Fishing Report 9.12.09
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….