Alex's Column 5 March 2026
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
I never thought I’d write this, but I think we’ve had enough rain this wet season.
It really has been phenomenal, and every major river system in the Top End has been belted with torrential downpours for weeks on end.
The anticipation of the Runoff ahead is at fever pitch amongst the Top End angling community.
Mind you, plenty of anglers are already getting out… and getting wet to boot of course.
In that vein, the first round of this year’s Top End Barra Series was held last weekend at Shady Camp and beyond.
By all accounts, it was very wet affair, and I’ll have a full report next week.
Meanwhile, lots of eyes are on the Daly River which has fallen about 4m since it peaked.
The Woolianna Road is open but is definitely the worse for wear after the flooding.
The public boat ramp is also open.
Without doubt, the Daly is one of the best Runoff-fishing rivers in the Top End.
More so than other big tidal river in the NT, the Daly can rise and fall quickly.
For example, the Daly’s catchment and lower tidal floodplains might receive a strong monsoonal burst before Christmas, as happened this year.
It’s not an unusual scenario and the consequence might be a rise in river level downstream from the Daly River crossing by 5m or more.
After that first monsoonal activity, suddenly there could be blue skies and a falling river.
That’s the clue; that’s the window: when the river height in a flooded Daly River starts to fall, that’s when the barra can turn it on… and it can happen three or four times over the wet season and the Runoff.
Although this year, once the monsoons came charging in, the river just kept rising and rising.
Now, after a modest fall, it’s staying steady, but may well rise again given the prediction of more heavy monsoonal rain.
If you do get a chance to fish the Daly this Runoff, note that tides are just as important as at any other time of year; it’s just that tidal movement may not be as noticeable when the river is flooding.
Typically during the Runoff – or windows of receding river height – the bottom half of the tide and the very early run-in are the best fishing periods.
Mainly you’ll be fishing feeder creeks which are flowing tannin-coloured water into the murkier waters of the main river.
As the tide drops, the water in a feeder creek gets sucked out more, and more barra tucker is pushed out the creek mouth.
It’s a recipe for a good bite.
However, there are so many parameters, and none more important than matching the hatch.
Whatever barra food is coming down a feeder creek and swirling into the main river is what you need to replicate with your lure selection.
That’s not always possible because, often as not, you can’t see what the barra might be feeding on and, just as importantly, at what depth.
If you have sidescan – or Active Live Target and know how to use it – sometimes you can work out the approximate depth that fish are holding at.
Lure selection can then be a matter of trial and error.
Depending on how high the Daly is when its flood water begins to recede, creek mouths are not the only places to look for barra.
Mini waterfalls where the water is coming straight off a floodplain and dropping into the river sometimes hold barra.
Back eddies behind bends in the river can produce too.
Always try to fish water with the best clarity, simply because it’s easier for barra to see your lure.
Where water clarity is just too yucky, try surface lures which make plenty of noise.
In recent years, one of the problems with fishing the Runoff down the Daly is that a lot of anglers have the same idea in mind.
It’s a popular river and there are just so many spots to go round.
It’s why so many anglers sleep in their boats nowadays: so they have a spot covered for when the sun comes up.
Mind you, some beautiful fish get caught at night at anchor too.
