Really whets appetite
Fishing and Outdoor World’s Ronald Voukolos said the heavy rain had started early.
‘‘I think there is a bit of flow in the local waterways already,’’ he said.
‘‘They are closing some of the local places so there must be a bit of water out there.
‘‘The best barra reports are still from Shoal Bay.
‘‘ The Rock seems to be producing well now, not lots of fish but some meteries and the like.
‘‘Hopefully this low pressure system will drop a heap of rain. Offshore the fishing has been good, with trevally and mackerel at North and South gutters.
‘‘The tides this week are good for hitting Darwin and Bynoe harbours.
‘‘ Some of the boys have been busy on the extended charters catching a huge range of fish.
‘‘There have not been many reports from the rivers but there have been a lot of small barra caught from the mouth of the Adelaide River.
‘‘I am still seeing some good photos from Leaders Creek and the like.’’
Craig’s Fishing Warehouse’s Rob Rees said the truckloads of rain is really good news.
‘‘The path of this cyclone will be interesting but at least we’ll get some monsoonal stuff,’’ he said.
‘‘There are a few barra getting around the harbour — there are a lot of smaller fish but enough good ones to make it worthwhile.
‘‘There are goldies about on the shallower harbour reefs and wrecks.
‘‘I have not heard of any jewies. There have been no reports from the big rivers.
‘‘People have to watch the storms now because there have been some crackers. ‘‘Crabs are slow.’’ On fishingterritory. com ‘‘Dex38’’ had a good harbour trip. He wrote: ‘‘Got the boat back in the water after its last trip to Saltwater Arm where I moved an axle aft and kicked off the wheel alignment a bit. While I was sorting this out I notice the tyre was low on pressure.
‘‘So, off with the wheel to see what the damage was. I had just washed the boat and when I lay the wheel down I saw air bubbles coming out of the bead area of the tyre to rim interface.
‘‘So it was off to the tyre shop at Palmerston after a quick phone call to make sure they could fit me in. The guys there removed the tyres (thought I’d be a bit proactive and do the lot) from the rim gave it a quick clean up and applied a sealing gel to the rim. No more leaks and I feel nice and content the boat rides again on safe rubber.
‘‘So with the trailer sorted we headed out from East Arm Ramp and hit the harbour.
‘‘I tried a few local haunts but no joy. So, off to another little area to flick a few soft plastics around.
‘‘The dredging has stirred up a lot of material which is making the harbour look like an oversized iced coffee.
‘‘I put on a soft plastic lure which has done me proud recently but even with the sight of barra and salmon rolling on the surface I couldn’t hook up.
‘‘ On went a hardbodied Hellraiser from Reidys. Anice little lure which casts a mile and has a nice little action on it.
‘‘ The only problem with hardbodies in among the rocks is you are bound to lose some. I cast the lure up against the rocks and worked it slowly back to the boat.
‘‘On the pause I got to see main line come up under tension and I was on.
‘‘ The harbour came up trumps again with a nice barra jumping around in the shallows. The deckie also landed our first powertail for two years, along with some smaller barra.
‘‘We headed back on to the mudflats to land a few smaller specimens before we called it a day.’’
In less welcome reports, it seems Shady Camp barrage is poorly policed nowadays, with regular reports of people livebaiting on the saltwater side during the closed season. Might be time for the fisheries police to do another sting down that way. EVER wondered what Darwin Harbour’s sea floor looks like?
Well, now you can see it in a superb bathymetric map, along with a lat/long grid for your GPS, in the latest North Australian Fishing and Outdoors Magazine.
‘‘ Fishos can see every lump and bump thanks to our eight-page bathymetric map,’’ according to publisher Matt Flynn.
‘‘This is the best Darwn fishing map that has ever been published.
‘‘It will help people find more great places to fish.’’
The latest magazine also has stories about chasing giant barramundi, Territory memoirs and, of course, some humour.
There is the latest diary logs from solo adventurer Craig ‘‘ Crackers’’ Hand, who took a trailerboat from Darwin to Queensland, via PNG, for the third time.
The Sunday Territorian has five copies of the magazine to give away to lucky readers, with the Darwin fishing map making it an absolutely superb Christmas present for dad.
For a chance to win a mag, send your entry to win@ ntnews. com. au with FISHING MAG in the title. Don’t forget to include your name and contact details in the email.