I'm interested as well, never been barra fishing and going next weekend  (will be stealing all the guides lures) but keen to see whats best in what conditions, water movement etc.

so far got some soft plastics, assorted tails and colours, a few Nile masters and some Surecatch shallow divers ( wooden ones) and a few small minow lures from Halco. I tried to get some Reidies in Darwin, but all the shops where closed on my way out on Monday. Buggarsssss

We been told to fish early mornings and evening son the tide changes. Also to have a nice big rattle lure to wake up the barra. Also got that advise from a chap here that uses a hand-line and rattle lure as a teaser to get the fish worked up, but then he is a local and knows the perfect way to do it... not much else in tips gained at the pub last night.

We tried to get a guide for sunday, but most are down on the Daly river or up far north before the "wet" comes in. pity as a guide is still the best bet and money well spent,

cheers

Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels

My all time favourite lure for casting (as opposed to trolling) even though it's neither exceptionally sexy or popular is the Gold Bomber.  Really great action especially at a slow retrieve rate which is great for Barra and I reckon the relatively slim profile leaves the door open for saratoga and the like as well.  In shallow water like around the edges of billabongs etc they're perfect.

There's a few in my tackle box with nearly no gold left on them and they still go on catching fish (although not as many as when I lived in NT). 

The old ones used to have really thin guage trebles that were hopeless in a barra's gob but they are heaps better now.

Wal

Go the gold bomber. I caught my first barra on the Pentecost river with one of those. It was recommended by a mate who always catches alot of barra on the Fitzroy and he has plenty of metre plus barra photos to prove they work

So many fishing spots. Not enough sickies!!!!!!!

so it's Reidies and Gold Bombers so far on the shopping list,

cheers

Tony

Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels

 could write a big list..................here is a few leading brands though and in no particular order....

Tilsan, Classic, Reidy's, Killalure, Halco, Xrap 10, Bushy stiffy and Prawnstar. different sizes and depth to cater for all occassions. Throw some fizzers/poppers at night just watch croc's.

I would recommend soft plastics though. Not real popular up north yet but thats just cause most fishos are intrenched with lures. Texes rig them and throw deep into snags....them pull like hell when smashed.

 I have good memories from Jabairu when I worked up there. I would imagine best bet for fish is downstream on the Aligator.

alternativelt log onto gotone.com.au and look at all the Darwin fishing reports as they spell out very current reports

envious

mate you a star,

I actualy have a few prawn-stars in my box, maybe worth a shot and some blue-bomb poppers and some big bass poppers as well. May just need to up the trebble sizes a bit.

I have some soft plastic crabs and small minows from Storm lures, maybe they will be worth a go as well as some paddle tail softies,

so I'll add a Tilsan to the list and maybe the Xrap 10, thats more than enough.

We probally star fishing just about 3km down from the ramp to start with and move against the tide as it comes in down stream with the 4x4 along the banks.
With luck, next weekend we may get a tinnie hired for the day. But with 5m+ flat-dogs in the river I would like it to be a BIG tinnie thank you... call me coward, I don't care!!!!

Tony

Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels

 most people use "paddle tail" plastics north, cant go past squidgies 100-140mm, difference from storm, which are good, is that you can easily change jig weight size and if you Texes rig them they become snag proof. Remember lightest jig head for best results and let em hang/suspend in the snags..... cheaper and more effective than lures I reckon!!

The build up fires the fish up anyways. Remember though the areas around the Aligator/Mallegen rivers has a long history of croc vitcims especially at Cahills crossing. Just watch the tourists and see why the croc's gather. Would recommend to be CROC wise at times.

shore based at the mary river barage (concrete wier) was always good and their used to be a boat hire shop there. not far down the road.

at the recent Barra classic the lads sounded out fish holding on snags then anchored/tied up and threw plastis deep into snags. These guys won the comp with biggest point score ever!!!!!!

reminds me of when we worked out of Airboats on the Mary River floodplains smashing barra on poppers.

man I need to get back north. 

some speckie gorge country upriver from Cahillls crossing...... 

big thanks from this side mate,

well off to go shopping for lures

cheers

Tony

Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels

mate i disagree with a lot of the others only because i have my own favourites, i know they have worked in the NT as well. The classic nitro boys and reidies team do [pretty well in the nationals with them so there is some more justice to the lure

1. Classic F18 guns n roses colour
2. Reidies Thaipan black or gold/green
3. Classic 12o +15 or +10 elton
4. Classic manta ray F18 Blue Dazzler
5. Reidies Little Lucifer 2.5m any colour, i like the light blue one

they all work great

On top of that the river rat +12 or +20 in elton work well

So do the killalure barra baits in bleeding mullet

We also got the biggest barra of the nats a 105cm on an RMG (basically same as a classic old rob gaiden) Scorpion 8m diver in the fluro green colour in some deep water

any of the elton / guns n roses / banana green colours work especially well consistently

Its been with good old reliable Halco lures - scorpion, laser pro and tremblers.

