Happy Micks Fishing Report

How good is this weather? A spell of mild winds and good tides have been getting the boating fishos spread out far and wide, with billfish reports last week around Dundee and Sail City. Quite a few boats headed out to that neck of the woods to tangle with a sailfish, and some of the larger mackerel that inhabit this area. The  Perons Islands were on song with some good reef fish action and the odd big jewfish. Bateman Shoals was a stand out, with a lot of quality golden snapper, and big mackerel coming on the chew at daylight with the change of tide. There are  also some quality barra along the foreshore of Fogg Bay, and the Finnis continues to impress, with some significant numbers of fish despite the colder weather. Come to think of it, the best days fishing we ever had down there was during a day so cold we still had jackets and beanies on after lunch!

Closer to home there are mud crabs galore and still some good golden snapper and bream in many of the estuaries around Darwin Harbour. With snapper up to the one half kilo mark this is not bad for a local harbour and a top table fish – and not forgeting the humble bream and great fun on light gear ..

 I ventured out on the harbour on Monday with good mate Mitch from N.T Elite Cycles. Within the first ten minutes of fishing Mitch had a barra that came surging out of the shallows of a mud flat and hit his Junior B52  four  or five times times without hooking up. The barra then turned to my lure,  hit it another three times. Are the barra developing hook proof jaws? This fish was around the 65cm, and  missed twelve sets of hooks in quick time. This is very frustrating! Sight fishing on the flats is not as easy as people think. It can be very exciting,  but the degree of difficulty is higher, as is the level of excitement. Seeing Barramundi, Threadfin Salmon Queenfish Trevally, Stingray, bream and you name it  cruising the flats, and  chasing smaller bait fish, is great to watch and keeps you on your toes. Sighting a bow wave or moving shadows in the water can be all the indication you will get of the presence of a big fish. One area we fished had barra up to 80cms rolling around feeding, but totally ignored everything we threw at them from Bombers,  small B52’s,  poppers, and  fizzers, trying  to intice a strike.  l think the only method that will work in this situation is live bait! So its back to the drawing board on this one.

On the other hand snapper are still on the chew in Middle Arm and some of the Rock Bars in West Arm and East Arm.  There have  been good numbers of muddies around , so you cant complain about taking home a feed of mud crab and snapper fillets. 

Land based anglers have been having fun at Larrakeyah in the late afternoons with hords of hungry Queenfish bashing bait around with the tide. Some bigger trevally are taking unweighted drift baits,  usually pilchards. However many are winning their freedom as most of the fishos chasing the queenfish for sport are using lighter line. Another exciting sport fish that has been around this area and East piont is the Milkfish. Not a good eating fish but one hell of a turbo charged fighting sport fish. These things should get put on the radar as they  go from 0 to 100 in a split second. These  blisting runs are something to behold, and to be on the other end holding a rod as they motor off, with the line cutting the water at a rate of knots and a spray of  wateris an awesome sight.  Milkfish wont take big baitsl, but they do eat bread,  and a nice berely trail of bread cubes will often bring them right to the boat. Most people are using fly gear,  usually  a  9/10 weight,   or lighter spin gear with a large line capacity. If you are using fly gear you do need a lot of backing.  These are  speed demons, and when you hook a really big one, the oversize fork tail starts moving  like a humming birds wings. Thats some serious power, and as the line dissappears of the spool at an alarming rate, the angler may question the wisdom of all this!

Milkfish can strip line from reels faster than any other fish I know of and they fight hard and clean. Just remember that they aren’t a table fish, and they should be released with care and respect to fight another day. 

Down at the Daly River the Barra Classic was another great success,  with heaps of fish around the 80cm plus mark being caught. One of our customers fished the Daly just before the competition started and got into some rippa barra around the 90cm mark,  and landed one monster over the metre mark. Bigger lures are still working and green is one of the picks as well as blue and yellow. Choice of lures are Classics 120 and 160, Barrabaits and RMG Scorpions. The under rated Reidy’s Judge in the 3 to 5  metre range have been doing the job on the bigger fish, but many lures have been left in the timber, the result of rampaging fish way to strong to stop in the timber. Take more then one of your favourite lures as these big barra likes to keep them! 

Coroborree has improved as the water levels drop, with fish coming on at first light and just before night fall. Big  saratoga have been also hitting lures intended for barra. Hardies billabong has been on the improve,  with bigger fish around the 70cm plus mark, not in big numbers but they are there,  showing up on the sounder.  Change lures every couple of trolls if you do see them on the sounder,  or, for a more stealthy approach, get a good drift going over the snag or structure,  casting into and around it, with plastics or deeper diving lures. You never know a different approach may get you a barra or two..

