Happy Micks Fishing Report

by Brian Lund

Mike and his first Dundee Sailfish

What a weekend!

Friday I managed to get away as planned and took a couple of mates to Dundee for a spot of bottom bouncing and some sail hunting. The weather gods smiled on us, the fish played the game and the day was nearly perfect.

The Sail scene is nothing short of balistic at the moment with Sail Fish nearly everywhere. My good mate Joynsie managed to land his first NT Sail Fish over some of my favourite grounds off Dundee after a very short period of time tolling the Soft Head Pluggas on sale in the shop. He also managed to raise a number (in excess of 15) more during the day. His counterpart Jarboy managed to get a couple of nice Mackeral under his belt that same trip. I took a mate Brad on my boat and though we were mainly targeting bottom fish we too managed to raise a good number of Sails and small Blacks in and around the same area and in the vacinity of Sail City.

On the bottom scene the Stripies were as thick as thieves with some cracker 45 – 50 cm fish caught mixed witha lot of smaller bait sized stripies amongst them all around Long Lost however there were also some nice Tricky Snapper in with them. After getting a few Stripies for bait we headed towards Sail City to chase some larger bottom dwellers  and succeeded in getting a few nice Red Emperor, larger Tricky Snapper, a few Rosy Job Fish and a Trout or two. Brad managed to out fish me on the Red Emperors as all I seemed to manage was Tricky after Tricky.

The Tuna schools while being everywhere consisted of very small fish to less than 1kg. Perfect bait schools for the maurading Sail Fish.

On return to the boat ramp I spoke to a number of fishermen who had tackled the Finniss River with the plethora of other boats. Most reported that the rivers had appeared to close down and the barra were very hard to get. The ones caught all appeared to be good quality solid fish but there definately is not the numbers there that were there the last few weeks. Speaking with other crews that had fished around Blaze they reported getting some thumper Goldies and a few nice Jewies.

6 Mile and the harbour wrecks have all been producing quality Goldies and smaller Jewies. There have been some scattered reports of Mackeral showing up around Lee Point and the Bottle Washer while further afield there have been good reports of big Goldies and assorted reef fish around some of the other artificial reefs. Charlie Chambers has said that his customers have been doing really well with Goldies. Charlie himself managed to pick himself up a nice sized Black Marlin last weekend.

Dean Blackman with his biggest yet - a 102cm barra from the mouth of Shady Camp

One of our regular customers Dean Blackman dropped in yesterday and happened to mention that he joined the meter club on the weekend with a very solid fish trolled up at the mouth of Shady Camp. He also explained that they managed to get a few other fish there too. Others are comming in saying that they are still getting good fish at the mouths in Chambers Bay however there appears to be more Salmon than Barra being caught.

Reports from the Adelaide and the Aligators have been very promising with the best reports coming from the upsteam section of the South Aligator, 1 crew reported catches in the region of 40 fish.

The reports of muddies have been patchy at present however the ones that are filtering in have me planning a trip in the near future. The pick of the spots for a feed appear to be Bynoe Harbour, Shoal Bay and the deeper water in the Elizabeth and Middle Arms.

This is the time of the year all barra fishermen and fisherwomen wait for. The barra are starting to go nuts all around the traps at the moment. There are multiple crews coming into the shop after having a great day catching barra with some great and not so great days. The barra fishermen in the know are have 30 – 50 fish days. But some crews are busting out on the same river section.

Shady camp has been fishing well with alot of boats heading out to troll the mouth of Sanpan. I have had reports  of a mass of boats doing endless laps all day out the front. But they have been catching some good fish on the troll with Classics and Halco Scorpions in fluro colours. Up the top of Marsh creek is fishing very well with crews working the junctions and the snags with Hollow Bellys and Slickrigs for fish to the metre mark. I have had reports of multiple metre plus Barra. One customer got a 105cm, 111cm and dropped a horse of a barra over the magical 120 mark. Larger lures are the choice for these larger fish as they prefer hunting the larger bait profile. This weekend I reckon half  the fishermen in Darwin will be down at Shady, take care when driving the boat  because I have heard about alot of close calls with boat having to go aground to stop from colliding  into another boat that is going flat out.

Adelaide river is starting to fish very well at the moment. Live baiting with Tarpon is the go at the moment for larger fish. Find a nice quite junctions out of the way of the main river and anchor up and put out a good spread of live Cherabin and tarpon and wait for the fish to come to you. It is always a good idea to throw a lure around when you are at anchor because fish will be feeding past the boat. Hollow Bellies and Slikrigs are good lure choices because they can be fished in all the water column for with great efficiency.

The mighty Daly River is starting to fish great as well. With alot of fish being caught down near the mouth. Trolling the rock bars with Classics in +10 Guns and Roses are producing the best results with many fish being caught over the metre mark. Up the Daly in the junctions of Reed creek and Browns are producing good fish with boats anchoing up and tossing lures into the Eddies.

We just got a Hardstick rods into stock. They are selling very well so pop into the shop and have a look at these good but affordable rods.

Tight Lines Douglas Hewett

with Brenton Marschke

Firstly congrats to Athiena and Charlie Chambers, with a wonderful healthy  bady girl ”Lyla.”  All is well and  great effort to both parties. Mike and Aileen Chambers are more then chuffed with their new grandchild (number 7 they think), l did my bit on ABC Tails from the Tinnie with Tim Moore last weekend. l had a great time they are all great fellas loved it, you can listen to the show here.

The fishing has been going along slowly and they have been getting a wide range of fish from bream (sorry Tim) to snapper jewfish and tuna. Even good size Mackerel still coming from the usaul haunts at Lee Point, East Point and they have even been sighted around Channel Island on the in coming tides  chasing the bait fish as the water moves in .

  I’m hearing of jewfish being caught in deeper parts of the harbour,  then just the many wrecks, so have a look around for some good structure off Larrakeyah and you might be surpised. Snapper and Tuskfish,  yes even the odd Coral Trout have been landed. There is some pelagic action off Lee Point with Mackerel and good schools of Long Tails kept fishos on the look out. I have heard it was a bit hard to spot schools working the surface, with a bit of a chop in the morning, but it did calm off in the afternoon. (more…)

   Something has been going on at the “S Bends”. No, not at the Daly. No not at Coroborree,  but down at Shady Camp. How weird is that? Some big silver lean barra have been giving  fisho’s a work out! You may think l  had too much sun over the weekend, and its definitely not the run off but they have moved up the river with the big bait schools. The barrage went gang busters one night last week, as well as the mouth of Sampan. Barra are really on the chew down that neck of the woods. One customer came in with a report of a metre plus fish on a trolled Little Lucifer Redhead. How good is this? Sail fish and big barra in the middle of the dry!…