According to the friendly staff at the weather bureau, most of the good money is on Cyclone Ingrid crossing Cape York and entering the Gulf of Carpentaria.

After that, anything is possible, including the cyclone in one form or another sending a deluge across the Top End.

In the meantime, at least we are still getting plenty of diurnal storm formations and heavy local falls, some of which are hitting the mark and topping up big river floodplains.

Good news for anglers set to compete in next week’s Aurora Kakadu Klash at the South Alligator is that more than 150 mm of rain has fallen in the area over the last few days.

The result is that the top of the river has once again risen over its banks and latest reports are that there are plenty of fish at the usual spots above the bridge.

A 122 cm 23 kg barra was caught last Friday at the mouth of Nourlangie Creek, so the big fish are about.

You can forget about going to the East Alligator as the Magela Crossing has again become impassable.

Closer to Darwin, it’s still doom and gloom at Shady Camp as far as barra are concerned, but apparently the hot jewfish bite out from the Mary River mouth is making up for it.

For the record, I poked my nose into Corroboree Billabong on the Mary River on Tuesday this week.

The gate is locked leading to the Mary River Houseboats boat ramp, but you can get to Corroboree via the Rockhole road which is in fairly good condition.

The big lagoon is at about its normal May height, and the lilies are flourishing so, unless a miracle happens, you can expect a record crop later in the dry season.

Fishing action was spasmodic, but the action was definitely better earlier in the day before the searing heat took its toll on the water and the anglers.

There’s a bit of covert run-off happening with the birds being the clue, and there are barra around the 60-65 cm mark ready to eat a lure at the same locations.

The Adelaide River is fishing well for at least one group of anglers which seems to be catching barra consistently.

Around Darwin, the best fishing by far that I heard of was at Leeders Creek last Sunday.