North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hi,

I have been trying to learn how to read river gauges and understand water levels and when do go fishing so I don't get my usual doughnut! (have tried south alligator, SWA, harbor for none lately!)

I found this great site called "NT Water Data Portal" ( https://nt.gov.au/environment/water/water-data-portal ) that lets you do a custom date range for water levels. It has the current BOM river level gauges and also a number of now decommissioned sites like Mary Bridge Lagoon, Shady Camp Barrage, Corroboree. Jim Jim Creek (near Yellow Waters). It lets you do a "custom range" graph that will show you, based on dates you enter, how high the water level gets, and how long it has stayed up for that year, and how quickly that system drops once the rain stops.

I saw Blinky/ Nomad's thinking on the conversation pane about the Daly needing get filled and stay full for a while to allow bait to breed and grow. I made this graph of Daly (Dorisvale levels) from 2008-2015.

The next thing is knowing which gauges to watch, and what levels to go fishing at. I am grateful for anyone's advice about this!

Phil

More graphs: Dorisvale in the years 2010-11 (good year), 2012-13 (bad year), and current year (?).
For some reason Police Station will not allow a current graph.

I'll need to go back through my records but I'm fairly certain 2011 was the last time there were large numbers of fish captured in the Barra Classic, and there is no better gauge for fish numbers in the river.......

Blinky, You were absolutley right buddy, 2011 was the last time the Daly River really fired up for both the nationals and the classic.

See the below link for all the data on fish catches etc etc



http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/201 ... 228913.htm

I remember fishing The TEBS comp on the weekend of the 31st of May 2011 and it was still going off then. Freezing going down the river in the morning. Everywhere we pulled up for a troll, we caught fish. Everywhere!

Edit-Haha! Still an automatic delete of the comps name, all these years later. Jeez, some people can hold a grudge!

Re any comps, fishing groups or businesses etc, if they are promoting FFF or my magazines or otherwise helping I can usually reciprocate

Regarding the weather, I also remember 2011, it was bait soup from Hares to Elliot Creek, and the barra were like footballs.

The Daly fished brilliantly even at the end of July in 2011. Despite an average/poor wet in 2012 the Classic returned solid numbers on the back of 2011's big event.
2013 delivered another poor wet and the Classic was abysmal...<300 fish registered.
Things have slowly crept up from there from abysmal to dreadful in terms of total fish #'s.

2017: the one we've been waiting for.....the rejuvenator!

Send her down Huey

OK, so does anyone mind telling me what gauge and what level to go try the Daly then? Please?

pms;

Use Daly River Police Station gauge. Different parts of the river will fish at different levels, just get out there put some rubber on the road and discover. Generally, the river must be dropping for best results.
Given the current levels, including Katherine and expected rainfall event this week it could well be a few weeks to a month before it fires (not including further significant rain post this weekend).

NB: there are plenty of others on here with vastly more experience than me on the ways of the Daly. They may be able to assist.

pms wrote:OK, so does anyone mind telling me what gauge and what level to go try the Daly then? Please?

How I do it:
If the river hasn't been running at 10m + at the Police Station for at least 4 weeks continually I don't bother.
Once the river has dropped to below 8 m and is still dropping then I'll give it a crack downriver, I like to fish the lower sections early on, I find the top part of the river doesn't fish as well until towards the end of the Run Off.

There'll be others with different ideas, try 'em all, you'll be able to sort it......

PMs, NBN has hit the nail on the head mate, the river has to be dropping before you even consider fishing it. This might not be for a couple of weeks depending on what rain we have coming, hopefully this rain will keep dropping plenty of rain locally at the daly too as we need flow from the billabongs.

Hopefully this season will be like 2011 which was sensational, as Scottmac said in previous comments the river fished really well late into the dry season, I do remember flying down the river with bl..dy beanies and all the cold weather gear. It was great because you could catch fish anywhere that year even when the water temp was 19% Go figure that!!!!! Im not exagerating either boys!!!!. Blind freddy would have caught barra that year!!!!

Bring on more rain!!!!!!!

PM,s when the river is dropping you might want to try at night time too!!! Just need a truck load of thermacells!!!! the mozzies are extremely friendly there at night time.!!!

I have heard of some cricket scores with night time sessions at the Daly !!!

So long as you have a safe boat buddy.

Yeah. In addition to the police stn gauge, keep checking the upstream ones to see rise/fall details.
The police stn may drop and the upstream ones are on the rise. I find that all have to be on the drop. Then again, I cant catch a cold these days

NBN, Blinky, wazdog, Nomad- thanks very much for your advice!
Will put a line in the water once it has dropped a bit!

Hate to be the skeptic but I doubt one good wet season will turn it all around. If I recall 2010/11 was on the back of a few good years in a row.