Happy Micks Fishing Report

happy day fish that people dream about..

With another year coming to a close, it has been another great oner for fishing in both
   blue water and the fresh. I guess the standout was the Sailfish mayhem off Dundee and
   around the Peron Islands earlier in the year. The lucky ones that tangled with them had many
   stories to tell, getting every one fired up to go out and chase these speed demons of the sea.
 One sailfish was caught on the every trusty Maribou jig intended for a tuna! more

 The wet season finish a month early but despite that the run off was short and sweet with most big rivers firing up  like the Daly river and the Shady Camp S bend with plenty of quality
   Barramundi being caught and lots of them.

The Billabongs fished well this year with Corroborree being the most visited freshwater water hole with some real large fish coming from the area.
   

Most boats have been fishing around  the  Harbour with some nice mixed reef fish. Others have been heading  a bit wider around Charlies Point for the many jewfish being caught but l have heard of snapper other reef fish been in good numbers out there as well.

 
Charles Pt and the mouth of Bynoe Harbour have been the pick of areas , with the Adelaide Narrows also
  producing Snapper and Barramundi as the tide comes in. Still in that area the Vernons has been very good
  for the bait fisherman,  as well as for the jig fishing folk with some great sized snapper and the odd coral
  trout thrown in the mix of things. 

The Shoal bay area came alive last week with qaulity barra being caught and lost, live bait as well as big lures like bombers and killalures were the most effective,   and kept fisho’s on the toes with nice action as the tide rolled back in – some were too big and busted off on the rock. Maybe jewfish l’m thinking.

With most bigger rivers now starting to flow there have been some great reports from them, with the first push of water to get things flowing it seems  that alot of land locked barra are on the move trying to get to better parts of the river or the salt water sections of the river system. Heaps of fish were stuck as the wet stopped so quickly.  

 Shady camp last week was going nuts. Almost a fish a cast on surface lures. Awesome fishing up to 85cm and consistent 70cm fish. As it,s flowing over the Barrage the fishing has slowed right down and the fish kill that happens every  year is now happening. Very sad to see so many barra dead. 

The Daly river at the crossing also went gang  busters and the Finnis River and the Marrikai Road where the Adelaide river flows over had its fair share  of great barra action with fish on the move down the river eating anything they could get their mouth around.

Iin the New Year the Harbour will be a great spot to try to kick start the barra  count for the year. l might be giving West Arm and Little West arm a hit   and even Woods Inlet on the incoming tide which are around lunch time. 

If you are planning to get away for a couple of days the Daly river is another place to try. We’ve  been hearing good reports from there with some nice barra  on the chew. If the river does not rise it should be good.
  Bynoe Harbour will be another place if you want to get out of town.  l like the area around Six Pack Creek.  As you come out  of the creek you are at the bottom of Indian Island and can sneak up to Sims Reef on the change of tide for a jewfish.
  Six pack is a fine river system for snapper, barra and jewfish. Crabs are also plentiful in the system and ita good place to get out of the wind  if it blows up.

Closer to home the Narrows will be worth a shot on the change of tide for a jewfish. Its a big tide so a small
  window before the tide becomes too strong and you can’t keep connected to the bottom but the area will be worth a troll or a cast around the rocks at the mouth of Saltwater Arm and along the Narrows itself.

It is a bit early for the culverts  but Scotts Creek is starting to run and there have been some barra caught there.

Remember to play it safe and keep one eye on the weather- no fish is worth put yourself in danger for, if the rain keeps falling l cant wait for next year hopefully we can get a few more   monsoons in mix of things. Should be good, keep safe from the team at Happy Micks Happy New Year..

The monsoonal deluge has kicked off the wet with gusto, with a  months rain average in three days from the tropical low that went past the Northern territory coast over last weekend. It’s a great shame as they were a cracker set of tides over the weekend, and gave no opportunity or option to get out because of the weather.

A few die hard fishos donned the rain coats and fished with some very good results. Not a good practice but they are very competent fishos and never ventured out any further than they had to. Barra snapper and jacks were caught around rocky headls and with waves chrashing onto the stones, turning the water into a foamy mess, but it seemed to bring fish the on. For myself, I had a very dry time of it, opting for the maintainence side of things’ doing the reels and  reversing line back onto reels etc. Others that  braved the wet had a ball around the rocks of East Point catching Queenfish and barra and a few rock cod. It was a nice result for the effort, the barra were around the 70cm mark hitting surface lures. These guys do not miss any opportunity  to wet a line and in this case they had fun as well looking like drowned rats but happy ones to say the least , they were rewarded and you can’t knock them for that. 

