Was it you that gave me and my mtr pluss Barra a lift in your four runner

[blackjew]

I apologise to the admin if i have posted this in the wrong section.

Well i have been meaning to write this story for some time now .34 years ago i was 12 we lived on the west coast of South Australia . .The plan was to meet another 2 families coming from Darwin to meet at the Bark Hut .We were staying for 6 weeks ,not familiar at all with the dangers of the N.T. We rattled down the Oenpelli Road ,my uncle leading the way as he new a great camping spot ,right near the river.

We took a right turn at the barrarge and after half an hour of dodging potholes that looked like billabongs,we arrived at a large clearing ,with tall gums surounding the spot.After a thougher tunning from my uncle about these massive grocs that live here and they walk on land,but we should be ok because the bank is very steep ,Hey unc what if they come from the otherside were the billabongs are,this time of the year they will all be in the river .Dont go to the river by yourself.

We will keep a fire going at night ,and music going all day . If you go out side for a slash in the middle of the night take a torch and dont go to far away from the vans Oh and out the back there are water buffalos that will attack you if you provoke them .Holy crap what the hell are we doing camping here then .
That afternoon we launched the tinny at the causeway and unc motored back up the river to the camp,ready for a fish after tea.sliding down the gravel bank with fishing gear in hand and all 4 of us carrying a dolphin torch.

The river was so noisy I shon the torch at the suface ,the river erupted with loud boofing sounds and these wierd looking dots on the surface .Unc what are those orange dots ,there crocs thats there eyes he said calmly,oh ok .then he said you can tell how big they are by the gap between the eyes ,dont wash your hands and sit to the middle of the boat.Bloody hell i felt like floating bait fish bobbing around in our tinny. This was the first time most of us had fished for barra,I remember it was 2 days before the fullmoon ,the moon was still coming up .The river was exploding with noises i had not heard before , it was almost deafening ,and here we were right in the middle of a barra boofing session as my unc called it .

We were casting lures and nothing around ,not a hit.There must be to much bait in the river ,I shon the torch at the surface remembering what unc said about the gap between there eyes I was keen to let any of those crocs know that were were in there backyard .
There was a huge splash and lots of fish jumping out of the water ,what the hell is that ,there mullet big ones these mullet looked like they were on steroids huge well over 60cm.We were all pissing ourselves ,Someone said wouldnt it be funny if they jumped in the boat ,and bugger me one came flying over the side at a rate of knots hitting my old man who was stradled over the seat right in the family jewles.
We were in histericks by now the tinny had drifted to a little cove ,i shon the torch on the otherside of the tinny,and then smash the surface exploded again in a frothy wave,as the mullet excited by the light .2 more huge mullet came flying over the side my uncle ended up upside down in the anchor well.We decided that we were not going to get anything else other than mullet , so we went bank to the bank and up to the camp.
The next day was spent having a fish and from the edge of the causeway .the tide started flowing out slow at first then getting faster and faster .
Then from the Ahrnem land side appeared 2 station wagons no doors and the locals were hanging on everywhere.on the roof were these cane things .Oh it must be clothes washing day said my uncle ,they are cane washing baskets .All the ladies armed with there baskets plodded towards the causeway ,the water was flowing really fast by now .

The baskets were empty ,they all lined up ,side by side on the causeway and yibbering away in there lingo ,sunk there baskets into the water ,then with alot of yelling and laughing lifted there baskets ,you could see a mad frenzy as the kids and ladies were bashing the shit out of these fish trying to kill them after an hour or so they left with what was alot of big mullet .The same cars came back this time full of big local men and kids .they went to the edge of the causeway that had stoped flowing over the edge and wallowed around like hippos in the rock pools.

I asked one man if he was scared of the crocs .He said in a deep voice with a cig hanging out his mouth ,He sleeping now, we be right. .After no one catching anything that morning ,the arvo was spent with the olds having a few drinks,I asked for a lift up to the causeway late arvo .There were a few other camps along the way now and a few people fishing at the causway.A few of them had caught some small Barra.

