Fish about if you can get out!

Here comes the fishing frenzy. Following a solid week or two of great monsoonal activity, it seems everyone is champing at the bit to throw a line. It's hard to find a roadside culvert that doesnt contain at least one angler trying his luck. From Noonamah to Berry Springs, Tortilla to Adelaide River most culverts are looking fishy, but as you know there is probably only a few this early that are going to fire.

Scotts Creek crossing has had its share of fish coming already and they haven't all been rats...quite a few in the 60/70cm range, 3 and 4 inch sized soft plastics doing the trick along with small surface poppers. The Elizabeth Valley road culvert produced the odd small barra....this spot can be better than you might think when water levels are ideal, but maybe too early just yet. Other places I would recommend include Tortilla, Darwin River, Fly Creek on the Old Bynoe Road, Meade Road and Howard River's Iron Bridge on the Gunn Point Road. Keep an eye on these spots as they can be a bundle of fun if you strike the timing right.

The Daly River has produced mixed results thus far. I heard of a frustrating situation whereby two anglers were fishing side by side at Bamboo Creek. One guy brained 'em and the other got sweet...nothing! Downstream, Elizabeth Creek mouth piled on twelve fish to 79cm for one crew who described the fishing session as premature. By all accounts the creek is looking real good with plenty of water pumping and is due to perform even better shortly. The Daly is best fished "on the drop" so keep an eye on the river height via the BOM website for the best up to date info.

Talking Darwin Harbour now, those big GT's are mixing it up with the queenies at Larrakeyah Rock wall, the fish often winning the battle. They can be stubborn to stop on light gear as one local discovered yesterday...he was stripped of line and forced to head home! The Emery Point reefs returned decent Goldies, Stripeys and SaddleTail Snapper on the neaps using squid strip baits at change of tide. To be accurate, the best fish were caught an hour either side of the low when it was running just hard enough to still be fishing close to the boat. The freshwater has mixed things up for the harbour barra fishos and might take a week to settle back into some sort of rhythm again.

Larrakeyah Rock Wall is home to some powerful pelagics.

Shoal Bay is business as usual...when isn't it? Even the crabs have been responding which in my opinion is quite unusual following such wet conditions. The barra love this place; why wouldnt they, it has all the ingredients required for being an all-round hotspot and it continues to prove its worth with 80+cm fish coming almost daily in the reports through to Got One. That rockbar upstream in Buffalo Creek cops a hiding but it doesnt seem to care one bit....yet another metre plus barra came from it this week, this time on a Rapala Skitterpop.

Nothing wrong with a nice harbour goldie for the table!

We creep off the neaps now and it aint a bad building phase. Will be interesting to see what the weather has in store for us. Whichever way it goes will result in plenty of fishing now or plenty of fishing later!

News just in, for your info: the East Alligator is high up in the carpark and Magela was at 1 metre and dropping at time of writing...

All the best folks,

Craig Grosvenor

Got One Darwin

Ph (08) 89472224

Fx (08) 89472239

Email- darwin@gotone.com.au

Permalink : Author: Blog Author : Comments (0) : Filed Under: FISHING THE NT by Craig Grosvenor,