North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Unseasonal rains mucking up river fish.

Had a new fishing comp. in early June. First one since the nets were banned on 1 Feb this year.

There were barra everywhere from Feb to early June with no nets. New comp in early June very successful even in winter although that was extremely mild.

Then it p....d down rain ( 20 inches in Rocky) mid June.

Minor flood but barrage gates open for weeks. There goes the fishing and water quality.

With gates shut again, water quality on improve and barra starting to reappear in numbers.

P....d down again in Sept (widespead) and more dirty runoff from 600km upstream. There went the water quality and fish again.

Went to Port Alma last Monday with Rocky barrage gates still open. Filthy water but managed to get a few fingermark and grunter. No barra.

Couple of pics in town reach. Hyacinth everywhere.

Will be interesting now the nets are gone. A large area too, Port Alma and up to Corio Bay, great stuff.

Also keen to see how Trinity Inlet at Cairns improves, and St Helens. Although I don't think the locals will be saying much at St Helen/Seaforth

Queensland is obviously copying the NT, they'll probably have a Million Dollar Fish soon ...

Could be. The NT Barra Whisperer lives here so that's a start.

Bill's a bit embarrassed about that nickname which he says really belongs to Johnny Mitchell of Gladstone.

Qld Govt has put another $3.8 million on table for a 2nd round of buybacks mainly targeting Fitzroy area to relieve transferred effort onto nearby areas outside the NFZ.

Cairns (5) and St Helens (5 from memory) only had a few licences each so the real fight has always been in the Fitzroy/Cap Coast area which has 43 licences I think.

The first round of buybacks got 27 or so in Fitzroy area. So far I think another 9 or 10 have put their hands up for this round

It wasn't just barra netting. The Cap Coast included beach netting and out past Keppels down to include eastern side of Fitzroy delta to top of Curtis I.

I think the changes to the Live Mud Crab Gradings are going to lead to a lot more angst particularly in Qld. Don't know about the NT as I don't know much about the crabbing scene there but it's sure to have some impact.