Of course, other shallow-runners that consistently produce in the harbour arms are fluoro green, gold and tiger lily Bombers, Halco Lasers in fluoro, Classic 97s with small bib and, for just a bit more depth, proven favourites like the Terminator and Spearhead in brown tiger stripe and tiger lily.

The weekend’s tides aren’t what you’d call ideal for the Shoal Bay Rock and the Howard River but the fact remains there are a heap of good barras in this system at the moment.

Tides with less movement and more water on the low are the best for Shoal Bay and the Howard, and it was on these sorts of tides that some beautiful barra were caught last week up the Howard itself.

There are several holes that you can fish up each of the Howard River , the Little Howard and Tree Point Inlet.

As with that bastion of 85-95 cm Shoal Bay barra, the famous Rock, it’s a case of stranding yourself for a few hours over the low tide, and anticipating a barra bite from when the tide officially turns according to the charts, until it climbs the sand and mud flats and flows into the holes.

On both days this weekend, that should happen between 5.00 pm and 6.00 pm , but I’d be going from the Shoal Bay Boat Hire facility just in case a storm brewed over the bay on an evening return to Buffalo Creek.

You get there from the Howard Springs Road turn-off, turning left just after the Stow Road intersection.

There should be a corrugated iron sign up on a tree at the turn-off, and then it’s just a few kilometres of dirt road.

You need a bit of water to get in and out, so it’s a good idea to ring the facility on 8932 3640 to get the good oil.

In those holes up the river, don’t be afraid to use soft plastics.

In the early ‘80s, when I used to spend much of my barra fishing time up the Howard, mates and I enjoyed huge success with blue Vibrotails.

You’d chuck them out and wind them in slowly so they bumped along the bottom, and the barra would slam them.

And don’t forget to take your crab pots because the muddies are still running in the bay and the ones I tasted were definitely full.

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Offshore anglers have been having a ball with schools of Spanish mackerel, especially wide of Point Blaze.

The biggest I’ve heard caught recently is David Cooper’s 20 kg Spaniard on a Classic 120 blue Bobby Dazzler colour.

David is only 11 years old and hails from Sydney .

Apparently the mackerel weighed more than the diminutive captor.

He caught the whopper mackerel fishing with Viv Thistlethwaite of Viv’s Barramundi & Sportfishing Safaris.

Viv operates the luxury mothership “Swordfish” along the Darwin coast and has certainly encountered his share of big fish this year, including some barra up to 25 kg.

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It seems Darwinites, Dwayne and Mel Krollig, got their priorities in order when they went on their honeymoon.
Dwayne was the 2005 Barra Nationals Champion Angler and Kevin Blatchford
from Reel Teaser Charters kindly donated a Broome day’s game fishing charter as part of the prize.

The couple went to Broome last week, and went out on Reel Teaser on Wednesday.

The crew raised a sailfish almost as soon as they reached the grounds, and Dwayne soon had the thrill of landing his first sailfish.

Mel said they caught two sails each and lost a couple more.

“Dwayne and I were both sail virgins,” she told me.

“It was amazing to see them come up at the teasers and even more exciting waiting for the hook-up and then holding on for dear life.

“We had the best crew in Broome – Kevin Blatchford, Ross Newton and Allan Rasmussen – and they were fantastic,” Mel said.

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Don’t forget Palmerston Game Fishing Club’s Corroboree Park Challenge this weekend.

This is always a great family fishing event, and the barra are big and hungry at Corroboree and other lagoons on the Mary at the moment.