NT Fishing Report
With Alex Julius 23 June 2011
When it comes to blaming the cooler dry season months for the inevitable barra shutdown, I’m probably guiltier than anyone else.
For three decades, I’ve written about it in national fishing publications, and for close on that long in this column. However, over the last three or four years in particular, I’ve done a full circle on this so-called phenomenon.
It all began when we held a Shimano Fishing Tackle Expo at the Arnhemland Barramundi Nature Lodge. It took place end June/early July, and it was damn cold – both above and below the water surface.
The Lodge is renowned for its cricket-score barra catches – this year being no exception with literally dozens of 100-plus-barra-boat days – but there was some trepidation about holding the big Shimano event, with its top dealers from around the country, smack bang in the middle of the Top End dry season.
One thing about our dry season is that there are always heaps of pelagics to catch, including some great Spanish mackerel sessions.
Pete Zeroni’s great mac-jumping photo taken at Melville Lodge and published yesterday typifies the mackerel-feeding frenzies that occur right across the Top End mid-year.
So, we were confident that the Shimano group would at least catch plenty of pelagics during the expo which went for nine days with 12 anglers fishing each day.
It transpired that they caught over 3000 fish; and yes, about a thousand of those were mackerel which at times had the guests ducking for cover, but the bottom line was that there were a couple of thousand barra caught and released.
It seems no one had told them that they should shut down in the middle of the Dry.
The ability to call on the stats of what has been written up many times as Australia’s premier fishing lodge has influenced my thinking totally in respect of the so-called barra shutdown in the Dry.
Once again this year, for example, the barra have continued to go ballistic in Arnhem Land through the Dry; and guests are actually catching more fish in total because of the marauding mackerel packs and acres of slashing longtail tuna.
Only last week, a group of 15 from Melbourne caught over 500 barra in three days, and more than that in pelagic numbers.
The barra were mainly caught on smaller soft plastics, including those with scent additive, and also on snag-free-rigged softies cast deep into snags.
Shaun Taylor, one of the Lodge’s top fishing guides, used his Go-Pro HD Headcam to capture amazing footage of a bait ball hiding around his boat and been smashed by tuna, macs, sharks and even a pilot whale. Go to www.barralodge.com.au and click on Arnhemland Bait Ball on the home page to see this footage on You Tube.
But the great dry season barra fishing has not only been happening at the Lodge.
In terms of ready accessibility to Darwin anglers, no where gets colder than the Daly River. You may have read about the great fishing during the Barra Nationals which was held at the end of June…when it was pretty chilly, just quietly. But only last week, anglers in one boat caught 60 barra on the troll down near Clear Creek.
In the harbour last weekend, a pair caught eight good keepers across the low tide – which is great Darwin Harbour fishing at any time. They used tiny prawn imitations on ultra-light spin gear.
At Corroboree Billabong, right up until the last report I received earlier this week, fishing guides have been getting 20-25 barra a day, including a sprinkling of lagoon whoppers in the 90-100cm range. My thinking on this subject is that the barra are always there and they always have to eat.
We get spoiled during the Run-off when all you have to do is keeping working colour changes and floodplain run-off to eventually stumble onto feeding barra…or during the steamy Build-up when barra gather nearer the surface and are more easily located.
Nowadays, there are a plethora of barra lures and techniques which can get to the fish in the colder months. Many of these were developed on north Queensland impoundments where, mid-year, fish hold naturally in deeper water and temperatures are far lower than we get in our Dry.
One of these techniques is to use metal blade lures and hard rattling (and non-rattling) vibes. These lures have been deadly in the dams and deeper, cooler barra water.
The next issue of Barra Bass & Bream Digest, which will be out next week, includes a mind-blowing article on targeting barramundi in deep water using vibration baits, both hard and soft.
It was written by Jason Wilhelm who currently is Australia’s number-one-ranked ABT BARRA Angler, 2010 Southern Barra Angler of the Year and current Northern Barra Angler of the Year.
It’s true that, for the vast majority of anglers visiting from down south and doing it on their own, and for many Territory anglers who haven’t explored some of the new techniques of going deeper, going smaller, going weedless, going soft and scented, and going skinny with metal, the cooler dry season months are when it’s hardest for them to catch a barra.
However, for most of our small army of incredibly-professional and highly-skilled barra guides, the dry season presents no problems at all in terms of finding and catching barra in numbers.
From a tourism perspective, that’s the message we need to get out.
Jarrod Day used a deep-jigged Senseye 80 soft vibe to nail barra after barra in cold water on an Arnhem Land river last week – new techniques are proving the cooler dry season can be just as good for barra as the hotter months either side. (Photo: Jarrod Day)
Melbourne’s Ben “Benno” Douglas with a typical Spanish mackerel from a mackerel-mania session during a trip last week to the Arnhemland Barramundi Nature Lodge. (Photo: Jarrod Day)