I had a chat to them i had a 7 foot med heavy rod with 12pound line and a med daiwa egg beater .And a brown shallow nills master 4" Mum dropped me off and said good luck son ill be back to pick you up on dark.Ok see ya. I noticed a stooped old chap on the otherside of the causeway standing on a mud flat ,flicking his lure around the steady flowing water.The water was over my knees when i made my way across the causeway,my clacker twitching,and my ticker doing ninty to the dozen.Excited about fishing on the Ahrnem land side ,and the tide was dropping slowly and the sun was fading .

The only thing i was worried about was the old chap leaving,stay there i said to my self dont go yet .I went up to him and said gday my names rob,cant remember his name.having any luck .I have been here for 1 weeks and only caught one barra 2and a half feet long .Wow thats no good ,well we have only caught 3 mullet over 2 and a half feet and they jumped in the boat ,go on he said .It was dusk now and i thought mum will be back soon so i flicked my nills out into the calm water ,slowly wound it back to me .I saw a wake like a submarine was about to surface,what is that i said to the old boy,its one of those mullet he said .

There seemed to be more of these wakes as the light deminished .I saw one a fair way out and thought im going to land my lure right on top of one of those waves,flick the line went chattering through the eyes of my rod it was heading towards the wake ,it droped on top of the wake and smash my rod took on a huge weight ,line peeled like lightning from the spool ,I nearly shit myself i saw there was not much line on the reel, slightly tightening the drag i was able to slow down moby dick and started getting some of my nylon back .The old boy said ill pull in hang on to him matey you got a bloody beuty.then she broke the surface in the semi dark you could see this massive silver fish thrashing its head from side to side trying to free the nills,form its bucket mouth.

Take it easy on her,thats it just keep your rod down and keep up the presure ,it seemed like time stopped,while i was playng that monster .Seeing the line was straight down i new she was close ,zoom she dived and made another bolt for the deeper water .keep up the presure lad ,your doing great.Then there was a dead weight with still a few big shakes,and a few gentle lifts with my rod and she appeared in the muddy water ,i bent down to get a closer hold of the line,i could see the nill hanging on with one hook of the treble.I slid her up on the mud .The old chap said mate hes nearly as big as you , yer i said you try casting at those waves .He said ok mate thanks for a great evening all the best ,eh how are you going to get your fish back you can not lift it hmm its ok ill drag it ok see ya matey.I never saw him again he left the next day .

I had my rod under my arm and had hold of moby dicks tail,and waiting on the top of the causeway wondering if i should drag my prize across the ankle deep water,with the words from the local man in the back of my mind hes sleeping now ,so he must be awake now.Where the fXXX IS MUM ITS DARK NOW.I could hear lots of boofing on both sides not game to look just kept going quickly,trying not to let the current take my fish .I made it to the otherside i stood there gasping.So proud of my catch and no sign of mum .With adrenalin gushing through my viens i started to make the big walk back to our camp pitch black by now with the full moon starting to rise .

The sound of petrol gennys puring in the distance,as i aproached them i saw dim lights and people sitting chatting ,I wandered into there space like a lost sheep,draging my catch with 2 hands wrapped tightly around the tail.The silence was broken with the shreik bloody hell look at the size of the fish this kids dragging .I felt like a movie star on the red carpet ,were did you catch that is it yours ,its as big as you cameras were clicking flashes going off in all directions.

No one told me that Barra dont have teeth it would have been a dam sight easyer dragging it by the gob instead of having the dirty great bloody spike spearing me in the ankle with every step i took .Singing at the top of my voice hoping to confuse and scare any buffs that were close to me . i could hear crashing in the shallow billabongs and scrub. just keep walking cant be far now i kept telling myself ,forgetting how far we camped from the causeway. It was hard to see as i had to bend over to hold my fish and my rod.Behind me i could see a set of spot lights shimering through the scrub track,the sound of a vehicle banging through the potholes got closer.It cant be mum i would have seen her at the causeway.If i keep walking they will see me ,

I heard the card slow down as they now would have been able to see a bent object in the spottys,shit i had better stand up they might think im and animal.Istarted waving furiously at the blinding lights.They drove closer with high beam and spottys still blairing.Then they stopped close to me ,the door creaked as it opened .Where the bloody hell are you going mate a voice said then another voice before i could answer wholly shit thats a fish hes got.

