Well, so much for the famous Top End "run-off" barra season! We had been looking forward to fishing the big flood-plain rivers over the easter weekend, but there had been too much rain from the monsoon just prior, and the floodplains hadn't yet started to drain. We gave the Adelaide River a go on the Sunday, but loading up the animals two-by-two would have been a more logical use of a boat! Flood-water everywhere!

Just when it was starting to look promising, along came Cyclone Monica, which promptly turned into a rain depression over the Alligator Rivers region. The Arnhem Highway only just re-opened on Thursday, so we headed out for an exploratory trip to Nourlangie Creek yesterday.

There was still way too much water of course, and the fish haven't started moving yet. A bit worrying, since we have now had a week of fairly cool dry-season weather, and the general sentiment on the river is that the barra fishing may be over before it began.

I was lucky enough to make the day worthwhile with two keepers, one of which was a very good fish. Several anglers I spoke to on the water and at the ramp had been hard at it each day since the road opened, without boating a legal fish! All agreed that we need a few days of warm weather to get the barra biting again, but those big high-pressure systems moving across the southern part of the continent have probably put paid to that.

Here's my best fish yesterday, only 92cm but a whopping 26lbs. That's one fat mother of a barramundi! She still managed a couple of leaps completely clear of the water though. Spectacular!

Can't decide what to do on the big tides next weekend. Might have to dust off the mackerel gear!

Maybe I'll just go hunting instead...