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ARNHEMLAND BARRAMUNDI NATURE LODGE

Within the first 10 km, there are three major creeks entering the Adelaide River on the left hand side as you progress up the system, and they can all fish exceptionally well for barra.

Troll and cast the deep side around the mouth of each of them, then work your way up any of the creeks, checking out likely spots, including submerged, collapsed mangrove banks, gutters and snags.

The mouth of the Adelaide River – known as The Narrows because it comes to a bottleneck before opening again – is a renowned black jew spot.

You can fish the jump-up in the middle or the ledges along the sides.

Leeders Creek, on either Saturday or Sunday afternoon, will almost certainly be visited by some 80 cm-plus barra, including a sprinkling of fish longer than a metre.

The peak fishing will be a couple of hours up to the top of the tide and then an hour or so after the turn to run out, and you might even bag a jew or two.

At Leeders Creek, you can launch quickly and safely – and with assistance from the people running the boat ramp security service there – and then simply head out of the little side creek and down Leeders itself.

About 2 km before you reach the mouth, you’ll find a large creek mouth on the right.

Begin trolling the right hand side a couple of hundred metres down from there, stopping to turn back when you can no longer see the aforementioned creek mouth.

Concentrate on 3-5 metres depth, and you could do worse than use a Qantas-coloured Classic 120 in 10-plus or 15-plus, or a 12-plus Killalure River Rat.

Next spot is good old Shoal Bay, and for a change not the famed Rock at the entrance to Tree Point.

Saturday is good for clear water and access across the flats, once again launching from a serviced spot, Shoal Bay Boat Hire, or running down the bay from Buffalo Creek.

Make this an early start – first light at the latest – and head up Tree Point, past the first creek on the left, and look for deeper, snaggy water in the vicinity of the second creek on the left.

Chuck Killalure Barra Baits 8-plus in natural colours, shallower lures like the good old Bomber in the Tiger Lily colour, and Squidgy soft plastics in just about any colour.

Travelling further west, Sunday is when you might sneak around Charles Point and point your bow at the creek deep inside Tapa Bay.

Early is good here too so that you can troll the right hand bank for the first 200-300 metres inside the creek mouth both before and after the bottom of the tide.

Use Classic 120 3-plus lures in both natural and bright colours, depending on water clarity, and put them a long way back, adjusting until you reckon they are just above the bottom.

There’s a bunch of rocks across the mouth, but I doubt they’ll be exposed even on the low tide.

If you can detect them, pulverise them with assorted shallow-running minnows, preferably in green colours, or the ever-true bleeding-mullet pattern.

For a longer-distance trip and a bit of adventure, take a day off to make a three-day weekend (tomorrow rather than Monday) and cruise down and across to the mighty Vic.

If you haven’t fished the Victoria River before, now is as good a time as any to give it a crack.

You’ll stay at Timber Creek and launch at the Big Horse Creek boat ramp.

There are a few rocks to watch out for along the way, but the river has been fishing exceptionally well on tides like these over the last month.

The Top End angling scene continues to change as we progress towards the wet season.

According to the Bureau of Metreology, last month is shaping up to be Darwin’s second hottest October on record, and the 23 rd of October was the hottest October night on record.

Unlike last year, the build-up this year has been characterised by more active weather and more moisture creeping in from down south.

As a consequence, there have been good storms, particularly to the west of Darwin, but also on the floodplains east to Kakadu.

That explains why the billabongs have mainly gone into shut-down mode.

It’s ironic that, as both the air and water heat up towards the end of the year, and the barra in the lagoons become more active as they anticipate the arrival of the wet season floods, the arrival of rain can actually send the barra into a docile mode.

When the first storm of the year delivers a wet blow to an inland lagoon, the various water layers often begin to churn and mix with each other.

The top layer near the surface is where most of the oxygen is during the hotter build-up months, which is why surface popper fishing, particularly at night, can be so good at this time.

