Bad Wet Barra

At the end of the wet season I look forward to returning to the tropics to chase barramundi with great anticipation. The post wet season run-off is when everything that swims either eats or gets eaten.

During this time, barramundi converge on drains and run-offs around floodplains and creek mouths to gorge themselves on the small baitfish, frogs and bugs caught in the floodwaters pouring off the plains. At times it's merely a matter of pulling up on a seemingly nondescript trickle of water and casting away for a bundle of fish. Forty fish in a session off one drain is not uncommon.

Every few years, though, all this falls apart when the north experiences a below average wet season. A case in point is 2002, which saw the worst rainfall for the past two decades. When an area that receives an average of 2.5m of rain over a three-month period receives only 1.5m, doom and gloom sets in for fish and fisher alike.

The rush of mullet that invade the river systems, closely pursued by schools of barramundi, hang around the coast instead - and commercial fishers cash in. The slaughter by gill net that ensues is nothing short of shameful! It is high time the Northern Territory Government put a flexible start on the commercial fishing season for this premier sportsfish, which is worth millions of dollars more being caught and released by a guide and his paying client than rotting in a 7in mesh net.

When we pulled up at Shady Camp on the Mary River in mid-April, it looked like it normally does in June. No water on the floodplains and next to none in the main stream. Reports that large fish were caught at the mouth of Sampan Creek on the last neap tides provided no joy, as I was there to fish the spring tides.

The talk around the ramps was that not many fish had come into the system. Over the next four days this was reinforced to me when I watched the commercial fisher who anchors at the mouth and supposedly nets outside the 2km net ban area come in with tons of fish fillets - no doubt predominantly barramundi.

Given the prospect that fish were near the top end of the system due to the tidal push, I reverted to tactics normally reserved for the middle of the dry season.

WORKING THE TIDES
If you are fishing a river or creek system at the end of the wet season, most barramundi will be near the mouth of that river or creek on the day of the neap tide. The neap is the slackest tide, with the least movement between high and low. (The back pages of a Northern Territory tide book will give tide variations for the mouths of different rivers.) The first tide after the neap, the fish begin to move upstream. They can travel a long way on a six-hour incoming tide. If you find large schools of pop-eye mullet skipping around the edges, you won't be far from barra.

At the peak of the first tide, if there is no geographical feature in the area to hold them, the fish may ebb with the run-out until they get back to a rock bar, a creek mouth or a bunch of snags. Work your way upstream and check all of these features if you have fished the mouth on the neaps. Should you find fish on your sounder that are not travelling or on the bite, don't leave them. Sit it out until the change of tide and make sure all lures are in the water. This tidal change will often trigger a feed.

If at the bottom of the tide change, the fish will bite. When they realise there is no real food there, just plastic fish with hooks hanging out of them, they will fin their way upstream. Move up to the next main feature on the waterway when the bite stops.

It is always good to run a fair way up and to fish the run-out tide when it turns. In really big tidal rivers, travel downstream until you find dirty, turbulent water. As the tide turns and runs in, stay in front of it, fishing the cleaner water and its fish holding structure all the way upstream.

At the biggest tide in the set, the fish will reach their maximum travel distance. In Kakadu after a good wet the floodplains 15km upstream from South Alligator Bridge hold fish. In a poor wet it may be the mouth or the rock bar just inside of Nourlangie Creek.

In the Daly River it is the crossing itself. The fish will travel further than the crossing when water is flowing over it. If you are in attendance when there is a metre or two of water flowing over, there is a deep hole on the upstream side of the crossing opposite the township. Big barra rest here after making the trip up from the mouth. After a bad wet the holding point may be the main rock bar above No-Fish Creek or the S-bends just below it.

In the Mary River system, when water is low, the big fish will swim all the way to the barrage at the boat ramp on high tides during the night. It is not unusual to catch 15-20kg fish here in a metre of water during the dark hours. When first light comes, the fish move downstream and will sit in back eddies and holes.

The mosquitoes and bugs will drive you insane during the early evening and night, so a beekeeper's net on a hat is a good investment along with thick overalls with a thick tracksuit underneath. (The mosquitoes will go straight through denim.)

HOW TO FISH LOW WATER
Even though you may only have a metre or two of water to troll in, hang in there. If there are a number of boats about, troll your lures a long way back. Initially the fish will be in the deeper parts of the channels. Once some boating pressure is applied, however, they will move to the edges and may lie in less than a metre of water.

Troll way back and around corners, as these fish will pick up lures cutting the corners and tracking through the shallows.

If there is a tight bend in the waterway that is shallow where a boat cannot troll, cast your lure in there and begin your troll from that point. You will be surprised at what lies in there away from all the engine noise.

If the section you are fishing in is the deepest for some distance, the fish will remain here on the run-in tide and not move until the water level has risen some way. This only applies to daylight hours. During darkness big fish will travel in 30cm of water without fear.

SOFTLY SOFTLY
Often when times get tough fish refuse to strike hardbodied lures, particularly when water levels are very low. This may be because bibbed lures spend much of their time ploughing through mud, after which they often don't swim correctly. Also, fish are spooky when in shallow water with lots of strange noise around them. Although the hook-up rate with many soft-bodied lures is much higher during these times, retention is low.

The weighted heads act as a lever to swing the single hook out of the mouth of a jumping fish.

On my last trip to Mary River, I missed fish after fish while trolling the shallows with the current until I put a treble hook on the clip holding the soft plastic lure to the trace.

Every hook-up after that was on the treble alone, telling me that the fish were lying on the bottom, facing up-current and striking at the head of the lure as it came towards them. When I trolled against the current, I found that I was short striking fish until I put a stinger hook in the tail of the lure, which managed to hold the fish.

This confirmed they were still lying on the bottom facing upstream and only striking the lure after it had travelled past them.

Working snag piles is detrimental to your lure supply, but if you are not banging the sticks, you are not in the race. The best lures for this kind of work have a head-down attitude and dive deep without too much line out the back, meaning you maintain control.

If the lure has plenty of "float back", you will have more success. That is, if you hit a snag and drop the tip of the rod well back, the lure will float back and up.

When it is pulled tight it goes back down over the top of the snag and "BANG!"

Well, hopefully. This technique will only work when trolling the lure against the current or tide.

So, as you can see, if there is a bad wet, all is not lost. The fish are still there, they are just harder to catch. All it requires is a bit more thought by the angler to get them in the landing net.