FISHING
NEWS FROM NORTH AUSTRALIA
With Alex Julius - 2 March 2006
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The tides last night and this evening certainly add credence to the Territory’s reputation as big tide country.
Today there is a high tide of 8 m at 8.13 pm, and you could do worse than wander down to the foreshore to view this unusual event.
The good news is that these big tides are an ideal time to have a look up some of the many tidal rivers across the Top End.
When the tide pushes up over the edges of the main channel and onto the floodplains, it is a recipe for some exciting barra fishing at the top of the tide and during the first half of the run out.
The South Alligator finally fished quite well last weekend, with anglers catching good numbers of smaller barra as well as a few bigger fish.
The most successful strategy has been to cast to any creek mouths with evidence of colour change.
This tactic works exceptionally well with smaller soft plastic lures such Squidgy Fish in the Drop Bear colour.
Work the area thoroughly, concentrating on getting your lure bouncing slowly out of the creek mouth and hopefully dropping off the edge into deeper water out side the mouth.
That is usually the hot feeding zone because the barra can wait in ambush for baitfish moving out of the creek.
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Although the tides have dropped back closer to 7 m this weekend, the South will be well worth investigating.
That’s because there has been such a volume of water moving up the river and then back out that there should be a whole new bunch of baitfish and hungry barra all the way to the top of the river.
Another spot that will benefit from the height of the weekend tide is Shoal Bay.
The Little Howard has been quiet for the last couple of weeks, but the tide hasn’t made it up onto the floodplains.
When it does the action that follows is often fast and furious.
You need to look for nervous bait, then try and find something that the barra will strike at.
Be prepared to change lures to find something suitable.
When the tide drops further in Shoal Bay, you can head out to The Rock, which has been consistently producing jewfish and pelagics on both live and dead baits.
Trolling around The Rock is a good technique for lure fishing, or anchor up and cast deep divers.
The Daly fired last weekend, so this weekend should be even better.
Small soft plastics are again the go for casting at creek mouths, and deep-diving Classic lures are also worth trying around the snags up towards the crossing.
Craig Grosvenor from Got One fished the Finniss last week for some smaller fish to 45 cm.
The trip was saved by a hot session on the top of the tide at Chan Rock where they landed a dozen barra to 80 cm, mostly on Classic 120s in the golden streak colour which, by the way, is a particular favourite of mine.
The bluewater action off Dundee has been excellent, with schools of tuna busting up on the surface.
Matt West from Fishing And Outdoor World and mates fished Saltwater Arm on the weekend and they caught some good jewies jigging with River2Sea squids.
Fenton Patches also produced jewies, as well as some good golden snapper.
The fish are falling to both baitfishing and jigging.
Knife jigs are working well on these deeper grounds.
Rig them with a single assist hook at the top, and fish them by dropping to the bottom and ripping the lure back up towards the surface in a series of jerks.
Bottom fish love the erratic wounded baitfish appearance of a well-worked knife jig, and so do pelagics such as queenfish, GTs and mackerel.
Another alternative is to use a soft plastic with a heavy jighead to get it to the bottom quickly through the current.
For land-based fishos, the rocky foreshores around Darwin will be the best spot to tangle with queenfish, salmon and trevally.
If you’re lucky, you’ll actually see the predators herding bait up against the shore.
Cast minnow-style lures or float out fresh baits under a float.
AFANT AGM
The AFANT AGM was held in Darwin last week, and several issues relevant to recreational fishing were discussed.
The importance of recreational fishing to the Territory was highlighted by the attendance of Federal Fisheries Minister, Eric Abetz, together with several Territory ministers and shadow ministers.
Minister for Fisheries, Kon Vatskalis, talked about plans to buy back licences in the Coastal Net Fishery.
This would initially affect Darwin Harbour, Shoal Bay and Bynoe Harbour.
AFANT President Warren De With presented his report to the meeting, addressing a number of points.
The state of the mud crab fishery in the Gulf of Carpentaria continues to be of concern, and AFANT is seeking to protect recreational mud crab fishing areas close to Darwin, anticipating a movement of commercial operators from the Gulf to waters further west.
AFANT members have complained in recent weeks about the number of crabbers operating in Bynoe Harbour, with up to 8 licences crabbing the area.
At 60 pots per licence, that’s a lot of crabs being taken out.
AFANT is proposing a ban on commercial crabbing extending from Gunn Point to the south-western boundary of the proposed Bynoe Harbour Marine Park.
The recently launched Your Eyes on the Water project will see a co-ordinated role for recreational anglers to report on illegal or unethical activity throughout our commercial and recreational fisheries.
2005 has been a big year for AFANT, and there is an ambitious program in place for 2006 and beyond.
Details of the 2006-2009 Development Plan, and the 2006 annual report, are available on the website afant.com.au
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