Happy Micks Fishing Report

by Douglas Hewett

Well as I sit here in the shop on Sunday (21/3) morning all I can see is the large dark rain cloud hovering over Palmerston. With now ex-tropical cyclone Ului heading across this vast land this sight might once again become a regular feature of our weather pattern by the end of the week hopefully over the catchment areas allowing us to get a third runoff for this season.

On the barra scene there are still lots of reports of barra being caught everywhere (except by me this week). Ray at the Buffalo Creek secure car park told me that he visited an area in Shoal Bay and managed 15 barra on Thursday last week. Mate Joe and I  went to the same area for a crab and fish; with the aim of finding some nice Shoal Bay muddies and hopefully a barra or two; but we managed to get a very respectable bag of a dozen big full muddies but as with the other boat in the river we could not find a barra on live bait or lure.

The other boat had a couple from Melbourne and a local fisho on board and they trolled and flicked the low tide hole with everything they had at their disposal for no result. Joe and I swam mullet near every snag and area that has in the past produced fish again for no result except a large cranky sting ray. Simon (one of the Melbournites) explained that they had just returned from a trip to the Roper and caught a few nice fish with the largest being 82cm.

 The quality of the crabs is nothing short of first class beautiful sweet meat and lots of it. Out of the dozen we potted there was only one female the rest were decent sized (up to 19.5cm across the carapace) bucks. All crabs were full and once steamed they were a delicious territory dinner for two nights.

 Yesterday I was speaking to a mate, and Palmerston local, Craig who said that he and his son made the trip into Mickets Creek and managed a nice bag of about 10kg of prawns.

 Reports are still flowing in about the barra at Shady Camp but watch the tides. There are a large number of bigger threadies amongst the barra and some can’t help but pick these up instead of the barra.

 The Adelaide River seems to have been a bit quiet this week with not too many reports filtering in to me here or at the Humpty Doo hotel about the river. I am still hopeful that there will be some good action there for me during this next set of neap tides look out Last Cast, Beatrice, Manton and Bald Hill creeks I will be visiting all these areas this week with a new selection of River 2 Sea Fizzers and Bubble Pops.

 On the River 2 Sea side of things those of you interested in flicking the lilly pads and weed banks of the billabongs when they are open we have a new selection of imitation frogs that by all impressions will be irresistible to both the barra and saratoga. Drop in and see for yourself.

 Out wide the jewies are still on the chew around Charles Point for those getting out there and off Dundee there have been some reports already of nice sail fish being raised and caught. The tuna schools are thick as off Blaze reef at the moment and the sails are further out wider than that. One of my former work colleagues said that he raised four and landed one small one out wide between Blaze and Sail City last week.

 There have been no real reports of mackerel as yet. If you have been lucky enough to get onto mackerel in your last few trips I would be more than interested in hearing your reports. I am at this stage planning a trip out wide of Dundee again next weekend in the hopes of getting onto a few Spaniards for some reel squealing action.

As the title says crabs, barra and sails; not to forget jewies, salmon and prawns, what more can a territory fisho ask for.

by Brian Lund

Well what can we say the fishing has been nothing short of magnificent no matter what species you are targeting. From the mighty saltwater barramundi to the coastal jewfish to the blue water reds and pelagic there is a fish or two there for everyone.

 We have had a vast number of reports flooding into the shop of huge barra being taken left, right and centre in all of the Darwin and surrounding river systems.  Be it the Adelaide River, the Daly River, Shady Camp, the Finniss Rivers, Shoal Bay, wide off Dundee or in the Harbour there is a fish there with your name on it.

 A good mate, Crash, and his partner went for a trip off Charles Point yesterday and bagged a more than decent catch of goldies and blue bone. They explained that there were a lot of bigger fish there but with the light tackle that they were using it was a bit hard to land them. All their fish were taken on local squid and pilchards.

 Another mate, Squizzy Taylor and some of his mates went to Shady for a few hours and trolled the mouth of Sampan and brought home some decent threadies to 95cm and they had a couple of very close calls with big barra loosing them to gill raking and broken leader line. Thus showing the requirement for good quality leader such as Penn 10X, Jinkai or the line of Braid Mate and Supreme leaders available at Happy Mick’s. Hopefully Squizzy may have learnt his lesson after loosing a couple of Reidy’s Big Bosses and Judges.

 My eldest son, Aaron and some of his work mates from Batchelor went to the Adelaide River on Friday and fished at the mouths of Beatrice, Manton and Scott Creeks for 7 take home bara and released at least another 12. All their fish were taken on Berkley Hollow Bellies and Squidgie Slick Rigs.

 I had a visit to the Adelaide myself last week for some very serious catch and release fun trying out some of the newer lures (and some of the old favourites) with great success on rats and some bigger silver barra. The aim of this day was to check what was working and what was not. Fishing barbless was a challenge as I had not done that since winning the Barra Nationals in 2007. I managed to hook 11 barra before getting one in the boat. For the day I boated and released 10 barra and had atleast 50 hookups. An as I was there to find out what did and did not work all I can say is that the barra are very hungry at the moment and will take most lures presented to them with the picks being Hollow Bellies, Slick rigs, Bombers, Reidy’s and the Stiffy Twitch Baits. For info on colours used and methods used feel free to drop by and have a chat.

 Last week there was a few very nice fish caught from the Adelaide including a number in the 80s and 90s a 1.01m and a 1.07m. Most of these were caught in front of me so I know the info is from a reliable source.

 The reports from the Daly have been nothing short of promising for the upcoming events and the Easter fishing expeditions. Large fish are being taken from the areas near the ‘S’ Bends and Clear Creek.

 The saltwater Finniss river and Little Finniss are well worth the fuel bill to get there for a barra as they are nearly falling over themselves to get into your boat.

 Reports from Shoal Bay have been patchy though a mate from Humpty Doo did say that he has had a ball in the Little Howard and Hope inlets with very little company (possibly because of all the river action) and is always bringing home a good feed of barra and muddies.

 On the muddie scene a customer came in this morning and reported that he and some mates went to Micket Creek over the weekend with about 20 other boats and managed to get a good feed of decent muddies and released about 20 others that though legal were smaller or not a full as the ones they kept. Well done on conservation, limit your catch not catch your limit.

 Why not get out there and take advantage of the perfect conditions we have at present beautiful weather, clear days balmy nights, limited winds and excellent fishing. For all your needs for these outings come and visit Brian or Doug for deals to suit your camping and fishing needs.

 If you have any fishing stories and photographs please feel free to email us here at Happy Mick’s and we will gladly place them on our website.

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