Not long ago the fifth round of the 2015 Top End Barra Series took place, and here is the story of how it went.
- It took place at Corroboree Billabong.
- I fished from Moz's boat.
- It wasn't easy fishing.
- All our fish were caught on hard body lures.
Early in the morning I arrived at Moz's, the boat was ready, so we quickly put my stuff in the boat and in the car, and we hit the road.
Destination fishing.
Arriving at Corroboree in the morning is alway a real visual pleasure:
Last stretch of Road before Corroboree Billabong.
Once again we were not disappointed, the scenery was breathtaking.
We launched as quick as we could, and soon found Greg fishing in the morning light.
Greg fishing Corroboree in the morning light.
We had a little chat with him, and a few cast, were both Moz and I got a hit. But this was Greg's spot so we left it to him, and went to a spot that Moz and I fished together four years ago.
As we arrived, we saw a few wallabies just where we wanted to go:
Wallabies on the bank.
Seeing use they hopped away in the bush, and Moz promptly took their place on the bank, while I fished from the boat.
In no time Moz was on, and he landed the first Barramundi of the weekend:
Happy as a man who caught a fish.
It wasn't yet 8:00am and Moz had already caught a 60cm Barramundi. (23.622047 Inches).
By then we become persuaded that this was going to be a cracker of a day, full of nice big fish...
It was going to be a great day, but not for all the fish caught.
As a matter of fact, it was going to be a very long time before we caught another Barramundi.
First we had lunch. Then we caught up with a few other boats, on the bank of the billabong, for a yarn and a few jokes.
Brett who was there, passed a few skewers around, that he had just cooked on his boat, Yummy!
Skewers on the boat.
These were followed by some warm garlic bread, this was luxury fishing for me.
Someone threw a few pieces of bread in the water to see if some little fish would come and eat it.
A kite came and took it:
Greedy kite pinching the fish's bread.
Despite all the fun that we had, it was time to try to get more fish.
So everyone went there own way.
Brett on his way to try to find the Barramundi.
We had opted to troll along the lilies, and I was casting weedless lure at the same time. From the front of the boat, while my trolling rod was at the back. Between two cast I looked at my rod, and saw it suddenly take a sever bent.
I dropped my casting rod on the boat floor, and hurried to catch the other one.
Yes the fish was still on, and was giving an honourable fight.
We identified it as a Barramundi, and it was netted as fast as we could:
A fat Barramundi.
Coming in at 74cm (29.133858 Inches) it was a reasonable size Barramundi, but was surprised me the most, was how fat this fish was. And it did fight like a big guy too.
Like the Barramundi caught by Moz before, it was released to grow a bit more.
One of the thing that anglers and visitors should never forget about Corroboree Billabong, is that it is the home of many, many big crocodiles:
Salt Water crocodile at Corroboree Billabong.
we did see many of them, and they kind of keep you on your toes.
By the end of the afternoon, geese were starting to get back in action:
Flock of geese in flight.
Geese coming to the water in the afternoon.
With the sun going down, Moz cooked a great curry, and it was time to search for a spot to sleep.
Sunset on Corroboree Billabong.
Doing so, we trolled some big lures...
And I got a massive hit, and the line started to peel out of my singing reel.
I was on to a very good fish.
It didn't come to the surface, was fighting deep down in the water column, we were in 20 feet of water.
I started to call it for a massive catfish, and finally it came to the surface just at the side of the boat.
And we saw it...
And Moz shouted: "It is a Metery! A big Metery!"
Yes, an absolutely massive fish it was. But catfish it wasn't, Barramundi it was...
It was too fast for Moz to have any chance to net it.
The big Barramundi sounded straight for the bottom. Moz said: "When they sound like that, it is not a good sign". I said: "Shut Up don't say that now!"
But he was right, first I felt one of the treble pop out, but I was still connected. Then the second one let go and the line went limp.
I had lost, the fish had won.
On closer inspection once I had my lure back in hand, I could see that in fact both trebles had bent.
I still remember it...
Not long after that we found a good spot to anchor the boat and spend the night sleeping.
Early morning saw us trying to snag a fish, mostly by casting weedless in the lilies.
Where I got a small Saratoga, not big, but enough to makes me happy, it was the first in a few year:
Small Saratoga in the morning.
This was a small fish but it was the only one that came aboard during this trip.
We did get hit by a few of them, some much bigger than this one (Because the one that got away is always bigger). But we could not land another one as they are notoriously difficult to hook properly.
But I did get a rather lager yet very skinny Archer Fish:
ArcherFish on the weedless frog.
And this was going to be the last fish from the Sunday.
We did persist the casting, flicking our lures against every structures that we could find.
Sadly to no avail.
We decided to go home in the early afternoon, as we still had a bit of road to do, and the fishing was not getting better.
Yet I still had a great weekend, it was good to be out in the sun breathing some fresh air.
Thank you Moz for inviting me on your boat for the weekend.
And I will remember for a long time that big Barramundi that I lost a Saturday evening in the dark waters of Corroboree Billabong.
But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.
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