Tag Archives: barramundi

The Day they Got Away

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It has been far too long since I have caught a legal barra, so I decided to get a little remote and hit Bynoe Harbour for the day. Mud and Alice came along, we had really good tides, so we were pretty optimistic.

The first thing we did was start casting at some snags and Mud hooked a barra but it spat it straight away. A good sign the were on the bite. Another decent hook up in a few minutes had us optimistic. Then not much happened four a few hours…
We tried the drains and there were some amazing looking ones. But zero fish. We found a few rock bars to troll over, I pulled up a reasonable golden snapper, and Alice pulled up a reasonable cod. So that was good.

As the tide turned we tried the drains again, it is my experience they work best about an hour or two after the turn. Suddenly we had a lot more action. Alice first got a bite but it failed to hook up, Mud then did the same thing. Alice then had a large threadfin follow her lure all the way to the boat but decide not bite.

Frustrating.

Another bite on Muds lure that didn’t hook up and the drain we were at went quiet. Went to another where we could see the swirl of a barra, so we peppered him lures and BANG I hooked up! After about 30 seconds of fighting… it managed to spit the lure. I was devestated, it would have been a 70cm fish I think.

We were running out of time at this point so we tried a few more without sucess and we started to head home. Mud wanted to visit our favourite rock bar on the way so we did that and we trolled around. I filleted the snapper to save time and while the rod was in the holderI managed to hook up! At first I thought it was the bottom but it soon revealed to be an impressive cod. I don’t know I deserved this fish given I flicked the bail arm off at first thinking it was the bottom, but given the dissapointing day of barra refusing to hook up, I guess I was due.

Cod and Golden Snapper for dinner. Could be worse.

Got:
Me: Impressive cod, reasonable golden snapper
Alice: Reasonable cod, small stargazer
Mud: Small stargazer

Random story of the trip:
I spent $40 on an OSP Bent Minnow with the promise that it would be killer to barra. After promising I wouldn’t sucumb to these fads and prices I failed. And I didn’t get a single bite on it.

Snap

Barra going Nuts

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I was supposed to be going camping this weekend, even took the Monday off work, but as it turns out the car got a crack in the radiator. I found this out on Friday. Meanwhile Brucesta had just moved from WA to Darwin and had asked me about some fishing. Since I didn’t have anything planned we made some last minute decisions to go barra chasing for the 11.30am lock in.

At first it was slow going, I hooked a few small cod (I seem to have a knack for it). A few hours of not much and it was across the low Brucesta managed to hook a fish that buried itself under a log. Since it was 1m deep it took me about 10 minutes of fishing around with the net under water to dislodge it, actually we gave up, but when Brucesta tried to break his line off he managed to get the fish out. Turns out it was a 38cm barra, his first NT one, and at least we were on the board.

As the water started to roll in we heard the occasional boof and we trying to hook something up. We were at a branch in a creek where the craziest thing happened. About 5000 tiny mullet came pouring into the creek. For about 5 minutes we were hearing a boof every 30 seconds. Then for 2 minutes after that, it was a boof every 2-3 seconds. 5 minutes after that it went back a boof every 30 seconds, before dying off. You could physically see the 60-80cm barra jumping. Over and over. It was crazy, they were everywhere!

And yet… they would not hook up. I have never seen anything like it, if I had of known feeding frenzies could go like that I would have assumed it would be easy to get a fish. But we got nothing. Another boat near us got 2 whilst trolling so we swapped to that, I got a decent blue salmon but no barra.

I still just can’t believe I saw that. I wish I had a go pro or something as it was just so insane. And yet no barra from it. It was the most disappointing thing that happened that day, and I’m a North Melbourne supporter.

Got:
Brucesta: 38cm barra
Me: Blue salmon for dinner

Random story of the trip:
A boat in that creek had their nose about 2 metres in the air whilst motoring, their outboard was 75% under water.

Snap

One and half days on the Tiwi Islands

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Recently friends took jobs in the school on Melville Island. We decided to use May-Day long weekend as an excuse to go and see them, unfortunately Claire and I couldn’t get Friday arvo off so we had to get the Saturday afternoon flight over.

We got our permits sorted and headed over, on Sunday me and my mate spent all day in Shark Bay. He only got his boat in Easter so hadn’t really got his spots sorted yet, with that in mind it was a reasonable day. He got a nice 70cm barra for dinner and I got a lot of fish, but they were all pretty small. It is pretty eerie fishing in a location where you don’t see a boat for the entire day, and there are zero other cars at the boat ramp!

