North Australian FISH FINDER forums

Hi everyone

I hope I have posted this in the correct area??

My name is Jason and I live in South Australia. Next year, I plan on driving up to the NT with 2 of my best mates for 2 weeks of fishing. I have a Toyota Prado and will be towing a Quiny 435 Hornet Trophy.

I was hoping, one of you good folk on hear may be able to assist us in a rough plan on when to come up and where to fish? I am not after your secret spots or anything like that.......more so a general guide on what you would do if you were in my position and you could choose anytime of the year, with any tides and any location that my setup could take you.

I have been to the NT a few times before and have mainly fished the run-off around May which has worked well for me. I have fished Dundee Beach (which i loved), Mary River, Adelaide River and a few other places with varying success.

Is there anyone here that would be willing to give a little guidance for the uneducated?

I hope I am not asking too much and I hope that maybe I can repay the favor one day if any of you venture down my way.

Cheers / Jason

Hey Jason.

There are a lot of lads here with a lot more knowledge than me but my thoughts would be that if you plan to lock in dates you would be better off not aiming for the runoff. The reason is that the runoff can be fickle and if a cyclone blows up the rivers go up and the barra go all out over the flood plains for the 2 weeks you are here.

My suggestion would be to aim for after the runoff (around early to mid May as you have been) and plan to hit the major rivers like the East Aligator, South Aligator, Mary R, Daly.

And mix it up....if you or your mates like to toss flies around slot in a session on corroboree or yellow waters.....

Best plan would be to link up with someone from here who will be on the river the same time as you and go where they go!

Incidently there are no secret spots or these guys would have told me them by now.........

Cheers
Mud

Howdy Jason
What's your preference chasing barra,bit of harbour / blue water stuff?
Can give ya some info for Middle Arm and a few area's around Darwin.
Corroboree and Hardies would be worth a look, but wet seasons vary so much it can be hard to plan.

hi guys

thanks for the quick replys - much appreciated. We are keen to change it up a bit if time/tides/weather etc allow.

As this is the first time to NT for my two mates, the #1 goal will be trying to find each of them a Barra. Happy to troal some lures (i have an electric) or cast and retrieve - whatever we need to do basically. I guess if we had a preference we would love to cruise along under the electric and cast to snags, creek run-off's etc that would be ideal. We would mainly be catch and release (especially in the rivers) but if we did land a decent table fish from the salt then we would probably take 1 or 2 for a feed while we are there.

We'll also bring up a few bigger outfits to chase a mack, GT, Jewies or anything else that is big and will put up a fight.

Never really fished much around middle arm or around Darwin......always been out of town a little like Mary River (houseboat) or hired a boat down at Dundee. Like I said however, we are keen to change things up so if there is a chance of finding a few fish around Darwin then we would be keen to check it out.

Thanks again / Jason

Have to admit its hard to go past Dundee for some blue water action. did u get any Jew when u were up before? Theres a Jewie hole (lump actually) straight out from the boat ramp at the Lodge. If there are Jew anywhere they will be there. Yeah if I had one trip and I had to catch good fish I would make Dundee and Daly R a part of the plan.

didn't get any Jew's at Dundee but did manage a beautiful salt water barra which was fantastic. Also caught a heap of thread-fin salmon which were schooled up and jumping out of the water (fantastic site).

I got out to Croker Island year before last and caught plenty of big jews out there. That was incredible.

Ok........so what time of year would you look at if you had the choice? Do you think around May or should i be looking later in the year? Do they post the tide times this far out for next year?

BTW, i should mention we have no set 'home base' as such just yet.

We would be happy to travel around and spend a couple of days at Dundee, then a couple of days at Shady Camp or wherever (if there is accomodation there etc).

Basically, I am after some general guidance as to what you (locals) would do if you had only 2 weeks to choose next year. What 2 weeks would you choose and where would be your preferred locations?

Thanks / Jason

Hmmmmm....this is a rough draft to be added to

Middle two weeks of May

Drive up the Stuart High Way.......turn right at Adelaide River township and drive to Cooinda lodge at Yellow waters. Stay Two days. Fish overnight with poppers and fizzers.

To South Aligator. Stay at SA Lodge. Get advice and fish one day

To Mary River. Stay at Lodge about 15km back (near Couzins lookout..cant remember the name). Fish the next day. Take a break the day after but go to the fresh water at shady for an evening flick.

Next day to Coroborree. fish the afternoon into dusk then head to Darwin

Spend three days in Darwin at the Vic Hotel. Stay in a really flash place with a juccuzzi and sauna. Buy some cr.p tourist t shirts. Go to the museum. Have dinner at the Nirvana...live music, good food and relaxed atmosphere. Check out the war museum at east point.

