NT Fishing Report

With Alex Julius               1 April 2010

The South Alligator River received a good burst of extreme barra fishing last week when 35 teams competed in the annual Aurora Kakadu Klash. All predictions were that this year would be a tough one, and that’s exactly what happened.

Long-time Klash stalwart, Tony Hare, told it was very grim.

“Eleven boats caught no fish on the first day, and the total catch was around 250 fish,” he said.

Also, there were no metre-plus barra caught this year.

However, it seems everyone was happy with the team which eventually won. Comprised of Tim Pell, Chris Hunter and Marcus Penno, this team has been competing in the Kakadu Klash for more than 15 years.

Always quiet and unassuming, and without a “bling” boat, they amassed a fair score of 241 points over the three days of competition.

As explained last week, each team can enter only one fish each day. All entered fish are measured and photographed on the brag mat.

Marcus gave his team a great start with the capture of a 94cm on the first day. That came from down around the mouth of the South Alligator.

Over the next two days, the team followed up with a 74cm and a 73cm, more than enough to clinch the $9000 first prize.

Another long-running team – comprised of Miichael Dickinson, Richard Dickinson and Geoff Green – came second with 234 points scored with the capture of fish measuring 72cm, 75cm and 87cm.

The most popular spot was Brooke Creek. There were 15 boats fishing the mouth of Brooke on the last day,” Michael told me.

“We made the call to go there on the last day, knowing full well that half the fleet would be there.

“But we needed a big fish, just like the others.

“We call it ‘Brooke Lotto’.

“We actually lost some really big fish, but the 87cm was enough to get us into second place,” Michael said.

The biggest barra was a 96cm fish caught by Ryan Silva.

The bigger tides over Easter could well see the South really fire up. There’s a lot of bait in the river and the top end of it always finishes with a bang as the run-off dries up.

Nourlangie Creek mouth could well produce some hefty metre-plus barra.

Down the Daly River, everything is looking good for the Barra Classic which will kick off mid-April. There is still some good run-off and the river has given evidence of a plentiful supply of big barra.

Tony Hare caught one of those simply by fishing the Bamboo Creek bridge on the Woolianna Road. He pulled up and chucked a soft plastic in which was immediately gulped down by a 95cm barra.

That was a couple of weeks ago before the water level dropped to its current 500mm over the crossing, but good barra are still being caught from the bank down at the mouth of Bamboo Creek.

The neap tides at Shady Camp last weekend set the scene yet again for some great trolling at the mouths of Sampan and Tommycutt Creeks.

Offshore, the great weather over the last few days has enabled boats to wander far and wide offshore from Darwin.

Most notable report was the capture of three sailfish wide of Dundee.

Jewfish were also on the bite at places like Charles Point, especially on the turn of the tide.

In Darwin Harbour, it’s been all about small-to-medium golden snapper.

Spanish mackerel have been turning up at Lee Point. Chris Hurt caught three the other day, and they were all quality fish up to 12 kg.

This Easter should be a beauty at so many locations, although the possibility of rain still exists.

John Penley took advantage of the improved offshore conditions to catch this terrific Spanish mackerel on a Rapala X-Rap deep-diver.

Local fisho, Stewart “The Gun” MacDonald, also got onto the mackerel this week.