WITH my days of working and living full-time on Melville Island quickly disappearing, it was with great anticipation that the approaching week of fishing with my mate Mark “Macca” McLean finally arrived.
This was Macca’s ninth trip to Melville Lodge and the eighth time we got to fish together. The very best part of this gig was that Macca had the boat to himself and had asked me to fish alongside him this time. Not always that easy when wind and current are pushing the boat around … but I was willing to give it my best try.
First day we decided to fish Snake Bay and after a quick five minute run from the lodge we pulled up along a mangrove lined bank. It was right on high tide so we would be casting in the little gaps between the thick mangrove trees. The water was a beautiful clean green colour with around a metre visibility.
I tied on shallow running lures to both rods and Mac’s very first cast landed in the zone and was greeted by a beautiful chrome barra about 60cm. The barra blasted out, inhaled the lure and then tried its best to rid itself of the lure by jumping repeatedly and using its powerful tail to get back amongst the trees. Mac had it under control though and it was soon boatside and quickly released. What a way to start the trip, a barra on the very first cast and we saw the whole thing happen. Awesome!
There were barra aplenty caught on Macca’s latest Top End adventure.
We continued along the tree line and pinned several more barra in pretty much the same circumstances as the first before a move was called for. A quick 10 minute blast in the boat and I snuck the boat up onto the next flat. This mud flat only had around half a metre of water covering it and was also crystal clean. It didn’t take long to spy our first barra cruising along. Mac laid out a perfect cast a metre in front of its nose, gave the lure a twitch and the fish flew forward and engulfed it. Multiple leaps and strong runs by the barra followed.
Over the next hour we had a most enjoyable session sighting and casting to cruising fish, resulting in another 20 odd barra. This was the highlight of day 1 for me, although we did also manage a stack of jacks, goldies and assorted cod.
The jacks were also plentiful and aggressive.
Day 2 was pretty special for Mac as I started off by taking him to a small coastal creek mouth that no one had ever pushed into before. After quite a bit of manoeuvring we finally had the 6.4 m boat in unfished waters. There were small barra everywhere and in no time we had extracted 15 odd before a falling tide forced us to leave or risk becoming stranded. This creek is now officially known as Macca’s.
A run up to Robinson Inlet and I went straight to my favourite flat to catch the last of the incoming tide. This is a great spot to find threadfin salmon but even though we saw one nice specimen cruise past, the flat was dominated by barra. They were sitting right up under the overhanging mangrove branches and you needed to be able to skip a lure into the shady recesses to get a bite. We used soft plastics rigged weedless as I find these skip quite well and as a bonus wayward casts can normally be jiggled out of the trees much easier than treble armed lures.
Another barra explodes from the water.
We fished 50 metres of this flat and it produced another 20 odd barra for us. The rest of day 2 ended with another 50 odd fish consisting of a few more barra, jacks, goldies, cod and a few Queensland groper.
A Queensland groper prior to release. These things pull like trains!
Day 3 we headed to Goose Creek. A quick troll at the mouth produced a nice 72cm barra on the first run. Another few passes only resulted in the loss of one of my favourite old lures. A Mann’s 20+ in Pink Parrot colour scheme. As we worked our way up the creek we started pulling barra from most of the likely looking spots with most in the 60cm to 70cm range. Goose was on fire that day and produced 100+ barra for us and we also managed several saratoga. Could it get any better?
Day 4 was to become an absolute epic day of fishing. A nice quick run over a glassy sea soon had us at a small creek known as Runga’s. The first fish I saw cruising the waters were a pair of 70cm barras. We quickly pulled the boat up and got the weedless rigged plastics ready. Once again the barra were sitting right back under the overhanging branches and it wasn’t long before we had dancing barras coming out from beneath the trees, one after another.
Mac started babbling on about it being the best day of his life … it was only 9am.
