The tides this weekend are definitely at the extreme end of the springs.
On Saturday in Darwin Harbour, low tide is 0.3m at 12.15pm with a high tide of 7.8m at 6.46pm.
On top of that, there is a full moon.
On Sunday, the 12.54pm tide is even lower at 0.1m, rising to 7.9m at 7.30pm.
Believe it or not, these can be excellent tides for barra fishing in Darwin Harbour, even more so because we are in the middle of the Build-up season.
Let’s consider the potential fishing scenario on Sunday.
A 7m high tide in the harbour is at 6.00am, and it will fall to 0.1m before 1pm.
In other words, practically 7m of water depth will flow out of Darwin Harbour’s several arms.
At the peak of the tide, the mangroves along the arms will be in a sea of water; but when the tide turns and starts running out, the water will be coming off the mangroves at a pace… and so will all the aquatic creatures that had been up swimming through the mangroves.
Everything will have to come out fairly quickly as the water drains from the mangroves and off the mudflats in front.
This presents promising fishing opportunites, one after the other.
For starters, you can fish right on top of your favourite mudflat, hard up against the mangroves and inside any gaps along the mangroves.
Cast mainly weedles soft plastics to avoid getting snagged on mangrove suckers.
As the tide recedes – which it will do in rapid time – out will come the baby prawns, the little crabs, the garfish, the little mullet and the bigger mullet… all barra tucker.
Everything has to get out of the mangroves before all the water has drained away, and that includes the bigger predatory fish like barra, salmon, cod, mangrove jack and anything else that was having a fat time in the flooded mangroves.
As everything comes out, and water is quickly receding off the mudflats, the barra, in particular, will be waiting in ambush.
This is the next opportunity to catch barra: sitting out from the edge of your chosen mudflat, casting to the water coming off, particularly at snake drain exits and gutters with colour change.
Given that the tide on Sunday will fall to 0.1m, the water in the arms will literally be reduced to channels, and that presents another fishing opportunity.
Barra and the small stuff they feed upon will be locked into pockets of remaining water in the channels.
Of course, so will you and your boat.
However, you can move around cautiously, trying not to get your boat grounded as the water gets lower and lower.
From then on, it’s a waiting game as you wait for the tide to come back in.
When it starts to do so, it will do it in a hurry and you will only have small windows of fishing opportunity.
The gutters and drains will be first: cast into them as the baitfish push in with the tide.
This is when you are likely to hear and see barra boofing on the surface, and you might have some real fun.
Once the tide has filled the gutters and drains, and begins to flood back over the mudflats and into the mangroves, you’ll have another fishing opportunity working the mangrove edges.
And then it will be all over as the huge spring tide floods the mangroves and all the aquatic creatures move back into them.
The recent Darwin Game Fishing Club Billfish Bash saw plenty of action with beautiful sea conditions.
According to regular billfish competition competitor, Rodney Mychas, except for early Sunday, you couldn’t ask for better weather.
“There was plenty of bait, mainly pilchards in close,” Rodney reported.
“Apart from the billfish, the usual mackerel and tuna were about.
“There were nine sailfish and three small marlin tagged.
“The sails were all 12-18kg,” Rodney said.
RESULTS
Champion Billfish Team - Send It and Bend It - Ryan Dowling, Jake Laws, Graham Wright
Runner-up Billfish Team - Kurri Tackle - Rodney, Kimmie, Tilly and Max Mychas
Champion Billfish Angler - Jake Laws
Champion Junior Billfish Angler - Fynn Monahan
Champion Female Billfish Angler - Tilly Mychas
Champion Pelagic Team - Kick'n'On
Champion Pelagic Angler - Jessie Pattemore
Champion Junior Angler, Fynn Monahan, prepares to release his tagged black marlin.
Tilly Mychas hangs onto the pointy end of her sailfish that helped her win Champion Female Angler.
Max Mychas also got into the action.
