NT Fishing Report

With Alex Julius           10 June 2010

Weather-wise, it’s been a topsy-turvy year so far in the Top End. For starters, just when it looked like the dry season had arrived in early April, suddenly old Huey changed his mind and dumped heaps more rain on already sodden river floodplains.

It impacted right across the Top End but, but the impact was particularly noticeable on the Daly River.

The fishing was tough in the latter half of April and through much of May, as evidenced by both the big barra tournaments on the Daly.

Finally, at the end of May and early this month, the river settled into its normal dry season mode, and the fishing improved.

It’s interesting though that the most successful technique has been fly fishing. Leeann Payne caught 47 barra in a day on the long wand, and around her lure fishermen were struggling to get a bite.

For a couple of reasons, June is a great month to fish the Daly.

The first is that I love that mist on the water and the chill of the river as I cruise downstream during that first hour after sunrise; the second is that June is your best chance of a truly big barra down the Daly.

Traditionally, the best fishing months for the Daly are March/April during the run-off and then April/May when the best trolling for barra numbers normally takes place.
That’s why, and the Barra Classic the Barra Nationals are held in the months of April and May.

Come June, water temperature in the river is still high enough to keep barra active, and there’s always still plenty of freshwater flowing down the river from its massive catchment area further inland.

The annual cherabin migration along the river bed also takes place mainly in June. And there’s nothing a Daly River barra likes more than to gobble down an easy feed of freshwater prawn.

Yes, June is definitely the month for the most number of big barra caught on the Daly. They seem to move into and up the river, following bait schools on the bigger tides, but also munching on small barra wherever they are congregated. Barra are cannibals and big barra turn it into an artform.

Last year, some terrific fish were landed on big Bombers lures trolled fast out in the middle of the river, particularly on the bigger making tides.

The tides this weekend are perfect for this. The colour of choice last year was tiger-lily, but in the Nationals big fluoro-green Bombers worked so well that they were instrumental in the success of the eventual winning team.

Another location that is only just starting to produce barra in numbers – a good month later than normal, in fact – is Corroboree Billabong.

The water level, although still high, has finally dropped to a more fishable height.
There are more than 45 kilometres of navigable waterways in Corroboree; it is the largest natural landlocked lagoon in the NT and probably Australia.

An easy way to fish Corroboree is to troll. My all-time favourite trolling lure fro this big Mary River billabong is the standard 15A Bomber in the fluoro chartreuse colour.

Troll these lures a long way back, pulling the engine in and out of gear often, and whip the rod tip to jerk the lures as the boat slows down. Work the edges of lily patches and grass beds, and you can’t go wrong.

Mind you, for a bit more depth, Reidy’s Little Lucifer is a favourite with the barra at Corroboree, and the good, old Nilsmaster Spearhead works just as good today as it did 30 years ago.

Steve Starling reported an interesting session of land-based fishing from the rocks at East Point on the last spring tides.

“Having a 7.21m high tide early morning just seemed too good an opportunity to pass up!” Starlo said.

“We went there intending to chuck a few Squidgies for trevally or queenies and then berley up some garfish and mullet on stale bread.”

Much to the group’s surprise, a school of big milkfish smashed into the berley.

“Hooking metre-long milkies on bream gear and three pound braid was certainly a blast!” Starlo laughed.

“It was also a fairly short-lived one – we got spooled and smashed up several times before my young mate, Tyrone Petretti, hooked up on slightly heavier gear.

“He landed the fish after an epic battle and we snapped a quick photo before releasing it.

“Guess where I’ll be next time there’s a big high tide just after dawn,” Starlo said.

13-year-old Tyrone Pedretti of Jingili landed and released this lovely milkfish from the rocks at East Point while fishing an un-weighted bread bait in a berley trail of stale bread.

Terry Cairns caught this terrific jewfish at Bynoe Harbour last weekend.