Some highlights include:
– tom hooking a huge groper and it getting itself wrapped around a snag. It was at the surface so we gave it a shot at netting it but it scared and ran, managing to break off his braid
– a kingfisher deciding to hit my lure, lucky I was running a weedless rig and it didn’t hook it
– the mist off the water on an untouched morning was pretty nice

While we were off fishing Claire went to a nice waterfall for a swim.

The next morning we headed to a billabong. We only had two hours fishing as we needed to get the ferry back. When we got there – devastation! The boat ramp had eroded so we couldn’t launch. Ah well, might as well cast from the shore. A few casts and I had a couple of tarpon. Then I hooked a small barra! I yelled to my mate, excited that there were barra there, and he came running with the net… looked at me like I was stupid when he saw it was 30cm.

But anyway… soon we were hooking barra each couple of casts. I estimate that most were between 25 and 40cm. It was amazing fun. I landed two thumping saratoga’s, check out the story of the trip. The biggest I would estimate to be 45 to 50… I was thinking of measuring him but got a hook in the throat so I really wanted to return him to the water asap, and the tape measure was in the car.

It is how I imagine Coroborree would have been before it became Darwin’s favourite spot.

They loved a new lure, and it gave me a chance to try some lures I’m not that familiar with, like vibes and poppers.

Got
Saturday
46, 47cm barra, mangrove jack, golden snapper, catfish, cod

Sunday
A few tarpon, 20 odd barra, two saratogas

Story of the trip:
Banks can be hard to cast from with overhanging trees. So I threw my popper out and accidentally cast over the tree, so before I could wind I had to get the braid out of the tree. Once I did I realized I couldn’t see my popper… had it sunk? Well, as I would up I discovered a saratoga had liked the look of a popper sitting there doing nothing, and had decided to hook itself!

 

Shady Camp Crowded

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The spring-high looked pretty good for Shady Camp. Mud and I decided to head down to the same spot that we did so well on. Wow, oh wow, four weeks can make a difference. Last time there were one other two boat there, this time at 8am there were seven.

No doubt everyone has been through this before, you live in Darwin, travel 2.5 hours to a remote location, and it is bow to stern crowded.

Unsurprisingly, the fishing wasn’t as good as last time.

Frustratingly, it was especially bad for me.

Looking around at the other boats, most got a fish or two, but it seems I can declare that section overfished. But who knows, things vary from day to day, maybe soon it will be going off again.

Mud hooked a very large barra, around 80-90cm at the start of the day. He fought it for a bit, unfortunately it broke through the leader. I suggested the drag wasn’t loose enough (see previous Shady story) but I guess these things happen, I think he is going to start rocking 80lb mono.

When the tide turned and started dropping they came on a bit more. Alice got the first fish (had to pass it to Mud for a second to get it from under a snag, see video) but she was pretty happy getting the first fish of the day. Mud soon hooked a fish and handed the rod over to Alice, she didn’t have too much trouble getting it in, a nice 67cm barra.

At this point there was a certain debate about what to do with the fish, I didn’t realise my boat was a democracy, and it was let go.

Another fish was hooked which wrapped itself under a snag, my guess from the jump was around 55-60cm.

Other than that I was standing there casting for 6 hours straight with nothing to show for it!

Ah well, always next time.
Got:
Me: Nothing, two hits, but zero hook ups
Alice – Mud’s daughter: 1 58cm barra, 1 67cm barra
Mud: Nothing, though hooked the 67

Story of the trip:
The way that that tiny stretch that we found last time had turned into nav-point-alpha for most of Darwin.

Boat problems:
Went great! Pretty happy these days

Snap

Little fellas on the bite in the Harbour

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Thought I might spend the high on a wreck fishing with bait, get a few fish, I did not realise how hard it was match up GPS coordinates. After a bit of stuffing around we bailed and went chasing barra. Should have been doing from the start really…

We caught 3 of them, but they were all undersized. Two of them were close though. A lot of life, mostly (what I think is) threadies feeding on jelly prawns. Would have loved a keeper over Easter, I think I need to do the time to travel… also my freezer is still full from Shady so I can’t complain too much.

Nothing worse than taking bait and coming home empty… bait or fish adds at least 30 minutes to my cleaning-the-boat ritual.

Got:
Me: 52cm barra, approx 30cm barra
callmejoe: 52cm barra, 2 catfish

Story of the trip:
The fuzz came by! Got a safety check by the police. Passed with flying colours of course.

Boat problems:
Nothing… and after adding that silicone spray it seems I can easily launch it myself

Snap
So close!