Run-off action promising after burst of perfect rains

IT won’t surprise if there’s some great run-off fishing over the next fortnight.

Paul “Neil” Simpson celebrated Australia Day with a ripper first-ever barra – a Shady Camp 108cm fish caught on a 175mm gold Bomber Longshot.

IT won’t surprise if there’s some great run-off fishing over the next fortnight.

Following what can only be described as a perfect monsoonal burst commencing on New Year’s Day, all the big-river catchments accessible from Darwin received constant, significant rainfall.

The rains were so intense and widespread that all the rivers from Arnhem Land to the WA border flooded beautifully.

Initially predicted as a “Clayton’s monsoon” – ie the monsoon you’re having when you’re not having one – this wet season event streamed nicely from the northeast and just kept sending huge bands of rain across the Top End.

All this lasted for about 12 days, and Top End anglers were rubbing their hands with glee.

When the monsoon finally finished, the Daly River was up around 12m, the South Alligator had burst its upriver banks and the water was well into the carpark at Shady Camp.

Of course, since then you couldn’t be blamed for thinking that the monsoon was still sort of happening.

For the last fortnight, the storms have continued to be significant and still dropping plenty of rain.

However, the monsoon per se had gone and the big rivers began to drop.

Last week I reported on the incredible big barra fishing at the mouth of the Mary River on the tail end of the neaps, clearly an offshoot of the first big rains of the year and all the freshwater streaming down the Mary.

Although plenty of diehards are heading to the Mary today and tomorrow, this weekend you can expect dozens and dozens of boats to be jostling for positions as they troll big lures in and out of the system.

Stuey Brisbane from Daly River Barra Resort with one of several solid barra he’s been catching down the Daly.

You can bet too that the early birds going during the week won’t have it on their own either.

As Chris Errity posted on Facebook yesterday: “Heading off to join the conga line at Shady tomorrow; you’ve gotta be in it to win it!”

Actually, I ventured to Shady on Australia Day with old mate Macka and his son Dean.

I knew the big tides were wrong, and water clarity would likely be minimal, but I was keen to see if the big barra from the previous weekend had moved up the river with the bigger tides.

That’s how it used to work at Shady before those hundreds of bung walls were built, effectively stopping any run-off at the creek mouths.

We had a fairly late start due to someone (not me) sleeping in, and moseyed on down the river about mid-morning.

Not far up from the mouth, we came across a boat with two blokes aboard fighting a big barra.

Naturally, I had to stop – enabling me to snap some images of Paul Simpson (aka Neil) catching a 108cm barra which, unbelievably, was his first-ever barra.

Neil was being shown around by Luke Tisdale who, I learnt later, managed to find his mate another metre-neat barra around the top of the tide.

By the way, both barra were caught on the new Bomber Longshot 175mm in bright gold and with the big fluoro eyes.

It seems no other barra of note were caught amongst the dozen or so boats on the Mary, many anglers – like us – running for cover about 2.30pm when big storms moved in, but I stand to be corrected.

This last week has also seen the Daly River drop a few metres – though still quite high at about 6m – and the result has been some quality run-off fishing at the feeder creek mouths.

Stuey Brisbane from Daly River Barra Resort reports plenty of barra up to 97cm.

Old mate Andy Ralph from Jabiru told me the South Alligator is still pumping nicely with a few fish coming from upstream.

“Cahills Crossing on the East Alligator is back up to 1.4m after dropping to 0.8m, and a couple of metreys were caught downriver,” Andy said.

“But Magela Crossing is only 0.4m, so the Magela floodplains could use some heavy rain.”