  Before the low hit us on the Friday tides were coming into some superb neaps.  Vernon’s and Lorna Shoals were good spots that produced great size coral trout as well as snapper up to 2.5kg and  lots of  tricky Snapper as they seem to haunt  this area a fair bit. Further down off Dundee Beach, around  Point Blaze there were some arm stretching and rod bending. Big golden Snapper up to 75cm and bigger  hit the deck so one happy fishing  group was telling me. It was fast and furious, soon as the bait or jig hit the bottom it was “ON’’ and  certainly in plenty of good numbers and sizes, they had to stop fishing as they bagged out very quickly, changing fishing tactics, then catching a few jewfish it seemed that they (jewfish) were also very willing and ready to feed what ever  was presented  to them. 

Its great when a fishing trip just goes to plan and everything clicks with a good swag of  top quality table fish for the Christmas dinner just add prawns and you got your self a winner: a great Aussie Christmas BBQ lunch or dinner feed. 

  Where to go over the weekend? If we get a bit of clear weather,  it should be good to hit the harbour on this great weekend  tides, but please take note that there are still wind warnings in place so jump online to the www.bom.gov.au  sight for a quick look and plan for what the day has in store. The word is that fishing in the many Harbour arms the large amounts of mullet that were around couple of weeks ago have dwindled down to small schools, and some areas hardly any. On the other hand large amounts of Archer Fish instead of the mulle, they  seemed to be everywhere. It makes things hard when the bait is not there, but the fish will be still around, so casting 6 inch plastics and the larger lures, you  might get a good re-action from fish that might want more then a small prawn. The whole harbour should fish well , don’t forget the vinegar as there have been some BoxJellyfish around so check your cast net for tentacles’ left behind from your previous cast, before you throw it over your shoulders. There is only one weekend left before Christmas come in and check us out , have a great and safe  weekend from the team of Happy Micks.    

 Fishing Report

Hats off to the Government and the fisheries department  for it’s wonderful and successful  work on managing this great fishery that has developed in the Harbour and other areas around Darwin and most fishing folk abide by the laws and limits, there are still a few grey areas in the fishery and netting is one of the big talking points and l hope they can resolve this by buying back the nets in the very near future Chambers Bay and Fogg Bay the main ones, hopefully it will be a  win, win situation and the netters get what they are worth as they still have to make a living and pay bills like anyone else, the money l think is in tourism and every one benefits from the dollar that will come in to the Northern Territory through tourism helps every one, making jobs etc , my point is, l was fishing the other day in Darwin harbour,we caught 12 barra and lost quite a few, we saw quite a few more moving around up in the shallows as the tide fell and the run back in,  some were not all that small either, the fish we did manager to stay connected too, were around the 79cm mark losing bigger fish in hand to hand combat trying to keep them from going back into the mangroves or cutting us off on rocks or pulling hooks as you thumb lock them, losing fish instead of the lure of the day, as the tide poured out from the feeder creeks and then back in, best thing is that l’m hearing better reports of fishos locking horns with fish well over the meter mark as well as landing them, you would think that you were fishing in a remote area, not on the door step and in sight of the CBD of a growing city of Darwin, it was not as flat out like you would find in the remote places with every cast a fish but working reasonably hard for a more then good result, it was more then consistent  with many species of fish we encountered just by casting a few lures around and thinking out side the square.

 We did think outside the square when things slowed at the bottom of the tide and when the water goes slack and bait fish get nerves before the water comes back in, by down sizing leader and lure size  the results was pretty quick, hooking into the barra and other species of fish even caught a few Flathead, what we did was down size leader size by 40lb down to a 20lb fluorocarbon leader which is a quite hard wearing leader in its self and a very tinny plastic or surface lure like a small tango dancer and cast up hard up into shallow water where you would think twice before casting, but the fish were there once the tide was moving back in , my theory is that and l guess there are many, with such a big movement in the tide, fish get up in the shallow water and the Mullet and prawns get pushed up to them in current and eddies with hard pushing and turbulent tide water movement when the tide moves quickly back in, which was the case with massive tides that we had over last weekend, the barra  don’t have to work by fighting current to have a feed, the visual sight was more then pleasing, with holes in the water where the lures once were, and then silver chrome barra bouncing all over the surface trying to get rid of the lure that is stuck in the side of the head, it’s kind like a rodeo bull getting let out of the gates and jumping and going to town trying to get rid of it’s annoying ride , with such light leader it makes things more interesting, don’t want to get rubbed off by there hard and bony jaws or cut off on it’s gill plates, with each jump looking where the fish has the lure lodged, we found most of the fish had the lure right in the more fleshy put of the corner of the jaw, with little chance of getting rubbed off, but with hard fast powerful runs in shallow water and consistent jumping and head shakes we still managed to get the hard good bye, with lures heading skywards at light speed,when they depart from the barra get some serious air, it’s the high and lows of it, that’s why they are such sort after fish and by looking after this great Icon the fishing in the Northern Territory should be good for the future, as well as  look after all the other fish that come under the new rules regulations that the Northern Territory Fisheries has put in place, if every one abides by all regulations and bag and size limits, in a couple of years things will be great for the fishing folk  that live here in this great Territory and for future generations. 

