FISHING
NEWS FROM NORTH AUSTRALIA
With Alex Julius - 24 March 2005
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In terms of numbers, this year’s Aurora Kakadu Klash at the South Alligator River was not as successful as previous years.
However, the quality of the fish caught was outstanding. In a return to the old days, before teams acquired both big fast boats and awareness of the incredible potential of those significant feeder creeks all the way down to the mouth of the river, this year’s Klash was battled out in and around Nourlangie Creek.
This great tributary, which feeds into the South Alligator about 15kms upstream from the bridge, turned it on at just the right time for those teams in the know. And no-one was more in the know than the captain of the winning team, Duane Trouchet. Duane put his team mate, John Condon onto a magnificent 121cm barra, which was the biggest of the tournament, and topped it of with a very handy 117cm fish himself. Duane, John, and John Glover collected the $7500 first prize, with a total of 324 points over three days.
Both fish were caught in the first 700m of Nourlangie Creek, between the mouth and the rock bar, one casting and the other trolling. They were not the only big fish to be caught in that stretch; Harry Kattelus also bagged a 114cm barra there.
After a shaky and definitely erratic start to the Top End’s run-off, anglers can look forward to a bumper Easter fishing long weekend.
Starting with the big rivers, at the time of writing the East Alligator was not accessible as the water is still 1.2m over Magela Crossing.
However, the nearby South Alligator River continues to get better as we approach the Easter break.
I spent Tuesday fishing the South and, whilst most parties upstream from the bridge seemed to struggle during the morning, by mid-afternoon the top section of the river was going off.
By mid afternoon in the vicinity of Leichhardt Creek and the rock bar below it, you could hear the noise of barra boofing along both sides of the river.
One little creek that we poked the big Quinnie into was under siege by small to medium barra gorging themselves on bait fish, mainly sprats, which were coming down the river on or just below the surface.
Poppers worked along the edges, soft plastics retrieved with rod tip held high and shallow-running Bombers were all eaten by excited barra.
It also seems that some of the bigger feeder creeks down-river from the bridge were beginning to produce quality barra.
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The South has to be the great Easter option. With the bigger Easter tides, the Mary River below the Shady Camp barrage should also be considered; once again, you don’t have to travel all the way to the mouth if that barra of a lifetime is your ambition.
The best action so far this year has been in the 3km stretch below the barrage.
It’s good news at the Adelaide River as well, where only last weekend several barra in the metre class were caught upstream from the bridge.
You can forget about fishing around the mouth of the Adelaide River on the big Easter tides, but why bother when there’s handy action within half an hour’s running of the bridge.
Heading the other way down to the Daly River , the water rose significantly on the weekend, and by mid week was sitting at 6m above the crossing. Don’t let that put you off any plans you have made to fish the Daly because there hasn’t been any more significant rain and, if the river is falling over Easter, most of the creeks will begin to produce again.
I’ve heard that the Victoria River will be tough going for contestants in the annual Timber Creek Easter Classic as the rain depression – a legacy of Cyclone Ingrid – has well and truly flooded the Vic.
The Roper River , on the other hand, has been a well-kept secret by some locals who have been braining quality fish right at Roper Bar.
Of course, don’t forget that the annual King Ash Bay Fishing Classic is on again at the McArthur River and offshore at the Sir Edward Pellew Group of islands.
If the favourable weather conditions continue through into Easter, there will be endless bluewater options. During the neaps this week golden snapper to 4kgs were biting their heads off out from the mouth of the South Alligator River, while the jew fishing continued to fire on the reefs offshore from the mouth of the Mary River.
However, with the bigger tides you would probably better off looking for bluewater action offshore from Darwin and west all the way down to the Peron Islands .
Dundee Beach would certainly be one place be worth basing yourself over Easter. From there you can head north east to fish the Roche Reefs or west to Point Blaze and further out to Blaze Reef. With kind weather, you can also blast out to the Peron Islands .
All up, this Easter is looking pretty good!
Alex Julius Fishing Media
PO Box 571, Howard Springs NT Australia 0835
International phone: (618) 89832167
International fax: (618) 89831914
Fax (from within Australia): (08) 89831914
E-mail: AJFM@hotspot.com.au