NT Fishing Report
With Alex Julius 9 June 2011
If you’re thinking of doing an overnighter this weekend, heading offshore and sleeping in your boat, then it would be hard to beat a run up the Melville Island coast.
According to the wind forecasts on the Bureau of Metreology website, there will be bugger-all winds from mid-afternoon onwards this Friday, and it will be the same on Sunday.
That means you can depart Leeders Creek and travel both ways in beautiful conditions, and on neap tides too.
That forecast is specifically for that part of the coast, and not for the Peron islands, for example, where the winds will be 20-30kph on Sunday afternoon.
This is a wonderful service provided by the bureau.
Go to http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/watl/wind/index.jsp and check it out yourself.
Overall, conditions offshore from Darwin won’t be too bad, and the late afternoons are definitely the best weather-wise.
There’ve been mixed reports about the quality of offshore fishing.
Ronald Voukolos from Fishing and Outdoor World tells me that some nice goldies are being caught at the No 6 Buoy; most probably at night, I’d say.
Jewies have also been on the chew at Ruby Island, around Cape Hotham…and that’s within the calm area mentioned above.
Lee Point on Sunday afternoon is worth pestering for a mac or three.
Inland, the Daly River is still fishing exeptionally well at most of the spots that worked during the Barra Nationals.
Tony Hare fished with John Cooper and Carolyn Forrest last weekend, catching several barra to 79cm down at The Graveyard.
Dave Silva and his crew caught a couple of great fish near Diesel Creek: 104cm and 97cm respectively.
The neap tides this weekend will mean ultra-clear water for practically as far down the river as you might wish to fish.
East of Darwin, Corroboree Billabong has been hit and miss.
I heard of a pair of 80cm barra caught but also of boats doing it tough.
Speaking of Corroboree, with all the major fishing comps that have been held of late, one that slipped through net of this column is the Territory Freshwater Fly Fishing Open, held two weeks ago.
This was the 20th anniversary event, returning to Corroboree where the first four or five fly tournaments were held.
Apparently it was a bonza event, with over 200 barra caught up to 80cm.
This tournament, which is hosted by the Darwin Fly Rodders, was founded by Roger Sinclair on behalf of the Darwin Game Fishing Club which ran it for a decade or so before handing it over to the Fly Rodders after that club formed.
Fittingly, this year’s individual winner was Roger himself, who has won this on three previous occasions.
Roger fished with Matt Henger and the pair also won the Champion Team trophy.
“I was pleased to win it from that perspective because I’ve never been in the winning team before,” Roger said.
As appears to be a common occurrence nowadays, Roger caught a stonker 86cm barra on fly the day before the competition started, but managed nothing longer than 63cm during the event proper.
Runner-up individual was Rick Slennett; Runner-up Champion Team were Jim Churchley and Rick Slennett.
A former prawn trawler, and later trepang vessel, has been sunk off the Darwin coast, adding to the Territory’s abundant artificial reef system.
Fisheries Minister, Kon Vatskalis, said: “The 18m steel vessel, Amanda Lee, was donated by Tasmanian Seafoods for the artificial reef program.
“The NT Government wants to keep improving the fishing experience for locals and visitors, and we are committed to building on our already strong artificial reef system.
“Recently, we saw the start of the sinking of 600 concrete culverts off Lee Point, which will create the biggest artificial reef in the Territory and probably even Australia,” Mr Vatskalis said.
The Amanda Lee vessel was scuttled at the Galah/Heron site on the Fenton Patches artificial reef complex about 20km west of Darwin.
A 23m trawler (Antares) and a barge were sunk there earlier this year.
Recently, the Department of Defence announced the closure of a considerable area around Quail and Bare Sand Islands at the mouth of Bynoe Harbour because it intends to clear unexploded bombs from the islands.
The project will take three years and Defence initially said it would need the closure to cover work over the whole of the 2011, 2012 and 2013 dry seasons.
It indicated that it would be necessary to close the whole area within a 5.5km radius of Quail Island which would have covered a large area including parts of Roche and Simms reefs and other areas where recreational fishing takes place.
AFANT Executive Officer, Chris Makepeace, said: “We have had discussions with the people in Canberra managing the project and they have been very helpful in recognising that this is a relatively important area for recreational fishing and modifying the closures to be more fishing friendly while maintaining the necessary safety precautions.”
The new closure guidelines are as follows:
• The a closure is now contained within a 2km radius circle centred on Quail Island and not the currently advertised 5.5km radius circle.
• There will be no land access on Quail, Little Quail, Djajalbit or Bare Sand Islands until the project is concluded in 2013. (See note below)
• In 2011, the area will be closed from now until around the end of August this year – advice will be given when the closure is lifted.
• In 2012, the area will be closed from about May (depending on the wet season) until about end August – again, advice will be given when the closure is lifted.
• In 2013, the area will be closed from May until around mid-July.
• Additional specific safety measures may be necessary from time to time for short periods and, if so, these will be advertised.
The project manager has indicated that access to the closed sea area and land access on Bare Sand Island may be possible for specific organised events such as fishing competitions.
Any clubs wishing to utilise the area during the above times should contact AFANT in the first instance.
Roger Sinclair’s timing was out when he caught this stonker 86cm Corroboree Billabong barra the day before the NT Freshwater Fly Fishing Tournament…but he went on to win it anyway.
Felicity Ward was rapt with her 96cm barra caught in the recent NT Barra Nationals.