Fishing Reports and Trends

February 2012

With the closures lifted on the 1st we tried some of the rivers and were rewarded with 3 fish around the 90 mark and a 107 cm gem. Plenty of water out on the flood plains but still quite dirty. A bit more rain please.

January 2012

The new year started of with a trip to Shady fresh only to find hundreds if not thousands of fish dead from a fish kill. For those who dont know a fish kill is a natuaral event where stagnent water that has been sitting around during the dry gets flushed into the billabongs and waterholes from the first heavy rains of the wet. The water has natuaral toxins in it and lacks oxygen and effectivly suffocates the fish. We still managed a few nice barra the biggest to 80cm from one of the cleaner channels. A trip on the 2nd landed a few Salmon, cod and a stonker of a Queen fish but the Barra didnt show a sign anywhere unfortunatly. A full day trip on the 4th saw a few more Barra getting about with 7 landed for the day along with a couple of blue salmon.Trips on the 6,7 and 8 found the fishing a bit slow again with catches of 6 to a dozen. Very little rain since xmas to fill up the flood plains where its needed about now to set up the run off. Good rain in the later part of the month has most of the flood plains starting to run into the creek but that has also made it very ordinary fishing. Heaps of jelly prawn about along with good schools of mullet. Just need the rain to keep dumping for a few more weeks. 

December 2011

A few full day trips early in the month returned 6 to 12 Barra for the day with very dirty creeks from storm rain not helping. The stand out was Nathan Corpus and his 125 cm Barra. This was caught on a trip with his Aunt that saw a total of 9 Barra and a salmon hit the bank.A video of this 125 being caught is on Utube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPO4lJ0RoVY . Trips thru the middle of the month varied but as usual for December were only producing 6 to a dozen Barra per trip. Plenty of storms and rain around towards the end of December and im hoping good falls will get the Barra going early in the New year with quite a few clients booked in. Happy xmas all.

November 2011

Full day trips early in the month produced around the dozen for the day with the same trends as late October .Still plenty of Barra but with high water temps there are a lot of groggy fish that arent interested in feeding. Good storms with healthy falls are about which will make a difference. Sight fishing some of the coast line is proving to be quite productive around the neaper tides with good catchs the first hour of the runout tide. A full day trip on the 18th only saw 7 Barra landed but 3 were over the metre mark at 102, 117 and 118. 2 fishos on their first ever Barra fishing trip. Some guys get the luck. Trips towards the end of the Month saw some tough fishing with dirty creeks and hot water making it hard to catch Barra. Numbers ranged from 6 to a dozen as well as a few smaller fish getting caught. This seems to be normal this time of year with the storm rains around and should improve as the creeks get flushed out and flood plain water starts to run.

October 2011

The start of this month sees the management zone closures coming into force which means the Mary river is no go till 1st of Feb 2012. Water temps are coming up nicely with the hot weather experienced lately and this should improve the fishing in the coming weeks and months. Unfortunatly the first full day trip only produced a few Barra and with big tides this was dissapointing. We dropped a horse which would have made the day but thats fishing. A full day on the 4th produced a few nice barra with one at 93 cm and a couple of good keepers at 75cm.Trips around the middle of the month had varying results with a lot of good fish visible in the water but quite hard to get them to take the lure. The sight fishing has been suprisingly productive with the off shore morning wind leaving the water fairly clear. Good mobs of Barra are being spotted in the mouths of creeks on the first part of the run out tide. Some of our best creeks we fish have been a little dissapointing as we are seeing a few good fish getting around but they arent interested in playing the game. Storms are starting to drop some decent falls of rain and will no doubt have an effect.Full day trips towards the end of the month turned up some real surprises. There are plenty of good Barra about but still tricky to catch....but persistence pays off. We have been averaging over 10 a day and had a string of 3 days in arow each landing Metre plus Barra at 107/108/109. We shot the Hooked TV show with Dave Butfield and his crew and got some nice Barra although missed out on the Metre plus fish which got dropped early in the fight.