 The tides are building  this weekend,  coming into neaps around Tuesday,  and if  the wind  stays OK it should be good around Charles Point and Bynoe mouth for a jewfish and pelagics. With the bigger tides over the weekend l would be heading up one of the many harbour estuaries. It should be good for a bream or a snapper. Even the mouth of the Adelaide will be worth a hit as well as Leders Creek  on the changes, l also heard of a 120cm jewfish caught at the Rock in Shoal Bay on some fresh mullet fillet. Lee Piont is well worth a fish for a mackerel or chasing the tuna around on light spin gear so remember to be sun smart and  tight lines…

The exciting North Australian FISH FINDER 8 reference book is 364 pages.

* Cape York’s West Coast (Gulf of Carpentaria) remote community camps

There’s a vastly expanded WA section … *The S-Bend near Greenough *Huge Pilbara coverage – the shallow estuaries around Port Hedland and Karratha at low tide

The 2009/10 book now includes the NSW coast from border to border, including …

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By Brenton Marschke

EXCLUSIVE: FREE LURE OFFER FOR ONLINE CUSTOMERS ONLY!

The famous Little Lucifer is the standout lure of this size.

The lure’s designer Jeff Reid, once told Mick “I think the Little Lucifer had the potential of being the greatest barra lure of all time.”

A quick glance into the tackle boxes of our most successful fishing guides would suggest that that prediction may already be fact. True barra fisherman go nowhere without a vast selection of Little Lucifers!

With the Reidy`s fast tail beat, body roll & internal rattles this lure is irresistible to many types of fish. The lure body is made from ABS plastic & the bib is made of polycarbonate, the lure weighs 11g & is 65mm in length excluding the bib.

There are two models, the original, made here in Darwin, which runs at about 2.5 metres, and the Moulded Bib model, designed originally for export, but such a hit with the guides it also has become a legend.

The optimum depth for trolling billabongs is between 6 and 10 feet. We often run the original model on the inside next to the bank and the Export Model slightly deeper on the outside.

Lucifers can be little devils at times!

AS a fishing guide, I have used both variations of Little Lucifer for the last ten years, as well as on my own personal fishing trips. They are a proven and reliable lure, especially here in the tropics,  and always seem to get the results.

l have to say they are one of the most lethal lures on the market for barra, jacks and all other species of sport fish, with a nice tight action, and just enough roll to make them interesting.

Little Lucifer Moulded Bib

Little Lucifer  is effective in any of our many billabongs,  being the most popular in this environment,  and now being used in the saltwater for trevally queen fish and other pelagics, as well as barra and bream. bream.

There is a great range of colours and depth from  2.5metre to 3metre. They might be small but they have undone many a big fish.

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Allison Smart takes the trifecta with these three beauties caught at the Perons last weekend. Come in and collect a FREE Octo Sniper Jig, Alison.

With neap tides last week there was a lot bait sold,  and the number of crab pots walking out the door tells the story.

 The weather has been good to get out in the blue water and have a crack at those hard pulling fish, as well as getting up in those estuary creeks chasing muddies and barra. It’s looking like 10 knots or less in the morning calming down after lunch both days. Hope they’re right!

Reef fisho's note. Things are changing out there. Check out the bait! All these fish were taken on the new Octo Sniper jigs currently available instore.

Folks fishing creeks around Darwin Harbour and Bynoe are reporting quality catches of muddies up to 10 or so a trip. Shoal Bay has been another hot spot for muddies and the Narrows and Leeders Creek been producing muddies and some big blue salmon around the mouth,  as well the odd jewfish abit further east. The Adelaide has been doing well on jewfish and barramundi. It seems all tides are working, and  one regular customer has been fishing nearly every weekend while the wife was away. He said he’s not going to miss out. 

 Dundee has been going great guns around Blaze and more towards the Perons Islands,  with 2 to 3 kilo golden Snapper being boated. The Mackerel are everywhere and there are plenty of sailfish being reported at Sail City, with one boat raising a dozen last weekend.  There are some big bait schools out there at the moment,  and trolling  in between reef spots has been producing Mackerel,  so this area has been fishing really well. The Finnis River has been consistent,  with barra and the odd mud crab coming in on the bigger tides.

