Destinations: Arnhemland Barramundi Nature Lodge, NT
The magnet-like attraction of the barramundi sees countless fishos visit the Top End year after year. Those looking for a venue to get started could do worse than a specialist lodge that’s situated in prime barra country. MICK FLETORIDIS reports.
THE prospect of catching a barramundi is all the impetus many southern fishos need to travel to Australia’s far north. This iconic sportfish helps boost tourism numbers in far flung parts of northern Australia, particularly in the Northern Territory. The Top End’s wild barra stocks are recognised as a valuable resource by both locals and an enlightened NT Government that justly gives the species the growing level of protection it deserves. The lure of the barra is the prime reason fishing operations like the remote Arnhemland Barra Nature Lodge enjoy a healthy level of repeat business; the fish has an almost magical effect on both seasoned fishos and barra first-timers alike. After experiencing a few days at the lodge late last year, I was reminded that it had been way too long since my last trip to the Territory. And just how easy it is to be inflicted with a mild case of barra fever.
After stepping off a plane into the Maningrida heat I was met by the lodge’s manager, Dave, and driven directly to the Aboriginal community’s boat ramp. Peering out at the Arafura Sea, Dave pointed to a distant craft cutting through waves and fast heading our way. I rifled around in luggage to change into fishing clothes and also managed to put baitcaster and spin outfits together before the pontoon punt got close and dropped off the plane.
Two hours after leaving Darwin airport I was fishing for wild barramundi. Sharing the boat was lodge client Murray Kenward of Perth, who’d flown into Maningrida the day before. While I was still in the air Murray had caught 18 barra on the run-out tide. Things looked promising.
When a guide in the Territory tells you the fishing venue is an hour’s run up river it usually is. Guiding boats and outboard engines get a solid workout in the Top End. Our twenty-something guide Mick Eddy manned the wheel of the Ocean Master Marine punt and gave a rundown on the past few days’ fishing as we wound our way up the inviting Liverpool River for the last of the run-out. It was the period of neap tides, which meant a minimal high and low tide differential and hopefully some clean water for maximising lure fishing and the potential for sight casting to cruising barras. On the day the tide diff was only 1.8m – hardly noteworthy in a place where 4-5m tides are common.
The run up river proved a highlight in itself as the prolific birdlife on show included brolgas, brahminy kites, jabirus, egrets, magpie geese, cockatoos and plovers by the flock. It was a birdwatcher’s paradise and testament to why the Arnhemland Barra Nature Lodge has branched out into specific birdwatching tours. We also briefly spotted several big crocs, visible only as their dark noses and tail tips submerged on approach.
Active fishing
Casting lures at snags is a personal favourite way to fish. It’s active fishing that requires a good level of concentration and reasonable accuracy, and is very satisfying when you get it right. Not having used a baitcaster for quite some time I was rusty, but thankfully not too many lures ended up in the trees. It didn’t take too many casts to land some in the pocket and score strikes.
A river during the run-out tide in barra country is an exciting place to be as things turn primal; the trademark boof as a bucket mouthed barra delivers a mullet’s last rites is a sound sure to stir any fisho’s blood. With things well on the move
we enjoyed an action-packed session that resulted in about 35 barra boated between three of us. They weren’t big fish – most around 60cm and a scattering to 65cm – but it was exciting, active fishing. Typically, we had to concentrate on casting tight to bankside timber, submerged trees and amongst mangrove roots for bites. A variety of hard-body shallow running minnows worked best: Classic F18 Manta Rays and Barras, Halco Scorpions, Tropic Anglers, B52s and others all produced the goods. Slow retrieves and erratic rod tip action to make the lures dart like wounded baitfish was key for maximum strikes.
Day on the Blythe
As much action as the Liverpool provided it proved to be an entrée to the main course a neighbouring river system served up. The start of a day fishing the Blythe River started with a 45-minute drive from the lodge by 4WD. On the way we saw several water buffalo that ran off into the scrub as we passed. One billabong not far from the track had a number of the beasts frolicking around in the mud and having a fat time. To add to the never ending nature show, magpie geese filled the sky as brolgas danced the floodplains before taking to the air with clumsy flaps of huge wings.
The vegetation changed radically as we made our way to the Blythe system, where two guide boats were moored in the upper reaches of a tributary of the Cadell River. The freshwater influence gave way to salt and thick bankside vegetation to expanses of floodplain and mangroves. Jabirus patrolled the river bank as we motored by. A young water buffalo swam across river seemingly doing its best to attract the monster crocs that are known to inhabit the Blythe.