However, once that oxygen is mixed and spread from top to bottom, the barra can struggle for air.

The best-case scenario is that they simply become sluggish and lose their appetite; the worst-case scenario is a major fish kill.

I haven’t heard of any major fish kills so far this year; and it’s important that, if you come across one, you report it immediately to NT Fisheries Research so the scientists can get to the scene while the carcases are still fresh or the fish are still dying, and accurate tests can be made on the condition of the water.

Although the lagoons have gone quiet for the timebeing, the storm activity of late has actually fired life into the saltwater estuaries where daily tides quickly move any freshwater run-off out of the system.

Bureau climatologist, Sam Cleland, told me we are getting towards the end of the current period of showers and storms, and the latter half of November could actually be dry.

That’s not good news, but he continued on a more positive note by predicting good build-up storms, if not an actual early monsoon, by mid-December.

Now wouldn’t that be a hoot?

***************************************

The tides are definitely savage this weekend, with about 6 metres movement on both days.

Also, they are at the wrong end of the neaps to ensure maximum water clarity and a hot barra bite in the harbour arms.

These low tides over the weekend are more suited to flicking lures around the gutters and rockbars in Bynoe Harbour where similar conditions a fortnight ago produced that amazing total catch for the Darwin Flyrodders.

If you’re chasing a jew, Charles Point has been fishing well, but the window of opportunity will be short with the brief turn-of-the-tides this weekend.

Quality reef fish have been keeping bottom bouncers happy wide of Dundee, an area that generally fishes well during spring tides.

The Top End angling scene continues to change as we progress towards the wet season.

According to the Bureau of Metreology, last month is shaping up to be Darwin’s second hottest October on record, and the 23 rd of October was the hottest October night on record.

Unlike last year, the build-up this year has been characterised by more active weather and more moisture creeping in from down south.

As a consequence, there have been good storms, particularly to the west of Darwin, but also on the floodplains east to Kakadu.

That explains why the billabongs have mainly gone into shut-down mode.

It’s ironic that, as both the air and water heat up towards the end of the year, and the barra in the lagoons become more active as they anticipate the arrival of the wet season floods, the arrival of rain can actually send the barra into a docile mode.

When the first storm of the year delivers a wet blow to an inland lagoon, the various water layers often begin to churn and mix with each other.

The top layer near the surface is where most of the oxygen is during the hotter build-up months, which is why surface popper fishing, particularly at night, can be so good at this time.

However, once that oxygen is mixed and spread from top to bottom, the barra can struggle for air.

The best-case scenario is that they simply become sluggish and lose their appetite; the worst-case scenario is a major fish kill.

I haven’t heard of any major fish kills so far this year; and it’s important that, if you come across one, you report it immediately to NT Fisheries Research so the scientists can get to the scene while the carcases are still fresh or the fish are still dying, and accurate tests can be made on the condition of the water.

Although the lagoons have gone quiet for the timebeing, the storm activity of late has actually fired life into the saltwater estuaries where daily tides quickly move any freshwater run-off out of the system.

Bureau climatologist, Sam Cleland, told me we are getting towards the end of the current period of showers and storms, and the latter half of November could actually be dry.

That’s not good news, but he continued on a more positive note by predicting good build-up storms, if not an actual early monsoon, by mid-December.

Now wouldn’t that be a hoot?

*****************************************

The tides are definitely savage this weekend, with about 6 metres movement on both days.

Also, they are at the wrong end of the neaps to ensure maximum water clarity and a hot barra bite in the harbour arms.

These low tides over the weekend are more suited to flicking lures around the gutters and rockbars in Bynoe Harbour where similar conditions a fortnight ago produced that amazing total catch for the Darwin Flyrodders.

If you’re chasing a jew, Charles Point has been fishing well, but the window of opportunity will be short with the brief turn-of-the-tides this weekend.

Quality reef fish have been keeping bottom bouncers happy wide of Dundee, an area that generally fishes well during spring tides.