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Neil and Terry had an early start this morning up at 4.30 am to go Barra fishing for the day. Sharon, Tanya Melanie and Joanna had a bit of a lay in and got up around 7.30. The power was out for a couple of hours so out came the gas burners and baked beans on toast was enjoyed by all. Melanie and Joanna ventured to the pool and continued to spend most of the day there. As a special treat for the girls Melanie, with Sharon's help, made a beautiful tuna, lemon, broccoli and asparagus pasta for lunch. This with all the trimmings ie tablecloth, frangipanis for decoration, a nice bottle of champagne was taken to the top of the hill overlooking the pool. This was enjoyed by all. The girls had to drag themselves back to the camper to contact Neil and Terry to see whether fish was on the menu for dinner. No contact was made so Peking chicken was for dinner. Started preparing and Neil and Terry arrived back at camp with a nice surprise; a big fat barramundi which Neil had caught, big enough to feed all of us. Fresh barra on the bbq. It was fantastic. After a great feed we all sat around the camp site. Joanna and Sharon went for a walk to look at all the pool lights around the majestic infinity pool. On the way back the Cane Toad score increased by 1 for Sharon – what an aim straight with a big rock.
Neil and Terry’s fishing trip.
Got out to the guides house in Kununurra at 6am and found his wife to be a friendly lady who introduced herself. He didn’t say boo to us. Got in his old troopy which had seen better days and drove around the corner to pick up 3 other people. Then headed off to his fishing camp which was about 50 km out of town on the old Kunnunurra-Wyndham road which runs along the Ord river.
Got to the fishing camp to find not a bad setup, and then we got into 2 boats. Terry and Neil and Greg the fishing guide and the other 3 guests and another guide in another boat. Both boat were about 4.5 metres long. Headed up the river and Greg pointed out a 2.5m saltwater croc sitting on a mudbank. Next thing he does a U turn in the boat and pulls up on the mudbank about 10 m from the croc, and jumps out the front. Doesn’t say a thing to us????
After looking around on this little pile of mud in the middle of the river, he pulls out a cast net from the front of the boat and throws it in the water and drags in some mullet for live bait. So we are using live bait are we????
Greg explains what happens when a barra hits your bait. "you will feel a strong whack, let it take a rods length of line and then lock in the reel and set the bait" he tells us.
Neil birdsnests his overhead on the first cast and gets a mouthful from Greg. Great tour guide. Neil looks like he is about to discover a new type of bait for fish and crocs…….tour guide greg.
Off we go again. Try a couple of run offs with no luck. Catch a couple of catfish, which Greg promptly kills with the back of a pair of pliers and then throws them back in the water?? Lots of what feels like fish sucking on the live bait but no “whacks” as greg claims.
We keep trying along the river all day with very little luck, but a massive amount of mullet to be seen in the water. Never seen so much baitfish before. Maybe that’s why they are not biting.
Pull up at another spot and neil pulls in a 58cm barra when he thought that something had sucked his bait off the hook. No definite “whack” on the line, but a nice barra. Turns out that Greg doesn’t have live tanks, so Greg decides that we will be catching lots more today and promptly shows Neil how to return the fish to the river.
Move to another spot and Neil hooks up a 61cm barra (no whack either, felt like a flathead sucking on the bait). We decided to keep that one. A bit later Terry hooks up a 61cm barra, but doesn’t want to keep it. Says he is looking for the monster so he releases it back to the water. Not long ofter Greg says its time to head back to the camp as we are about 50km down the river by now.
Head back to his camp and he runs his boat onto the muddy bank of the river next to his mooring. Terry and Neil get off the boat and walk up the planks across the mud to then turn around and find that there is a 3m long freshie sitting right in front of the boat where they had just walked. He had been there all the time. Have a look at the video.
Good day out, with Neil catching 2 nice barra for his first time out, but Greg the grumpy tour guide needs to sell his business as it is obvious that he is over it. Wouldn’t recommend his tour for anyone going up there. Try someone who actually will give you some info and assist you to catch a good barra.
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