End of spearing debate
‘‘ One of the blokes who comes into the shop got nine barra while fishing a low-tide hole. Dundee still has a load of tuna out wide.
‘‘ There were mackies around the Vernon Islands on the neaps but bucket loads of sharks were there to take hooked fish.
‘‘There have been mixed reports from the harbour; for some people, it has slowed up a little.
‘‘There are heaps of salmon moving in on small prawns.
‘‘ But we haven’t heard much from Leaders Creek or Saltwater Arm — usually when Shoal Bay fires, these other two areas are doing well, also.
‘‘Dundee produced a few jewfish off the jewie hole near the lodge — one crew backed off the reef a little to find the jewfish.
‘‘Despite the tough year, people are still as keen as ever about barra.’’
Top End Tackle World’s Steve Compain said barra were biting in Shoal Bay.
‘‘All the Shoal Bay creeks and The Rock seem to be working, mainly with livebaiting,’’ he said.
‘‘One of our charter-boat deckies Taylor Kupr caught a 107cm barra on livebait in King Creek.
‘‘He also caught some other good fish in the past week or so. But I reckon using livebaiting is cheating.
‘‘There are some good crabs coming out of the harbour arms, and barra too.
‘‘Offshore will be hard this weekend because of the big tides — the neaps seem to be producing more fish out wide.
‘‘There is a big stink from our customers about the plan to be able to check freezers in the house for excessive amounts of fish.
‘‘ People are saying they should do the job at the boat ramps rather than invade the privacy of people’s homes.
‘‘There are still heaps of pelagics off Dundee, and loads of mackies and tuna.
‘‘We had our charter boat come in from Money Shoal with a great catch of fish. We do not go out there often — you get a lot more Maori sea perch out there. They got one huge fish about 12kg.
‘‘I’m thinking about trying Tassie and Evans Shoals on big tides, to see if the pelagics are more prolific.
‘‘ It rained all Thursday night so that’s a good early start; it’s looking good so far as far as rain goes.‘‘
Katherine Rod and Rifle’s Warren de With said the Roper River had been slow.
‘‘ We are starting to see signs of rain now, which is good — it might improve the fishing a little bit,’’ he said.
‘‘ Even the saltwater has been tough; people have had to work hard and it has not improved as we hoped.
‘‘The McArthur River has also been poor, and no great reports from out on the islands — I don’t think there are very many fishos out there though.
‘‘The Victoria River is still producing mud crabs right up to the Big Horse Creek boat ramp, but the first freshwater flush will push them right back downstream.
‘‘The Limmen Bight River has been a bit better. There have been showers and storms down here but people must keep an eye on the road reports — some of those roads are very bulldusty, and you might get through but you might not get back if it rains.
‘‘The Katherine River has been quiet this year, even with the black bream ( sooties). The bream tend to start moving with the first floods.
‘‘The Daly River has been quiet but they are getting some good storms going through now.
‘‘ Try any of those Daly creeks; once they get flowing they will bring barra in.
‘‘But no one is really fishing it too hard down there as yet.
‘‘Shoal Bay’s Rock seems to be the best place.
‘‘Even the pig shooting was not that good this year; you would have thought that with the lack of water the pigs would be easy to find around the waterholes, but there are not a lot of reports.‘‘
Craig’s Fishing Warehouse’s Rob Rees said there was some rain about.
‘‘People are so happy to see that rain,’’ he said.
‘‘There were a few barra getting about the harbour and Bynoe Harbour on the neap tides.
‘‘ Threadfin salmon have been around the harbour foreshores,and people have been getting them landbased at East Point.
‘‘There are a lot of prawns getting around and the threadies have been bailing up prawns against the rocks. But the threadies are a lot easier to see than catch.
‘‘There are more prawns about after the rain so prawn imitations are the way to go.
‘‘A few people are getting out wide between the storms and doing all right on reef fish, with some quality goldies and jewies.
‘‘A bloke coming back in from Charles Point near Mandorah said he saw a sailfish jumping near the Six Mile.
‘‘That’s not something you hear of often. Apart from that, I have not heard much. Billabongs are still quiet.
‘‘ Some people have been getting goldies to 65cm off Dundee, with a few reds and a few nannygai.’’