FISHING
NEWS FROM NORTH AUSTRALIA
With Alex Julius - 29 June 2006
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With the recent rise in temperatures, the barramundi fishing around the Top End has fired up.
There have been reports of good catches from Corroboree, Shady Camp, Mary River Bridge lagoon and some of the Kakadu Billabongs.
The fish are mostly around the 60cm mark, with an occasional bigger specimen falling to a well-worked lure.
Smaller lures such as the Classic 97, Bomber or Killalure Terminator are great for trolling and casting in a billabong environment. Anglers have reported the most success on colour schemes with plenty of green and gold, or the old favourite tiger lily pattern for a more natural presentation.
Soft plastics can be dynamite in the billabongs, particularly if rigged weedless. I have had great success dropping weedless plastics in snags that are impenetrable to hard bodied lures with multiple trebles. The single large hook also makes it easier to extract a fish from cover once hooked.
The Daly River has also been firing, particularly downstream past Browns Creek.
Craig Grosvenor from Got One had a report from a customer who hooked 30 barra before 10am, fishing as far downriver as Alligator Head.
Slow trolling deep divers through the snags was the way to get the fish biting, with flouro colours attracting more strikes than naturally-coloured lures. The Guns n Roses Classic 120 was a standout, and the evergreen Nilsmaster 6” Invincible also proved attractive to barra.
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ARNHEMLAND BARRAMUNDI NATURE LODGE
Dave Eggins was chasing jewies on a harbour rockbar when he hooked this 3kg Cod.  This whopper muddie came from Middle Arm on the weekend.
The annual Darwin Harbour pikey bream run is under way. This one took a Classic Just Under. |
If bait fishing is more your speed, the Daly is also turning it on for anglers live baiting the snags. The technique here is simple — lower a suitable livebait into a snag and hang on!
Rig with a ball sinker running right to the hook. This will minimise snagging and keep the bait in the area that you want it.
There’s no point in going too light for this sort of fishing or you’ll get stitched up every time. As well as barra, live baiters are catching good jacks.
Closer to Darwin, the Elizabeth River is fishing well for both barra and salmon. If you launch in the morning this weekend, the best bet is to start off fishing the mouths of any small side creeks as the tide drops. Feeding fish will often give their position away as they terrorise baitfish in the shallows.
Anglers looking for a feed have been landing good numbers of pikey bream around the harbour rockbars on lightly weighted baits and small jigged soft plastics. Also falling to these techniques are javelin fish and estuary cod up to 3kg, which are great fun on light gear.
Leaders Creek is good for blue salmon, cod, small snapper and crabs. It also offers a bit of shelter if the wind is up.
One angler trolling for barra around the mouth of Leaders last weekend hooked a nice jewie which pulled the scales down to 15kg.
Offshore charter boats are continuing to put their clients onto a good variety of fish. Steve Compain from Arafura Bluewater Charters reports healthy catches of jewies, coral trout and snapper from further offshore. As well as reef fish, there are plenty of mackerel and trevally coming aboard.
Tuna schools are still to be found right along the foreshore from East Point to Lee Point, but they are not staying up for very long. Local fisho Glenn Hubble had some success by pulling up further away from the schools and making long casts, but they are easily scared by any boat noise.
Mackerel are falling to trolled lures and drifted pilchards around Angler Reef and the Bottlewasher, with bigger fish to 20kg amongst them.
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Kids Classic
The Got One/Trailer Boat Club 'Kids Classic' held at the weekend was a great success.
The event, held at the Darwin Trailer Boat Club, attracted both boys and girls as young as four years old. Keen local fisho Brenton Marschke, visiting ‘Mexican’ Snow Dennis and Craig Grosvenor from Got One provided tuition in knots, baitcasting and throwing a cast net for bait.
Albatross Helicopters donated a helicopter joyflight for the lucky door prize winner, Ashley Styles.
Champion Angler went to seven year old Mitchell Copley, with a nice estuary cod caught at the Bottlewasher off Lee Point .
A variety of fish were weighed in and a great day was had by all.
Alex Julius Fishing Media
PO Box 571, Howard Springs NT Australia 0835
International phone: (618) 89832167
International fax: (618) 89831914
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E-mail: AJFM@hotspot.com.au