The Real Ben Cavanagh: Freshwater Barramundi Fishing

Barramundi Fishing | The Way I was taught

Barramundi fishing is a great past time but over the years has turned from a quite day at the river into a huge adventure at great cost for often very little return, the hours spent flicking or trawling lures is a real turn off when you get no results.

Dragging the boat for miles, fuel, ice, food, drinks, lures, landing nets, GPS, depth sounder and a range of other equipment has come into picture as a must have for a fishing trip. This is an alternative to the commercial approach to catching Barra.

What Will You Need?

2 small hand lines – 5 to 10lb
1 large hand line – 70 to 100lb
1 packet of small hooks
1 packet of large hooks
A float of some description – piece of foam, a stick or a bought float
Earth Worms or small bugs
A bucket
Optional – a bait caster fishing rod.

To catch a Barra you should start with trying to catch a small perch, rainbow, yabbie, prawn or a range of other smaller freshwater fish and crustaceans. Catching small freshwater fish is a great place to fine tune some basic skills and is good fun, it is something I still enjoy even tho the fish are tiny and not really edible or a prize catch.

With this type of fishing you typically end up fairly close to a river bank, here comes the Crocodile warning. Whenever you are in close proximity to a river bank or any waterway in the Territory you need to expect there to be a crocodile, not trying to be a scare monger but people still seem to be completely ignorant to a basic fact, “Any waterway can hold man eating crocodiles, you don’t need to kill them, just respect them”

Be aware and have a good look over the area you are going to fish in before sitting down on the water’s edge, although I wouldn’t sit too close to a river at any point.

Image Source: 1 - http://www2.mdbc.gov.au/subs/The_River/october2008/fish.html

The Spangled Perch is the reference name but I was taught to call them “Tun Tun” because of the noise they make when you catch them.

Finding Earthworms for Bait
If you’re having trouble getting hold of earth worms, here are some tips. Most if not all Territory gardens have earth worms. You can start by finding an area that has regular water and a decent amount of leaf mulch, paper mulch or hay and just turn the mulch over, the worms will be either exposed on the surface or will duck under the surface when you turn the mulch over. You don’t need to dig deep into the soil, the worms will be in the top inch or two of the soil or in the mulch itself. If this fails to produce any worms, mix a small amount of soap powder into a large bucket of water, in the same type of garden area move the mulch and poor some of the water onto the ground, after a minute or two any worms in the soil will come to the surface as the soap irritates them , I prefer to not use this method as you can end up with too many worms and they don’t live as long.

Source: 2 http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/worms.htm

Bugs and Other Critters
When you are turning over the mulch in your garden you will also spot other small bugs and roaches, these also make quite decent bait for small freshwater fish.

Catching Your Barra Bait
You should be able to spot perch in the water as you travel along the river bank, they will be close to the bottom and often around coffee rock, logs or where water runs in off the plains. Using your small line cover the small hook with a piece of earth worm, don’t put too much on or leave large bits hanging off the hook or you will be baited. You don’t usually need a sinker to catch small freshwater fish, but a split sinker will do the job if the current is too much or if the Rainbows and paper fish are cleaning your bait off the hook before it gets down to the perch. Target the perch, they are aggressive and are quite straight forward to catch as you can watch them attack the bait. They often suck the hook right down the back of their throats and this will usually kill the fish so don’t let them play with the bait too much, if you plan on catching and releasing the fish use a larger hook to reduce the fatality rate. You don’t need a big bucket full perch, 1 or 2 should be all you need for a bit of fishing.

Image Source: 3 - http://www.tinarooeec.eq.edu.au/Kids/freshfish.html

The rainbow fish above is likely to strip your worm baits quite aggressively while you are trying to catch perch, you can use the Rainbow as bait but they die very quickly when used as bait and are probably best just throwing them back.

Locating Bait Fish Tip
You can often find perch and other bait fish around culverts and drains during the height of the wet season and these areas are easier to access. There are some risks with catching fish from a drain or small creek and then transporting them to another river, mainly the risk of introducing a species of fish that was previously not present in the river or introducing a disease into the main river that has come from a culvert or drain. You should target culverts or drains that run directly into the waterway you plan to fish in to reduce the risk.

You have some bait, what next – Live Baiting for Barramundi in Freshwater.

For the Brave and somewhat silly/stupid There are a range of other options for collecting bait to use to catch your bait……You can get hold of some small prawns from the waters edge or even some mussels from the sand banks. Note: These baits require that you enter the waterway and often stand with you back to the water, this is plainly dangerous and increases your exposure to crocodiles, I was taught how to collect prawns and fresh water mussels, I will teach my children but we you need to know the waterway well and have other adults on hand to watch over the water when collecting these baits. Don’t enter a dirty water way, the place I was taught to get these baits the water is crystal clear and you can see to the bottom so you can observe a crocodile or even a snake long before it makes you breakfast. Common sense goes a long way when dealing with water ways that hold crocodiles the below method doesn’t really fit into a common sense model and is not for the feint hearted.

Fresh Water Prawn
*THIS IS DANGEROUS even with a small prawn scoop / net.
To collect prawns locate a section of bank that has reeds or submerged grass against the edge of the bank, walk into the water and stand with your back to the water looking down at the reeds / grass, with both hands push / scoop as much water as you can up onto the bank through the reeds or grass, as the water runs back into the waterway you will notice prawns flicking in the mud, pick them up and use them to catch perch and other bait fish.

You can also use a small aquarium net and run it through the grass /reeds, this is nearly as dangerous as you will end up bent over double or crouched down to get access to the reeds and both methods leave you VERY exposed to the waterway.

This advice could be considered to be irresponsible but you would have to have your head planted so firmly up your own backside to not realise that precautions are needed and this is more for knowledge than a recommended way of collecting bait. Life is full of risks, choose what risks you are willing to take, I would collect bait in this manner, but I would never jump out of a plane or go bungee jumping, everyone is different.

Image Source: 4 http://australianmuseum.net.au/Freshwater-Shrimp

Fresh Water Mussels
*THIS IS DANGEROUS worth knowing for a bit of knowledge but may not be worth the risk.
Fresh water mussels live just below the sand in most freshwater creeks in the Territory, you will often see the shells on the bank where they have been eaten by birds.

You can collect one or two to use as to catch your Barra bait. You will most likely need to be in the water, run the tips of your fingers through the sand near the base of logs or the edge of the bank and you will find the mussels, it is really quite easy. Just look for a decent bar of sand with some protection from birds.

I haven’t tried to eat any mussels a)Because I’m allergic to all crustaceans (stop laughing, it’s not fair) but also because I have been told that it is very difficult to get all the sand out of the mussel and can be very gritty. But if your stuck for food they will do.