THE top end has had a great start to their wet season with well-known barramundi hot spots deluged with monsoonal rains. As I write this hundreds of keen barra anglers are skipping work, battling boggy dirt tracks and flooded roads heading to iconic destinations such as the Adelaide and Daly Rivers and Shady Camp chasing their dream of landing a metre barra.
A few good fish have been caught but the “meteries” are still proving to be quite elusive. But, away from the road convoys and congested conga lines of boats on the waterways, came a great report of not one, but two meteries landed on New Year’s Eve within minutes of each other. Avid Darwin angler Brendan Griffiths made the comfortable and leisurely 1 hour drive from Darwin to the Lake Bennett Wilderness Resort, an artificial lake 80 kilometres from Darwin. Void of crocodiles this recreational lake is known for its safe fishing, swimming and canoeing. Brendan and his partner Lauren Prosser were there with friends to see in the new year and for Lauren to test out her new pink spin outfit she received for Christmas.
As festivities got under way Lauren thought she would try her luck casting from the cabin’s pontoon and immediately hooked and lost a big fish. Brendan didn’t hesitate to grab his own gear and also cast around the pontoon and to everyone’s amazement he landed a meritorious 121cm barra. Several minutes later he landed another metery only a few centimetres shorter.
Lake Bennett is an 81 hectare freshwater lake formed from a dam in the early 1980s. It was stocked with 52,000 barra fingerlings in mid 2004 by the NT Recreational Fishing Unit. Catching barra from this waterway is not unheard of – a few 70-80cm barra captures were reported a few years back – but they were few in numbers. With no fishing pressure and no natural predators, little known Lake Bennett could be the next great NT fishing destination where you may catch that fish of a lifetime.