Happy Micks Fishing Report

Here’s another long weekend, so again, where do we go and what are the options?

There are some areas that are really firing up, and its going to be a great weekend in the blue water if the wind stays away. You must admit the dry season has given us only a few cooler mornings so far, and the water temperature has not dropped all that much. The cooler weather shouldn’t be too far away though.

Big Mac’s all around at Lee Point and surrounding areas, the Bottlewasher, and Rick Mills have been producing some good action with big mackerel, jewfish and tuna giving fishos a run for their money. There’s been some big shark sightings around Lee Point so you would think with that much berley put in the water the action would be thick and fast! Perhaps that’s why there’s been a few really large mackerel getting some serious air free jumping over twenty feet out of the water. Great to see! East Point has also been producing descent Mackerel and some tuna school are working this area. Darwin Harbour is going great guns again from Bream to Snapper, Barramundi and Blue Salmon all providing action and interest. and good reports of jewfish being caught on the many wrecks that are in the harbour.

Many of the estauries have been giving up some good crabs. I was talking to an old crabber and he says that next month is the best time of the whole year for mud crabs. So happy day if he is right, with most of the fifty litre crab cookers that are walking out the door providing folk with there fair share of this tasty crustacean. The Elizabeth has produced some monster crabs, as well as Shoal Bay and some parts of the mouth of the Adelaide River..

Still in Shoal Bay and Adelaide river mouth, jewfish have been landed around the Rock and the Narrows, and some barra have been taken on live bait in Shoal Bay. The jewfish have been taking local squid and fresh fillet of mullet – great fun going ballistic in shallow water. There are good numbers of blue salmon over the huge mud flats, that have been getting into mullet and smaller gar fish, taking live bait intended for barra as well as threadfin salmon. Land based fisher people have been getting into them from East Point. One costumer got done over big time and ended up getting spooled. He said ”it never slowed up at all, once he gave the rod a couple of big hits to set the hook, it just locked on to the horizon and kept on motoring.”

Around Larrakeyah and Stokes Hill Wharf tuna and Queenfish have been popping up withincasting distance, with the odd jewfish getting landed on the Stokes Hill Wharf. Live bait if you can get it, but Halco chromes or maribou jigs are the best to use off the wharf. Channel Island foreshore has a wide range of fish being caught from bluebone to barra and travelly. Town Hall has seen the odd jewfish on the change of tide, Middle Arm has been good on the many rock bars for a Bream and Snapper, and the Elizabeth is also producing some stonker bream. One customer got stuck a session of them on the upper reaches of the river .

If you want to get further afield the on this Queens Birthday long weekend the Mighty Daly River has been outstanding. Its still producing some awesome fishing, with plenty of nice size fish around the 60cm to 70cm but also a lot of big fish are moving onto the river with these making tides. Many tourist that visit this river came into the shop to restock lures and tackle and told me that they had the best week, catching fish in the 80 and 90cm range, and also two over the metre mark one going a massive 117cm. (Not bad for a first timer. These fish were released by the way) He also added that deep diving lures were just as good as live bait and they were preffering lures because there was no need to going through the trouble to get live bait.   We’ve also heard of another half dozen well over the metre trolling, and rumours of a 122cm on fly! Good times down there at the moment and it keeps getting backed up by some excited fisherman trying to hold back on how well its going, but not disclosing where on the river. From what I’m hearing they’ve not been travelling as far as up Elizabeth. It seems that bigger and building tides have been the most productive on the Daly, so this weekend should be a stonker!

I’m hearing the mouth of the South has been good also, with the mouth of Brook Creek producing some great barra and salmon. Golden Snapper and Jewfish are plentiful around the islands. Another good place and always tangle with barra this time of the year is Yellow Waters. It has heaps to offer and they have been getting a few down there. Good place to get away and very pretty place this time of year. Shady Camp is another place where you would be assured of a barra. There’s a lot of smaller barra coming from the fresh water side of Shady Camp and as the tide changes at the mouth they are getting into some nice fish. Weather permitting the jewfish out the front of Sampan will be worth a trip.

