NT Adventures & 118cm Barra

[Lone_Wolf]

...following on from our chat about NT muddies, I asked "Muddie Dundee" as he has now affectionately known to give up some more tall tales and this was what followed....

Here's a pic' of a real legend - Rowdy (up on a visit from Tennant Creek) - we were on the mouth of the Adelaide earlier in the year - he'd lost his little lure box over the side and I only had one left as I'd lost two and we had intended to fish with live-bait anyway - so he decided to make an artificial lure out of a 7/0 hook, a strip of aluminium cut from a VB tinnie (flashy green and silver) and some wire leader we use for macs. The barra was 118cm long, took 20 minutes to land (pretty quick really) and weighed a friggin tonne! I'd say well over 20kgs. When I catch one that big, I'll let you know - Hell, I'll let everyone know!

[Lone_Wolf]

don't you worry about the crocs?

They (crocs) only worry me when they are bigger than my boat (a 4m tinny called "Whale Oil Beef Hooked" - say it aloud to yourself) and they won't back off when you tonk them on the head with an oar - most times they follow the lures back to the boat and you have to 'discourage' them from getting too close. There have been reports on the Mary of crocs attacking 5m boats on a slow troll and 18 footers are plentiful in the Mary. It's amazing how quickly you get used to them - when I first started up here, launching and retrieving on boat ramps in mangroves (and they're all in mangroves) used to give me the heeby-jeebies - now I'll go in up to my tits to align a boat on a trailer without a second thought - well maybe only a small one - but you don't f*#@ around - line it up on the rollers until you mate started winding then beat a hasty but dignified withdrawal - especially at night.

his boat...

[Lone_Wolf]

got any photos of crocs?

... here's a piccie of the blokes who usually come around when we're crabbing the Adelaide (little fella about 2.5m)...

[Lone_Wolf]

so what do you do in your spare time?

Not much else to do up here except camp, fish and play golf (my wife will tell you that golfing takes up 80% of my spare time). Work is just something I have to do to pay for fuel, lures and golf club memberships.

what's one of the most memorable places you have launched your boat and fished?

definitely the Douglas ... and here's a piccie of one of the easier launches on the Douglas River (in the fresh) near our research farm - we usually spend our Easters here if the wet-season flooding has gone down...



The other spot is an 80 foot high sand bank with a near vertical drop (my chain and winch cable wasn't long enough) - this one's only about 40m down a steepish bank and easier to get too provided the floods haven't knocked any monster trees over the track (which it did in 2004 - hoping it's been washed away with this year's flood). Last Easter the floods were still up so we had to content ourself with just camping and potting for the freshwater prawns off the banks - but they're big (7-8 cm) and extremely yummy. This is a place we call Crystal Falls, there's a 4m saltie that inhabits the water below the falls - several smaller ones (about 3m) above the falls - so we are limited to swimming in the pools in between - get's hot!

Better get some work done.... maybe.

stay tuned for more adventures....

[Girella]

Fantastic stuff Lone Wolf. Thanks for sharing.

PK

[morty103]

Great photos there
Last one is awesome
Morty

[Lone_Wolf]

...there is a story on the way about big mackeral session up there, that concerns me as he calls a 2.5m croc a "little fella" I will post as soon as I get it

[chanquetas]

Thanks for sharing that with us mate. Its great to see what others get up to, as for the crocs...you can keep it!!
Good stuff and good pics.
Cheers,
Jake

[saphire]

Fantastic...Really impressive.
Thanks for posting your pictures.