30 NT NEWS. Thursday, November 8, 2012. www.ntnews.com.au

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Fishing

WHERE THEY’RE BITING REVIEWS TIPS

with Alex Juliusnews@ntnews.com.au

Top tides favouring fishosTHIS has been a great year forthe best fishing tides to fall onweekends, and it’s happeningagain this weekend.

Of course, some tides arebetter than others. Dryseason on the Daly River isbest fished for barra on neaptides due to water clarity; con-versely, the West Arm inDarwin Harbour is a betterbarra proposition during thebuild-up when fished on big-ger spring tides.

As a rule, tides movingfrom the neaps to the springswill fish best at mostlocations. What may vary isthe lower or higher side.

This weekend’s tidescoincide with beaut reportsfrom both sides of Darwin.

There are lots of big barrabeing caught throughout theShoal Bay system.

The best I heard of was a107cm ripper from the mouthof King Creek. It was caughtby Steve Lahtinen, who toldme he saw a big splash nearthe mangroves so he cast outa Killalure 2Deadly andtwitched a couple of timeswhen, whammo, it waswhacked by the big girl.

Steve’s fish came at the topof the tide, a good time to fishKing Creek mouth.

Sunday’s low tide is defi-nitely the pick if you’re think-ing of targeting either theRock in Shoal Bay or some ofthe holes up the HowardRiver and Tree Point Inlet.

You’ll need to be reachingthe Rock by sunrise, so thatmeans a run across the bay inthe dark using your GPS anda careful eye on the weather.

With a low tide about10am, by 1pm, when the tidebegins to seep into the poolsaround the Rock, you shouldhave tangled with a 90-plusbarra or two.

Sunday’s low tide is also thebest bet for Darwin Harbour.

It’ll be just 2m neat at10.04am, which is OK, but abit lower would be better.

I’d be hitting your favouriteharbour arm again aroundsunrise, working the flats outof the wind, as well as thedrains as the tide drops.

Expect a lull in any feeding

activity by 9.30am, but thebarra could become vo-racious as the tide surges inabout 11am-noon.

That’s the time to be work-ing any snake drains formullet. Use small minnowsand soft plastics — noodlingwith artificial prawns is good.

For a shot at a big harbourbarra, I’m reliably told somereal silver torpedoes havebeen caught of late along therocks between Woods Inletand Mandorah, mainly withsoft-plastic prawn imitations.

Have a go also at the mouthof the Adelaide River andinside Saltwater Arm.

If an early-morning start isnot your idea of a fish on Sat-urday, an afternoon session

near the mouth of LeedersCreek could pay dividends.

High tide will be about 4pmin that part of the world, sofish from 2pm to 5pm and youshould catch a couple ofmetres of barra total.

Troll Classic 120s on theoutside of the last big bend onthe right going down.

Apparently the Daly Riveris fishing quite well above thecrossing. Cagey anglers aresneaking across at night andwalking up the far bank tofish a nice hole there. Double-figure catches of qualitybarra seem to be the norm.

Nice mangrove jacks havebeen caught of late in TwoFella Creek, halfway betweenMandorah and Charles Point.

Land-based anglers havesome good options.

The incoming tide at RapidCreek has been going wellwith blue salmon.

East Point yielded somebarra on lures, most likely atthe end of Hiro’s line.

Shady Camp freshwater isstill fishing well — for goodbarra too — but I don’t thinkthat will last.

The Primary Industry andFisheries Department has up-dated the Fisheries websitewith some new informationon reef fish stocks aroundDarwin and levels of fishingpressure. Check it out atwww.nt.gov.au/d/Fisheries/Content/File/research/coastal—reef—fish.pdf

It’s threadfin salmon time, particularly if youre a female angler. Lynn Mills withan estuary ripper

Viv Lavender also nailed a big threadie last week