Hardies has been good, with fish around the 65 plus and a few 80cm fish starting to show up. With the full moon this weekend Hardies and Coroborree may be well worth a shot at night. The night time fishing is where you pick up your bigger fish and with the days producing few barra maybe the night time option might be a better choice. Remember to make sure your boat has ample lighting when fishing at night; its not a very good place to be in the water at night with all those snapping logs if you have an accident with a fellow boaty!

So with good tides this up and coming weekend it seems the only thing that will determine where people will go will be the wind factor. If it holds, Dundee will be another great spot. With sailfish and many reef fish on hand around the Perons, Point Blaze and wide off Dundee itself. Do remember to watch the weather, and if you are in a smaller boat, Darwin habour with its many arms and estauries has plenty to offer, and with the bigger bream showing up, and mud crabs around it will be a good family outing. Have a great long weekend, stay safe on the water, sun smart tight lines..

2008 Corroboree Park Challenge

The Palmerston Game Fishing Club, along with it’s primary sponsors Humminbird Australia, and the Coroborree Park Tavern, reckons this is the best way to get the whole family on the water this weekend.

Fished in the picturesque waters east of Coroborree Billabong right through to Kakadu, this prestigeous Catch and Release competition is not one to miss.

A strong emphasis on families is what makes this event so unique.

Lines in will be at 6am Saturday morning, and you can fish all night if you want to, or return to Coroborree Park Tavern and enjoy the festivities. Lines out is at 3 pm on Sunday.

All fish are to be photographed against a recognised measuring device ( like a Brag Mat) before being released, thus keeping in line with the PGFC and it’s Catch and Release philosophy. Should you not have a digital camera one will be available on loan at a nominal fee.

You need top have your results with photos presented to the PGFC staff at the Coroborree Park Tavern by 3:30pm on Sunday. The presentation starts at 4:00pm sharp.

Cost of entry is $35 per adult and $15 per child. Entries can be made at the PGFC clubhouse, online here , or at Happy Micks Tackle N Tents at Fairway Waters Roundabout.

You can also make post entires at Coroborree Park Tavern from 4pm Friday and from 6am to 10am Saturday.

There are thousands of dollars in prizes up for grabs in many categories in this, the ultimate family fishing event. Register now and you won’t be dissapointed.

For more details phone Craig 0438270512 or call Happy Micks 08 893 111 44

Late September is traditionally a time of hustle and excitement as screaming fans urge on their favourite teams through the frenzy of footy finals.

Much as we enjoy the thrills and spills of the footy end of season extravaganza, it pales into insignificance against the action that is unfolding in Coroborree, Hardies, the Mary and many of the other top end billabongs.

Around quarter final time each year, subtle changes occur in our weather patterns. Those ghastly sou’ easterly trade winds that have plagued a great dry season’s blue water fishing slowly back off, roaring into September like a lion, and leaving like a lamb later in the month. The strong winds blowing across the water each day like a refrigerated air conditioner have been keeping the water cool, in the low twenty degrees. The bigger fish don’t like this; they are sluggish, and doughy, difficult to catch.

But as the winds drop, the humidity rises, and the water warms, the big fish begin to stir. They haven’t done a great deal of feeding for a few months now, and their condition and fitness level has dropped off. Somehow they realize that within a few short weeks, when the rains begin in earnest, the water will become depleted of oxygen, and some will even die in a backwater fish kill. They need to build up their body weight enough to sustain them through the difficult weeks ahead. They start to feed aggressively.

Game on! It’s Coroborree Finals Time!

Along with thousands of other enthusiasts from across the Top End and the rest of the country, we always plan to make a few trips around this time. We reckon the moon is still a factor, and the full moons of September and October are legendary, providing some extraordinary night fishing trolling the billabongs with big shallow running lures. These provide an enticing silhouette when trolled slowly against a sky lit by moonlight and lightning.

. But we still reckon that an old fashioned almanac, a Fish N Tide Watch or one of the new Fish IQ handheld prediction devices is invaluable in deciding not only when to go but also when to be at “that spot.” Although isolated from the tides, freshwater fish, and indeed all wildlife life are sensitive to the cycle of the moon, and it can be an important factor in making decisions about your own fishing activities.

