Sport
4 October, 2022
Fishing ROD- What's biting where
The four-day long weekend enabled many anglers to get out properly to wet a line.
The four-day long weekend enabled many anglers to get out properly to wet a line.
Offshore was no different. In 30 to 50 metres some excellent shark was boated by many using tough baits such as fresh squid or fillets of just caught salmon and Barracouta heads.
The bycatch was Redfish or Nannygai to 800 grams, Pinkies to 2 kilos and squid.
The Hopkins River flow has slowed but is still a chocolate colour and to add to that; the bream are in full spawning mode so they are finicky at the least when it comes to biting.
However bream to 1.4 kilos have been caught using worm or yabby or soft plastics fished either in the shallows away from the current or in the channel itself on the bottom where the salt water can be located sitting below the muddied fresh.
Don’t bother to fish above Rowan’s Flats or Kinnear’s Hut as the water is too fresh for the bream to spawn at present.
Let’s hope for a decent hiatus regarding rainfall. We need to dry out and the river’s need to settle.
My week-long trip to Darwin was as if I had walked into another world. It really was the tropics with the heat and humidity to go with it.
Just days before I flew, the weather changed from standard winter weather of 32 degrees and sunny to 35 and partly cloudy with the odd thunderstorm and humidity.
In other words, the beginning of the build up to the wet season was underway.
My seven-hour travelled well out into Beagle Bay almost to the start of the Arafura Sea.
We fished various reefs around twenty metres but had to move often as the grey coat brigade (Reef sharks) moved in.
I brought my own gear and had great fun using lures and plastics suited to the top end.
I managed to hook and boat species such as red perch (Indonesian perch), Red Emporer, Spainish mackeral, various cod species, tricky snapper and I had a great run on fingermark bream (or Golden Snapper) so I was stoked to say the least however when it comes to the plethora of edible species available up here, I had barely scratched the surface. Maybe next time?
I got back into Darwin just in time to drop off my fishing gear at my hotel then venture down to watch the grand final on the big screen and watch the mighty Cats bring home the trophy!
I also met Branden Parfitt’s mum who was there to cheer on her son. Bonus!