The onset of the first monsoon is now nearly three weeks later than normal, and it may not arrive until the end of the month.
Normally, that would be scary with the prospect of a poor wet season and not-so-good Runoff.
However, there has been enough storm activity to cause some flooding in the Top End, especially out Kakadu way.
Earlier this week, Magela Creek Crossing was flowing at 1.6m, and Cahill’s Crossing over the East Alligator River was more than 3.0m.
Closer to Darwin, there hasn’t been as much rainfall, but it still hasn’t been insignificant.
According to Kalam Matthews from Fishing and Outdoor World, last weekend Shady Camp was flowing freshwater, but it was highly silted and discoloured.
Notwithstanding, it cleared enough across the low water for Kalam to catch a few barra up to 88cm.
The best barra fishing seems to have been upstream on the South Alligator River where there has been enough storm-driven flow to burst its banks.
I expect the fishing at the South will only get better as the rains increase.
Because of its all-weather bitumen access, the South Alligator is a great Runoff river because you can begin fishing it almost as soon as it starts raining, let alone when the wet season is over.
There are dozens of great feeder creeks in the South Alligator, but Nourlangie Creek must surely be the most famous in the whole of the Top End.
At the upper extremity of the South, there is a series of dry season billabongs which are steeped in barra-fishing history.
Even during major wet season flooding, you can’t get to them from the tidal section of Nourlangie via the South Alligator.
But the fish can get to you which is one of the reasons for this being such a great feeder creek.
The mouth of Nourlangie is only 9km up from the boat ramp.
When it’s pumping hard, it sends an acre of clear, dark water out into the main river.
At times, it’s a Mecca for barra, and there are so many ways, both inside and out, to target them.
Simply spot-locking along the colour change and covering 360 degrees with your casting – or running the bow up the bank, and flicking across the colour change – are simple yet proven tactics.
Trolling the opposite bank, or below the creek mouth on the same bank, have yielded some enormous barra.
Up inside Nourlangie, there are smaller feeder creeks which all take a turn to yield.
There is also the famous Nourlangie Rock-bar just a few hundred metres inside its mouth.
Trolling on and around this feature is always a good option, particularly around the bottom of the tide.
In fact, when you’re on the South Alligator, no matter what the time of day, and whether it’s a spring or a neap tide, fishing in and around the Nourlangie Creek mouth right on the turn of the low might well result in catching that barra of a lifetime.
In that regard, forward-facing sonar has increased the chnances of that happening manyfold.
Further up the South, there are a number of feeder creeks that can fish well too at this time of year, and in fact have been for the last fortnight.
The go is to work areas right up the top below where the banks are broken by floodwater.
In between the feeder creeks up the top are a handful of submerged rock-bars which can be trolled or cast to.
Leichardt’s Rock-bar – not surprisingly, just below Leichcardt’s Creek – is the biggest.
You can also head downstream from the ramp in January/February.
The targets are some of those bigger feeder creeks in the South, but certainly Six-pack Creek is worth a shot at this time of year.
It’s the last of three creeks along a kilometre stretch on the right side going down about 20km.
Even further down, iconic creeks worth fishing at the mouth and up inside include: One Tree, The Rookery and Brook.
As I wrote above, the beauty of fishing the South Alligator at this time of year is that it’s bitumen access all the way.
That means an easy day trip – so long as you don’t venture too far from the boat ramp – is always on the cards.
Katherine Tackle World’s Warren De With wandered across to the Victoria River and reckoned there were plenty of barra to be caught.
This 80cm Vic River barra has certainly been in a good paddock.