This weekend you may have to change your fishing tactics.  One southerner just cast a Classic lure in at the mouth of the Finnis,  and just trolled up the river one side then back down the other side and boated 12 nice barra up to 75cm. Not bad for the first time on the river. Closer to home Lee Point has seen some pelagic action. Tuna schools have mackerel mixed in with them.  Bottlewasher  has been fishing well with mack’s and the odd jewfish. In the harbour around Larrakeyah  and Emery Point and  Talc Head has seen tuna action,  busting into schools of fleeing bait,  but they are getting flighty so remember try to get in front of them cut the motor they will hang around more if you do this.. (Click here for more on catching tuna)

 If Coroborree was a race track it would be marked down to slow. They are still getting small fish in the billabong, but  only a few people are getting more than ten fish a trip. Saratoga are in good numbers and they are putting up a good show. Shady camp has a lot of smaller fish in the fresh water side. The lillies up on the top rock bar are thick and you hear a lot of boofing going on in amongst them. There are still catching them off the Barrage at night.  Hardies has been very spasmodic but they are mainly getting fish early morning or at night…

 Daly has been fishing very well, with some good numbers of 65 to 85cm fish caught.  l have been told of  a metre fish landed up near the crossing. It  goes to show that you do not have to travel to get big barramundi down the Daly. People have been getting up above the crossing to keep clear of the Barra Classic that is on at the moment,  and banging some good fish on live bait around snags. With this weekend’s large tides it should be good to chase a few muddies and a barra on live bait. Cast a lure around if you are live baiting,  you never know.

The forecast is looking good for the weekend so  if you want to give the motor a good run, The Vernons Bathurst, and Dundee Wide should be your sights. In closer,  chase some tuna either at Lee Point or Darwin Harbour.  Be sun smart and tight lines.

  As the weather has a bit more of a chill in it, the fishing has become a touch harder. With the cooler water temperatures having  some sort of effect on how the fish bite, l guess you could say a lot of factors afect how the fish are going to react. But as fish have to adapt to changing conditions.

Since the cooler water is here to stay for the next six months, to be successful on a day out on the water, we need to adapt our tactics and tecniques.  Some people find it hard to eat when the cooler weather sets in, and prefer warm spots to make them  feel more comfortable. But regardless, ulimatley hunger will dictate, and a feed will be a necessity.  I reckon fish are not much different – even after an extended cold snap eventually they will have to eat!

With the weather playing a major part in planning fishing trips,  most mornings have been rough and calming down by the afternoon. Not much on the jewfish and snapper scene, although Mick went in Tony Considine’s new 640 Barcrusher to Lorna Shoals last Sunday and despite the forecast had a rerasonably good day landing 3 big jewies and a mixed bag of reef fish. (more…)

We launched at the new boat ramp a couple of weeks ago, the day after it opened.

It was very impressive; easy to use and handle the boat, great access to passengers using the pontoon, and good retreiving the boat later. One seasoned operator, a customer well known to us, had the beginnings of a tear in his eye after coming back in “Someone really loves us after all” he said!

I wish that was the end of the story – not so.

Last weekend I had a stream of customers coming into the shop, particularly on the Sunday, when the winds were up. Some complained of difficulties launching and retreiving, others said it was so dangerous they went to the old ramp instead. There were claims that it was so dangerous that someone was bound to have a serious accident,  and that it should be immediatley closed in the name of public safety. Strong words.

I jumped in the car after lunch and headed off to see what the fuss was about. They weren’t joking! (more…)

Fishing in the Top End  can be very trying,  and as one season finishes another starts the window of opportunity becomes very important. This is usually the time for planning long range trips, say over to the Islands or along the coast,  with the cooler weather bringing fresher morning tand before the southeasteries set in. However, as we speak we have had 20 knot winds for the last week. Whether we are going to get those calm, flat days before the dry sets in proper is anyones guess.

Fishing has been on the good side of things with nice mackerel coming from Lee Point and surrounding areas, the Vernons and so on, but now the stronger winds have arrived  the seas around the harbour and outer harbour have been pretty rough in the morning and becoming better in the late afternoon. The barra have slowed but l’m hearing that the Daly has been fishing very well in the last week and a half with good numbers in the 80cm mark and 90cm mark,   and the magic metre fish have been caught and lost in the  snags that make the Daly so interesting. Fishing the up and coming Barra Classic might be  interesting because its staring to seriously cool off – lets  just hope that they don’t hear the words ”you should have been last week”. (more…)

Well, here’s another long weekend  coming up,  and the mornings are definately getting cooler.

 The fishing has been good, especially in the blue water,  with the transition from the wet to dry that usually gives us a couple of weeks of calmer seas. 

There are still bits and pieces of  the run-off,  mainly the lower Daly and upper South Alligator.  Reports are still coming in of some big barra getting caught in these areas. As we reported last week, tuna have been sighted in the harbour, particularly around Six Mile buoy,  and also the mouth of Bynoe. Mackerel have been mixed in with them, both  Greys and Spaniards, and  the jewfish have been active around Charles Point.

 South Alligator barra have been on the chew right on the change of tides on the rock bars at Nourlangi and Reichardt’s,  with some  quality fish being caught during the last of the run off. (more…)