NT Fishing Report

With Alex Julius              29 September 2011

With a low tide of 0.2m, there won’t be a whole lot of water in the harbour this afternoon, and tomorrow there will be even less at 0.1m practically right on 2.00pm.

Assuming you won’t be fishing until Saturday when the 2.37pm low tide is still just 0.3m, there’s a lot that can be tried on these super low tides.

I find it fascinating to witness well over 7m of movement in one tide change.
Middle Arm has been fishing extremely well for barra so far this week; no surprise there with the tides changing from neaps to serious springs in the space of just four days.

On the weekend, it will be tougher as the tides ever-so-slowly decelerate, but the spectacle on Saturday will still be awesome.

If you’re up Middle Arm around 2.30-3.00pm, you’ll see rocks towering like The Olgas.
The main thoroughfares will be skinny channels, and you’d better watch yourself if you’re travelling through.
Along the edges of the main arm, but also up its creeks, the gutters will be dribbles high out of the water.
Mind you, many creeks will be inaccessible anyway right on the low.

From a fishing standpoint, at least you know the fish will be contained in those small deeper sections.
For barra, places to fish then on both the falling tide and the incoming tide are flats, gutters, rocks and structures right next to deeper water.

That’s because they’ll be dropping into the deeper water as the tide sucks out the channels, and then they’ll move from the deep to the first likely feeding spot once the tide starts to move on the incoming. It just makes sense, doesn’t it?

I’ll tell you what these tide are just so perfect for: snapper!

Yep, those delicious pan-sized goldies that are found right through our harbour’s arms just love these tides because the tucker is plentiful for them and they rush around chewing up as much as they can.

The top half of the tide is best for harbour goldies, and it doesn’t matter which side of the low it is.

The beauty of these tides too is that you can judiciously pick some nice rocks to fish just by seeing what is exposed at low tide and then anchor there after the water has covered them.

It doesn’t have to be rugged, sharp and protruding rocks; rock shelves and gravelly bottoms that snapper schools can glide across, feeding on whatever they feed on at this time of year, are spot on.

But you must anchor if you want to hook heaps of them; and don’t lose any or the school will move on.

Bag limits, of course, will no doubt influence how you fish.

That’s five fish in possession per person, if you didn’t know.

Congratulations are in order for Cathie Bassett who was Champion Angler in the NT Saltwater Fly Fishing Challenge.

Cathie and Roger Bassett also won the Champion Team prize.

It seems their victory was no fluke.

“It’s been two years in the planning,” Cathie told me.

“We haven’t fished the tournament for two years, but we’ve spent many tides researching.

“We had all the spots worked out for each species, and we had a plan which we stuck too, and it paid off beautifully,” a most-excited Cathie explained to me.

There are seven eligible species in the saltwater fly comp, and bonus points are awarded if you catch three or more of them in the one day.

They are: barra, salmon, queenfish, trevally, mackerel, tarpon and snapper. Catching all seven – a grand slam – is a remarkable feat, and Cathie did it for each of the three days of competition.

Mind you, not far off that mark was Warren Jeffery who caught two grand slams and missed by just one species for his third.

Warren came second and he and his partner Tim Harding were Runner-up Champion team.

I’m sure you all remember the incredible success of this year’s Club Marine Barra Nationals which was held on the Daly River in late May.

There were over 2000 barra caught, including 17 over a metre.

The latest Barra Bass & Bream Digest – out this week – has a major pictorial feature on this incredible event, including a cover photo of Darwin’s Mr Personality, Tony Hare, with his PB 112cm barra caught during the week of the Nationals.

There’s also a beautifully-illustrated and enlightening feature on casting tactics for Corroboree Billabong, and a thought-provoking report on how to use local tides and moon phases to pick the best bite times for barra in the freshwater.

As always, there are boat tests on rigs suitable for barra fishing, inhouse gear tests and plenty more good oil on barra fishing in the Top End.

In case you didn’t know, Barra Bass & Bream is published right here in Darwin by Alex Julius Fishing Media.

Cathie Bassett on fly

Dean Cummings with a great queenie.

Barra Bass and Bream 35 (North Cover pictured) is out now!