Charlie and I caught our very first barramundi during an early morning September trip to Coroborree with a workmate in the late eighties. Or more accurately, it was seven year Charlie who hooked five fish over eighty centimeters in what is still one of our fondest fishing memories. The bamboo clad bank that we were on, which we fished successfully for many years, has gone now, disappearing in a morass of fallen, dead bamboo. No doubt the fish are still there, but its impossible to get at them.

The lure that we used that day is also one of legend. It was one we picked up along the track on our way to the Top End, chosen unwittingly and quite by accident from the range of strange and colourful barra lures on the wall of the local tackle shop.

It was not until we started Happy Micks tackle shop some years later that we realised the significance of that choice. The number 67 Spearhead, for many years our number one best seller, was the favourite of most who fished freshwater in those days. The rise of the Bombers and Little Lucifer’s, arguably the best barra lure of all time, has sent the Spearhead range into the back ground in recent times. Talk to any Coroborree guide and they will tell you that the Lucifers, and more recently the wonderfully coloured moulded bib imported models, form the mainstay of their working lure collection. They run at about eight feet, the ideal depth for these billabongs. Their hardware is tough, and the two treble have excellent exposure. Lucifers have a tight, enticing action at both low and high speeds, which prompted the begininings of the jig jig jig rod action movement which has pretty much revolutionised the way we troll for barra. But that another story.

Within a few years, Lucifers had taken over the role of Spearheads as the predominant billabong barra trolling lure. However, herein lies the mistake. Anglers new to the game, and there have been tens of thousands since the late ninties, have come to the game without the historical knowledge of what went before. I have noticed in recent years that a lot of anglers don’t even carry spearheads in their boxes. They don’t know what they are missing out on. A Spearhead free September is like a year without a grand final brawl. Unthinkable!

I’ve had a couple of trips in the last ten days. On the first, we found fish on the outside of a big bend, holding in a bunch of lillies some thiry metres out from the bank. We were “loaded for bear” as they say, with just about every Lucifer ever made in one or other of our boxes. The timing was right, the water clean and looking good. No fish!

This particular bank had been quite heavily fishing during the week, and the fish may have been a bit spooked, but they were still showing on the sounder. Time for change. Spearhead time.

There are four main colours that we use at this time. Numbers 67, 70, 90, and 97. All will work during different periods. We chose the two naturals as the water was quite clear. Within the space of about three runs we had three fish. Then came carnage and mayhem as the big boys came out to play. Our lures were new, straight out of the box, and the hardware was just not up to this kind of pressure. You’d think a bloke woud learn over the years! (Best to change the split rings to an Arafura size 3 and the trebles to an Eagle Claw #6. Anything heavier will kill the action).

We were hooking up on big fish, well above 90cms from the size of the buckets that were constantly rearing out of the water behind us. On a normal bank we may have stood a chance, because the fish would have been forced to swim out, but in this situation they just drilled us straight back into the lillies from whence they came. It was fun, but! We noticed that the guides trolled wider on this bank, I think to give their punters a better chance of landing the fish, but they didn’t seem to be getting the big suckers. They seemed to stay right in close.

Later we went into the Rock Hole, and had a similar result, catching plenty on the spearheads and losing the bigger fish to the lilies.

No doubt that with the amount of trolling the key spots that is happening at present, the fish will eventually get a bit wise and spooky. I think this may be where the Spearhead comes into its own. Hand carved from timber, it has two characteristics that the Lucifer’s lack. It has no noise, the Lucifer’s have a distinct rattle. Normally this will entice a strike, but I have had experiences previously where a solid lure will out fish a rattler, and a lot of old timer’s actually don’t like lures that rattle. The other difference ifs that a Spearhead, not being hollow, will suspend in the water a bit longer than their plastic counterparts.

It’s these two points of difference that I believe can make the Spearheads so deadly in this situation. They are different. And just because they have been around a lot longer, fashion just doesn’t work in the water. As long as there are barra, these guys will catch fish!

So next time you are trolling the billabongs, and need to try something different, try running the Spearheads on the inside and the deeper Lucifers on the outside, so that when you turn around just swap rods over. Naturals for clear, fluros for dirty water. The results may surprise you!