Stalking the wild barramundi

Boat/US Magazine, May, 2003 by Ryek Lydecker

They lurk under lily pads and anglers coax them out of the weeds with garden-variety bass lures. But you won't see a traditional U.S.-style bass boat stalking Australia's celebrated barramundi.

Fishing is different Down Under. For one thing, the lilypads are bigger than the wheel covers on your grandfather's Buick. For another, the low freeboard of a bass boat could be a lure of the wrong kind when fishing the rivers and billabongs of the Outback.

Why? One word:

"Crocs," says Australian fishing boat designer/builder Gary Quinn.

Crocs? As in, extremely aggressive carnivorous reptiles half again as long as your boat and sporting teeth that would make a baby T. Rex smile?

"Exactly, mate," Quinn says. "You want a high-sided boat when fishing the Outback because a crocodile can climb aboard in an instant. The bass-boats you Yanks use would be an invitation to lunch."

Top End Action

Judging by the sign posted next to the launching ramp at Corroboree Billabong, Quinn isn't kidding.

"Warning !! Crocodiles inhabit these waters," it says, with all the emphasis that two exclamation points and a picture that s mostly mouth and reptilian teeth can give it. The sign goes on to explain how to avoid becoming human bait for the world's largest reptiles when stalking this lagoon's legendary barramundi.

The "barra" is Australia's icon freshwater gamefish, a relative of the more familiar snook, It is known as an aggressive predator with startling pinkish-red eyes, a fierce fighter on the end of a line but with a sweet taste, right off the barbie. The tropical upper region of the country's Northern Territory -- "the Top End" -- is where you find some of Down Under's best fishing for barramundi. Crocodiles, in a sense, only add to the action when barra fishing.

"You should keep moving around in the boat while you're fishing unless you're trolling," says Bill Flaherty as he backs down the ramp at Corroboree to launch his "tinny" -- Aussie-speak for the trailerable aluminum outboard skiffs that are the fishing boats of choice in these parts.

"Crocodiles will stalk you if you're stopped or drifting," adds Flaherty, who is deputy director of fisheries for the Northern Territory Government. "They'll move in slowly, particularly if you're near the bank or in thick cover, and watch how you move around in the boat.

"You don't want to keep casting from the same position or repeat your movements too much," he explains rather casually. "They can be over the side and sharing the boat with you before you know it."

He's not kidding, but adds, "I've seen guys fall out of a boat and get back aboard so fast, they didn't get wet above the knees."

This is fact-of-life stuff in the Outback, after all, and while they seldom lose fishermen to crocs in these parts, the official angler's guide to the territory reminds the reader, "Crocodiles are extremely dangerous and may attack a person if the opportunity arises. Please do not present the opportunity."

But the real opportunity that draws anglers from all over the world to this vast drainage area of the Mary River, and to other remote parts of the Northern Territory, is the outstanding sport-fishing found here. While many of Australia's rivers are, in fact dry, up here big tidal rivers empty into the ocean and boast worl-dclass fishing for familiar species like cobia and Spanish mackerel plus Australia's own threadfin and blue salmon.

In the mangrove-lined estuaries that ring most of the 2,000-miles of sparsely inhabited coast you can fish for trevally, queenfish or tarpon. And in the upper reaches of the rivers and the freshwater impoundments -- the billabongs -- that the receding waters leave behind in "the Dry" is where you go for sooty grunter, saratoga and of course, barramundi.

Fishing "the Dry"

It's mid-May. Winter in the rest of four-season Australia. But up here in the tropics, it's simply "the Dry" -- as opposed to that other season, "the Wet" -- and the best time for barramundi fishing.

Just about the time the sun starts putting the Southern Cross to bed for the day, Flaherty turns his vehicle off the paved Arnhem Highway, about 60 miles southeast of Darwin. As he heads up the graded "track" to Corroboree, the vehicle scares up wallabies, still out from their nocturnal feeding. As the sun breaks behind the bush into a crystal clear sky, a few wild water buffalo -- leftover imports from more than a century ago - wallow in the sloughs on either side of the road.

Washboard dirt roads like this are essential traffic arteries in much of the Outback. But they are hard on boats and trailers, hence the Aussie angler's preference for aluminum craft.

"A plastic boat would never last, pulling down the track like this," Flaherty says. "The fiberglass can't take this kind of punishment for very long."

A very big, nasty-looking and very dead feral hog lies just off the grade, drawing flies and vultures after obviously losing an encounter with the massive 'roo bars found on the front ends of the trucks and big diesel 4x4s that run this road in "the Dry."