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.

by Brian Lund

Kelsey Considine with a great Goldie taken last week off Dundee!

Its is a case of deja’vu all week -  the Finniss River is going off with catches in the 20’s per boat. Reports of fish in the 80s and 90s more common than the reports of smaller fish. Speaking with a few people that have been fishing there recently they had intended on fishing the rock bars but barely got past the mouth.

The Little Finniss is also fishing well but the reports are fewer possibly because of less anglers fishing there.

On the harbour scene one of our customers Mark came in saying that he has had a couple of good sessions on snapper in Middle Arm drifting squid baits near the rock bars while waiting for his pots. The crab scene has been good from all reports but they seem to have backed off in numbers some what. The deeper waters on the incoming tides still seem to get a feed.

Reports filtering in from Shoal Bay tell a similar story with some good catches happening but not to the extent of before the rain. The barra seem to be a bit more prolific in Shoal Bay than the harbour at the moment. Most report that if the bait are there than the barra are there if there is no mullet most are saying it is not worth hanging around.

Adelaide River has again proven itself the challenge that it normally has been with a few reported on lures and more taken on live cherabin and tarpon. With the recent rains these neap tides should see an improvement around the mouths of Beatrice, Last Cast, Second Maraki and Manton Creeks over the change of the high tide and the first part of the outgoing tides.

Shady Camp is still throwing up the odd report of excellent fishing but as a couple of customers have reported you need to be there at the right time. The South Aligator has had differing reports, just yesterday I had 2 customers in here who had fished the South Aligator at the same time without knowing it 1 crew caught fish and 1 didn’t with both fishing downstream near the mouth.

Eugene Odell came in today and said that he had been fishing in Bynoe Harbour last weekend and managed to get a couple of barra and went to Corroboree Billabong and tangled with a number of tarpon over and over again.

I have not spoken to anyone who has been fishing the Daly River at the moment but with the Barra Classic starting yesterday I am sure we will start to get reports as to how the river is fishing following the last lot of rain hopefully there will be a bit more action there for the teams than there was for me when I was there a couple of weeks ago.

Charlie Chambers came in yesterday and let us know that they have been doing well in the Harbour on the 1/2 day charters for jewies. This has been reported from customers but again it has been a case of you need to be there when the fish are there. 6mile has been producing some nice snapper and some assorted reef fish on a regular basis.

The offshore scene has been relatively quiet for reports at the moment with the main reports coming from the Perons, Sail City and Dundee with good catches of the normal reef fish and the raising of sail after sail. There are some good reports of Mackeral being caught offshore from Fenton Patches to Sail City. I am hopefully going to be able to report on this scene first hand after Friday when I spend a day chasing the illusive Sail Fish intertwined with some serious bottom bouncing chasing Goldies, Coral Trout and Red Emperor.

 It has been a hard decision to make between the Finniss River Barramundi and Sail Fish so I am hoping that we wont be disappointed.

Well the school holidays are over and the kids are back at school, for those of us lucky enough it could mean back to the good old fishing spots or for the rest it probably means back to the old grind stone to pay for the next round of fishing trips.

On the fishing scene there have been some very good reports coming in and there are also some not so good. From all reports the saltwater Finniss River is the pick of the spots at the moment for the barra fishermen. I have been speaking to a lot of people who have fished the Finniss River and have had numerous reports of in excess of 15 fish per boat.

Shady Camp is still fishing well for some people with some very respectable fish being caught the mouths of both Sampan and Tommycut. A friend of mine that works for a charter operator in the area said that he has recently managed a couple of fish well over the magic meter mark away from the mouth. The jewfish hunters have been reporting some solid catches at the jewie reefs out from Sampan.

A mate, Joe, and I went for a fish to the Daly River last Saturday for very little reward. The water was very low and the fish were few and far between. We started at Tommy’s Creek for a flick managing a few rats and some Long Toms. From there we travelled downstream fishing No Fish, the S Bends, Elizabeth Creek and Cat Fish Creeks with limited success bagging just one legal sized barra for the day. Talking to both people on the river and at Banyan Farm the fishing at the Daly has been very hard recently and the only way that most people are managing a good haul of barra is by tempting them with a well presented live Cherabin. There have been some reports of good fish being caught mainly at night near Clear Creek with a few exceptions along the way, Dennis Smart and his wife managed about 17 fish to 80cm on Saturday fishing a little secret snag some distance downstream from where Joe and I were.

There was a good colour change and run off coming from nearly all the creeks but there was not the fish to go with it. While we were at Lizzy Creek there were a few smaller boofs and a couple of rats taken on other boats on live bait. Cat Fish Creek was alive with boofs upstream amongst the snags and fallen timber but again these were mainly smaller sounding fish and impossible to get to without treking up the muddy banks (no thanks not too sure if the life insurance covers crocodile attacks while chasing barra).

A customer visiting from NSW explained that they had been at the Daly for the spring tides and there was a number of barra caught during the week all on live cherabin.  He explained that as the tide moved to the neap phase the fish went off the bite – typical I visited too late.

