitely needs more rain.

"George Voukolos went to Shady Camp on Wednesday and caught a couple of 75cm fish but he could not get to where he wanted to go either because there was not enough water.

"Some good fish were caught from the Adelaide River's Wilshire Creeks last week.

"There are quite a few jewfish offshore in the calm spells - one boat caught 20 in one night and 10 big golden snapper."

Top End Fishing Supplies' "Mulga" said offshore fishing should be good as soon as the weather calmed.

"Hardly anyone has been out lately because it has been too rough,'' he said.

"The top of the South Alligator is still producing mostly smaller fish.

"It now depends on the weather - we need the monsoon to come through and top up the floodplains again."

Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said there had not been a lot of news as rivers were rising again.

"Some anglers went down the Daly River for the season opening below the Moon Billabong outlet but they did not have much luck,'' he said.

"There was not enough water on the floodplains and the river was a little too swollen.

"I do not think the fish are there in numbers yet either.

"There was a report of three fish over a metre caught from the Big Horse Creek boat ramp on the Victoria River - people fish there because the ramp is right at the mouth of the creek, but there is a croc risk.

"Even though the rivers are rising some fishermen have reported little or no run-off lasting from the last heavy rain.

"It's the same story on the Roper River - very few creeks of significance are flowing hard.

"But the Katherine River was back up to 12m last week."

Reidys Lures' Jeff Reid said he heard the Daly River was at 8m last week so he went there on Saturday.

"But it was more like 10m and still too high for the water to be pumping out of the creeks,'' he said.

"We caught one barra and six sharks on lures - the sharks were everywhere.

"You would think the sharks are there for some sort of abundant food source, but there were no barra we could see.

"On Monday we went to Shady Camp and I was amazed at the lack of water - I was expecting a sea of water.

"You had to be careful going down the river as it was half a metre deep near the old wreck. We cautiously made our way through Tommycut, and I believe some boats got stuck there.

"We went down to the mouth - we trolled the area for four hours through the bottom of the tide and the change and we had one hook up that felt big but we dropped it.

"We cast to snags at the mouth and caught two good silver fish.

"We caught two green fish later up at the barrage.

"In Shoal Bay a 1.11m barra was caught by John Clark on a Reidys Big Boss last week. He caught it on a lure he lost early that drifted back in on the tide and he saw it."

Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Chris Edwards said several boats caught a swag of fish last weekend.

"There were six big jewfish taken out of the creek and several snapper, salmon and bream,'' he said.

"They are catching them in the channel between the south-west and the mainland and the jew holes in the creek.

"There were also puffer and catfish - everything was biting.

"And there are a lot of stingers (box jellyfish) in the creek now so people have to be careful.

"Outside there were some good catches of jewfish around the Vernon Islands and up the Adelaide River.

"Cape Hotham was good for jewies and salmon.

"No big barra have been reported - only small ones.

"There have also been a few more crabs in the creek.

"The road in is still good."

Woolianna on the Daly's Kathy Traczynski said the river was rising last week and no one was fishing.

"It only dropped to about 10m and then it started rising again,'' she said.

Tour Tub Fishing Charters' Rob Marchant said he caught salmon and barramundi on the Wednesday.

"We caught salmon on the Nilsmaster with red head and green body,'' he said.

"We have been standing well back from the gutters and fishing with long casts.

"There are still small snapper around in the creeks on live prawns.

"The barra seen in the harbour has been patchy with loads of prawns around.

"We caught a couple of jewfish on the shipping containers and on the Mauna Loa.

"We have caught some jewfish at the Six Mile Buoy.

"There have been some big buck crabs at the back of Middle Arm but many have been empty."

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