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Arnhem Bay Barramundi Fishing

By Josh Cooper

The Bivouac Boyz have found themselves in an awesome part of Australia... a place that is not only as spectacular as the fishing, it's also a place where the barra bite all year round and a place that they are happy to share with us. Fish on!

Arnhem Bay is a remote bay located about 130km by sea or roughly 100km by road from Nhulunbuy, NT and it has some of the best barramundi fishing in Arnhem Land. The only access by road to Arnhem Bay is an hour and a half drive, over rough dirt road, to a pretty ordinary dirt boat ramp on the Cato River. Before accessing the boat ramp or camp sites you need to get a permit from the Northern Land Council. You can also take the scenic 130km boat trip from Nhulunbuy, which takes you through some amazing and sometimes dangerous county. I wouldn't recommend doing this without doing your research and asking some local advice.

My first time fishing Arnhem Bay we launched at the Cato River on a three day camping trip. The first day we headed to the Peter John River and spent most of our day fishing there. I was rigged up with the Okuma Helios HSX-30 spin reel, loaded with Platypus Super Braid 20lb and matched up with an Okuma 701H 7' 5-12kg Cerros spinning rod. I personally prefer to use spinning rods as I am more accurate and effective with spin, and I can cast a lighter lure further. This combo does this incredibly well, is light and easy to cast all day and can cast a light soft plastic incredible distances. Importantly, it also has the power to get a big barra or mangrove jack out of the snags.

I had decided to go for a darker colour soft plastic in the dirtier water of the drains, while also wanting to stick with a smaller profile lure, so I rigged up a ZMan 3" MinnowZ in the colour 'The Wright Stuff', rigged with a TT Lures 1/6oz 4/0 jighead. I love to use lighter jigheads when fishing undercover or around snags for barramundi as it allows you to slow down your retrieve when you are right in there and in the strike zone of the barra. It also allows you to skip your plastic up under the trees or into a small gap in the snags, with the soft and light ZMan soft plastics making this even easier.

We fished the run out tide in the gutters and did really well, landing forty plus barramundi over the three days, with the biggest being close to 70cm. While we were very happy, the fish weren't going off, maybe due to windy weather and the temperature still being a bit cool. On the afternoon of the last day we decided to try something else and headed around to the next small bay in the main Arnhem Bay. The sun was starting to get low and we knew we didn't have a lot of time left, so we decided this would be the last spot before we pulled out. We arrived there and I still had my trusty ZMan 'The Wright Stuff' coloured MinnowZ on and Cody was rigged with a ZMan 4" Pearl coloured Diezel MinnowZ. The hopes weren't very high as the tide was coming in and there wasn't much happening. We decided to have a flick around a tree that one of our mates had caught barra off before.

Driving up, we killed the motor and cast in. First cast, BANG! Cody was on and it was a good fish at 80 plus centimetres. Unfortunately it dislodged the lure at the boat, while at the same time I hooked up to a solid 60cm fish. This continued for 45 minutes, landing fish after fish. The biggest fish was around 75cm and the smallest 58cm, with 15 plus fish in total. An absolutely awesome way to finish off a good first trip.

We have been back to Arnhem Bay a few times since, with no stand out trips until a month ago when we decided to head there to fish the East Arnhem Land Barramundi Comp. It was decided that we would take our new boat, a ten metre wooden boat that is driven by a diesel inboard, on her maiden trip around the top by ocean into Arnhem Bay. We towed our tinny behind and set off, at a top speed of seven knots, taking two days to get there but the awesome scenery made the trip very enjoyable.

The first day we didn't fish too much and only landed a few smaller fish. On the second day of fishing we decided to head out and fish the flats in the early morning and what a decision that was. I decided to rig up an Okuma Helios HSX-20 spin reel and LRF rod. This was an awesome light combo for this type of fishing that enabled an incredible cast range with even the lightest of lures. It also has a super sensitive tip to feel even the smallest hit from a barra.

Cody and Mitchell had both decided to use the Okuma Cerros baitcast rod and reel combo. Both really like this combo for its weight, being a very light combo that you can cast all day, while still having the drag and power to land a very big fish. Mitchell and I both had ZMan MinnowZ on and Cody had ZMan 4" DieZel MinnowZ... and the barra were smashing all three of them! We landed twenty plus barramundi for the morning, with most of them being sight cast on the flats. It was a great morning and we continued to slowly catch fish for the rest of the day.

The same happened for the next two days. Early morning sight casting the flats, then working our way down the creek fishing for the rest of the day. On the last night we decided to go have a crack at a late night barra on live bait. We did some cast netting and got some nice mullet and archer fish, then headed down to a spot that we had been told was good for barra. We dropped in the livies and I decided to go for a very heavy combo because we were around lots of sticks and rocks.

I rigged up an Okuma Azores Blue 8000 spin reel with an Azores spin rod. This is usually a rod that I use for deep dropping or shark fishing, however I needed something with the power to stop a big barra very quick. I cast out a big archer fish and only had to wait about ten minutes and bang, I was on! I knew it was a good fish when I saw the big bazza splash out in the moonlight. I wrestled him out of the rocks and landed what was a nice barra that ended up measuring 87cm.

This was a truly amazing trip and just to top things off it finished with me winning Champion Junior Angler in the East Arnhem Barra Championships. If you ever get a chance to fish this amazing place it is well worth the effort it takes to get there.

Cheers, Josh

Gearing Up:
Okuma Cerros Spinning Rods - CER-S-701H 7' 5-12kg
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reel - HSX-30
Okuma Cerros Baitcast Rods - CER-C-661MH 6'6" 4-8kg
Okuma Cerros Baitcast Reel - CR-266V
Platypus Super Braid - 20lb
ZMan 3" MinnowZ
ZMan 4" DieZel MinnowZ
ZMan 4" SwimmerZ
TT Lures HeadlockZ HD Jigheads
TT Lures SnakelockZ Jigheads