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.

Although the build up fishing started with a lot of promise with some good early fish it hasnt really eventuated. The fishing has been a little tough with some very patchy fishing. Yesterday I fished with locals Goran and Linda from Fannie Bay and the barra came out to play.
We got a few live baits in Buffalo creek and headed over to our choosen hole to sit out the low tide. Fishing was slow early with only one 56cm fish until the tide dropped lower enough. We went for a walk around the sand bar and chased some more mullet and after gathering a bucket full of good sized mullet we settled in for some great fishing.
We boated another eleven barra over the next few hours. Eight out of the twelve fish we landed were between 73cm and 87cm so the quality of the fish was excellent. There were another five or six fish lost to a snag right in the middle of the hole. Keeping up with the bait became a task in itself with every bait hitting the water getting mauled by the hungry Barra. 
This has definitely been the best trip of the build up and cross fingers hopefully it will contintue

Low tide fishing in Shoal Bay over the last month has been looking good. With the water temp up the fish have been  on the chew early with some solid fish taken through August. Though the fish in August were a little tentative they could be enticed with a bit of patience.
Live bait has once again been the best option and the good news is that there has been plenty of bait about even on the bigger tides when it is usually hard to get.
The first few low tide trips for September have been good. The fish have been much more aggressive and the quality build up fish Shoal bay is renowned for have been on full display.
Yesterday I fished with Micheal from Brisbane and we landed five quality barra to 80cm. Today I fished with James and Kym from the Sunshine Coast and we landed four barra. Two of the fish which were caught only minutes apart went 88cm. Kym landed a 88cm fish that took a mullet off a float and then only minutes later husband James landed a 88cm fish on a mullet fished on the bottom. James also landed a nice 83cm Threadfin and lost a similar fis right at the bank.
All in all the typical low tide build up fishing in The bay is looking good for 2017.

Peter England from Tully landed this chrome plated 107cm Barra today in Joes Creek. The big girl took a 10 inch mullet fished on the bottom on the incoming tide.
The fishing over the last month has been excellent with plenty of barra coming from the flood plains over the high tides. Big schools of mullet are still coming off the plains on the bigger rides and the barra are there waiting for them.
The good news for the future is the amount of news season Barra about. In all the years I have fished the area I have never seen so many of the baby fish. Its not uncommon to get 5 or 6 young Barra in the cast net on every throw up on the flood plains.

Better late than never. The Little Howard finally hit full speed over the last set of spring tides. I had been for a walk up onto the flood plains and seen the masses of bait up there and new it would have to come out eventually. On the eight meter tide last Saturday  my wife Narelle and I went for a short fish up there and landed a couple of nice fish including a 102cm cracker. The bait had just started to find its way into the river. As the week went on and the tides started to recede the bait started pouring of the flood plains into the river and the Barra just went off. We were hooking onto 15 to 20 fish a day and every boat I spoke to were catching fish. The barra were spewing up masses of Scats when you caught them and were in great condition. As the tides moved into the neaps the fish went quiet, probably full from the feeding frenzy they had had earlier in the week.
Crabs are steady, while down on previous years there is still a good feed to be had