From a strictly fishing perspective, the hotter weather we experienced last week and the week before had an immediate impact on the barra scene, particularly in the tidal estuaries and mangrove creeks, but also the billabongs.

Darwin Harbour has been well, and it’s getting better with each successive tidal phase.

If you want some good barra action up any of the harbour’s arms, slip up there on Saturday or Sunday.

If the wind’s not blowing in the morning, work the flats at around mid-tide going out.

Bombers are good, as are Classic Just Unders, F18s, the small Blue Fox Barra Magnum shallow, and Killalure Terminators retrieved with the rod tip held high.

For soft plastic aficionados, prawn imitations and small resin head Squidgies do the job nicely.

If you can see a fish before it sees you, then all it takes is an accurate cast about a metre in front of its snout, a twitch or two followed by a panicked retrieve, and your quarry will charge out and nail the lure to your immense delight.

The main thing is to present the lure without spooking the fish.

Tactics are different if you can’t see the barras – when the water is a bit cloudy or the sun is in the wrong position or you forgot your polarised sunnies.

That’s when you need to cast ahead of the drift of the boat, and the longer the cast the better, once again to minimise the risk of spooking a fish that would otherwise smash your lure.

If the flats aren’t producing, then target the gutters along the mudflats right to the bottom of the tide and the early making tide.

Of course, never ignore the clues: obvious ones like the resounding “boof” of a surface-feeding barra hoeing into baitfish and prawns jammed inside a rising gutter; and more subtle information like a cattle egret hovering over a drain, poised to feed.

Egrets eat the same stuff that barra eat so it’s not too hard to work that one out.

If you’re not imbibed with barra nous – and hey, no one was born with that affliction – you can always go for the sure-fire approach: live bait.

It means buying a throw-net and then learning to actually throw it so it hits the water in a full circle.

There’s a great Fisheries technical bulletin with pictorial instructions on how to throw a throw-net – available from departmental offices at Berrimah Farm.

Mullet are easiest to catch in the gutters on the rising tide.

Keep them alive by changing water regularly or using an aerator; or using your boat’s live-bait tank if it has one.

A 5/0 to 7/0 hook is adequate – I like Mustad Big Reds – tied to a 20-30 kg leader about half a metre long.

The leader in turn is tied to a swivel and a small running bean sinker is fitted to the main line before it is tied to the swivel.

Attach the hook towards the tail end of the mullet, just below the rear dorsal fin, and toss it into the rising gutter.

When a barra hits, give it a couple of seconds of free-spool, then lock up and strike hard.

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There was good news from the annual Fisheries Barracade (sic) at Corroboree last week.

According to senior, barra researcher, Paul De Lestang, in four days, 495 barra were caught tagged and released.

That’s not a huge result, but the best news is that, mfor the first time in year, there was hardly any evidence of the red spot virus.

The fish were in excellent condition – “very-happy-looking barra” according to Paul.

The Barracade also told us largely what we already knew: Corroboree has a high percentage of hooter barras at the moment.

The biggest barra captured measured 87 cm and 11% were over 80 cm.

A further 17% were 70-80 cm, 25% were 60-70 cm and 36% were 50-60 cm.

However, only 6% were 40-50 cm and again only 6% were 30-40 cm.

Basically, the combination of a poor wet season and subsequent low recruitment of juvenile barra, and also those bigger fish gobbling up the little ones every chance they had, would account for the small number of juvenile barra.