looking for Darwin Barra guide.

[dunmears]

Could anyone reccomend a good guide in the Darwin area to fish for Barra and possibly some bluewater fish as well - black jew, mackeral etc. Plan to go around April/May 08. There would be four in the party. Would like to stay out near the water rather than travelling out from Darwin every day.-

[Tim_N]

Try and track down Darren Nickols. I'm not sure what his business name is but he is a great guy and guide.
Tim

[BR65]

Mick and Emma from Anglers Choice, highly recommended

cheers
brian

[iank]

dunmears, you can find Darren here http://www.darrensbarra.com.au/ ,
You can also check out www.dnabarrafishing.com.au
These 2 blokes know how to put clients onto fish.
Hope this helps,
Cheers Ian

[Fafnir]

Mick and Emma from Anglers Choice, highly recommended

I for one would absolutely not recommend them.

This is of course based on my experience alone. This statement is my opinion only, and in no way does my opinion reflect the opinions, views or beliefs of those who run this website.

My personal suggestion would be ANYBODY ELSE.

[LeeannP]

Justin Jones is a genuinely nice bloke and runs Obsession Fishing. Website below:
http://www.obsessionfishing.com.au/

Justin did some work with The Fishing DVD mob and is on a couple of their DVDS so you can check out his temperament on Fishing DVD 5 www.fishingdvd.com.au (http://www.fishingdvd.com.au)

Darrens Barra/Sportfishing charters is another one that is highly recommended.

Cheers,
Leeann

[BR65]

Id love to hear the story behind that trip fafnir??

cheers
brian

[Fafnir]

Id love to hear the story behind that trip fafnir??

Almost too painful to tell. They had been recommended to me by a number of people, spoke to them on the phone, they sounded great, picked us up at 5am, out on the water by 6.30 - 7.00am. It all went downhill from there.

Ever felt like you were being used? Cause I have to say, when my mates and I had been taken up 4 deadend creeks, only to be taken back to the original one, to finally get to cast a line (the time was now close to 1pm) in a spot that Mick himself had little confidence in, we were start to feel like our hard earnt money was being used to fund a recon trip rather than a fishing charter.

By the time we got back to the boat ramp, we had been out on the water for over 11 hours, only had the lines in the water for 90 minutes. Now I don't blame the guide if I don't get fish, everyone has their bad days, but $1,000 (between 4 of us) for 90 minutes of actual fishing time? Like I say, I would choose ANYBODY ELSE in future. Particularly like the way Justin Jones came across on the Fishing DVD as Leeann mentioned. I think I will be trying him next time.

[BR65]

That sounds like a dud trip mate, hate paying good money for piss poor service.
I fished with Mick and crew for four days at the tail end of the run off this season, found him to be an informative, hard working guide who did his best to put us onto fish in some difficult water, we were, at our choice, in the boat from pre-dawn to sun set, the only time we wernt fishing was when we were travelling to a diff spot to suit tides. There is a bit of travel involved with fishing the territory, its a big place, spose thats why that bloody big yammy is bolted on the back.
Emma did the organizeing, nothing to much trouble, mother ship crew ensured smoko and lunch in the boat every day, good tucker at nite and cooked breaky in the morn, and if you wanted to keep a feed, that was cool, fish fillited, packed and frozen for ya.
Sounds like 2 totally differant operations!!!!!!!!!

cheers
brian

[Fafnir]

Yeah well it was different to what I had been told by all those who had recommended them too. I take on board what you say about travel and distances up north, but this went well beyond that. It could only have been made worse if he had sunk the boat (although at least the crocs would have put us out of our misery). We paid him for his local knowledge, expecting him to at least have a game plan, but if he had one, he was keeping it a secret. After 3 hours of seemingly pointless driving around in the boat we had to ask if he was looking for something in particular, the only response was 'I'm looking for the honey pot'. Well we eventually found the honey pot at about 10pm that night in the middle of town. Did not need to pay him $1,000, we could have found that strip club all by ourselves!

After stuffing up our trip the way he did he at the very least deserves to have me tell anyone who'll listen about it.

Glad to hear your experience with him was a good one.

[robersl]

You Can also try River and reef chris jones or go to web page fishthetopend mike is a realy great guy who handles a lot of the charter operaters bookings for barra and blue water fishing, i am back there again this year from 17-26 april fishing the sth alligator river from 21-25

shane

[dunmears]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I'll go and have a look at some of those websites and see what suits us.

[Dan5]

I know Darren and he has put more people onto meter plus fish than i can remember,he is a good guy with his finger on the pulse you could'nt get a better guide the only problem is getting a booking cos he is usually very busy.Dan......

[dodgyone]

I would recommend Geoff Corry at barrabase.com. Used to run the old Barrabase on Melville Island. Does the barra and offshore for reefies as well. Tell him what you want. Also looking at combining fishing and hunting trips. Starting this year. Not sure if that interests you.