September 2011

Plenty of Barra around but still a bit tough to get them to strike. The ones that are biting are hitting the tail hook only and that tells me they arn't feeding to hard. We are landing nice fish to 85cm in varying quantities but also dropping twice as many that just don't hook up right or throw the lure on the first jump. With the warming weather I guess they should start to fire up a little better. The neap tides have seen some good sight fishing with clear water on the top of the tides allowing us to see the fish from above then land and cast to them with a reasonable result. A group of 3 doctors had the pleasure of sight fishing and picked up a few nice fish but were equally impressed with the ability to see and know they are there. 3/4 Day trips 18-24th saw mixed results with the best days landing about a dozen Barra of varying sizes. Full day trips also had mixed results with 20 being the best and an unusually quiet trip on the 30th seing only 5 Barra landed including a couple of rats but a few were dropped including a horse estimated to be well over the magic metre mark.

August 2011

A full day trip on the 2nd started pretty slow but kicked into gear at the bottom of the tide with 2 clients sharing in a 30 plus haul and dropping a heap more. Only a few under size fish were hooked with the bulk in the 60-75cm range putting smiles on a few faces. Biggest were 2 Barra at 82cm. Full day trips up to the 9th have all been good with one on the 7th a standout with over 70 Barra landed averaging 60-70 cm. Fishing on the 11th was fruitfull with around 20 Barra between 3 anglers. A few smaller ones and the best Just under 80cm. Fishing thru the middle of the month was a mixed bag with some of the 3/4 day trips only getting a few barra and other spicies mainly due to unfavourable tides and cool conditions. The Mary river fishing spots are not giving up too many good Barra even with live bait. Full day trips near the Daly river still fished very well on lures with averages of 10 to 15 good fish each trip. In particular we are getting a lot of Barra with Reidy Judges in Karens pearl colour worked in a stop- start fashion near the banks.Full day trips towards the end of the month have all been fairly fruitfull with the building tides but we are starting to see a lot of Barra cruising the surface and showing not much interest in the lures.

July 2011

A full day trip on the 5th for a father and 2 sons had a good result with about 25 nice Barra being caught, the biggest around 78cm. All fish were caught on Reidy B52 and Big B52 lures with Gold bleeding mullet the stand out on the day. A 3/4 day trip on the 6th for a group of 4 clients in 2 choppers was a different case. The day started very slow without a fish being caught for the first 3 hours untill a change of position saw a variety of marine life hit the bank but still no Barra. A revisit to the first billabong late in the arvo, finally we got into a few Barra with half a dozen between 45 and 55 being landed and another couple of larger fish being dropped right at the bank. All trips both 3/4 and full day through the middle of the month were productive with barra to 90cm but it was still tough fishing. 5-10 Barra a trip has been the average and a few bonus Thready's and the usual catfish rounding out the day. With water temps still fairly low the current warmer spell of weather will hopefully liven up the Barra a little over the rest of the month. Full day trips at the end of July were good with a corporate group of 10 landing better than 60 Barra averaging 65-80cm.

June 2011

The first trip for this month had about 20 nice barra being landed by a group of 3 experienced fisho's. The best session was at the bottom of the tide flicking a variety of lures. Water temps are down around 22 degrees as we have been having some of the coolest night time temps for a long time.Overnight temps dropping to 11 and lower .The Barra are still taking lures but there are a lot of follow ups and fish that totally ignore the lures even when presented 6 inchs from their mouth. Targeting the few creeks that still have a bit of run seems to be where we are doing best. Billabongs and landlocked barrages are giving up fish but quite a lot are smaller.Trips both 3/4 and full day around the middle of the month are still getting Barra on the bank in respectible numbers. The water is COLD and dont you notice it when handling fish. Against all the odds we landed a 103 cm fish on a big B52 in gold bleeding mullet alond with 4 others in the 70-90 range. Still a lot of follow ups with no strike but also a lot of undersize barra belting soft plastics in regular 20 minute sessions around the slack of the tides. A 3/4 day trip for 4 clients in 2 choppers at the end of the month produced better than expected results with a couple of nice fish to 75 cm landed in the Mary river area and another 10 from 40-65 from the billabongs on junior B52s

