NT Fishing Report
With Alex Julius 24 November 2011
I enjoyed a fabulous barra fishing session last Saturday which highlighted just how important it is to work a potentially productive spot properly.
A common scenario when you pull out of gear at a place you’d like to probe with your lures is to float around making casts and, if nothing jumps on after a couple of minutes, move on to the next potential spot.
If you get a hit in your initial quick probe, you might hang around and keep working the spot but, if it fails to produce a sniff, all too often one might move on.
One of the reasons top barra guides produce consistently for their clients is that they back their judgement; if they reckon there are barra at a chosen spot, they will work it over thoroughly, changing lures, and not leaving until they are absolutely certain that the barra are not there, or simply are not at all willing to play.
Often what happens, whether you are fishing a tidal river, an estuary or a billabong, is that the wind blows you round a bit and you are making casts “on the run” so to speak. Nothing bites and you move on.
If you have one of those neat Minn Kota I-Pilot electric outboards, you can hold position exactly where you want to and bang lures in to likely hidey-holes until you are well and truly satisfied that no one is home.
However, we had no such electronic wizardry on Saturday; but we did have an anchor.
The wind and current were painful at this particular set of snags in a small saltwater creek, but we wanted to work it over properly, so we simply dropped anchor.
It gave us the opportunity to cast to every possible aspect, with lures of different depth, different action and different colour; and with both hard-bodies and with soft plastics rigged weedless. The perseverance paid off, but not for at least 15 minutes after we began casting.
In fact, we had begun talking about moving on when the proverbial “switch” flicked on and the barra started to bite.
These were beaut fish too: mainly in the 80s with the biggest measuring 92cm.
Why did it take so long for them to start biting, I asked myself.
One reason has to be that the continuous noise of lures landing, internal rattles rumbling and subsurface lure ripples sending messages carried further afield than the immediate zone of sight, drawing barra in from deep behind snags, from down below where our offerings tempted and perhaps from much further away where barra, hearing (sensing) the commotion, might have taken a few minutes to get motivated and “swim on over for a gander”.
Sure, it’s all speculation, but I can tell you that, had we not anchored and peppered the area with lures the way we did, we would have missed out on one hot session on stud thrashing saltwater barra.
AFANT has welcomed the opening of a new boat ramp at Hardies Billabong on the Mary River which marks the completion of a major program to upgrade recreational fishing facilities around the Territory.
“After hearing the concerns of Territory anglers and AFANT, the Chief Minister Paul Henderson committed at an AFANT AGM to significantly upgrade existing boat ramps and other recreational facilities around the NT,” explained AFANT President Warren de With.
“The NT Government committed an additional $1 million per year over four years and an independent review of all facilities around the NT was conducted late in 2008; this resulted in the major work program that has now been delivered.
“The program has resulted in improvements right across the NT with work being done as far afield as King Ash Bay, Timber Creek, Port Roper and Nhulunbuy.
“Toilets have been provided at Corroboree Billabong and Adelaide River and these are a great relief to the many regular users of these two ramps.
“Ramps have been upgraded at King Ash Bay, Corroboree, Timber Creek, Leaders Creek, Saltwater Arm, Buffalo Creek, Southport, McKenzie Arm (Dundee Drive), Port Roper, Middle Arm and Milne Inlet.” The AFANT President said.
“Parking and ramp access has been extended and improved at Corroboree Billabong, Adelaide River, Saltwater Arm, Gove Yacht Club, Gove Mud Wharf, Milne Inlet and Middle Arm.
“One of the last projects under the current program is the new concrete boat ramp and extended parking area at Hardies Billabong which was completed just a week or so ago.
“In addition, the NT Government also completed the floating pontoon at Dinah Beach boat ramp in 2009, the new $4.5 million ramp at East Arm in 2009 and the $4 million project to upgrade the Palmerston Boat Ramp and install a landing pontoon and land-based fishing jetty earlier this year.
“The access road to Corroboree has also been upgraded, with much of the road being sealed earlier this year.
“We thank the Chief Minister and all those the people in Government who have worked on the program, particularly staff in the Department of Lands and Planning and NT Fisheries.
“Our thanks also to all of the contractors who have been involved in the various projects.
“This has been a massive and much-needed work program for the NT Government and it has resulted in very significant improvements to recreational fishing infrastructure around the Territory,” Mr de With said.
Shimano Australia’s Lindsay Secombe with a beautiful silver sliver of saltwater barra that measured 92cm…but it didn’t bite straight away.
The new boat ramp at Hardies Lagoon is part of a much-greater public works program that has greatly improved access for Top End anglers.