Top End Sojourn - Part 2

Here's part two of my top end magical mystery tour!

After a day lay off in Darwin, we made the 2 hour trip down the Kakadu Hwy, past all the famous rivers such as the Adelaide, Mary, Corroboree Billabong and West Alliagator Rivers down to our final destination...the expansive South Alligator River.

I have fished the South Alligator once before and did reasonably well. I had great hopes of snagging my first monster barra and getting my dad's first EVER barra. Day one we went up-river to hit the run-off flood plains and drains chasing the tide change early in the morning. It wasn't long, i think my second cast, i hit pay dirt. I was flicking 7" Gulp Jerk minnow plastics on 3/8oz Nitro heads in only 6 ft of water. The run-off was gushing so moderately weighted heads were necessary to get down to where the fish were holding.

The take of a barra is similar to that of our southern jewies. Both being implosion feeders the take feels like a single subtle tap rather than the whack of a golden snapper or the multiple tap tap's of a bream. Once you get a used to what it feels like, there's no mistaking it. Sure enough i came tight to a nice barra, the first of the trip and at a moderate 60cms it was a good eye opener. The push of the run-off sure made these fish fight harder and when they turned side on to the current we had to chase 3-4kg fish to land them. What was a 'metery' going to fight like?

Soon after dad got his first taste of barra fever. He hooked up and had a little blighter bouncing all over the river barely spending time in the water. I could see dad's face light up and knew he was already hooked; pardon the pun.

In the ensuing few hours till the tide picked up everyone on board was having a field day. We landed 25 barra but the big one eluded us as the biggest only went 65cms.

Day 2 saw us repeat the same game plan. On cue the barra were playing ball. We tried trolling lures on a famous rockbar first off but had no luck so the day 1 tactic of flicking lures to bank side structure was employed. The tide were growing as we approached the full moon so the window was greatly reduced. Even still we landed 20 barra and i dropped what would have been my PB fish. They worst part is that you actually see the fish you drop. I would say 90% of the barra hooked jumped directly after hook-up. 50% of the time they throw the lure. 100% of the time you can see how a fish you just lost. I was demoralised but eager to make amends.

Day 3 saw us change tact completely. We made the 80km trek down river to fish the mouth and try and diversify our species. To cut a long story short we bombed out. The creeks were full of bait and were draining nicely but the barra were noticeably absent. We tried trolling and foul hoked a stinky 30lb catfish just to show what a bad day we were having. Time to go home...all 80kms. To save the day we stopped at a few drains they were pouring milky water into the tannin river. The colour change looked good and we hooked a few small barra to ease the pain.

Our last day saw the worst tides of the trip. The tide was gushing early and the run-off water only exacerbated the issue. We had a half hour window and made the most of it. I caught the barra of the trip at around 80cms adjacent to a submerged tree at the entrance of a creek mouth; classic barra habitat. It must have been only 6kgs approx but the aerial displays were awesome. The big bucket mouth did everything to shake the lure but with a bit of luck and good management we landed the fish. We boated another 5 or so fish till the tide picked up and we had to head for the airport.

The 8 day trip covering both blue water and creeks accounted for over 24 different species and well over 300 fish; not to mention over 100 jighead fatalities and 3 snapped rods. Probably a story for another time. This will be a hard trip to outdo but i am positive a better adventure will come.

I'm not sure how i will feel about catching bream and flathead now? If there is one thing i can report, every fish you hook in the top end fights like a maniac, even if it's a tiddler!