May 2011

Full day trips early May have seen the Barra coming on strongly. A trip on the 3rd with a couple from Brisbane saw about 20 landed and the 5th with 2 keen local fisho's managed around 60 for the day with the bulk between 60 and 84cm. Reidys B52 and Big B52 in Gold, Guns and Roses as well as Elton John colours worked a treat. A full day trip in the 6th saw the great fishing continue with 4 clients made up from locals and interstate visitors landing over 70 Barra between them, The largest a very fat 84cm specimen. A few salmon are jumping on the lures as well but nothing over about 60 cm. 9th and 11th we had a group of 3 from Sydney do both the full day and 3/4 day trips. Great results around the Daly again with about 40 fish hitting the bank and nearly the same result fishing the Mary Barrages and mouth of Tommy cut. Tommy Cut needed a few baits to get into them but as the tide dropped we didn't have many minutes between landing fish. A few days later a trip to the Mary spots again returned fish but a lot of smaller rats from the barrages as the flow comes to a trickle. Still managed a PB for one client at a respectable 81cm. The 21&22nd trips to the Mary billabongs off Tommycut produced about a dozen good fish with a PB thrown in for good measure. Masses of bait fish, particularly popeye mullet have moved into the mouth of Tommycut and the Barra are boofing every where as the tide starts running out. About this phase last year we saw the bait fish move up the creeks and some great barra fishing was had. Hoping the next few weeks will do the same this year. A full day trip on the 28th was great fishing for 2 nurses from Darwin. One of them landed 50 Barra for the day with the biggest a 73cm and most in the 60-70 range. His wife was happy with her dozen fish and we both had a great time watching Adam during his fish a cast sessions.

April 2011

The first weekend in April saw two groups of clients do a 3/4 day trip and we targeted the Mary river conservation reserve barrages. Around 40 barra were landed on the Saturday on both lures and fly but quite a few were undersize. Tommycut and the Mary system has gone a bit quiet after the tropical low dumped another few hundred mm of rain. We still managed some nice chrome fish on live baits from around the graveyard. A full day on the 5th produced around 40 solid fish from 60 to 93cm for two happy clients mainly on lures with a few landed on baits as we had lunch. The runoff has pumped up again after the tropical low went past and while it seems to have shut down the Barra around the Mary River. Our fishing spots on the full day trip are still rewarding clients. Trip’s from 6^th to 9^th all returned solid fish in the 60 to 104cm range with numbers from 20 to 45 being landed each day. Congratulations to Frenchy on his 104 caught on his “Road Kill RMG”.The Barrages are continuing to give up 20 to 40 Barra per session although a lot are small. The full day spots are a bit up and down but all clients are getting into solid fish with nearly every trip landing a fish over the Metre mark. Dave from NSW caught his first Barra on a full day trip and opened his account with a 106....what a way to start Barra fishing followed an hour later by Tash on her 30th B,day trp landing a 110cm ripper. Dry season weather finaly arrived on the 18th and it was nice to spend a day and not get rained on or having to dodge storms on the way home. Good numbers of floodplain Barra are still around in the Mary area with about 30 caught in a morning from the Barrages. Full day trips 22nd to 24th saw the fishing slow a bit with about 15 to 20 Barra landed on each trip as we move into the neaps. The neaps really pulled up unfortunatly as a trip to Bullo river only saw a few fish each day. Coming off the neaps the Barra came on again.

March 2011

A 2 hour session on the flood plain on the 3rd was worth about 50 fish as I checked a couple of new spots. A lot of swamp rats but a lot of feisty fun. Tommy cut has been giving up some good fish but it hasnt cleared up enough to be consistent yet. A full day trip on the 11th saw 2 Barra over the metre mark at 110 and 120 having their photos taken. A new record for the biggest Barra caught with Helifish. These were part of a 20 barra haul for the day. The flood plains continue to fish well with around 20 to 30 barra a session and some nice saltwater fish up to 75cm in amongst them. Junior B52 lures in gold and silver are doing the job. As the rain storms have been easing up the fishing has been getting even better with the clearer water. Another 104cm Barra on the 20th was part of a 30 fish haul and 40 Barra on the 21st kept the clients happy as well. A 2 day trip around the Daly on the 24th produced some of the best Barra fishing I have experienced. Over the 2 days my brother and I landed about 120 fish with the smallest a 60 and included 4 over a metre with the best a lovely 120 cm.(see photo gallery) Nearly half of these fish were caught on fly gear using TZ Pink and Wild things as well as Jerry's new Mullet fly. As fishing goes we revisited the same spots on the 26th hoping the action would be repeated but the barra had moved on. The clients still landed 15 for the day including another 1 metre fish.

