Alex's Column 28 August 2025
- NAFA
- Aug 29, 2025
- 4 min read
For the most part this dry season, the winds have been favourable
offshore from Darwin.
This weekend, there will be a low-pressure system moving past
Tasmania and into the Pacific Ocean, so there’ll be some wind but
nothing too strong.
Mainly the mornings will be fine for offshore fishing, with just light
winds, then strengthening from the north-east in the afternoon.
It means you’ll be able to travel early in your typical trailer boat,
hopefully get stuck into some great fish, and take your time coming
home through an expected choppy sea.
You’ll be experiencing reducing spring tides this weekend, so there will
be a bit of current offshore – drift fishing the bottom may be the key to
success.
If you anchor – or spotlock with your electric motor – make sure you
time your efforts for the change of the tide when the current slows and
stops.
Bluewater pelagic fishing will be okay as long as you locate high-visibility
water.
Places to consider include North Gutter, Dundee Wide and past the
Peron Islands.
For barra fishermen, inland billabongs have been a tad disappointing this
year.
Even legendary Four Mile Hole has been tough going, although it fished
well just after it opened.
The iconic Corroboree Billabong is slowly fishing better for barra,
especially at night.
Where would we be without good old Corroboree Billabong?
When the winds are blowing like they can be in the dry season, thus
making offshore ventures decidedly uncomfortable, and the tides aren’t
right for the saltwater estuaries, and you don’t want to spend hours
travelling and losing fishing time, what a great option Corroboree is.
Across a vast and largely-remote Top End landscape, one spanning many
tens of thousands of square kilometres, to have the Territory’s largest
land-locked inland waterway hardly more than hour’s drive away is a
blessing indeed.
The well-signposted turn-off is to the left off the Arnhem Highway, just
past Corroboree Park Tavern.
A remarkable labyrinth of narrow, winding channels that connect half a
dozen magical pools – varying in length from more than 15km to less
than a racetrack – Corroboree boasts more than 45km of fishable
waterways.
Right from the concrete boat ramp launch site, anglers are faced with
the decision of motoring off either left or right.
To the left, once out of sight of the ramp only 200m away, there is
Nobby’s Pool, a small waterway that is often quite productive,
particularly early in the year.
Of course, if you head to the right of the ramp, and straight ahead, a
world of barra-fishing options beckons you.
Most anglers turn left at the first channel that leads to the main
Corroboree pool, but the option, and sometimes a good ploy,
particularly if it is windy, is to go past this channel in the direction of
Black Fella Island.
This pool has the whole gamut of straight, twisted, wide and narrow
stretches, including fishy spots with heavily-treed banks that provide
cover from the wind.
Heading back and through the 1km-long, narrow channel leading to the
main pool, a third option presents itself: keep heading for the main body
or chuck a right into the channel that leads to the famous Rockhole.
There are actually two pools in what is known as the Rockhole.
Most anglers travel through the first, much-smaller pool without
stopping, and into the main Rockhole via yet another narrow channel
where outboards may even bottom out late in the year.
This larger pool is long and wide, and a favourite with professional
fishing guides in the know.
The Rockhole has its own boat ramp which is accessed from the Shady
Camp road, off the Arnhem Highway.
My favourite pool has always been the Big Pool; this was where I caught
my very first Territory barra back in ’78.
The Big Pool is reached by continuing past the turn-off to the Rockhole.
There are many famous bends, grass beds, submerged snags, lotus-lily
stretches, gutters and even rock-bars in this remarkable and scenic 15km
stretch of water.
It’s a beautiful place to fish – home to a myriad of birdlife and wildlife,
including some of the biggest crocodiles in the Territory – and at times
offers outstanding freshwater barra and saratoga fishing.
The Big Pool is the domain of the houseboats and, if you haven’t spent a
couple of days cruising Corroboree on a Mary River Houseboat, you
haven’t racked up one of the Territory’s truly great experiences.
The bottom end of the Big Pool is generally understood to be Catfish
Island, and tapers off after that.
Although there is a very special pool which is only barely accessible
through a short channel, often overgrown with lotus lilies.
This is Pandanus Billabong – only 3km long and one of those hot/cold
spots that fishes well one year and not the next.
If you don’t catch a fish at Corroboree, life’s still good anyway.
