Alex's Column 24 November 2023
The combination of perfect sea conditions, an abundance of hungry marlin and sailfish, and 14 teams with plenty of billfish nous between...
top of page
NATIONAL Australia Fishing Annual
ALEX'S WEEKLY SCRIBE 2023
- Nov 17
- 3 min
Alex's Column 17 November 2023
It’s been a long time coming but still so sad when it happens. I have two best mates in life and one of them, Wayne Eccles, “The...
- Nov 10
- 3 min
Alex's Column 10 November 2023
The recent full moon certainly didn’t dampen the quality of fishing in the sixth and final round of the 2023 Top End Barra Series (TEBS)....
- Nov 3
- 3 min
Alex's Column 3 November 2023
By all accounts, last week’s 35th Palmerston Game Fishing Club’s annual Corroboree Park Challenge was a humdinger. The major sponsor is...
- Oct 27
- 3 min
Alex's Column 27 October 2023
We’ve got big making spring tides and a full moon this weekend, so that opens a Pandora’s Box of fishing options. Saltwater barra fishing...
- Oct 20
- 2 min
Alex's Column 20 October 2023
If last weekend’s penultimate round of the Top End Billfish Series is anything to go by, next month’s NT Billfish Classic should be a...
- Oct 13
- 2 min
Alex's Column 13 October 2023
Wasn’t September a funny month weather-wise? Conditions are normally humid and hot with light winds, if any at all, but the...
- Oct 6
- 2 min
Alex's Column 6 October 2023
It’s not by coincidence that the Top End Barra Series held its fifth round for the year inside and around the Adelaide River mouth. This...
- Sep 22
- 2 min
Alex's Column 22 September 2023
I generally write this column on a Tuesday, and today the wind is blowing yet again. It’s not as strong as it was last weekend when most...
- Sep 15
- 3 min
Alex's Column 15 September 2023
Thanks to relentless blustery winds last week, the annual Territory Saltwater Fly Fishing Challenge was exactly that: a challenge. Held...
- Sep 8
- 3 min
Alex's Column 8 September 2023
The announcement last week that the participation rate of women who go recreational fishing in the NT has edged out the men coincided...
- Sep 1
- 3 min
Alex's Column 1 September 2023
Last week’s round four of the Top End Barra Series (TEBS) was always going to be testing given the relentless south-easterly winds this...
- Aug 25
- 3 min
Alex's Column 25 August 2023
With the exception of the pandemic closures, each year I attend the Australian Fishing Trade Show held on the Gold Coast. This is the...
- Aug 18
- 2 min
Alex's Column 18 August 2023
The next full moon is exactly two weeks away, falling precisely at the start of the build-up season when freshwater barra start to be...
- Aug 11
- 3 min
Alex's Column 11 August 2023
One thing you hear a lot about when chatting with anglers who have been offshore blue water fishing is the significant prevalence of...
- Aug 4
- 3 min
Alex's Column 4 August 2023
We’ve had a fair bit of windy weather so far this dry season but, unusually, there haven’t been nearly as many chilly mornings as you’d...
- Jul 28
- 3 min
Alex's Column 28 July 2023
It’s just over two months away when the ninth season of Million Dollar Fish kicks off. It’s testimony to the success of MDF that it has...
- Jul 21
- 3 min
Alex's Column 21 July 2023
I thought last week’s NT News article – “To cull or not to cull our beloved Territory icon?” – was a balanced and comprehensive coverage....
- Jul 14
- 3 min
Alex's Column 14 July 2023
Don’t you just love the word “boof”? It’s been around at least 30 years and is vernacular for the noise made by a barra feeding on the...
- Jul 7
- 2 min
Alex's Column 6 July 2023
The winds were relentless last weekend, frustrating many anglers looking for some blue water action. However, as the winds abated...
- Jun 30
- 3 min
Alex's Column 29 June 2023
I must admit it’s great that the big wet this year flushed most of the salvinia out of my favourite Top End billabong: 4 Mile Hole. I...
- Jun 23
- 3 min
Alex's Column 23 June 2023
It’s always good to wake up to a fresh dry season morning in the Top End. Sometimes it’s a bit cooler than we’d like, but it certainly...
