FISHING
NEWS FROM NORTH AUSTRALIA
With Alex Julius - 1 June 2006
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The hardest part about fishing right now is deciding where to go.
Anglers fishing the rivers for barra are finding plenty of action, while the bluewater scene is firing for pelagics and reef fish.
Good barra captures have also been reported from anglers fishing the estuaries of Darwin Harbour, Bynoe Harbour and Shoal Bay.
A productive approach is to live bait deeper holes and creek mouths at low tide.
Lure fishers are having the most success on plastic shads, worked as slowly as possible through likely barra spots. Try to keep it moving just fast enough so that the tail is working, and stop your retrieve periodically to let the lure drop back to the bottom.
Throw in a faster retrieve every dozen casts or so for a bit of variety.
As well as barra, this approach will see you cross paths with other fish such as salmon, flathead and queenies.
In the rivers, some of the best barra sessions are occurring at night.
Anglers prepared to fish on in the evening using shallow running minnows and surface lures are being rewarded with multiple strikes from hungry barra.
Tuna and mackerel continue to school in the bluewater, and can be found by following the birds and looking for surface action.
Visit our incredible fishing destination:
ARNHEMLAND BARRAMUNDI NATURE LODGE
 25th Barra Classic winners the Arnhemland Nitro Boys — John Millyard (l), Trevor Robb and Justin Jones.
Darwin Fly Rodders Club President Ross Mariner (l) with 2006 Champion Angler Wayne Hinton.
Anthony Simpson landed this enormous 14 kg threadfin salmon. |
John Millyard from the Arnhemland Nitro Boys with a good point-scoring barra. 
Afternoons are better at the moment as the wind eases.
Land based anglers are hooking big GTs around the Darwin foreshore, although it is hard to keep these powerful fish from finding their freedom amongst the rocks.
Queenies and salmon are also moving in close along the coast with rising tides, taking baits and lures.
Susanne Marsh fished her favourite Dundee location with friends last weekend, and they caught a good mixed bag of jacks, golden snapper, bream cod and salmon. The group had their best success with lightly weighted pilchard baits cast out over rocky areas on a rising tide.
Snow Dennis from Kangaroo Island in SA also fished Dundee, and caught barra of 108cm and 86cm casting a Classic 120 3+ in the golden streak colour. He fished early in the morning, and saw many more barra feeding on small jelly prawns that were reluctant to take a lure.
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25 th Annual Barra Classic
The 25th Annual Barra Classic on the Daly last week was a great success.
134 local and interstate anglers took part.
The Arnhemland Nitro Boys (Justin Jones, Trevor Robb and John Millyard) took out Champion Team with 3885 points.
They were 1115 points clear of their nearest rivals, the Halco Warriors, who took out Champion Team, Mixed.
The Nitro Boys used Classic 15+ lures in the guns'n'roses colour to amass their winning score.
The Champion Local Team was Science Fiction, captained by John Roberts, with 2525 points.
The ever-competitive Pilbarians edged out the Port Hedland team Pflueger for the Champion Visiting Team honours.
The Champion Angler of the tournament was Justin Jones from Arnhemland Nitro Boys, with 1785 points. Among other prizes, Justin wins an invitation to the Rolex/IGFA Invitational Inshore Tournament in Florida next year. Not bad for his first time in the competition!
Junior Barra Classic Fun Day
55 junior anglers competed in the inaugural Junior Barra Classic Fun Day, held directly before the main tournament. 27 teams from the Darwin Game Fishing Club's Barra Classic took junior anglers fishing as far as the S-bends. 9 year old Kyha Lewis landed a superb 106cm barra with her team, Action Print Green Hornets. She followed up with a 102cm barra shortly afterwards to prove it wasn't a fluke.
Ashley Dagan caught the most barra for the juniors.
The youngest competitor was 5 year old Brianna Ibbs, fishing with father Craig.
Pat Levy from Plano Tackle and many other Barra Classic sponsors supplied excellent prizes for every junior angler.
This is sure to become an annual feature of the Classic, with the kids reminding older anglers that it's all about having fun and catching some fish. The day was filmed by Andrew ‘ET' Ettinghausen, and will feature on his national television show Escape With ET.
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2006 Freshwater Fly Fishing Open
The Darwin Fly Rodders held their Territory Freshwater Fly Fishing Open at Corroboree last weekend.
25 teams competed in this popular and fun event, including 6 competitors who made the trip from interstate.
1332 fish were caught and released over the 2 days, including 130 barra to 66cm and 107 saratoga.
The biggest barramundi was caught by visiting angler Tim Harding from Queensland.
The winning team was Team Specific, with Wayne Hinton and Dave Bowring.
Wayne also won Champion Angler with 3154 points, caught the largest saratoga, and put the icing on the cake by winning the raffle.
“One of the reasons I keep returning to this competition every year is the new faces I see picking up a fly rod and participating in the comp, he said.
“I'd also like to thank my partner Dave Bowring for joining me. Dave has been battling a very sore back recently and he made a huge effort just to be here”, added Hinton.
Roger Sinclair and Darryl Harper made up team Reynard's Revenge, who took out the Runners Up prize with 4280 points.
Alex Julius Fishing Media
PO Box 571, Howard Springs NT Australia 0835
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E-mail: AJFM@hotspot.com.au