Build up fishing has been pretty consistent this season. A couple of meter fish with plenty of others in between. Highlight of the month was John Rowans 114cm monster taken at low tide on a live mullet. Live bait has been very hard to get but with a bit of work we are still getting enough. Crabbing has been very quiet.

First low tide tour of the build up this week. Water temp is up to 30 degrees. Big spring tides made fishing a little difficult but we managed a couple of barra with a 109cm specimen being the the outstanding catch of the day. She took a Riedys Little Lucifer in a small hole with a strong current feeding it. The big girls are about .

We are now into June and the water temperature is still holding up at 28 degrees on average.  This means the barra have still been biting. The fish have been in excellent condition and plenty are in the 70cm range.
After a dismal run on Mud Crabs in the last 12 months crabs have finally made a come back. Double figue catches are the norm now. We caught 20 on Friday 

The good wet season has made for some much better fishing this runoff season.
we have been catching fish on both high and low tide tours
While the bad wet seasons of the past couple of years has definitely had a negative effect on the fishing I think if we can expect even more improvement if we can back it up with another good wet next season'
Crabs have also made a slight come back. After last years disastrous crab season the sighns are they on the way back. while nowhere near as good as is expected in Shoal Bay we are getting a feed most days. The quality of the crabs is as good as I have seen with some realy big full crabs getting about 

Its been a while since I have updated this news page but due to covid 19 there has been very little to report.     I have been getting back into tours in the last couple of months and the build up has been producing some good quality fish although the number are a little down. I am putting this down to poor wet seasons we have experienced in the last couple of years
The good news is predictions for this wet season are good with plenty of rain forecast. With this in mind I am expecting a good fun off season ahead.
Probably the most disappointing thing about 2020 has been the mud crab. Numbers have been the lowest I have ever seen in 17 years of fishing Shoal Bay. we have really struggled to get a feed at times. Hopefully a better wet season will rectify this    

To say the fishing of late has been tough is a understatement. With cold water and strong winds conditions haven't favored the Barra fisherman. The fish have been there but not playing the game.
With the winds finally abating and temperatures rising they finally started to show signs of playing the game this week.. We caught fish both Wednesday and Thursday.
Bait has been extremely difficult to get. Decent size mullet are near on impossible to find and lures are not attracting any attention at all. We have had to resort to using small mullet putting two or three on a hook to  get some attention.
Thursday  saw the first signs of some of those nice solid build up Barra With Greg Nunn landing a nice fat 79cm fish and daughter Amelia landing a 76cm fish.A few other solid fish were lost through the day with none more spectacular than a fish well over a meter that Greg hooked.The big girl peeled off over half a spool of line before completing some spectacular acrobatics and then throwing the hook.
All in all we finally have some light at the end of the tunnel and now hopefully thing really start to hot up.
While the fish have been tough the crabs this year have been exceptional and there are still plenty about but as is usual for this time of year the Jennys are starting to out number the Bucks but they are full .of meat.  

Things in the Bay have picked up over the last couple of weeks. Both low and high tide fishing has been producing fish.
Today I took Adam Hine from NSW over to Hope inlet to fish the low tide. Results were very encouraging. Despite the only bait available was a long way on the small side we managed to catch five Barr up to 80cm. All the fished were released but unfortunately one 65cm fish didnt make it as you can see in pic above.
Have done several low tide tours recently for similar results. Bait at low tide still remains hard but I would expect that to improve over the next few weeks.
The really good news is what I saw on a walk up onto the floodplains after the big spring tides last week.
I walked about two kilometers up and  despite the lack of rain the mullet were wall to wall of all different sizes and sitting in the channels were packs of hungry Barra ready to swallow  any mullet coming of the flats into the channels. It was fun scaring the mullet out into the channel and watch the barra boofing them. So I think despite the lack of rain we will get a bit of run off fishing in the bay though it may not last as long. Over the next few week thing will really star to crank up.
Crab have been about in numbers for a while now but many have been empty. This is pretty much what happens most years and by the end of March most are usually Full. 

The water in Shoal Bay is warming up early this year and the fish are starting to get a little more lively.
While the fish have been very fussy over the high tide I think the low tide fishing should be starting to fire up over the next few weeks. With water temps staring to push up to the 28 degree mark it wont be long.
we have been boating some nice Threadfin and a few quality Barra over the last couple of week and the Barra over the spring tides have been making themselves known buffing there way up and down the river. There have been some big fish around but have been hard to get them to take the baits. 
I will be pushing the low tide fishing from now on as this is generally the best way to go at this time of year.
Crabs have been steady without being outstanding.

The 2018 run off has been a cracker and is still firing. We are getting plenty of fish over the high tides. The fish are coming in a variety of sizes. You never know what size the next fish will be. They can be from tiny rats to a meter fish. 
There have been plenty of anglers taking advantage of the great fishing with all of them catching fish. One of Shoal Bays top anglers has landed ten fish over a meter this season. All the fis have been taken in the same spot.
Crabs have been a little slow but still getting a feed every trip

After a slow start to the wet season the rain finally came in January. The Darwin rural area which supplies Shoal Bay with its run off received 1.2 meters of rain. This is the most rain recorded in January since 1904 and we have been getting steady rain fall throughout Febuary as well.
On Saturday night the tides looked good to go and have a look around on the floodplains and the results were promising. There was plenty of water up there along with a good number of nice sized mullet. 
We fished a likely run off gutter and managed to boat four barra with the biggest being 93cm. As the tide pushed up we moved up onto the floodplain itself but found it quiet up on top. The fish were sitting below the run off feeding on the bait being washed into the river. There were plenty of fish boofing around us all night.
While we need one more monsoon to really top it up and keep the action going all looks good for a great run off season.