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ARNHEMLAND BARRAMUNDI NATURE LODGE

That’s your best bet to go hunt a whopper barra, and it’s as easy as trolling up and down the river mouth edges with the right lure.

Bright, chromed colours are the shot, and particularly on models like the Killalure Barrabait 8-plus, Classic 160 and that all-round favourite of so many barra fishermen, the Classic 120.

Large Bombers in chartreuse are also proven big barra catchers in these waters at this time of year.

For a shot at a hot bite on barra to 80 cm, the South Alligator already has runs on the board.

Only last Sunday, the top of the river was a pretty sight to behold – tannin-stained colour flowed across half the width of the river as it drained from the floodplains.

An indication of the rainfall in that area is the culvert between Aurora Kakadu Resort and the South Alligator bridge.

A week ago it was practically bone dry; now it is more than 100 metres across on either side.

When it’s firing, this culvert is easily the best for barra in the whole of the Top End.

Closer to home, the Adelaide River will also be worth checking out for a promising feeder creek and attendant colour change.

Perhaps the only thing that will minimise the opportunities for a hot session or three will be if heavy rain descends on the rivers over the weekend.

In the saltwater, the best report came from Bynoe Harbour , but that was on those whopper tides and it will definitely be a different story this weekend, both because of the quieter neaps and the arrival of the monsoon.

It’s doubtful the bluewater will be fishable this weekend with all the storm activity about, that is unless conditions change dramatically in just a couple of days.

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Gail Barker sent in an interesting story of her good fortune last week at Shady Camp.

Gail writes: “My husband and I are avid fishermen who spend most of our free time on the water fishing.

Needless to say, like all good fishermen, the lure of the one metre barra is too much to ignore.

On a recent trip to Shady Camp I was lucky enough to land this 99 cm barra just around the first bend from the boat ramp just after we had launched the boat.

I attached a gold bomber and flicked my line out and was letting it run off the spool when this monster hit in less than a metre of water.

I actually thought I had hooked another crocodile as this has happened in this spot a number of times. 

I realised it was a barra soon after when it jumped out of the water.

It swam back towards our boat and past it into deeper water.

As I was trying to turn it, a rather large crocodile rose up about 5 metres from the fish.

It then became a bit more frantic with the fish heading straight for the croc. Luckily it turned, swam back towards the boat where hubby was ready with the net.

Friends of ours who had been following in their boat pulled up next to us and, like us, got stuck on the bottom as the water was so shallow.

To say everyone was a bit astounded that I caught a fish of this size in such shallow water is a bit of an understatement.”