- Jun 21
- 3 min
Alex's Column 15 June 2023
It’s not often that a new fishing tackle product is developed that is both simple and functional, and fixes an age-old, in-the-field...
- Jun 9
- 2 min
Alex's Column 8 June 2023
It’s the King’s Birthday long weekend this week and, to celebrate, the fish are biting all over the place. For starters, the East...
- May 26
- 2 min
Alex's Column 25 May 2023
There’s nothing like a chilly dry season morning to remind you that you’re still alive. That first cool day in May – the month it always...
- May 23
- 3 min
Alex's Column 18 May 2023
An overdue weekend of glass-out conditions greeted competitors in last week’s round three of the Top End Barra Series (TEBS). Held in...
- May 12
- 3 min
Alex's Column 11 May 2023
On several counts, history was made last week when Shane Compain and his Tackle World team had yet another resounding victory in a Daly...
- May 5
- 2 min
Alex's Column 04/05/2023
It was good news for competitors in last week’s Territory Freshwater Fly Fishing Open which was hosted by Darwin Fly Rodders on iconic...
- Apr 28
- 3 min
Alex's Column 27/04/2023
It really was no surprise when Shane Compain, Terry Ryan and Bryce Neal – in the invincible Tackle World Revos – completely dominated a...
- Apr 21
- 2 min
Alex's Column 20/04/2023
To quote old mate Peter Dienhoff: “Hello dry season”. Peter was texting to let me know that Darwin Game Fishing Club’s Dundee Billfish...
- Apr 14
- 3 min
Alex's Column 13/04/2023
There are just five days remaining if you want to have a say on the future of NT recreational fishing for the next 10 years. NT...
- Apr 7
- 2 min
Alex's Column 06/04/2023
Given the timing with the Daly River dropping quickly to below 2m above the crossing over the last fortnight, it was no surprise that the...
- Mar 24
- 3 min
Alex's Column - 23/03/2023
You’d expect an uproar and total rejection of any suggestion to reopen the Shady Camp fishing grounds in Chambers and Finke Bays to...
- Mar 17
- 2 min
Alex's Column 16/03/2023
By all accounts, round one of the Top End Barra Series (TEBS) was off to a flying start. Originally scheduled for the Daly, a rising...
- Mar 10
- 7 min
AJ celebrates 40 years of writing the NT News Fishing Column
It’s a bit of a head spin, and I can’t believe that I’m sitting here now, writing about four decades of contributing this fishing column,...
- Mar 6
- 2 min
Alex's Column 02/03/2023
The monsoon is well and truly with us, much to the delight of all Top End anglers. It’s been raining across all our major catchment...
- Feb 24
- 3 min
Alex's Column 23/02/2023
It’s now nearly the end of February and we are in desperate need of a lot more rain if this wet season is going to be at all meaningful....
- Feb 17
- 3 min
Alex's Column 16/02/2023
Surely a SportsBet tagged barra worth $1million will be caught soon in the NT’s lucrative Million Dollar Fish competition which is now...
- Feb 10
- 2 min
Alex's Column 09/02/2023
There’ve been mixed reports of late, with some anglers getting amongst the fish and plenty missing out. Old mate Stuey Brisbane from Daly...
- Feb 3
- 2 min
Alex's Column 02/02/2023
Rather than bang on this week about the need for more rain right across the Top End, it’s good to see the Mary River catchment copped a...
- Jan 27
- 2 min
Alex's Column 26/01/2023
As I write this on Tuesday, there’s quite a bit of rain around thanks to the tropical low that formed off the north coast. Sadly, it’s...
- Jan 20
- 2 min
Alex's Column
The vagaries of our Top End wet season never cease to amaze. One minute we are looking forward to a bumper Runoff season thanks to record...
- Jan 13
- 2 min
Alex's Column 12/01/2023
Those great early rains have certainly left a legacy of floodwater across much of the Top End. Old mate Andy Ralph always has his fingers...
- Jan 6
- 2 min
Alex's Column 05/01/2023
Darwin anglers received a great Christmas present with the arrival of widespread monsoonal flow across much of the Top End. The plight of...
bottom of page