We can blame the weather for such good barra fishing at the moment. Those stinkin’ hot afternoons and nights are keeping the water temperatures on the favourable side of the scale. Even though the odd cranky storm is making life more than interesting, particularly at Shoal Bay, for many the effort is proving worthwhile.
Tony Hare from Berrimah Secondhand showed me how to do it, although my opinion is it was far from a class act! Following a heavy trolling session at the mouth of the Adelaide River we turned into the bank for lunch and Tony took the opportunity to remove backlashed braid from his reel. He hadn’t cast any further than five metres when an 82cm barra responded to the Nitro Classic 120 right at the side of the boat, re-igniting his bragging rights to unbearable. I did manage to kick his arse with plastics though; goldies, estuary cod and barra all responded to Gulps.
Plague proportions of queenfish have been active throughout the harbour, even venturing far up the creeks where one local fisho claimed 20 fish in 20 casts.
Larrakeyah Rock Wall and the foreshores toward the old Fort Hill Wharf are abundant with trevally, and they are taking everything from squid baits to chrome slices. The big spring lows have just arrived and that’s a blessing for harbour barra fishing. It’s no surprise that West Arm is on the airwaves following a couple of stonker barra recently. One fish went 120cm and the other 98cm; the humble Killalure Barrabait responsible in this case.
Casting at the gutters in Woods Inlet gave the X-Rap 10 a chance to shine, as one crew discovered it to “be the bomb” compared to anything else on the day. They finished with a tally of five barra to 63cm to prove it. They also mixed it with small queenies for most of the outgoing tide.
Many may beleive the sails are all but gone now, but let me tell you I’ve had a number of reported sightings close to South Gutter this week. One crew returning from a barra fishing session in Bynoe couldnt resist flat calm conditions and headed wide via South Gutter for a quick bottom bounce. All of a sudden they pounced on a massive school of bait that contained firey pelagic action and the boys were on. Five minutes later they spotted a pod of sailfish that came right up to the boat. One sat motionless as it checked out the brand of lure dangling over the side. Unfortunately these guys were unprepared and couldnt entice any further action with only barra gear onboard, but the beakies were very inquisitive.
Give that a little thought…there may still be one or two dedicated billfish trips left in this year.
Won’t be long now and we will be talking run off. How time flies when your’e having fun….
Craig Grosvenor
Got One Darwin
Ph (08) 8947222
