Planning a trip to the north for the Run Off?
Shane Compain shares his tips.
Shane Compain from Tackle World Coolalinga and Australian’s Barra Classic 5 times Champion shares his experience from 2018’s Run Off.
Fishing Shady Camp for Barramundi During the ‘Run-off’
March is prime time for Barramundi fishing in the Northern Territory, which is the time of the well known “run-off” with the tides are neap tides with the smallest amount of movement. We decided to hit shady camp for the day. With an early start we were at the ramp and heading downstream towards the mouth of the river.
The tide was still going out with a low at 10am, I like to cast on the outgoing and troll on the incoming. I find the fish move to the edges on the outgoing and then use the tide to travel up the middle on the incoming. With a few hours to go until low tide we started to cast all the back eddies and creek mouth with Fuze Bazza Baits 5” and Strada Tera 125mm. The water was dark as there was plenty of fresh water coming of the flood plains so a mixture of brightly colours lures were the selection.
In the 3 hours of fishing we managed a handful of small barramundi up to 60cm which was heaps of fun and a good warm up.
With it nearing the bottom of the tide, we headed out to the mouth in search of the larger barramundi, we stared way out at the end of the channel for the turn of the low and as the tide came in so did the fish, by using your sounder electronics you can see the fish passing by and it’s your boat driving skills are put to the test, keeping the lures in the same area as the fish as they make there way up the channel towards the mouth. It’s only about eight feet deep on low tide so shallow running lures are the go especially Strada Teras in the 150mm and 180mm size. After a few hours of persisting on a large school of fish we had landed 6 fish up to 80cm and a couple of Threadfin salmon in the mix.
It always seems to go quite during the middle of the incoming tide but the trick is to keep persisting as normally the bigger fish seem to feed on the high tide. We kept at it until the late high tide at 4pm but this time we were trolling inside the mouth rather than out wide as the fish have come in with the tide. Just after the turn of the high I hooked up to the biggest fish of the day going 96cm of pure chrome! The big Strada Tera 180mm did the damage
tricking the larger fish.
With the afternoon sun starting to get lower we decided to call it a day and headed back to the ramp.
Our gear of choice is the Abu Revo 4 premier matched on a 6ft 10-17lb, Samaki Scale rod with 30lb Zulu braid and 60lb YGK fluorocarbon leader.
As every year is different and the different river systems get more rain than the other, planning a trip can be quite challenging and the timing tricky. Call up or drop into your local Tackle World store and well be sure to help any answer you might need as we all fish so we will know what’s happening and were to help you catch that fish of a lifetime!
Shane Compain
