NT Fishing Report
With Alex Julius 1 December 2011
Saturday is a three-tide day and, as always seems to be the case on these occasions, there are two low tides and one high tide, although in Darwin Harbour there is still nearly a difference of two metres during the morning set..
These tides are basically in the middle of an average phase of neap tides, and Sunday is still a very neap tide.
Depending on where you are fishing, if barramundi is the target, tides like this can be either great or ratshit.
In Darwin Harbour, for example, catching a barra will be tough; harbour barra like a bit of movement and they like the low tides to get down below 2m and preferably closer to just a metre.
On the opposite side of Darwin to the harbour, the tides aren’t that great for Shoal Bay and the Howard River either.
About the best that can be said for them in those bodies of water is that at least boats will be able to move around freely from mid-morning until well into the afternoon, so the conditions aren’t bad for prospecting, especially if you don’t know your way around Shoal Bay and its tributaries.
The Howard River and places like King Creek and Mickett’s Creek in Shoal Bay are tailor made for ready exploration on this weekend’s neap tides.
Normally, the Howard and the four creeks in Shoal Bay become landlocked with only pools remaining, but that won’t begin to happen until next week.
This Saturday, your typical 3.6 to 5 metre tinnie will be able to move right through these systems.
There might be a bit of shallow-water running, and floating your boat over the skinnier spots, but you’ll definitely get the opportunity to find good, fishable water that can either be cast to or trolled.
Another plus for wherever you fish for barra in the salt is that water clarity will be excellent, so at least the fish will see your lures due to the high visibility.
Green colours usually work best on the flats in clear water, but try also other dark, not-overly-bright colour combinations.
Trolling lures is both relaxed and potentially effective in the estuaries on tides like those this weekend.
In the harbour, work depths from 1.5 to 2.5 metres with appropriate lures that can be trolled a long way back.
Bombers and B52s are good, as are Classic 120s 3+ and F18s, but they need to be worked slowly, with the engine being pulled in and out of gear every few seconds.
Perhaps the pick of fishing spots for barra this weekend is the Adelaide River. The Adelaide can power on days with low tidal movement.
If that’s your call on Saturday, I’d suggest a sleep in would be wise, then launch for an afternoon dropping-tide session down around the mouth.
On Sunday, if you can get to the bottom end of the Adelaide by sunrise, then you have a couple of prime hours fishing the last of the falling tide.
Good old Corroboree Billabong is still fishing okay, but mainly on weedless soft plastics worked right in the thick of the lilies.
Roger Sinclair and Dave and Marty Krantz stayed within 5km of the boat ramp to catch a mixed bag of 16 barra and saratoga.
The most-successful lure was the Zman Paddlerz on a Mustad Grip Pin prototype worm hook.
Roger likes to cast these way back into the lilies and, during the retrieve, drop it through any little gaps and ready for some explosive action.
“I hooked a 73cm that way and it was like a stick of dynamite going off when the barra smashed it,” Roger told me.
Fishing is even better in the top lagoon at Shady Camp where catches of 20-plus barra in a session are quite achievable by simply trolling the top rock-bars with Reidy’s Little Lucifers.
Remember that you can’t fish below the Shady Camp Barrage as this area is closed until 1 February next year.
Roger Sinclair’s 73cm Corroboree barra fell to a Zman Paddlerz soft plastic fished on a Mustad Grip Pin worm hook. Check out the dense lily pads from where the fish was extracted.
Stephen Hill’s 101cm barra came from a small mangrove estuary on the last set of neap tides.