Blog Posts

barra finally on the bite

25/2/2016

In what has been the quietest build up i have seen since doing tours in Shoal Bay there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel. The last few weeks has been very encouraging.
The big rain we had in December has got the run off creeks running clean. Usually this first big rain makes the creeks flow muddy but there was enough rain to make them run clean. While it is still a bit early for these run off creeks to really perform on some of the best tides there has been a bit of action. On one session after the last springs we boated six barra and had a few others missed. A couple of the fish were swamp fish showing the flood plains have a bit of water up there. If we can get a bit more rain over the next month I think we will be in foe a reasonable run off season in Shoal Bay.
Low tide fishing has really picked up in the last couple of weeks with catches of five or more the norm. One trip last week we hooked up to over a dozen fish but inexperienced anglers meant a lot were lost.
Mud crabs are slowly starting to show up in better sizes and are getting fuller by the day

September 07th, 2015

7/9/2015

Million Dollar Barra

Catch a Million Dollar Fish

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We're getting into the action too and have put together a great deal with Darwin's premier barra and mud crab fishing company, Shoal Bay Sport Fishing Tours. When you stay with us for a minimum of 3 nights, AND book a fishing tour, we'll offer you a 10% discount on any accommodation or site as well as on the fishing tour itself.

Contact us today to book both your accommodation and tour then start preparing to hook one of the prize barramundi. The competition, and our deal, starts on 1 October 2015 and goes right until 29 February 2016 inclusive.

Don't wait too long - there's a million bucks waiting to be caught!

Temperatures A Rising Barra Are Biting

30/8/2015

84 cm low tides fish

Very uncommon 92cm QLD Groper caught in the Little Howard

83cm Hope Inlet Barra

Solid Blue Nose Salmon have been coommon

After what has been a long hard dry season finally some good news. Water temps have been slowly rising over the past week and a half and the barra are liking it. With a constant temp of over 25 degrees and even hitting as high as 28 in places the fish are finally staring to get active.
Late last week fishing the low tide in the Little Howard saw us bag couple of nice barra and over the neap tides this week fishing the high tide we managed six fish on Monday and two on Wednesday and losing another five. Friday saw us back in the Little Howard fishing the low and bagging four quality fish.
Really big Blue Salmon have also been common among the catch.
Crabs Have been patchy and got very hard over the neaps but have picked up again as the tides have increased.

Another Metery in the Gloom

21/6/2015

Louise Schwarze With Her 101cm Barra

To say the fishing has been hard is a understatement. While we have been catching a few fish there have been quite a few days where we havnt managed a bite. There have been a few Blue Salmon about but the Barra have been elusive. One notable catch this week was a 101cm fish by Louise Schwarze from Victoria. Louise commented she would have been happy catching the bait as I tossed out the 15 inch mullet which accounted for the big girl. Louises farther Dennis at lost a couple of fish earlier in the day but this was the only barra we landed for the day.
Crabs are still about but are starting to show signs of slowing as they usually do at this time of year.

Kev Bags Metery In Tough Times

7/6/2015

Kevin Wheelahan with his 107cm low tide barra

Plenty of Mud Crabs in the Bay at the Moment

With a early start to the cold weather this year the fishing has been tough. Early in May we lost five degrees of water temp in a week and this has made the fishing hard going. There have has been some improvement in the past week with a few fish starting to show up again. Low tide fishing has produced a couple of big fish with a 94cm fish landed on Wednesday and Kevin Wheelahan landing a great 127cm fish on Friday. High tide fishing has picked up a little with Saturday proving a good morning when we hooked up on five fish up the little Howard.
While the fishing has been tough mud crabs have been the opposite. Catches of twenty plus crabs being common. Most crabs are full and plenty of bucks among them

Big Metery Tops Great Easter

7/4/2015

Vince with his 112cm girl

Getting Ready With The Net

On The Mat

In The Boat

Easter is always a good time to fish shoal Bay and this year was no exception. the big tides turned it on at high and low tide. I fished the low tides on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for some good results. Thursday we landed eight barra and a couple of nice Threadfin, Friday we landed Ten barra includung a 97cm and a 95cm fish along with some bigger Threadfin. Saturday things were a little frustrating with the barra boofing in front of us all day but not taking anything we offered them until client Mark Russo pulled out a green B52 from his box and proceeded to hook five fish in a short period but busting of the biggest fish and right on the tide change we bagged a 83cm fish on live bait giving us five for the day. Sunday and Monday saw a change of tactics to fishing the high tide on the flood plains in the evening. Sunday saw us boat six barra and loosing eight more in some tight water and it also saw Vince Vescio land the fish of the weekend and of a life time. Right on dusk he hooked and landed a massive 112cm girl on a live mullet fished in the middle of the river. It put on a massive fight getting completely airborne on several occasions. Sunday we fished the flood plain again for eight fish and many more lost.
Crabs started well but as the weekend went on it got harder to find the but the quality was excellent.

ross bags metery as shoal bay goes off

25/3/2015

Ross Lavender with his 107cm girl.

