Happy Micks Fishing Report

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.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Fishing Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.