Run Off Fishing NT - Any Tips?

[BR65]

Well, less than two weeks to go now and I will be flying out to Darwin for some full on run off fishing in the Mary River with Anglers Choice, hopefully seeing some big barra find their way to the end of my line.

After much flailing of arms and gnashing of teeth I've managed to reduce the number of lures Im takeing to one tackle box, much more difficult to do than you would think.

Can any one offer any advice/tips as I havent done this style of fishing before.
I am takeing my impoundment barra gear, calcutta 200b on a penn pin point stick and a chronarch 100 on the Loomis, both spooled with 15 kg braid and finished off with 60lb penn 10x leader.
Lures packed are a mix and match with a range of shallows, medium and deep divers, allthough I noticed my thing for classics seemed to be comeing thru again.

I would love to get a barra on a SP, any thoughts on size, type, colour etc??? Ive got some squidgy slick rigs in 100 and 130mm lengths from Awoonga, are they worth takeing, maybe something a bit bigger like the larger storms??

cheers
Brian

[yamp]

renosky shads and squidgys white wrigglers tail worked well for me on east alligator, I really like the run off fishing you just work the color change and wait the hits to start,no real snags to worry about bites seem to be best in morning and later in afternoon,take a couple of good hats and heaps of sunscreen,take some canesten cream for jock rash,last time we fished up their most of the blokes I was fishing with got a bit of rash happening, the cream was like gold after a days fishing.3b cream seems to work well in preventing it though the hummidity can be unbelievable and I come from NQ any way hope you trip goes well Yamp

[the_matrix]

Brian,
Take the plastics for sure!
I used slick rigs almost exclusivley on my last trip to the NT (Aug 06), obviously not a run off trip but the similar tactics will work.
I used 110mm and 130mm slickies, caught the biggest fish in the boat each day, and certainly kept up to the numbers the classics etc caught.
I was fishing deeper, draw and wind retrieve just bouncing the bottom steadily.
Was super effective for the bigger specimens.

With the amount of water thats going to be moving, I'd suggest the bigger the better. 130mm as a minimum, maybe even worth taking a pack of the new 170mm slickies.
Even better would probably be something that is NOT pre-rigged, like a squidgy fish (in say 130mm plus) with a jig head to suit. There is some great heavy duty jig heads that squidgy do, just cant remember what size they are. When you see them you will know. Your going to need serious hooks on your plastics, and I'd be going at least 80lb leader.

I'd fish them similar to how you would a hard body, that is, a straight retrieve, but also let them drop into the current and fish them deeper.
Thats the beauty of sp's, being able to cover the depth range.

Lucky bugger, its shaping up to be a cracker run-off, good luck!
Cheers
Jas

[LeeannP]

Your best shot is to actually talk to Mick Mannix (Anglers Choice) and go with his recommendations. You'll be doing a lot of trolling in reasonably shallow water if you're fishing the mouth.... lures trolled a long way back from the boat. Depending on how many other anglers are fishing you'll find that there won't be much casting happening. You can troll Squidgies, Storms.... choice is yours. Mick's a bloody nice guy to fish with but seriously, talk to him!!!!

.... and bring heaps of insect repellent

[LeeannP]

we've gotten away with 40lb yamatoyo flurocarbon leader in the past too but it's all a matter of horses for courses. fingers crossed you won't get a whirlybird go through the place like we did a couple of years back

You'll find this link interesting too.
http://www.nafa.com.au/news.php?op=view&item=5

[the_matrix]

ooh the "T" word
Take some matchsticks

[LeeannP]

Yep, the "T" word. What the operator does will entirely depend on the angling skills of his clients and how many on board. I've done some casting with Mick but a hell of a lot of trolling. Shallow divers like your B52's, Halco 125 Scorpions, Barra Classic 120's, Bomber B16A's (chartruese back) are all lures that the guides up there use regularly Mick's also got a sneaky little collection of lures on board. Of course if you can get into the casting the plastics are going to work a treat.... as do the other lures just mentioned. I bet you can't wait to catch your metre barra hey?

[BR65]

Casting is the prefered method for me, but as the saying goes "when in Rome blah blah blah". The crew Im with can cast, so hopefully that will be an option.
Would love a metery, but a nice shiny yellow tailed salty would be just as good at any size. Sounds like I should do a re-assesment on the lure box,maybe flick a few of the deep divers out to make some room for more shallow divers????

cheers
Brian

[Rev]

What dates are you fishing??

If it is the spring tides Mick will take you casting for sure unless there is a high percentage of punters that cannot cast.

If it is the neap tides unfortunately the troll is the best method to find the fish.

[BR65]

Gday Rev,
fishing Sat 31/3/07 thru to Tues 3/04/07.
Tide heights are increasing over these days.
cheers

Brian