Daly River Sunday 24th Jan

[maxpower]

After planning all week to do the South Alligator we got to the Arnhem Highway turn off and decided to keep going to the Daly. We were sure this decision would pay dividends with the river dropping but alas Murphys Law intervened. Probably should have stuck to the plan A.

Anyway arrived at Sinclairs and luckily enough there was one room available. Top bloke.

The few reports we heard sounded promising so early to bed buzzing with anticipation for the morning. Arrived at the ramp at sunup to see the water pretty high up (maybe 10m of ramp visible) and headed downstream to Elizabeth area. Fished all the creek mouths, runoff etc and saw a few fish but couldnt get them to take any lures or SP's.

Went up Eliz to the junction there but no luck. A lot of water flowing down there ensured an interesting trip out dodging the trees.

Accidentally sandwiched a big fish to the bank causing it to jump out into the side of the boat making a big bang I thought was a croc. That was the closet a fish came to gracing the deck. Was great though to see the Daly in the Wet season. Makes you respect it even more when its flowing hard.

Pretty sure I saw a few familar faces from the FFF site on the river. CB cruised past and maybe Moonman near Eliz? Bet you blokes did better than us after reading all your big barra reports last year.

I only heard of a few fish caught yesterday but one was apparently a 1.15m and a 92cm down near p o w e r t a i l creek somewhere. Saw a bloke hook and play a nice fish near 'No Fish Creek' only to lose it at the death.

Also this Pig flew past in the arvo with no respect for boat users he was right down the middle of the river.

Hope to hear if anyone else had much luck there over the weekend.

[Big Col]

Yeah i went down there yesterday too had an ok day picking up 10 fish full report to come later,had a chat to a few of the other guys and no one seemed to be having to much luck.saw that pig as it went past lizzy looked like it was either hit by a big boat or had its back broken by a croc either way it was a decent porker.

[Moonman]

Yeah MaxP I was down there, but didn't have much luck... Only landed a couple of average fish late in the day after being frustrated for hours by the fish at Lizzy. Which boat were you in mate? Everyone I talked to seemed to do about the same as us except for Big Col who was cleaining up by the sounds of it??? Im thinking it might have been his lady friend who was doing well though, as she looked pretty happy when we had a quick chat... Did hear about someone landing a 93cm on their first cast, dunno about the big one though?

Cheers
Moonman!

[bandit]

myself and natho hit it up sat-sun. at first things were looking good. the river was dropping. a few nice colour changes. but very dismal efforts. lots of the creek were pumping dirty floodwater. not proper tannin. there was also a lack of bait. wat we saw was very small. lizzy was pumpiming stinky water. must have been a fish kill up there or something. everyone i spoke to was doing it tough. best report i heard was 3 keepers. old man fished it sat with his mate and got nothing at all.
spent the night at down around lizzy area, plenty of boofing around the boat, tried every plastic, lure and fizzer we had. not even a hit. very frustrating. towards the end i just wanted them to shut up so i could go to sleep. mind u that was around 3am. they mossies were pretty friendly, but we managed to just miss the lightening show.
next day tried a few other spots. finally found a very small creek with nice colour. got 2 fish in the 70's and a few rats. saved the trip just.
The fish we caught wernt at the creek mouths as such, but further down stream.. in tight against the bank. fished a few eddies as well to try something different. one spot we pulled up at i said to natho if we get something here it will be a horse. not sure if this spot has a name but i call it buckos bend after watching him fish it a few times. ive been trying it consistantly and yet to pull a fish. anyway there were a few sea mulet so we perservered. natho got a hookup and his reel screamed. ive called out 'its a f#%*ing horse. put my rod down and gone for the net. it was about this point when a big river shark came tail walking outta the water. gee where we disappointed to see that.
actually caught prob half a dozen sharks over 2 days. on plastics, lures and a popper.
be interesting so hear how people go tomorrow now the river is at 6meters.

cheers

[ghound]

We were there yesterday got 1 just down from Elizebeth in the weed and lost a better one. then had dramas with my outboard and that was the end of that. All the creeks were pumping crappy water still

[Faulksy]

I was sitting at work spewing that I was not down there , I thought it would have been firing .

[Richieboy]

All the above reports are pretty accurate. We landed about 15 fish majority in the high 70's to low 80's.
Dropped a cracking 90cm+ which would have made my day. Nevertheless, well worth the trip out.

Richie

[NathanL]

All the above reports are pretty accurate. We landed about 15 fish majority in the high 70's to low 80's.
Dropped a cracking 90cm+ which would have made my day. Nevertheless, well worth the trip out.

Richie

What day was that Richie, Monday?
15 70/80cm fish is good fishing, well done.

[Blinky]

Talking to a young bloke the other day......he spent a few days down the Daly last week, he said the mouth of Elizabeth was absolutely rippling with rainbows, is this right, did anyone notice?

[NathanL]

Talking to a young bloke the other day......he spent a few days down the Daly last week, he said the mouth of Elizabeth was absolutely rippling with rainbows, is this right, did anyone notice?

Certainly wasn't Saturday/Sunday. No bait at all to speak of really - as lee mentioned above - there was some baby archer fish/scat in amongst the grass, when I say baby i mean like literally 10mm long.

It also stank hardcore saturday like there was a fish kill and no tannin - just black/Grey floodwater. So perhaps there was bait there earlier in the week but had all died or moved on before we got there sat.

I didn't see one rainbow for the 1.5days we were down there.

[ghound]

he only bait I saw was at the mouth of Powertail on Monday and they were little scats.

[adam]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm doing a day trip tomorrow so will post how I go. Last ditch effort to catch a January barra.

[maxpower]

Bugger all bait on sunday. Just the 10mm Archers.

Moonman I was in the White 4.44 Stacer with the Maroon Canopy, and Old Evinrude on the back with my better half. We tied up to a tree 50-80m in front of you guys for a little while near Lizzy.

Pretty shattered to go down and not get a fish for the first time but on the otherhand it was good to have a poke around.

[Big Col]

here are the photos of our trip down there, was a good day unfortunatly the better half diddn't get a decent size barra all day, she got a few babys but we diddnt take photos as they where tiny. was a good day and moonman you will be spewing just as you left us near lizzy they came one the bite , just had to match the hatch in regards to the few baitfish that where around, got a ton of hits but very hard to hook up as they where slashing at the bait and almost all fish where hooked outside their mouth, lost a few to the gill rackers as well. biggest for the day went 88cm, one went 82, the rest where between 65 and 75cm any way here is the photos . just before all the questions i changed my shirt half way through the day. all fish where caught on natural coloured soft plastics, small sizes seemed to attrack more hits but less hookups.

[Richieboy]

Nathan: Saturday mate. No bait either. Fishing better now the levels have dropped and the baits flushed off. Expect it to be a carpark this weekend. Good thing I'm off to Brissie for a month eh.

Richie