These events feature teams of anglers using lures exclusively, fishing during daylight hours.

For these events to achieve big catches there must be good river conditions, which means green water, preferably with run-off flowing in from floodplain creeks.

Not only that, the preceding wet season needs to have rained long enough to fire up the bait cycle.

Barramundi enter the Daly River in big numbers when there is food to be had.

After this year’s poor Wet, barra numbers in the river were down, and importantly, the water clarity was not ideal during the competitions, which is not good for lure fishing.

If you are fishing livebait, as many tourists do, water clarity is not such a big deal, as there’s usually enough fish in the river to provide good sport on bait.

As someone on the fishingterritory.com forum said: "... we fished the Classic, one of five boats lined up flicking No Fish Creek, 15 lures fizzing the water for a good hour, then nomads pulled up, threw out cherabin, and within 15 minutes they had four barra in the 70cm range, then they left. No one flicking (lures) got a touch ..."

As well as bait fishos, the others doing well at the Daly are those who fish at night, usually with surface lures.

Lures work well in the right conditions and are fun to fish with.

This year the right conditions did not happen on the Daly.

Competition catch numbers may be down, but theres still plenty of barramundi out there after the previous two good wet seasons.

If there is a decent wet season on the Daly next year, the competition barra catches will shoot straight back up. It has happened before and it will happen again.

Former NT barramundi manager Roland Griffin said years ago that annual rainfall would decide how good each year’s river fishing would be.

Competition results back that up.

The barramundi are still out there, you just have to find them, and if the water is dirty, try using livebait.

In reports, Craig’s Fishing Warehouse’s Mal Strong said there was plenty of pelagic action in the harbour around the Six Mile Buoy.

"I haven’t heard of any big macks, but there’s been fish to about 110cm," he said.

"One guy got an estimated 15kg mack off Dundee but a shark ate it, that’s about the biggest one I have heard of.

"It has been blowing hard at times. The wind backs off at night but it is sometimes still choppy out there.

"The Billfish Bash is on this weekend out of Dundee, and it might cop the wind.

"Craig Grosvenor went interstate and caught a 125cm murray cod and a 95cm fish.

"It took quite a few casts to get them, they were fishing hard every day for them.

"There have been good barra taken at Shady Camp barrage, with mainly salmon at the mouth of Sampan Creek, and the Shady jewfish reef has been fishing well.

"All the billabongs are quiet, but plenty of mud crabs are being caught in estuaries, with Shoal Bay and the harbour’s Middle Arm producing plenty, some fellas are getting 30 crabs a day.

"There have been quite a few boats and a mothership at Leaders Creek so the barra must be biting there.

"Also, night time down the Daly has been good for barra despite the low scores at the recent barra competitions.

"One guy had a 30-fish session on the Daly at night, the biggest barra going 98cm.

"They reckon night has been fishing really well there.

"The Adelaide River has been fairly quiet, but Shoal Bay is still producing fish around King Creek, The Rock and Howard River.

"Bynoe Harbour is producing barra on the flats when the wind drops off and there have been plenty of goldies around Fish Reef.

"There’s also a lot of mackerel out the front of Bynoe Harbour, with schoolies, greys and mack tuna, some of the tuna schools are football-field size.

"Harbour wrecks are producing big jewies.

"Landbased fishos at Buffalo Creek have been getting a few barra, and the rocks at Cullen Bay have also fired.

"One guy caught some barra near the Conacher St (Ski Club) boat ramp.

"Corroboree Billabong has been dead for barra, but it has been good for saratoga, no one is really catching barra because of this year’s extra weed cover."

Fishing and Outdoor World’s Ronald Voukolos said the Barra Nationals on the Daly River was hard work.

"There were some good fish caught, but there was no bait in the river so numbers were down," he said.

"The barra just aren’t coming up the river in the usual numbers this year, but they are biting well elsewhere.

"On the big tides some fishos have been getting barra at the back of the Howard River.

"One crew got 10 muddies and nine barra in the Howard, fishing a tidal lock-in at one of the pools.

"I thought the poor Wet would hit mud crabs but the crabbing has been really good so far.

"Pelagic action has also been outstanding, with a lot of fish off East and Lee Point, including stacks of broadbar mackerel.

"Our staffer and fishing guide Chris Hurt has had some great days out there, the tuna came in and he got them on fly.

"The baitfish schools seem to have come in close early on and the tuna have followed them, one boat got 13 tuna in a session.

"Offshore fishing has been good when the wind drops off, Dundee has been excellent,

"There are not a lot of big spaniards being reported yet, the water may have too cool down a bit more for them.

"Coral trout seem to be around in big numbers, I don’t know if they have always been in these numbers or whether people are just better at finding them now.

"The trout like the rubble bottom with patches of structure like a big fan coral or a small bommie.

"Landbased fishing has been good, with a heap of sardines schooled off Nightcliff, there is a lot of bait between Nightcliff and Lee Point.

"We haven’t had the squid reports yet but they’ll be on soon enough as the Dry progresses.

"The billabongs have been poor for barra, but with plenty of saratoga. There is so much cover in Corroboree Billabong it is hard to find barra.

"There are still big numbers of threadies being caught out of Shady Camp.

"People have been going to Crab Claw in Bynoe Harbour, chasing jewies and crabs, and doing well."

Tackle World Coolalinga’s "TC" said it had been quiet on the barra front, with mostly smaller fish caught at Shady Camp barrage.

"On the bluewater the cool weather has brought mackies in," he said.

"There were heaps of mackerel at the Witch’s Nose, and tuna schools everywhere, but not many sailfish reports,.

"The Billfish Bash is this weekend so it will be interesting to see what happens coming off the big tides.

"The larger tides seem to push the bait together over the shoals, but the billfish like the cleaner water of smaller tides.

"The charter boats have been getting goldies but the numbers have slowed a little now, they are not in as close as usual, the tip is to go a bit wider for them.

"The goldies that are being caught have been quality fish.

"I have not heard of any really big mackerel yet, we had a week of cool weather, then back to hot and humid, and now cool again, and I don’t think the big macks have come in close yet.

"It may be another week or so and we will start seeing the big ones appear off Lee Point.

"I have not heard too may harbour barra reports but mud crabs are really good, they are getting big numbers, they seem to be everyone’s focus at the moment too.

"They were catching mud crabs right through the wet season."

On the fishingterritory.com forums "Trent" is leading the May round of the FFF Seadogs brag mat competition with a 122cm jewfish. Jewfish and barramundi are eligible this month, and Proserpine fisho "Sullo" traditionally slamdunks the annual jewfish round with a monster fish.

There’s still time to enter this annual competition, with great prizes from In and Outboard Marine and other sponsors, details are on the website.