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Fishing was a mixed bag last week with Darwin Harbour producing only a few barramundi.

The big tides were ideal for barra but many people found fishing slow.

There was a lot of fresh water in the harbour from the previous week's storms and large schools of prawns and baitfish were keeping predators well fed.

Calm hot weather allowed boats to go offshore and reef fishing was good on the turn of the big tides when the currents slowed enough to get a sinker down. But all eyes are on the wet season now.

I drove to the Adelaide River's Window on the Wetlands on Thursday to check out the floodplains and there was not much water around despite the regular storms passing through.

The rainfall has been better over the Daly River catchment.

The monsoon had not yet kicked in late last week and fishermen are waiting for the filling of the floodplains to guarantee good fishing for the year ahead.

Got One's Craig Grosvenor said the harbour fished reasonably well last week.

``Darwin Harbour's East and Middle Arms fished quite well,'' he said.

``I was hosting friends from down south, and I took them around Darwin Harbour chasing their first barramundi.

``We managed barra to 70cm fishing the gutters in East Arm at low tide.

``Fluoro green DOA prawns and Tiger Lilly bombers worked best. We then headed up Middle Arm in search of some grounds for a quick bottom bounce.

``The shallow reefs up Pioneer Creek produced golden snapper to about 2kg on local squid and prawn baits during the first of outgoing tide.

``Casting DOA Prawns around the rockbars also got the small snapper fired up, a very slow retrieve proving irresistible.

``Other fish landed on the day included rock cod, javelin fish and bream.

``Reports from the big rivers have been minimal. The Daly River has provided the only news with fish to 75cm caught casting at the mouths of Browns Creek and Bamboo Creek. Fish were taken on Vivif 4'' soft plastics and green-back DOAs.

``Most of the barra reports seem to be coming from the rocky foreshores around Lee Point, Shoal Bay and Darwin and Bynoe Harbours.

``A local crew fishing the shipping containers at high tide this week landed a jewfish tipping the scales at 11kg, along with a handful of saddletail snapper.

``Active schools of queenfish and GTs were sighted feeding in the shallow water between East Arm rock wall and Berrimah boat ramp on Wednesday midway through outgoing spring tide.

``Two fish fell for silver Gillies baitfish slices before the school disappeared."

Happy Mick's Charlie Chambers said Shoal Bay was still the best place for barra.

``With the neap tides coming up this week King Creek and The Rock should turn it on again,'' he said.

``Scrubby Creek has been one of the better picks for the spring tides with the low tide hole fishing extremely well with a boat landing 24 barra in one hot session using live bait and lures. Spot Six also turned up a couple of barra although numbers and size have dropped off.

``Good threadfin salmon are turning up in the Little Howard River along with some solid barra in the low tide holes between Dixies Creek and Number Six Creek.

``Darwin Harbour is still turning it on with a mixed bag of fishing.

``Barra are still on the bite in West Arm with a mate hooking up on to three big barra trolling the sandflats on the outgoing tides using RMG Skin Deeps.

``Middle Arm has also been turning up some good barra along with a few blue and threadfin salmon.

``The East Arm rock wall has been turning up some GTs and queenfish and some good barracuda with poppers working the best.

``The Larrakeyah rock wall has been turning up some big mangrove jacks with a customer telling me he landed a 50cm jack and loosing half a dozen more which felt even bigger.

``Barra have also been turning up around the rock wall in good numbers with the bigger ones finally coming on the bite.

``Hudson Creek turned up a few barra over the past week with a mate telling me he dropped two barra around 90cm trolling Spearheads on the run out tide.

``This week's tides should see some good reef and wreck fishing with Charles Point and Fenton Patches being a good pick for snapper and jewies.

``Dundee Beach barra have been on the bite again with a customer telling me he landed three barra to 97cm fishing off the rocks to the left of the boat ramp _ he saw six other barra caught the next day.

``Salmon and queenfish are also being caught using live mullet and squid baits.

``A few jewfish were caught on the Dundee jewie reef along with a lot of snapper.''

Fishing and Outdoor World's Matt West said it had been a quiet week, with mainly golden snapper reported in the harbour arms.

``Michael from Hully's Fishing Tours has told us he had been getting some nice golden snapper in the arms _ he has also been fishing Charles Point and doing well when the weather is good,'' he said.

``Manton Dam has produced some more good barramundi.

``This week's neap tides should be good at Shoal Bay.''

Top End Fishing Supplies' Mulga said his mates fished the mouth of the South Alligator River and caught several barramundi in the 80cm range.

``The Daly River has been quiet because it has been rising but should fish OK on the next drop,'' he said. ``There has been a bit of freshwater running in at the top of the Adelaide River so that could start fishing soon _ I haven't heard anything much from elsewhere _ the rain is what we need right now,'' he said.

Katherine Rod and Rifle's Warren de With said there had not been much rain since Christmas.

``We had just 7mm in the first few days of January _ the storms were going around us,'' he said. ``The Katherine River went up to 9m and is now back down to 3m _ when it hits 2m or so the crossings will start fishing,'' he said.

``The top side of Roper Bar fished well on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with two barra around 20kg landed.

``Some people have been out to the Victoria River but it is high and dirty and not fishing well.''

Reidy's Lures' Cheryl Reid said one customer had reported that the Daly River was fishing well, but most people waiting for some good rain.

``Jeff Reid did a couple of trips to the Moyle River late last year _ they came home early because they caught so many barramundi they were tired. He caught about 200 and the biggest fish were in the 90cm range,'' she said.

``Our new range of Reidy's soft lures has done this well year.''