We caught fish with em, so they cant be all that bad. Just not fancy I guess......

as I'm limited to what I'm prepared to carry on my back!!! I got a few yesterday.

pair of Gold bombers
another Nile Master
a Reidies barra-meister
pair of gold Haclo tremblers.

as for softies, I have made up a mix pack with about thirty in it, from 2cm to 15cm in size.

We may try the shore ~ river mouth tomorrow, as the tides will be just right and hit the billabongs on the way back.

I'll post pics and reports Monday with luck

cheers

Tony

Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels

if you get a chance to go to corroboree, do it, get yourself a scum frog from the coroboree caravan park (near the turn off) awesome chucking them into the lillies for saratogas, great fun!

just a little brag for the weekend...
Well we took the chance to get to the coast and river mouth of the West Aligator river on Sunday. This was based on the threat of early rains possibly closing the tracks, so we decided best to do it now. Drive is a long one, tow hours in total, including 80km of track that changes from open flood plain, to rocky / bumping climbs and loads of tree dodging on the bush track.

Having pushed off from Jabiru at 6am, we arrived at the river mouth at just before 8am, with the tide just about to reach high at 9-30am, perfect timing.

first hour was slow, with me getting my compulsory sting-ray. But a first for me on a metal slice!!! seems the little bugga was hungry.

Then the fun started, I had changed to a softplastic Storm bait-fish, ( green with red head/gills), when I got a strike about 10 feet in front of me in the shallows, and in came my first thredfin salmon. Good little fighting fish. My fishing mate Will, got a few hits and busts off before the dolphins and flat-dogs cruised by to scare off the fish for a while.
just after the high-tide I ventured down to the mangroves, only to loose a bunch of rigs on the root system. Must be a trick to fishing this area!!!
Then Will hit a huge Threadfin, that had him dancing up and down the beach, till he was able to bring it in. We meassured it at 85cm and had to cut off it's head to get it in the Esky...
I hooked another nice sized Threadfin and fought him to the beach, THE game was on....
We both then hooked and lost a few, with Will then suddenly hooking a monster jumper.... not a Threadfin to our shock, but a good 70cm Barra on the sand-bar. This was the highlight of the day for Will.
I hooked and landed a nice little NT Blue Nose Salmon ( thanks to all for the point-out that it was not a Tailor), with bright green back markings. The little sucker took my softy as I was about to reel in the last 2m or so and ran with it straight for the Mangroves!!!!. Bit of drag and foot work had him away from the roots and onto the beach. I hooked and lost two more, both head-shaking the lures free! I have to remember to set those strikes properly.

Well after than we decided to call it a day and head back, as the NRL final was due to start in 2 hours or so,

So finaly a good day, with three fish to me, not counting the ray, and two monsters to Will.

cheers

Tony
ps, I have uploaded some pics later in the Fishwrecked gallerie,

just now need to figure out how to creat me own gallery... "help Capt Colin Dreamweaver"!!!.

Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels

You don't get tailor up north, the fish you're refering to was probably a blue nose salmon.

Glad to see you got out into the thick of it. Good to see the plastics worked, one should never underestimate their effectiveness......

 good to be in the wilds and a bonus to catch fish....

Looking forward to the pics

I'll post a pic of the fish up for you to ID,

....pics in Fishwrecked photo gallery.....

thanks

Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels

I got to chat to one of the "gun " barra guides in the week,
seems he carries three lures every time, never leaves home without them.
-Riedies: little lucifer, in green. with bottom trebble removed to bump along the bottom. (small lure, good action)
-Riedies: B52, in gold. Same as a Gold Bomber from USA.
-Big pack of gold soft plastics, assorted hook heads 3~4inch softies

All the lures are shallow divers, 2~3m max.
most of the time the guides remove the bottom trebble and some even take the back trebble off and use a single jig-hook, like for pellagic jingging.

The rest of his gear changes with the times and tides, but he says every trip he does, these three account for more than 70% of the fish. He also says a few extra colours in the Little Lucifers are worth taking along...

so I ended up back at the tackle shop and a few lures more in the box.

This weekend we off to the East Aligator to hit the rock ledges and snags for pre-build-up barra. ( with luck)
Had our fist heavy afternoon rains this week. Three good down pours and with luck another today or tomorrow will get the first run-off moving and wake up those sleepy barra. ( problem is the flat-dogs know that too!!!!)

cheers

Tony

Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels