NT Fishing Report

With Alex Julius              15 April 2010

If there’s one place I can suggest for you to try for a barra this weekend, it is the South Alligator River. Over the last week or so, the South has been sizzling.

At several locations in the top section of the river and up Nourlangie Creek, at times the noise of boofing barra had been deafening, and this has been during daylight hours. As well, several metre-plus barra have been caught.

I was chatting with my old mate, Kakadu wildlife ranger, Andrew Wellings, and he told me the bins at the fish cleaning tables near the South Alligator boat ramp have been full of filleted carcases every day.

Andrew asked me to remind anglers that it is illegal to clean fish on the water or within 50m of any waterway in Kakadu National Park.

Both the South Alligator and the East Alligator have terrific fish-cleaning tables.

Actually, earlier in the week, a lot of rain pelted the big Alligator River catchments. On Monday, the Magela Crossing leading to the East Alligator had risen to 1.4m and there were vehicles stranded on the other side.

These late falls can only further add to the fishing prospects this weekend at the South in particular.

The big spring tides this weekend suggest plenty of options in the top half of the river.

For starters, with the extra run-off, there should be numerous feeder creek mouths and smaller gutters to fish. Obviously, you’ll be looking for colour changes, especially those creeks which have dark, clear water running out theirs mouths and into the murkier water of the main river.

With such big tides, you’ll probably find these creek mouths will fish best during the first half of the run-in as the water backs up and the fast-flowing downstream current slows down.

Another option will be to fish the upstream rock-bars, which are where you are most likely to strike that big metre-plus girl you’ve been chasing for so long.

My favourite is Big Foot’s Rock-bar, immediately below the mouth of Leichardt Creek.
If you don’t know where Leichardt’s is, it’s easy enough to work it out because it’s the last significant creek mouth on the righthand side heading upriver before you reach The Forks where the river divides.

The rock-bar starts about 500m to a kilometre below Leichardt Creek – I haven’t fished there for three or four years so I’d have to work it out with my sounder.

The thing is that you can’t really miss it, and round the bottom of the tide you’ll probably see heavily-disturbed water where the ripping current will be streaming over it.

The best time to fish this great spot is just as the current begins to slow down as the big incoming tide begins to make its impact further downstream. You can either troll it or anchor/drift and cast big soft plastics. Trolling has been the traditional method.

Typically, at the bottom of the tide, and with the current slowing, you might commence with a lure that dives 2-3m.

A favourite of mine is the good old Killalure Barra Bait.

As the tide rises, you might switch to a Classic 120 10+, then to the same but with a 15+ bib as the water starts to really deepen over the bar.

You can even catch barra trolling this rock-bar right at the top of the tide, but you’ll need to go for a serious deep-diver like Reidy’s Goulburn Jack, and troll with the current to make sure it hits the rocks intermittently.

That’s really the secret to this rock-bar – and just about all barra-stocked rock-bars – when you’re trolling: you must get your lures to bang periodically over the rocks.

The reason is that feeding barra will be holding behind little ledges and bumps, waiting for some tucker to swim by in the current above.

I think also the noise alerts them and gets them toey for some action.

Colour preferences are all about water clarity. A simple rule of thumb is that, the dirtier the water, the brighter and more contrasting the lure.

As far as soft plastics go, the current craze is to use Squidgy Slick Rigs. Although you can drift and work the softies across the bottom, my preference is to anchor immediately near structure on the downside of the current flow – especially if you have sounded up some fish first – and cast your softy as far upstream as possible, working it back down with the current so that it bounces over the rocks.

If a barra sees it, it will gulp it down for sure.

Other rock-bars which can be fished the same way are the Nourlangie Rock-bar about 500-700m inside the Nourlangie Creek mouth, and the bar in the main river three bends below Nourlangie Creek mouth.

I’m running out of space here, but I should let you know that the famous NT Barra Classic begins the middle of next week, so do yourself a favour and steer clear of the Daly.

Jo Moyle-Reiter caught this chunky 71 cm barra on a Lorikeet-coloured Squidgy Slick Rig while fishing the Finniss River with her partner, well-known national angling writer and new Darwin resident, Steve 'Starlo' Starling.

The sailfish went ballistic during the last neaps at the Sailfish City wide of Dundee – Mario Faggion was there for the action.