February 2011

With the Mary River and Daly mouth now open I decided to try them both out on the first two days. The Mary floodplains didn't dissapoint with clients catching half a dozen Barra to 75cm off the floodplain Barrages. The coastal estuarys were good for a few more saltwater fish although the bull sharks are there in big numbers. Also a few solid threadies around as well as Cod and some Jacks. The floodplains are now full but a lot of black water still about so more rain now needed to get the flush going. The Daly on a full day trip saw about 10 Barra landed including Rowdys 108cm horse (see photo gallery) from a small creek mouth. All the Daly creeks are now draining well with a few starting to clear up. Full day trips on the 12th saw Barra landed in numbers up around 30 fish including a horse at 113cm. Revisiting the same spot next day only produced half a dozen....thats fishing....but a stop on the way back at a favourite place produced another 113cm fish.Trips at the end of the month saw a great increase in numbers from the barages with a 2 day trip for 4 guys producing around 120 barra ranging 40- 80cm in size. First time i have seen clients head to the pub early cause they were sick of fishing.March should be a cracker on the floodplains.

January 2011

Rain , rain and more rain. A 3/4 day trip on the 27th saw 3 Barra , the biggest a 75cm, a few cod, a nice Jack, couple of golgen snapper, a bream, shark and the usual pesty catfish. Considering the amount of water about a good result. February will see us fishing the Mary and all the barrages and floodplains.

December 2010

Barra numbers on trips for the first 2 weeks of this month have been down. Why is it so. Once again we are seeing a few but they really dont seem interested in taking lures other than a few smaller fish around 50 cm.The ones we have been getting have been on live bait. An almost total absence of bait fish at most of our spots is probably a good indicator. With all the rain we have had and a lot of the small creeks running in fresh water i think this has put them off their game a bit. A few good sized Queen fish have been giving the clients some exciting action with the biggest at 90cm testing out the gear. A full day trip on the 11th had us sight fishing a coastal beach and seeing schools of Barra up to 20 fish sitting in the draining gutters on the run out tide. Once again we were putting lures right down their throats but they wouldnt do much other than the odd follow up by a smaller fish. Trips on the 22nd and 23rd produced much better results. The barra are back on the bite and are starting to feed anywhere the water is draining off the floodplains . 3 fish went over 90cm with plenty around the 60cm mark. One client droped a horse of a fish after a 10 minute battle. She would of been the biggest for the year had we landed it with an estimate of well over a metre (the one that got away).Have a great xmas

November 2010

Frequent heavy storms and local rain has seen mixed results as we fish into November. Water clarity is being affected and so are the oxygen levels. The Goldie’s and queen fish are turning up in good numbers but the Barra are hard to get into. The Barra are there and in size to but they all seem to be half drunk. We see them rolling around near the surface and snags but other than the occasional half hearted follow of a lure they just don’t seem interested in feeding. Live baits are getting a few and I hope they will get back to norm as the build up continues. The 11th and 12th saw a group of 5 guys do a 2 day trip with 15 Barra landed and quite a few more missed. One client landed a 101cm horse out of a small water locked estuary and a morning session saw about 12 fish from 60 to 80 cm having their photos taken. On the 19th a group of 5 guys did a 3 day 2 night trip. The Barra weren't to be found unfortunately with a full moon and recent rains probably contributing factors. Mangrove jacks and Cod were picked up in reasonable numbers along with a wedge of sharks and the odd salmon. As we come off the full moon I expect the Barra to come back on the chew but with the heavy rain storms around who knows what may happen. Our last trip for the month fired nicely. Coming off the back of the neaps, the estuaries on the last of the incoming tide produced some cracker fish with a 100, 90 and 80 cm Barra making up a bag of 10 for the day, all on lures.

October 2010

October’s fishing started with a few 2 day trips and we weren't disappointed. Mainly coastal hopping from spot to spot produced a couple of Barra at each stop. Most are around the 50 to 70 cm size and we are getting the best results on Reidys little B52s in Lightning colour.Thready,s and golden snapper are about in the creek mouths along with the odd queen fish. A few 3/4 day trips have been returning about half a dozen Barra of varying size along with Goldie’s and salmon, and as the water continues to warm it should only get better. The end of this month’s fishing has been fair to good with a lot of rain having an impact on the fishing. Above average numbers of Queen Fish were being caught on the tops of the big high tides and the Barra didn’t disappoint on the first part of the run in tide. A ripper 90 cm Barra was caught by a 72 y/o lady on a suspending neutral colour bomber on our last trip for October.