Corroboree is now open but from all reports that I have had this week there is still too much water out there and this recent rain will do nothing to drop the levels. The road out there is great at the moment just watch the softer spot a few km from the ramp.

The Adelaide River has become quite a challenge to get fish for most however I did have a customer come in and show photos of a 96cm specimen caught in Manton Creek. Again with this recent rain hopefully the river levels will rise a bit and produce another mini runoff for the Adelaide during the next set of neaps.

Bluewater reports have also been very mixed with most reports of it being too rough to venture too far off shore. One customer reported that they fishing at the Peron Islands from Wednesday to Monday last week and managed 79 good barra and a great selection of assorted reef fish and jewies. A mate Crash went for a fish off of Dundee last Friday and reported that it was too rough to have a good fish but still managed to get a good number of solid Trickies and Goldies. The weather prevented Crash from chasing sails and Tuna schools.

The sail scene seems to be hotting up quite nicely for this time of year last weekend a close friend (who does not want to be named) went to an area where we fished the Bill Fish comp last year and he explained that he was trolling some serious skirts in hopes to raise a sail or two. He managed a large hit on one of the teasers that broke the engine wash in a big way. He said that he saw evidence of sails but never managed a to get a hook up this time round. He did end up with a number if good tuna on the Kokoda Soft Head Pluggas that he got from us here at the shop.

My eldest son Aaron and some mates from work went to Bynoe Harbour last Wednesday and managed to pick up two jewies from out the front of Crab Claw the first was 1.01m and the next 1.09m. They also managed a number of smaller reef fish.

On the crabbing scene there have been excellent reports coming from both harbours, Saltwater Arm and Shoal Bay crabbing the deeper water on the incoming tide using chicken carcasses as bait with some huge full bucks being caught. Last week I managed to get a feed from Middle Arm with most of the crabs coming from the main Blackmore River and not so many from up the creeks. This can only change once this rain leaves us and the dry season starts.

By Brian Lund

Tony Considine got onlto a mob of big goldies wide off Dundee last week. Many of them were over 8 kilos!

As the rest of Darwin are readying themselves to return to work after the four day break I am sitting in the shop looking at the literal flotilla of boats heading home. There have been a lot of very good reports from most of the fishos coming into the shop.

I would say that 90% of the fishos that ventured out for Easter caught their fair share of barra, jewies and mudcrabs. The reports of good catches of muddies have been flowing in from Darwin Harbour, Bynoe Harbour, Saltwater Arm and Shaol Bay. Catches of 12 to 18 good bucks have not been unusual. The unusual thing is that at the moment the crabs are coming from the harbour areas and not from the creeks.A mate and I  went to Shoal Bay last week and secured a dozen very healthy very full bucks in time for Easter.

On the barra scene it seems that the net closure at the Finniss must be just what the doctor ordered as  reports are that are  more barra there than fishermen at the moment. As hard as that is to believe with the number of boats at Dundee on any given weekend. Reports from Corroboree are looking good however very patchy. I was speaking with a local from down the track yesterday and he claimed that he and his family boated 8 nice solid barra but he admitted that there was a lot of water between the fish and still a lot of water over the flood plains. A few others that I spoke to said that they did not do too well with 1 or 2 and others claimed that they were only able to catch good solid tarpon and saratoga. If you’re interested in Tarpon, well its the place to go – they seem to be hanging around in massive schools at the moment.

The Adelaide River seems to have reverted back to being a challenge for barra fishermen with not a lot of reports coming in of fish being caught. On Friday I ventured to the Adelaide mainly to tow back a mates boat that broke down near Goat Island but could not resist the opportunity to try for a barra or two so armed with a Guns and Roses Bomber, a Gold Bomber and selection of Hollow Bellies me and my eldest son attempted to turn Beatrice, Last Cast and some of the other creeks to foam without success. Talking to Kye at Goat Island there has not been a lot of fish caught in the Adelaide River for these tides however there are large numbers of cherabin available.

The few reports that I have received from further afield from Dundee have been mixed with reports of great catches from Channel Point and around the Perons anything from jewies, big reds, trout, snapper and sail fish to it being too rough to get too far offshore for the smaller boats. One customer came in this morning and explained that he and a mate went to a spot about 30 mile off Dundee over Easter and cleaned up on big Red Emperor, big Nannygai and Coral Trout. The reached their bag limit in 1 ½ hours each day. He said that there were sails everywhere out there but they were not interested in chasing them so they left them alone. 

 The upcoming sail fish season will be an absolute cracker if it continues to improve from here. Reports are that there were a number of sails raised and boated that weekend with a friend of mine catching and releasing 3 all around the 1.2m mark.

On the last neap tides I took a couple of blokes for a bottom bash of Long Lost managing a few nice trickies, goldies, cod, red emperor and other assorted reef fish all in the morning with the off shore breezes. Later that day the tuna started busting up everywhere outside of Long Lost. Not wanting to miss out on the fun we went chasing them only to find that there were small and medium sails all through the schools. Not having any sail gear with us we had to just put up with the sails attacking the tuna spinners on our retrieve. Having learnt my lesson I now have a selection of Kokoda Soft Head Pluggas on board in a range of sizes just for moments like these.