Another Drive Through Kakadu

I must admit I am a little dumbfounded as to where all the barra must presently be.  This time last year I was averaging between 20 and 30 barramundi a day in the streams of Kakadu.  But last year it rained.  Last year there was a wet season and a run-off.  This year... disappointment.  And already the spear grass is seeding into its tri-coloured displays.  The dragonflies that mark the dry's beginning are emerging.  Perhaps - hopefully, indeed - all this is wrong, and something resembling a wet, even just a few days in a row of heavy rain, will arrive.  But as it stands... one must content oneself with the plentiful tarpon.  As to the latter, if I was living anywhere else, especially in the Southern states, and I could go fishing and catch 20 leaping, tough scrapping game fish in beautiful streams on trout gear, I would call it a mighty good session.  Maybe we come to expect too much in the NT.  Or, more likely, big barra are a fantastic fish to catch... when they are about!

Topwater tarpon on their beloved Smith Towadi.

My first stop on my drive to the '3 Bridges' and back was Scott's Creek.  There had been a few spots of rain in the preceeding days, and after losing 4 barra there a week ago - 3 quickly to thickly matted reed beds; and a good fish that sliced my leader with its sharp gill plate - I had high hopes.  But the water wasn't quite so high.  In fact, it had dropped by at least 20cm.  Where I hoped to cast for barra with some heavier tackle, there now lurked only fully exposed, thick beds of reeds.  But below the crossing were tarpon.

The crossing at Scott's creek, with not as much water as should be there...

So I started out with my 2 - 4lb Daiko Elzarle matched to a 1000 FB Stella and 4lb Untika trout braid.  Quickly i found this small trout stream 'noodle' was outmatched by the power of the larger tarpon I hooked in the fast water.  I could land the fish with a fight that did them all the justice they deserve... but what if I hooked a barra?

A larger tarpon on a topwater.

So I upgraded to an Evergreen Kaleido Designo with 5lb Varivas Ganoa Absolute Fluorocarbon straight through.  This is the best fluorocarbon line I have used - no wind knots and great abrasion resistance in a light line.  It will be interesting to see how it holds up to a barra mouth.

The tarpon were not striking at the Smith Towadi walk the dog lure as readily as during the previous week, so I tried to match the hatch - some kind of tiny fry - with this offering...

Which the tarpon readily struck at, yet hooking them on the small jighead was a problem. Hence it was to a twister grub I turned next, on a larger hook.  Which gave a better hook up rate.  I would cast slightly upstream, hold the rod tip high and let the lure sink and drift down until it hit a small eddy where it would wiggle its tail in the current before being hit upon.  Kind of like a lady in a Darwin bar.

A Gary Yamamoto grub...

Megabass grub...

 Then back to the Smith Towadi once more: surface fishing for tarpon is just more exciting, even if the hook up ratio is less.  And I have found that larger specimens take surface lures.

The little Smith Towadi claims another victim.

After an hour of catching tarpon every several casts, it was towards the streams of Kakadu I drove.  First stop was the East branch of the Wildman, which was flowing fast and clear.  Second cast and I was attached to a solid saratoga... which I played to the bank, and then lost as I left in in the margins as I unfurled the brag-mat and got my camera ready.  There goes saratoga number one.

A short walk upstream and another 60cm saratoga was spotted.  I cast the little Duo popper perfectly, and again was attached... then again stupidly lost the fish before I could get a photo.  This was, unfortunately, becoming a bad habit. A change to a heavier outfit and a weedless stickbait, and I was once more hooked to something powerful in the current. A valiant... catfish.  Boy these fish can pull, even if they cannot pull much affection from an angler hungry for barramundi and saratoga.

Oooo... that feels like a good fish... o god... catfish!

 Some mosquitoes soon after drove me off to the next stream, where I found more tarpon and a beautiful spangled grunter that sure knew how to grunt.  I'm surprised the fellow didn't attract some pigs with all the noise he made.

Spangler Grunter on a DUO popper. 

A pretty fish, and great fun on the right tackle in meter across top-end streams.

That wouldn't be another... Tarpon?

Next stop was Magela Creek...

I landed a single, very golden barra of around 50cm on a Megabass X-Layer... but the camera was in the car.  With camera back in hip pocket, I just could not hook-up.  Interestingly, after also fishing Magela on the way home the following day, I discovered two important points.  Firstly, the fish were being spooked by some of the larger lures other anglers were hurling about.  They - by which I mean a school of tarpon and a few small barra - had moved upstream from where the most casts were meeting the water, sheltering between a few weed beds.  They had become very flighty at the nearest splash.  I noticed a similar phenomenon last year, when barra in Nourlangie Creek II were literally bolting away from white (drop-bear) Squidgy fish.  Secondly, almost all the hits I had were on finesse tackle with a lighter leader (8lb Varivas Trout Fluorocarbon).  I was fishing two outfits interchangeably - the heavier had 25lb Sunline Rockfish fluorocarbon leader - and the difference was very noticeable.  Fish preferred the superior presentation offered by a lighter outfit.  Now if these were bream in the Yarra River, such an approach goes without saying.  But even in the NT certain places can see a lot of angling pressure and fish quickly wise up. As more people move to Darwin and popular angling locations meet with increased pressure, the older barra gear and big bibbed lures may not quite make the mark they once had on wild fish populations that rarely saw lures.  This is certainly unfortunate, but it also necessitates a turn to a creative diversity of tactics if one wants to keep catching fish as in years past.

What happens when there is a run-off...

An insulting Southerner's finesse barra outfit!

By now the sun was setting, and a day of fishing in and around Kakadu had only produced a single hooked and landed barra during a time when the barra blockbuster run-off should be reaching its apex.  

I wonder what this Magela Creek resident thinks of the lack of rain?

After setting up camp, I headed for a nightfish at the 3 Bridges: Nourlangie creek.  I had a few hits on a Megabass Speed Slider using a fast walk the dog action, but no hook-ups except a several second tug-o-war with what I thought was a small freshwater crocodile that had on several casts chased my lure.

When I checked the area the next morning, I discovered that the small freshie had claws the size of my hands, and had left large belly marks and what looked light egg-diggings in the sand... I was quickly out of there, not wanting angry-protective-mother saltie snapping at my tackle... It was back to Magela Creek, where I hooked one more small barra, watched other anglers scare the crap out of the tarpon, and continued to wonder at the absence of a wet season and the lack of a run-off. 

Two days and a night fishing in Kakadu, and all I can state is where the hell are all the NT's barramundi? Perhaps I should start heading West instead of East and explore the Daly River region's land-based offerings.

30 cm of water over the Magela Creek crossing, and falling.  Wet Season anyone?