September 2010

This month was a little different as we did a few multi day tours including one to the Vic River region. The fishing was fair to good with the salt water estuaries doing the best on the turn of tide. Tommy cut has been giving up a couple of good chrome fish each visit and hasn't really dissapointed all year. With the Mary river closure at the end of the month we won't be fishing our hot spots there till Feb 2011. The 2 day overnight camping trips are becoming popular with 3 groups booked during the later part of the month and early October.With the warm water now bringing the Barra back on the lures we did pretty well in the Barra numbers including a couple of 75cm fish spotted from the chopper along a coastal beach where we then landed, cast and hooked up. Quite an amazing sight to see a Barra cutting through the lip of a wave on the end of your rod in crystal clear water.

August 2010

We start August with a few Full day trips and with the warmer than normal temperatures at present I hope the Barra will be a bit more active. A corporate group of 5 clients came out on a 3/4 day trip in 2 choppers and were rewarded with 7 Barra up to 80 cm, 6 Thready's, a large Shovel nose shark as well as the usual half dozen bait stealing catfish with one going better than 20 kgs.The rest of the month was fairly tough but all clients but one managed to get into a few Barra on liveys and a fair few threadfin salmon.

July 2010

July started with good results at all locations but with the big spring tides around the middle of the month and cooling water temperatures the catch tally's have been steadily dropping off. This is fairly normal for the time of year and reflects with other fishing tour operators around Darwin also reporting it harder to get into the Barra in any big numbers. Coming off the big spring tides around the 15th the Barra are coming on a bit better and the Threadfin Salmon are in good numbers in the estuaries. Sunday the 18th on a full day trip produced 15 Barra on lures from 65 to 93 cm with 2 experienced clients.The last part of the month saw good catches of Barra and quite a few Threadfin being landed with help from the neap tides and live bait. All clients got into a few Barra with fish up to 84cm being landed, and most being their first Barramundi caught.

June 2010

This month started a little under average at our usual spots with the worst day only landing 3 Barra and 3 Threadfin. Strangely the next two days at the same place were magic with around 30 Barra caught each day. I guess that's just fishing.

We then targeted the fishing spots we had checked out in May and to every ones delight we were on a winner. With averages above 30 Barra each trip and the best topping 50 all on Big B52 Reidy lures there were smiles all round. The biggest we have caught at this spot so far is a 97 cm Barra but a couple have been dropped that i think were over the metre mark. Luckily most of the clients in June were in for the full day trip so that allowed us to go to this new bit of water and they all got a slice of the action. Our worst day at the new spot was 24 fish with a group of 6 having a belated company xmas party. I wonder how long it will last as the weather and water temperature are now getting into the tougher fishing conditions.

May 2010

Well it just kept on raining in good amounts early May which is a little unusual and the warm weather with it has been keeping those Barra on the bite.

Fishing results were much the same as April but it did start to slow up a bit towards the end of the month as it started to cool down. Two fish were taken during May that topped the magic metre mark and one of them went to a client that was also his first Barra. Well done Kevin. With the cooler water we got into the live bait fishing a little more and that kept the averages of 10 to 15 fish a day on target. The last week in May was used to try out some new spots and we will fish some of them with clients booked in for June as they produced some great fishing.

April 2010

Regular rains through April kept the flood plains topped up and the steady run off continued to produce excellent Barra for all our clients. Numbers were mixed with the average trip returning around 15 Barra and the usual couple of Threadfin salmon.

Fishing towards the end of the month was the best with one day producing over 30 good chrome Barra from Tommy Cut creek. We did the IFISH show with Paul Worsteling and crew early in the month and landed half a dozen nice fish. The show should be on around late June some time and features Bamurru for those interested.

March 2010

As usual the "Run-Off" provided excellent fishing in all our fishing spots except for the billabongs which are all flooded out.

Barrages around the Mary River produced exciting surface lure action with many sessions producing fish a cast results. The creeks around the coastal areas we fish all gave up good solid Barra in the 60 to 90 cm range.

A late March trip with clients to Bamurru resort rewarded them with catches of over 200 Barra, up to 65cm in a morning fishing from the Airboats that Bamurru operate.

Continual rain should ensure fishing stays vibrant well into April.