FISHING
NEWS FROM NORTH AUSTRALIA
With Alex Julius - 4 January 2007
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Happy new year – hopefully you found some shiny new fishing tackle under the tree this holiday season.
Of course, the gift most of us want is the onset of monsoonal conditions to give us a bumper wet season.
While we are currently experiencing some welcome showers and storms, a weak monsoon trough still lies well to the north.
We’ve yet to get the westerly winds and widespread rainfall associated with monsoonal conditions, although there has been some patchy but heavy storm-related rainfall in some parts of the NT.
Cyclone Isobel, which crossed the WA coast yesterday, may provide the impetus to bring on the monsoon across the top of Australia .
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the current conditions create a window of opportunity for the monsoon trough to move south.
Forecasters at the Bureau are concerned that, if the current conditions don’t bring the monsoon, then the onset could still be weeks away.
In the meantime, conditions are good for bluewater fishing.
There are plenty of goldies being caught, with the larger ones coming from further offshore both at South Gutter and North Gutter.
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Geoff Annear was cruising from Bathurst Island back to Darwin when he hooked and landed this whopper Spanish mackerel.
This monster cobia, landed by John Secrett, was the catch of the day on an offshore trip with a group from Coleman’s Printing, who then had to listen to him talk about it all the way home! |
Jewies are also still about, and are best targeted on the turn of the tide, particularly during spring tides when the current stops for a brief window of opportunity.
There are still a few macks and tuna about, so while you’re reef fishing it’s a good idea to put out a floating pilchard or livie on light game gear just in case.
Speaking of reefs, the excellent Lee Point artificial reef system has just gained another structure with the sinking of a derelict 10 m yacht last Friday.
It will be known as the Mick Clancy Memorial Reef, and much of the preparatory work was done by Chad Clancy on the old concrete hull that will be a lasting tribute to his late brother.
The GPS marks will be released in a few months time after the wreck has had time to establish marine growth.
Darwin Harbour regular Roger Sinclair didn’t waste any time getting onto a barra in 2007.
After launching early on New Year’s Day in East Arm, he nailed a silver harbour barra of 81 cm on only his second cast to a likely looking flats gutter.
He followed up with a couple of slightly smaller fish, all caught on small soft plastics in shallow water.
Darwin local John Girdham and visiting Gove fisho Aaron Palazzi also fished the harbour, and used the tide to their advantage by drifting right up into the mangroves as the tide peaked.
They hooked two 70 cm barra on poppers, and also had some interest from GTs, which unfortunately failed to stay connected.
They were surprised to encounter a substantial hammerhead of around 2 m chasing mud crabs around in the shallow water near the mangroves.
Under the right conditions, getting right up into the cover is a great sneaky technique when fishing from a smaller boat, and increases your window of opportunity to nail some barra as they push up with the tide chasing bait.
Fishing water as shallow as 20 cm, you need to use a bit of stealth, so drifting, poling, or an electric motor will maximise your chances of finding fish without spooking them.
As the tide starts to run out, keep an eye on your position, as you don’t want to get stuck – it can be a long wait for the tide to come back in.
Alex Julius Fishing Media
PO Box 571, Howard Springs NT Australia 0835
International phone: (618) 89832167
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E-mail: AJFM@hotspot.com.au