Alex's Column 26 March 2026
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
I think my head is getting as flooded as the Top End is at the moment.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on river conditions lately, you’ll know that this isn’t just another Wet season pulse; it’s a full-blown system-wide flood event which is leading up to what could be one of the most widespread Runoffs in recent memory.
The Daly River has taken centre stage, pushing into record=breaking territory and spilling across floodplains on a scale we don’t see even every decade.
When a river like the Daly floods like that, it doesn’t just rise, it resets everything.
Upstream, downstream, billabongs, feeder creeks and floodplains all get a serious flush… and that’s exactly what the barramundi love.
Right now, though, we’re still in the “wash”: the big rivers are pushing hard, dirty and fast, and for the moment they are largely unfishable in the traditional sense.
But that doesn’t mean it’s game over – far from it.
This is the phase when the smaller systems start to come into play.
The lower Finniss, the upper Adelaide and even land-based options like Shady Camp and the many culverts along the bitumen can offer early opportunities as fish push into protected water and structure.
It’s not always easy fishing but it can be surprisingly productive if you slow things down and work the edges.
The real magic starts when the water begins to drop.
That first sign of Runoff is always the same: colour change, where clearer – often tannin-coloured – water pushes into the rich, brown, dirty water flowing down the main system.
That line, sometimes marked by billowing, cloudy water, is where the food chain lights up: bait stacks up and barra stack up behind it.
The Adelaide and Finniss are usually the first to fire.
They’re quicker systems, quicker to rise and quicker to fall, and they often give us that first proper taste of the Runoff bite.
Not long after, the Mary River floodplains, Shady Camp, the lower tidal reaches of the Mary and its nearby coastal creeks start to come alive.
Then comes the big one: the Daly.
When it starts to fall after a flood like this, you can expect kilometre-wide floodwaters to drain back through every creek, gutter and channel… and even straight over floodplain edges.
Every one of those flows becomes a potential barra hotspot.
This is when the classic Runoff playbook comes into its own.
Hard-body lures, worked across current lines and into colour changes, become hard to beat.
In theory, it’s simple: cast into the dirty water, retrieve into the clean, hold on.
As the weeks roll on, the Runoff spreads.
Kakadu systems like the South and East Alligator are most likely already firing, and sometimes the fishing just gets better.
Further down the track, the bigger, slower systems like the Victoria River and the Roper await serious angler attention.
This is where the trophy hunters come into their own, mainly using bigger lures with slower presentations, and targeting deeper structure and tidal influence zones.
And then, just like that, it begins to taper: flows ease and fish spread out.
This when we transition towards Dry season patterns.
But make no mistake about it: if this flood drops cleanly, that window between chaos and calm could be something special… not just in one river but across the entire Top End.
The key, as always, is to follow the water, not the calendar.
Watch the falling river heights, and hit those feeder creeks earlier than later.
When you find a peaking colour change, you’re in the game.
After a flood like this, when the Runoff finally gets going in earnest, it won’t just be good fishing; it could be one of those seasons people talk about for generations.
