Barra

IT’S been a long wait but spring is finally here. You can start to box up the winter warmers and put away the heaters. Overall, I would call this winter a mild one. We didn’t see too many awful cold days in the low single digits. That probably means we are in for one hell of a hot summer. So …

All the areas I fished last year with Luke were well and truly out of the water this time and our better fish came from casting the points, while trolling accounted for several smaller fish. This is an exceptionally large lake and if you only have a smaller vessel or don’t feel comfortable travelling too far afield, barramundi can be …

Floodgates opened about a week before the comp was to commence. It was clean water, so competitors in the Gracemere Rocky Barra Bounty were still hopeful it wouldn’t chase the barra from the top half of the river. Only three days out, the water turned from clean to mud as the dirty water from the Dawson area arrived. I think …

During the heavy rain just two weeks prior to the trip, immense amounts of water had gone over the dam wall. Even so, we were still keen to give it a crack. As we arrived at the dam, a massive storm rolled through and we had to wait it out before hitting the water. We launched the boat at about …

While the fish vary in colour, there’s no mistaking their pointed head – complete with concave forehead – large jaw and, in these parts, a good-sized barramundi can weigh between 10kg and 20kg and reach lengths of around a metre. With a cool million bucks up for grabs in Tourism Northern Territory’s Million Dollar Fish promotion, locals are understandably a …

We hit this area hard because of the consistent water temperature. In this section you can find numerous small points with bushy trees in 1-3m of water and water lilies along the edges. These points were by far the standouts. Dad and I located four points holding barra thanks to our Humminbird Helix sounder with Mega Imaging. Once we found …

The float on my live bait was following the colour change in the water and within 15 minutes, boof, I had hooked my first barra. Thanks to the grunt in the Samurai rod, I was literally able to lift the fish over a small tree to land it on the bank. The monkey or barra was off my back and …

So where do you go when the fish leave the basin after all that rain? This is where it gets interesting. After rain periods, bony bream breed, producing more food for the impoundment-dwelling monster barra. A good place to look for these extra baitfish are the rivers at the back of the impoundment around weedy edges and points. Having timber …

I’ve also been exploring the upper Herbert River as a location from which to run a future charter where we will spend two days casting lures for sooty grunter, barramundi, mangrove jack and jungle perch. The plan is to put the boats in upriver, drift fish down to a little cabin on the banks of the river and pull up, …