Down to the Daly. Stay at Wooliana Caravan Park. THis is a world class fishing river. Spend at least two days here.

Then to Dundee and just relax with some blue water fishing and lounging around dundee lodge. Stay in the cabins.

Go home with lots of pics. Your mates will get lots of barra.



something to work with maybe?

Cheers
Mud

I reckon mud has it sorted or you could come up in the build up say mid october this year or next. The barra in the harbour and shoal bay fire. On the blue water it should glass out except for early storms which neeed to be watched. Alot of us prefer the build up over the runoff as you can count on it being hot in october and not relying on rain to turn the fish on. NIKO

I reckon April 10ish is a pretty good time and safest bet for a run off trip. Leaving it until May you might do it tough. There will still be fish,just a bit harder.Going mid march is rolling the dice with the monsoon.

For the chaotic action you need to fluke the dates. April '10ish' will probably have you missing the sudden river drops, but it'll still be pretty good. And if the wet is late you might fluke it still. Worst comes to worse the South is always fishable no matter how much rain there is. When the water's up over the floodplains up the top there's plenty of swamp dogs to be caught under the tree's

My preferences are the South and the Daly,everyone's different.
I reckon early to mid april is a good each way bet. March and you're punting on a win only with no place,and May you're going the soft option with a place bet only

Depends on the quallity of the wet season. We just had a p!ss poor wet and the run off was cr.p.

If you want to get amongst the barra, come up in the build. September is my bet. The weather will not give you any grief so you can plan well in advance. Southern people find it hot but hot weather and barra fishing go hand in hand. You can fish the salt and fresh this time of year and see sceanary you can only dream of.

Best of luck what ever you choose.

thanks again for all of the replies. It is so hard putting something like this together with limited knowledge so all of your contributions are greatly appreciated.

Ok so lets narrow this down a little...

I would say earlier in the year would be better than later in the year for us so that being the case maybe we could look at Mid April??

Let's say we will be in Darwin ready to fish on the morning of April 12th (Monday) and will fish right through until Friday 23rd April (giving us a couple of days to drive home etc). We are ultra keen fisho's so prob won't have time for jucuzzi's and spa's etc haha

Straight off the bat.......tides???? I have had a look at the tides and it appears there is pretty good movement from the 12th right through until the end of our trip on 23rd when it slows right down.

Should we structure our trip around the tides? Ie what places are not effected by tides are what places are critical for tidal flow? Can we fish Dundee for example of the last couple of days with little tidal movement or would we be better off fishing a river with no tidal impact etc??

Any suggestions with the proposed dates of April 12th 2010 through to April 23rd 2010 would be great.

Thanks again / Jason

I go up twice a year for about 10 days on the river at a time.

April 12 th to me would be a good guesstimate IMO.

The last couple of years I watched the river heights and rainfull data to try and predict the right time.

Last year I was about a week to early with the river raising and falling a couple of times while I was there.

The fish come on about the 6m height as the river fell and went of the bite when the river rose.

In the past I was choosing to arive when the moon was a few days short of being full, But have decided to fish the no moon period now.

About 3 years ago I pre booked to go up about the 12 th of april becase it was Easter time, 2 weeks before I left a cyclone went through the NT and stuffed the trip.

Try to be as flexible with your dates as you can.

I would expect to be up there fishing the Daly about that time myself.

Best times to fish are between half hour before the bottom of the tide and first hour of the run in. Right on the turn is usually the best.
Hope this helps

Jeff

Hi Jeff

Thanks for the reply. This information is invaluable - THANK YOU.

We are a little restricted with our flexibility on dates as one of my friends who is travelling with us is flying in from Singapore for the trip. Once we lock in a date we'll just have to keep the fingers crossed that the weather is ok.

What I am trying to ascertain is if we were in NT on the proposed dates of April 12th through to Friday 23rd, and given the tidal conditions for that period, what areas would be our best bet for each of the days?

For example, on April 12th there is a fair bit of tidal movement where as on Friday 23rd there is little movement. Would we be best concentrating on areas where tidal movement is critical earlier on in our trip? If so, what areas are critical for tidal movement and what areas does it not matter at all? Sorry if this sounds so vague but i am just trying to get a bit of a rough mud map together.

At this stage, we are pretty keen to try the Daly River, Mary River, South Aligator, Dundee Beach, Shady Camp, Corroboree and anything else anyone can suggest??? If you think this is too much, please let me know if you don't think there is one worth trying etc.

Ideally, we would like to fish places where at the end of the day we could go back to some form of accomodation to shower, rest, air-con etc and get ready for the next day.

Thanks again / Jason

The Finniss fishes better on big tides. April/May best months. A mate was fishing with Geoff/Jason (BarraBase.com) this Eatser and they were averging 50 fish/day between 80 & 96cm.