Our guide for the day, Ben Boulton, originates from Narooma on the NSW South Coast. There he’d skippered a bluewater charter boat for a number of seasons. Now three years in to an around-Australia working holiday with partner Jasmine, Boulton makes up one of the lodge’s pool of more than 10 guides originating from around the country; all guides may be called on at once during the peak of barra season. On this visit
we were between groups and there were only four clients at the lodge, two anglers fishing per boat.
The day was the first of a local Maningrida weekend barra tournament. Ben suggested we’d probably see some more boats sharing the water. As it turned out we saw one other non-lodge boat – another Ocean Master Marine punt – trolling a run Ben had hoped to fish first up. We left them to it and Ben pointed our boat into a nearby creek to cast lures at some inviting snags. The tide was well into the run-out and groups of popeye mullet leapfrogged nervously across the surface. The odd surface explosion suggested action wasn’t far away. Sure enough, on his second cast Murray hooked and landed a handsome 80cm saltwater barra that looked like it had been dipped in chrome.
Just as we slotted in for a run behind the tournament boat the crew aboard jumped to attention as a nice barra started leaping about in their wake. There was lots of loud whooping and high-fiving when the fish made it into the Environet. We followed their lead and each troll run along the snag riddled stretch provided a fish. Murray’s 80cm fish was soon old news as we quickly amassed silvery 87, 89 and 93cm barras. They were all muscled salties and the fights were testament to their excellent condition. Strong line zinging runs and impressive aerial antics induced angler sweats under a hot sky.
We ended the day feeling satisfied after the catch & release of 15 or more fish over 80cm. Murray lost one boatside that had leapt high out of the water and looked
all of a metre or more. Unfortunately the big barra rolled on the leader at the last moment, severing the line with sharp gill rakers. It took Murray several beers back at the lodge to lose the jitters after that loss.
The other lodge clients, Greg Payne and Bill Suapopo, both from Sydney, had had a slow morning on barra but had made up for it in the afternoon. Mick Eddy took them to a little creek arm off the main river channel he’d hoped would fire on the last of the run-out. Mick’s gamble paid off as the trio lucked onto a pile of barra stacked like firewood at the creek mouth. The barras were smashing any mullet trying to make a dash for it on the last of the tide. In an hour and a half, the boys scored 50 or more barra to 99cm on hard bodies and soft plastics. Bill also scored an 87cm fish on a surface fizzer.
Back at the lodge Bill excitedly recounted a battle with a monster barra he’d hooked in the little creek. He reckoned the fish looked well over the magic metre mark and not surprisingly it took several beers to quell the big fella’s excitement. It had been a day of fishing to remember, the sort that can easily bring on barra fever.
Out on the bluewater
One morning we launched two boats from Maningrida in the hope of tangling with some big queenfish, giant trevally, mackerel and hard-pulling reef fish. Mick and Ben had amassed several GPS marks of the nearby offshore reefs and if the mild weather held we planned to hit some more remote peaks that provided insane big mackerel action a few days earlier. Unfortunately, building sou-east winds put paid to that option but the closer exposed reefs and bommies provided lots of queenie fun on cast and trolled hard-body lures and poppers. Rapala X-Raps seemed to draw the most hits; one I threw at a bommie lured a solid GT out for a bite before it screamed for home, thankfully straightening the hooks first. Murray scored a trolled monster queenie soon after that was around 1.1m in length. A slightly smaller queenie hooked soon after jumped high out of the water for a counted eight times before I got it to the waiting net.
Mick drove us out to some wider GPS marks showing up as jagged bits of reef and rubble on the sounder screen. There we fished soft plastics in 5-6m and hooked and landed several 2-3kg fingermarks and a solid coral trout.
On the other boat Ben guided Greg and Bill to virtually non-stop queenie action – every time we looked over someone seemed to be hooked up.
At one stage a big shark could be seen as its fin sliced the surface in hot pursuit of a hooked queenie. Amazingly that ended well for the fish as Bill managed to pull it into the boat before it got bitten in two.
Greg unfortunately succumbed to the motion of the sloppy sea, which gave us the cue to head back in and chase more barras. Murray and I worked around what were then four metre tides and muddied waters but we still scored 20 more to temporarily quell any potential barra withdrawal symptoms before we had to head back home.
Mick Fletoridis fished Maningrida courtesy of Arnhemland Barramundi Nature Lodge.
