Dan5
01-01-2009, 11:15 PM
Well i thought i'd start off 09' with a quick "drive by" barra trip Darwin style!
A mate and i went for a quick drive out the Arnhem hwy today to have a flick around some of the roadside culvets and bridge's for a barra,with our wet season now upon us it was'nt hard finding some nice fishy looking water right on the side of the road.
Our first stop was at the West alligator culvet (west branch) which had us flicking small sp's madly at boiling schools of Tarpon with the odd small (35-45cm) barra thrown in, after a quick little 15 minute session we ended up with 7-8 tarpon and 3 little barra.
Next stop and 5k down the road is the main West Alligator river culvet,so back into it we get flickin our little 3'' storm sp's around for a few more tarpon and only 1 barra this time.........so back in the car and on we go.
West Alligator culvert (east branch) is our next stop,with the water pumpin fairly hard making some nice eddy's and with lot's of overhanging tree's this culvet so far looked the best.With more boiling tarpon and surface action and boofing right at our feet i thought we'd be knocking em off left right and center............but.......it was'nt to be........with only a few tarpon to our name's it was time to hit the road again.
Flying Fox crk was the next stop,same story as before heap's of water pumping,tarpon boiling........flicking.......flicking.....bang a little barra all of about 25cm smack's my little 3'' shad.........with that it all went fairly quiet so we took off for the next biggest creek which is Magella.
Arriving at Magella i was a little disapointed i thought with all th rain that they have had out there lately that it would have been a bit deeper over the crossing but it was only 400-500 over the road........it usually fishes best when it's roughly 1.5mtrs........so we give it ago while we are there.Ol'mate that came with me is flicking away and smacko right at is feet in no more than 10cm of water he's onto a nice little saratoga........i dunno who was more surprised.....him or the fish....with a quick little battle he's landed.......a nice little toga of about 60 odd cm....not bad considering he nearly stood on it.
Next stop is back along the Kakadu hwy and a flick aroud Nourlangie 1,2,3 creek's.These 3 creek's have alway's been good to me in the years gone by so i was fairly confident that if we got there and there was plenty of water pumpin we'd have a good little sesh........Yep they were........yee ha.
First cast......bang....barra,not big around 60cm smash's my little storm gold shad does a couple of little jumps with those rattling headshake's and gone..........ahh well that's barra fishin.Half a dozen cast's later..........boof off the top....another little fella of about 45cm inhales my sp........a quick little battle and landed......flick.....bang again........dropped him.......wind twitch.......bang another......two little jump's.....he's gone.
All in all today combined we proberbly landed over 50 fish from the roadside,thats tarpon included ofcourse,but we would have ended up with atleast 15 barra.....all small........nothin over 65cm......but it was a good day out and a good way to start off the new year with a barra or two under the belt already.......By the way it's a 600km round trip by the time you go to Jabiru,Magella and Coonida then back to Darwin............lucky we're allowed to do 130kmh still !......ahh yer we saw one 6ft+ croc at flying fox so don't go for a swim
Happy new year,
Dan........
A mate and i went for a quick drive out the Arnhem hwy today to have a flick around some of the roadside culvets and bridge's for a barra,with our wet season now upon us it was'nt hard finding some nice fishy looking water right on the side of the road.
Our first stop was at the West alligator culvet (west branch) which had us flicking small sp's madly at boiling schools of Tarpon with the odd small (35-45cm) barra thrown in, after a quick little 15 minute session we ended up with 7-8 tarpon and 3 little barra.
Next stop and 5k down the road is the main West Alligator river culvet,so back into it we get flickin our little 3'' storm sp's around for a few more tarpon and only 1 barra this time.........so back in the car and on we go.
West Alligator culvert (east branch) is our next stop,with the water pumpin fairly hard making some nice eddy's and with lot's of overhanging tree's this culvet so far looked the best.With more boiling tarpon and surface action and boofing right at our feet i thought we'd be knocking em off left right and center............but.......it was'nt to be........with only a few tarpon to our name's it was time to hit the road again.
Flying Fox crk was the next stop,same story as before heap's of water pumping,tarpon boiling........flicking.......flicking.....bang a little barra all of about 25cm smack's my little 3'' shad.........with that it all went fairly quiet so we took off for the next biggest creek which is Magella.
Arriving at Magella i was a little disapointed i thought with all th rain that they have had out there lately that it would have been a bit deeper over the crossing but it was only 400-500 over the road........it usually fishes best when it's roughly 1.5mtrs........so we give it ago while we are there.Ol'mate that came with me is flicking away and smacko right at is feet in no more than 10cm of water he's onto a nice little saratoga........i dunno who was more surprised.....him or the fish....with a quick little battle he's landed.......a nice little toga of about 60 odd cm....not bad considering he nearly stood on it.
Next stop is back along the Kakadu hwy and a flick aroud Nourlangie 1,2,3 creek's.These 3 creek's have alway's been good to me in the years gone by so i was fairly confident that if we got there and there was plenty of water pumpin we'd have a good little sesh........Yep they were........yee ha.
First cast......bang....barra,not big around 60cm smash's my little storm gold shad does a couple of little jumps with those rattling headshake's and gone..........ahh well that's barra fishin.Half a dozen cast's later..........boof off the top....another little fella of about 45cm inhales my sp........a quick little battle and landed......flick.....bang again........dropped him.......wind twitch.......bang another......two little jump's.....he's gone.
All in all today combined we proberbly landed over 50 fish from the roadside,thats tarpon included ofcourse,but we would have ended up with atleast 15 barra.....all small........nothin over 65cm......but it was a good day out and a good way to start off the new year with a barra or two under the belt already.......By the way it's a 600km round trip by the time you go to Jabiru,Magella and Coonida then back to Darwin............lucky we're allowed to do 130kmh still !......ahh yer we saw one 6ft+ croc at flying fox so don't go for a swim
Happy new year,
Dan........