With the barra and snapper caught over the big tide in the Harbour Arms on the rock bars, this weekend should be great for wetting a bait or jigging, still might catch a barra or two but the movement is not as big, still to chase a few barra over the many huge mud flats that are in the harbour, the Mouth of West arm and Little West Arm will be worth a early morning try,working snake drains and deep gutters that are petty visible with the water being clear, deeper water around the harbour and outer harbour the likes off Fentons Patchs South Gutter will be another good spot being back before this big gusty storms that have been brewing up most afternoons so keep one eye on the sky while you are out there fishing , Shoal bay will be good on the neaps, it was quite out there last week by if you cast your mind back couple of weeks ago the fishing was very good for the big salt water barra, the mouth of Leaders Will be another good place to have a early morning troll with the good morning lows before heading out to the Vernons Islands and Hotham should be worth a trip,nice reports of snapper from the Perons to the Vernons as well as coral trout in the mix of things,  so there is plenty of fishing options as the tide are looking great,so keep eye on the weather and play it safe from the team from happy micks have a great weekend….              

Fishing Report

 The weather has become more active with good rains falling inland, hopefully the rain will kick on and  things become more wet, making all the rivers start to fill and start flowing to flush them out to get things happening for the run off, the fishing reports have been good for the blue water, from out the front of Darwin snapper and some jewfish are being caught, the Barra are not to be left out with some nice reports in the shoal bay area with good size barra around the 90cm mark with a few stonkers over the meter , they said Saturday went the best over the weekend with some big female barra on the chew  getting ready for the first of the breeding which is in December so handle with care and release them, once they have done the job laying there eggs there are  very spent and lose condition and look unhealthy and become more hell bent on recovery and to eat everything they can get there big bucket mouth on,  l have heard that some fishos that they have caught barra on dead baits just left in the current letting the movement push it around, so December gets better for a chance for a big saltwater barra, but they are usually hard up and have a bigger recovery time so make sure on the release they are back to full strength,l remember one year in Shoal Bay seeing some big sharks move over the flats smashing into big barra that had no chance or power to get away,the big sharks kept mowing them down and cutting them in half, we weighed one floating barra that had a short back and sides, it weighed 12kg and the shark had knocked off just under half of the big barra.

The blue water over the neaps performed good with Jewfish and snapper the main catches with Six mile Buoy being a good place for fishing for both species, some of the snapper have been reaching  the 3 kilo mark and jewfish biting on the change of the tide, further down the coast line off  blaze and Peron Island had some good sessions on mixed bags of reef fish, Red emperors up to 4kg coming up a bit wider off Peron Islands with some Goldern Snapper around the same size, the Jewfish closer to the Peron Island jewfish in the shallower water have been on song and big one’s to boot up to 130cm in length, back up the Darwin area  Lee point  has still the odd Mackerel floating about with one angler losing lures as they were not using wire on the troll, they did manage a few big Queen fish, GT’s and golden trevally and a smaller school Mackerel, in the deep water around the Verons Islands with  great neaps it fished well for Mackerel and Big GT’s jigging plastics and local squid did the trick on the reefies. Trolling big red head lures were the go for the Mackerel and GT”s patrolling the area.

 Still in that area close in to the mouth of Leaders Creek some nice barra and threadfins salmon have been caught, either live bait or trolling the mouth with big lures such as Barra Classic and killulure Barra Baits. Some are using nice bright lures down to the more natural colours just keep changing lures until you get the desired re-action , mouth of the Adelaide river Salt water arm has been another good place to tangle with a barra or even Golden Snapper up to  2 kilo’s, that  are on and around the rock bars, there are a few in this area, so bounce the deeper lures over it or cast soft plastics at them and let them sink down and work the rock bar with a plastics slow raising the rod and jigging making it look like a injured bait fish, Shoal bay with the big tides this weekend it might make things a little bit hard especially if we get an afternoon storm making the water like pea soup and  very dirty, so early morning trolling around King Creek  might be good, it went gang busters last week on the neap tides, the barra are there just have to change tactics by trolling the mouth might get the thumbs up or even a troll around the rock is another option.

 With big tides this weekend the Harbour will be more then worth a shot for a barra or salmon blue and threadfin, in the gutters and flats as the water empties out of them, they are very big springs around the full moon well under the 1 meter mark so there will be little water around giving the fishos the upper hand maybe, once again if we get an afternoon rain it can change things in a big way, changing fishing tactics by working colour change as the tide pushes in, on corners or bays as barra and most species like it as it gives them great cover for the ambush so work the colour change with surfaces lures or bigger shallower lures you might be surprised, the top of tides might be a small window for the bait fisher folk as they are pretty big tide movement, myself like the low changing back to the high as this brings cleaner water and bait back in to the system and fish really get on the job with feeding, so check out B.O.M for the weathre up dates for the day on our wed site and slip slop slap and now slide on the sunnies take heaps of water have a great weekend from the team from Happy Micks.