NT Fishing Report

By Alex Julius      28 April 2010

As predicted by all and sundry, run-off barra fishing went off with a bang this weekend.

I suppose the sheer number of boats on the water meant there had to be some big scores amongst them.

Down the Daly River, for example, the Police Marine and Fisheries Enforcement Unit checked 92 boats last Saturday.

Old mate, Tone Hare, said there were 52 trailers at the Daly River crossing launch site even on Tuesday. Tony and mate caught plenty.

“Lizzie creek needs another week or two as its pumping grey water with the river dropping so fast,” Tony told me.

Phil Newton from Fishing and Outdoor World went down the Daly with his dad Neal (a bit of a barra legend from the past) and caught about 50 barra in a day and a half.

“We fished from just above Lizzie down to Moon Billabong outlet and we caught a 96 and half a dozen in the 80s,” Phil said.

Phil raved about the new Rapala X-Rap Magnum 10cm in brown and gold – it dives to about 3 metres and apparently slayed the barra.

I haven’t heard what happened at the East Alligator but I can tell you it was full on down the South Alligator.
Of course, it was a shoe-in that a bunch of big barra would be caught by anglers launching at Shady Camp.

Got One’s Craig Grosvenor had this to say: “Yesterday, a crew phoned in with a report that included four metre-plus fish and more in the 90s, and this was only one boat.

“Apparently many crews were hooked up on big fish during the hot session in the shallows some two kilometres wide of the tree line.

Marsh, Tommycutt, Carmor, Swim and more of those Chambers Bay run-off creeks just added to the tally,” Craig said. Two of the biggest barra came from the Adelaide River system.

Ana Pethick went heli-fishing on her 30th birthday with Darwin's Helifish’s Mark Rolle and landed a 110cm barra.

Keeping up the score for women anglers was Denise Brown.

She camped at Leader’s Creek Fishing Base with husband Willy, and travelled the short distance to the Adelaide River mouth each day.

Denise had never caught a legal barra before and hooked onto a beaut 101cm fish which jumped three times before she landed it.

“I was so excited I cried when it came aboard,” she said.

Denise used a new lure in Elton John colours which had been recommended to her by The Tackle Box in Durack, Palmerston.

The best run-off catch that I’d heard about was an incredible 230 barra – all over 60cm – landed by three anglers in one boat and in the space of four and a half hours. Apparently, that spot is a secret.

Out on the blue water, the fishing was outstanding for Territory Marine’s Steve Blair and family. Steve fished around Talc Head and caught dozens of jewies plus snapper to 6 kg.

“With the jewies, we pulled them up really slowly,” Steve said. “None of them had their bladders sticking out of their mouths, and they all swam away freely.”

On Tuesday night, I visited my old mate Kevin Eccles who was attacked by a crocodile down the South Alligator last Saturday night and survived.

Kev’s fine, and he’ll be back on the water in no time, but I’d just like to share a discussion we had.

Kev and his mate Darrel Briscoe anchored their 4.5m tinny well up inside One Tree Creek where it was about 20 metres wide. This would be their bedroom for the night.

They didn’t anchor in the main river because they were worried that a big boat might crash into them.

“A lot of blokes don’t even look ahead; they just follow a GPS trail along the river,” Kevin rightly said.

So the scenario is that the boat is anchored at night and Kev wakes up because he’s hot. He gets up, pours some water and sits on the middle seat against the port side, facing the back of the boat, having a drink.

In the blink of an eye, a crocodile erupts from the water and grabs Kev with one jaw over his right shoulder and the other under his armpit. The croc pulls Kev off the seat, half over the side of the boat, and tries to drag him into the water.

“I was hanging onto the seat with my left hand, and realised my knees were up against the side of the boat,” Kev said.

“I was able to let go with my left hand and run it along the croc’s jaws and up its head until I found its eye.

“Then I poked its eye and punched it, and it just let go.

“It wasn’t a big croc…about two and a half metres,” Kev told me.

We agreed that the croc had made a mistake and bit off more than it could chew.

It would have seen the boat with the bank and overhanging trees behind in the dark and thinking it was all creek bank.

From its water-level viewpoint, all it would have seen to be moving above the side of the boat were Kev’s head and arm having a drink.

The croc probably thought it was looking at a wallaby or a pig or something, and leapt up to grab it. Instead it latched onto a fair chunk of a 184cm man. I suppose it must be said that, luckily, it was a 2.5m and not a 5m croc that made the mistake!


Don’t forget the Squidgy Seminar Nights with Steve Starling and the Shimano crew next Tuesday at the Darwin Ski Club and Wednesday at CMax Cinema complex in Palmerston.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ana Pethick and her 110cm heli-fished birthday barra.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Denise Brown was ecstatic with her 101cm Adelaide River barra.