Alex's Column 18 December 2025
- NAFA
- 17 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Forgetting for a moment how good it would be to catch a Million Dollar Fish worth just that – $1 million – there’s still time this month to catch a $40,000 Sportsbet-tagged barra.
That’s because the Reel of Fortune spin for December includes an extra $30,000 for the biggest $10,000 tagged barra caught.
Also during this 11th season, the spinning wheel will unlock extra monthly challenges and bonus incentives which include a $15,000 top-up for the first two tagged fish caught by new registrants.
According to SportsBet Head of NT Operations, Thijs Bors: “We’re going hard on an interstate push to get more excitement from interstate and even more interstate visitors.
“We’ve released tagged barra into all the regular popular spots,” Thijs said.
One of those regular spots is Darwin Harbour and you couldn’t ask for better harbor conditions than what we expect this weekend.
Barramundi inhabit the entire length and breadth of Darwin Harbour’s five arms.
The single, most-important consideration when targeting barra in Darwin Harbour is the tide.
A six-hour session up inside the arms this weekend could be very hard to beat.
The tides are making springs, with 1.2m-1.3m lows across the two days, and wind and rain predicted to be most favourable.
There is no substitute for knowing the water and understanding how the ebb and flow of the tides influence the movement of bait and the barramundi which actively feeds upon it.
The prevailing daily tides this weekend will dictate where to fish and when.
The best period of each tidal phase to target barra is 3-4 hours before the low tide and up to three hours after the turn of the tide.
Start off by hitting the flats and concentrating on fish-holding features: dead timber, mangrove trees with multiple or subsurface horizontal branches and small rock outcrops.
As the tide falls and the flats start to dry, switch your efforts to the mouths of bigger creeks and drains that discharge into the main arms and its tributaries.
Pay special attention to those creek and gutter mouths that have a distinct colour change.
Barra will use the dirty water to ambush prey that is flushed with the dropping tide.
For the flood tide, simply reverse those tactics and follow the tide’s progress until water floods back into the mangroves.
Often the window of opportunity at a given spot is brief as barra move in and out of creeks and gutters or hold on a bank-side eddy for a short period, so being in the right place at the right time is vitally important.
Be prepared to anchor quietly or move slowly with an electric motor because shallow-water barra are easily spooked.
Look for nervous baitfish and prawns as this can flag the presence of barra feeding subsurface.
Other predators such as threadfin salmon and tarpon that are actively hunting bait can also indicate that a hungry barra may be lurking beneath their visible surface-feeding commotion.
Darwin Harbour barra average 45-75cm, but it’s not unusual to have days when all fish are less than legal size.
However, there won’t be any red-tagged barra under 55cm.
Smaller lures, both hard and soft body that match the bait, be it minnow or prawn, tend to be the most effective.
Popular hard-body lures include Bomber, Reidys B52 and Hellraiser, Killalure 2Deadly and Classic Just Under.
Effective soft plastic lures include Squidgies, ZMan Minnowz, Zerek Shrimp and Gulp Baits.
At time of writing, there hasn’t been a red-tagged barra caught this month so, if you catch one, you’ll probably win the 40K.
That should make for a great Christmas.