The 2 blokes were cacking themselves,that fish is huge.Im camping with my family up this track,jump in the back buddy i got a lump of rope here ill tye your fish on the front of the roo bar jump in.I will never forget this 4wd it was a MAROON AND WHITE 4WD WITH A BENCH BACK SEAT.The 2 blokes asked me a thousand and 1 questions,we got to my camp.I saw our 4wd parked up so i new no one was looking for me.Grrrrrrrrr i was feeling pissed off by now,a skinny bloke wobbled around the corner of a van and with the sound of Slim Dusty humming away, said gday can i help you.The driver did not turn of his headlights so the outline of a massive fish could be seen by dad.

The driver said have you got a son ,with that dad said shit Rob errrr yes i said yer shit Rob how could you forget about me .That was when dad got the shit payed out of him,are you mad dont you know about big Fred dad said what he said hes a 15foot croc that lives on the other side of the causway.You have not heard of the local man that was having a was and got his head bitten off.No said dad .well now you know by the way we picked up your son down the track dragging this dirty great big Barra in the dark.Dad was totally dumfounded and totaly embarased about the danger he had put me in .

I never saw those blokes again dad thanked them for giving me a lift and for the info on big Fred ,and they were on there way.Well my fish went 38lbs the scales we had were 40 pound scales and over 3and a half feet .I guess i wanted to share this experience in the hope that maybe i can find the 2 blokes or the old chap to say thanks for helping me on that night of a lifetime.My dad and mum went back to East Alligator 5 years in a row in the hope of getting a big fish but to no avail.I told dad to cast at the wakes he said oh yer son right .They now live in Darwin
Cheers Rob

Excuse the pic it was taken with a polloroid ,and was starting to get scratched so i took a macro photo with my dig cam .The rod and nills master in the background the tail of my fish was dragging on the ground.

[scottishguy]

Thanks for sharing Rob...good read, was almost there with ya!

[Greg001]

Fantastic story to tell m8. I hope you catch up the guys involved.
Greg

[BLOOEY]

You certainly can spin a good yarn Rob. Great stuff. Ben

[Jarrah Jack]

Thats a great story Rob, you told it well especially seeing it was a while ago. One of those special events where you remember all the details, engraved on a young blokes mind..

[wayno60]

been meaning to write this story for some time now

Im glad you didnt rush in...!!!

great yarn mate.

[Captain Jack Zero]

good yarn mate.cracker catch.

[jtpython]

Top story a great read.
JT

[Flex]

Just a note for next time, paragraphs make for a much easier read, much less harsh on the eyes.

Good story though

[freefish]

Know the place & time. Magic on the outgoing tide. Caught my first 30 pounder there a couple of years before you. I'll get back there one day.

[wamjam]

Great story Rob (thanks), sounds like the olds had plenty of trust in you. I caught my first barra off Cahills crossing (east alligator) when I was 13 in 1985, no where near that big. Same thing, I saw a swirl in front of me, pulled the blue and silver vibrotail through it and bang the fish was on. I got the fish off the lure and chucked it back out and bang, got my second ever barra. Mum would have a pic somewhere.

Scott

[Sheik]

Great story Rob and brilliantly written. Thanks for taking the time to tell us about it in such detail. I'm still shitting myself even reading about it!
regards jim

[blackjew]

Thanks guys glad you enjoyed my story,Cahills what a spot hey , its all changed now thou, posts everywhere blocking of areas. Thats dead right its engraved in my mind and i recon i replay it every week or so .When we meet new people and i start to tell my experience.My lady goes oh no not the barra story.hang on ill get the photo.

[Sheik]

Mate I'd be remembering it too if it happened to me. Great yarn.

[brock13]

great story! The start of a life long obsession