Dean Khoo with a solid 91cm fish

Shoal Bay is officially going off. The last fortnight has been as good as it gets with good catches being taken at high and low tide. The bigger tides have been better for high tide fishing and the smaller tides have produced some exceptional low tide fishing. Double figure hauls along with a few good Theadies have been common. There have been some big fish lurking up on the floodplains at high tide. Two catches of merit are Dean Khoos 91cm fish pulled out of the trees up Joes Creek and Ross Lavernders massive 107 fish also taken from the tight confines of Joes.
Mud crabs are out in full force and are now pretty full.

Early start to run off fishing as barra take lures

8/3/2015

Josh with his 82cm barra

Tristen with a lure taking Threadfin

Tristen with a fat low tide barra

Double hook up

Josh with a night time floodplain barra

Have fished the last three days with Josh and Tristen from Sydney with some exciting results. Friday we fished the Little Howard River for a great result. We started the day fishing the mouth of Joes creek where Josh landed his first barra on a live mullet and at 82cm it was a good start to his barra fishing career. Once the tide dropped we moved to our chosen deep hole for the day. After collecting some live bait we settled in for the day. The live bait was proving fruitless only attracting sharks so we started to throw some lures around and thats when the action started. Over a two hour period we landed eight barra two threadiies and even a shark all on lures while the live baits still failed to produce a fish.
Saturday prooved to be a disaster. The day started with a bang after checking the crab pots we had left over night we had more crabs than we could handle, one pot had eight crabs in it and almost every other pot had two to four in them. After watching a floatilla of boats head up the Little Howard I decided to try Hope Inlet for the day. This proved to be a poor choice as we worked all day without a single bite from a barra just a got savaged by huge numbers of Bull Sharks.
Sunday we had planned to fish the Vernon Islands. We headed of early at 6am but by the time we had reached Gunn Point the weather had turned bad. As we stuck our nose out of the Gunn Point blue holes we ran into a huge storm so the decision was made to return to Shoal bay and fish for barra. With the tide still up I headed up to the flood plains were I thought I might be able to get some bait. We parked out front of a little gutter that was pumping heaps of fresh water where I netted a good haul of Silver Scats. This is a pretty good sign that the run off fishing has started, with the barra attacking lures with gusto and Silver Scats staring to show. We headed down to our hole early so we could secure our spot among the floatilla of boats. The results were the same as Friday only getting attacked by sharks on the live baits but landing four barra and losing several others on lures. At the end of the day we headed back up with the tides to fish the flood plains. Just on dark we set up in the mouth of a very snag filled gutter where we put the Silver Scats to work. We had about ten bait and in a hour and a half period the boys managed to pull out three barra from the snags and lost the rest of the baits to fish that beat them. All good signs that the run off fishing is under way which is a few weeks early for Shoal bay lets hope we get some more rain so it continues through till May.

Barra tough but crabs are on

25/2/2015

Alan with a solid 74cm barra

8 crabs in half a hour

Richard with his first barra 72cm

Still early in the season but still a few barra about. Have done a couple of tours this month and have been managing a couple of barra a trip. Have been catching them at high and low tide. Fished today for a nil result, we had a few hits on baits but the fish we not going on with it they were simply slapping the mullet and moving on. Still a month away from the best run off fishing but the signs are good that there will be a few fish about.
The good news is crabs are on. Have been getting enough for clients while catching bait. Some of the bigger crabs are a bit empty but the mid size crabs are full to the brim and eat beautifully.

barra going off

26/11/2014

Marian Taylor With A Chrome Plated 72cm Saltie

Judy Ward with A 76cm Low Tide Barra

Karl With A Solid 49cm Vernon Islands Jack

88cm Of Low Tide barra

Karl With A Little Vernons Creek Trout

One Of The Solid Goldies Turning Up In Shoal Bay

With the big rains holding off the barra fishing in Shoal Bay is in full swing. Low tide fishing is by far the best way to fish at this time of year. Most days are producing six to eight fish but fishing with local girls Marian Taylor and Judy Ward we managed to land thirteen fish on Monday. The fish were all between 65cm & 76cm and put up a great show as you would expect from salt water barra at this time of year.
A few good Threadfin are also showing up along with a unusual amount of solid Golden Snapper. I have never seen so many Goldies in Shoal Bay but they are a welcome addition to the catch.
A trip to the Vernon Islands on Sunday was a little quiet but did produce some quality fish including a 49cm Mangrove Jack and a solid 50cm Goldie in the creek.
Crabs are still very patchy with bucks being hard to find.

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