Competition fits the bill
‘‘ I was at Manton Dam on Tuesday in the middle of the day and we had a couple of hits, but that was it.
‘‘There is plenty of bait in Shoal Bay, but barras have been a little bit quieter.
‘‘ Hopefully some sailfish and marlin will be caught this weekend.’’
On the fishingterritory. com forums ‘‘‘wadeqldr’’ said he took a mate out to scout the harbour for barra.
He wrote: ‘‘I left Lizzy River boat ramp in the morning and headed out into a glassedoff harbour.
‘‘The first call was to fish the dropping tide from the mangroves.
‘‘I managed three rat barra and a large spotted cod.
‘‘The area went pretty quiet so we decided to try some big drains that drained plenty of bait with the 0.8m low.
‘‘We were using Reidy’s Little Hell Raisers which were getting a lot of attention, and we started getting some larger barra that were hooked on the side of the head like they were swiping at the lure.
‘‘As the tide dropped further the fish started to inhale the lures, with the majority caught with the lure wedged deep in the mouth.
‘‘We ended up getting seven barra with only one keeper, a good day on the harbour chasing barra.’’
Meanwhile, NT Fisheries has started a Facebook page.
‘‘We will use it so people can talk to us — we will post up info on rules and regu- lations and people can comment,’’ said fisheries officer Kane Dysart.
‘‘ We also want people to comment on the recent discussion paper on reef fish closures.
‘‘The science suggests the sustainability problem for golden snapper is real, and now people can tell us directly what they think on Facebook.
‘‘This weekend we have the AFANT tagging program on again for barra at Shady Camp. Last time we did this, the water quality was poor, it had not cleared up, and the fish weren’t biting.
‘‘ I reckon the barra will turn up this weekend.
‘‘ So we should get some tags in.
‘‘Fisheries will be tagging fish and taking flesh samples to see if fish are over-stressed during capture in very warm water.’’