North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

The year 2005 will be remembered as an average one for Top End barramundi fishermen.

But it was a year that saw some good reef fishing, and a great run of winter spanish mackerel just off Darwin.

It all started with an average poor wet season.

By mid-March there had been little rain and barramundi fishermen were in despair because the annual run-off season was looking bleak.

Then category five Cyclone Ingrid followed the Top End coastline from Nhulunbuy across to the Kimberley, and still the big rainfall never came - but just enough to get the creeks working.

Most of the big cyclone's deluge fell at sea and over part of the Victoria River catchment.

Fortunately there wasn't too much damage from the cyclone - it went over Cobourg Beach Huts at Port Essington and Cape Don Fishing Lodge - both popular fishing venues - and a couple of island communities were hard hit.

Little Faraway Bay resort in the WA's Kimberley was badly damaged but rebuilt in record time.

Catches at the subsequent Barra Nationals and Barra Classic were below average probably because the Daly River didn't stay in flood long enough to bring lots of fish up the river.

The big surprise was the Adelaide River, which fished well in selected areas for a short period during late March - possibly a sign that the commercial netting ban put in places two years ago was starting to have an effect.

Everyone's eyes will be on the Adelaide this year.

Offshore, there seemed to be more coral trout and cobia showing up in catches than usual, with Darwin-based charter operators such as Equinox, Island Explorer, Arafura Bluewater Charters, Gold Cat Fishing Charters and Territory Charters experiencing some excellent fishing on the wide reefs.

In Fog Bay, Des Puddey of Dundee Bluewater Charters had a good year with red emperor and golden snapper, as well as countless tricky snapper, while Bob Morris at Shoal Bay Boat Hire started exploring the Vernon Island creeks and found good mangrove jacks and even several Queensland groper.

Harbour charter operator Tom Kontis of King Kontis Fishing Tours said his jewfish catches were down this year, but golden snapper were about in healthy numbers - he was the only boat to land a snapper in a harbour competition during the dry season.

Harbour barramundi fishing has been good - my regular haunts in East Arm have had plenty of fish in the 65cm to 75cm range - the average size seems to be about 10cm up on the year before, and everyone else seems to be doing well on Darwin barramundi.

Middle Arm fishermen are reporting hordes of undersize barramundi - probably no surprise given that the NT Government put several thousand young barramundi into the harbour two years ago.

This stocking of the harbour may well be useful even if it is not "natural" - there is a lot of fishing pressure on the harbour and big female breeder barramundi probably aren't around in the numbers they would have been 100 years ago.

One thing is certain, the harbour has swarms of blue and threadfin salmon.

The year 2005 will be remembered as a surprise year for famous Corroboree Billabong on the Mary River - many people had predicted a poor year for the lagoon because the Mary River was not in flood for long during the wet season.

But the truth is that Corroboree fished well, and probably because it was a warm year it never really shut down as often happens in the coolest months of June and July.

Fishing guides reported good fishing in Corroboree right through 2005.

Other good news during 2005 was the sinking of the Kay-Lee off Lee Point to add to the existing Tippers Reef - one of three artificial reefs in the area.

The Lee Point reefs have been a great success story - especially the Bottlewasher - but they are often congested on weekends, because big jewfish, mackerel and trevally are regularly biting.

The new kid on the block in the local fishing retail industry - Craig Grosvenor of Got One at Berrimah - kicked off the first Kids Classic fishing competition at the Darwin Trailer Boat Club this year - Craig has been working hard at getting kids involved in fishing through workshops at local schools, and fishing to Stokes Hill Wharf. He has also been landing some big barra along the Dundee foreshores on his rare days off.

There was a big escape of large barramundi from the Port Hurd fish farm this year, and by all accounts the tourist boats that went to the area following the escape had a bonanza.

The NT Government also released thousands of large barramundi fingerlings fish into Manton Dam over the past two years, and this stocking scheme finally seemed to be bringing dividends in 2005.

The Nightcliff and Mandorah boat ramps were upgraded in 2005 - Mandorah's ramp was being covered in sand drifts and Nightcliff had a dangerous sideways wave action - both have been fixed.

Leaders Creek Fishing Base's Chris and Deneise (CORRECT) Edwards had a quiet year in terms of southern visitors - but quality fish just keep on coming from the creek around the nearby Vernon Islands, with Chris Errity and family landing some monster mackerel at their favourite Vernons spots.

Of course, it's not all good news.

The Channel Point and Point Stuart access points were scheduled to open this dry season but didn't - they will however be exciting new fishing access points for the 2006 dry season.

Wollogorang Station closed its doors to fishermen - the big station near the Queensland border offered a van park and roadhouse as well as bush camping and fishing on the wild Tully and Massacre Inlets, as well as a 4WD track to the remote Calvert River for offroad enthusiasts, and the loss will be mourned by the many Queenslanders who drove up for a stay each year. A Wollogorang spokesman said the remote roadhouse had high costs and was not making enough money to warrant keeping the doors open.

The reforms to the mud crab industry took too long - commercial crabbers are not welcoming new rules despite plummeting catches and ongoing court cases involving crabbers - the fall in crab stocks was noticed by Borroloola locals as early as 2002 - but the NT Government is now taking action with new regulations.

Black jewfish studies were set back when Cyclone Ingrid knocked out vital research gear - this studies are now back on track and will hopefully provide data that will help properly manage the heavily fished jewfish stocks.

Meanwhile, the Amateur Fishermen's Association NT is negotiating with the NT Government for more net licence buybacks, but the wheels appear to be turning very slowly.

There's a belief among the amateur fishing industry that the NT's most important tourism rivers are still over-netted at the mouths, despite ongoing river closures - this appears to be backed up by the Government's own fisheries data that says NT barramundi stocks are close to fully exploited.

The tourism industry needs trophy barramundi in the rivers - not little ones.

All in all 2006 is looking like an exciting year - the Adelaide River and McArthur Rivers should be steadily improving and a good wet season could set the Adelaide River on fire for the first time in years.

Kai Hansen at Goat Island Lodge on the Adelaide River is keen to see more fishermen during the run-off this year - he has been steadily improving the the lodge and still found time to organise two new and unique barramundi competitions.

Likewise, a good wet season could set the Daly and Roper Rivers ablaze - I can't wait to get down there.

The new forums at www.fishfinderbooks.com are also starting to get regular visitors who don't mind sharing some fishing secrets.

As Fisheries Minister Kon Vatskalis says: "Fishing is the lure of the Territory."

It is also why many of us put up with the heat and high costs!

See you on the water in 2006.