Now Runga’s is a small, mostly sand bottomed creek that is quite shallow and fishes its best on neap tides (least amount of water moment) and that day I reckoned we had a few good hours to fish before the waters became too shallow to manoeuvre the boat around. The first spot yielded over 25 barra with most fish in the 45cm to 70cm size. It surely was shaping up to be an awesome day.
The highlight of the day was yet to come.
We slowly pushed up a small side arm that is basically a series of hairpin bends one after another that feature a sand bar on each corner. While moving up this arm we came to a large bend where a heap of trees had fallen across the deep part of the waterway effectively blocking further access upstream. I nosed the boat onto the sand bar and turned the motor off. The barra and jacks were thick amongst the fallen trees and once again it was nearly a fish a cast. Around this time I cast a look over the sand bar we were sitting on and noticed a stack of fish sitting on top of the sand in half a metre of water.
“I reckon they’re jacks, Macca.”
Mac didn’t show that much interest as he was still pulling barra and Jacks from amongst the fallen timber. Just for something different I tied on a popper and laid a cast towards a dozen or so fish and gave the popper a “bloop”. Every fish there rushed forward and it resulted in an instant hook-up. The jacks were swarming over their hooked mate and it wasn’t long before I was fighting two fish on the same lure.
Double trouble – One lure, two jacks.
This scene was repeated over and over with a score of 27 jacks for the same amount of casts. All sight cast to and I saw every fish take the popper. It doesn’t get any better than that!
We fished a couple more spots and it didn’t seem to matter where we stopped, the fish were on the chew and it was only the falling tide that made us leave. Mac reckoned we should come back to Runga’s soon. With a quick run over a smooth sea we were soon back at Snake Bay with an hour or so to go before stumps. Mac reckoned we only needed 27 fish to crack the 200 for the day. We got another 19.
Macca with a barra and a jack caught during a red hot session.
It’s mine! A cod and a jack battle it out for the same lure.
Day 5 started with a quick stop at Save Your Arse Creek for 15 odd barra and a couple of jacks before heading to Robinson Inlet where once again the barra, jacks, goldies, cod and groper were lined up and ready to go. The score ended up at over 40 barra, 120 odd jacks and a few other assorted fish. This was another truly memorable day with the highlight being able to see most of the fish before we cast to them or watch them materialise behind the lure before inhaling.
Catching big jacks in tight mangrove creeks is loads of fun!
Day 6 was a return to Runga’s where once again it didn’t seem to matter where we pulled up … there were stacks upon stacks of fish lining up to smash our lures. Pinning two fish on the same lure was common. We had a couple more encounters with some sizable Queensland grouper which have to be the hardest pulling fish pound for pound in our estuary systems. Mac and I won a couple and lost a couple of rounds against these tough opponents. Day 6 ended with a score of 60 or so barra and over 100 other fish.
Day 7 was a return to Goose Creek and although the barra weren’t as hot to trot as our first visit, we still managed 20+ before Mac made a decision that we head to the picturesque upper freshwater section to spend the last of our time targeting saratoga.
We were both in a fairly satisfied and contented mood as we pulled the boat up in the shade, turned the motor off and stayed in our seats. While we had a chat and enjoyed the surrounding wildlife we began to cast out soft plastics. We hooked a steady stream of ‘toga and in no time at all we’d released 30 of these great fish. It was a great way to end seven fantastic days of fishing.
I quite often get to see great days out fishing but to get seven in a row with the fishing that Macca and I experienced just doesn’t happen very often. It’s amazing to go back a week or so later and fish the same spots on similar tides for only half the amount of fish. It makes me realise what a truly great week it was. Mac is also very competent with a baitcaster and being able to put the lure in the right spot time after time, then work the lure in an appropriate manner was also a key factor in the large amount of fish caught.
The Tiwi Islands have provided me and my family with many great memories and this week is another one to join the list but I will leave the last words to my mate Macca:
“I’m still pinching myself to make sure it was real. Crazy numbers of barra, jacks and all sorts. I will take this trip to the grave. It was mind blowing.“ – Mark Macca Mclean
