Welcome readers,friends and fellow fishermen , I thought we may take a look into  Billabong fishing in the Northern Territory of Australia.

This fishing trip  will be quite easy to tell as it was only 5 days ago , when one of my good fishing buddies Jason  rang and asked, if your not busy mate would you like to head out into the scrub  and see if we can catch  us a barramundi.

Well any one that knows me would say, what a  silly question to ask the Fisherman !   Of cause  I said yes  and Jason turned up  with his  4 wheel drive and a flat bottom  tinny (aluminium  12 foot boat ) on the back .  It was  2-30pm   in the afternoon when we headed out into the  scrubby bushland on dirt bush tracks, heading for a secret little spot that Jason and I quite often  go for a fish and some times Pig hunting .

I have lived in this area of the Northern  Territory for the past 4 years, and I never get sick of the surrounding beautiful bushland, and country that my mate” Mother Nature” has given us.  I never go anywhere without my digital camera as you come across so many wonderful sights  that are at times simply breath taking, even when my wife Sandra and I walk of a morning,  I carry the camera with me and have taken  many great shots, that I put in my other  Photo Blog .

Here  is  a very common site as you move around the bush in the  Northern Territory

After crossing this  river we went about another  25 km through the bush until we came to the banks of a Billabong which almost appears like it has been hidden in the bush.  For those of you who do not know  exactly what a  Billabong is ……… ” It is  a  body of still water trapped  in a section where a nearby river or creek  has flooded   and when the river or creek dropped back to its normal level  , the  Billabong is formed from the trapped flood water.”

These  Billabongs can vary in depth and length depending on the surrounding country and the lay of the land itself. The one we are fishing in to-day  would be approximately  1km  long and averaging  2.5  mtrs in depth, so the fish that get in here from the floods that happen  anually , have a good body of water to live in  until  the next flood comes. Billabong  Fishing  for  Barramundi is good fun and always  an out door experience, even if no fish are caught.  There have been times when we had to hunt wild buffalo or a lazy crocodile before we could start fishing.

Our  Secret  Billabong

Well we have finally arrived  30 minutes after leaving home , and just put the boat in the water, now we need to have a cold beer or two while we get the fishing rods and lures all set up in our special way , which I may even tell you the secrets of , from time to time in my blog  posts. We use a small 35 pound thrust electric outboard motor to move us around the Billabong and occasionally troll the lures if there is enough  water, which there is here .

Just finish  our beer and  look out  Barramundi

Jason  Smith————–Bob  Smith—————–Fisherman

This is a view of the Billabong as we get in the boat at one end you can see almost the other end of the Billabong.  Also  Jason tells me there are in fact 2 crocodiles in here so keep an eye out.

The water you can see is a dirty color, and it does not stop us catching fish on lures though.  I love to use surface lures, and I tried here for at least 30  mins without success.  Jason was using  sub surface lures and had 3  positive  strikes without  a  hookup.  So we stopped the boat  out from the bank , I changed to a sub surface lure that  Jason lent me and we  flicked these from the boat with slow to medium retrieve, making sure to cover as much of the fishing  ground as possible.

Jason  had another strike and no hook up,  I then  managed  2 separate  hook ups and  dropped both fish with in  the first few seconds.  That’s fishing as any fisherman  knows ,  we  then decided to troll again along the deeper side close to the over hanging trees and then Jason had one on.  The fish fought reasonably well ,yet it did not  break the surface and do the ever famous tail walk on the top as  a   barramundi are known for, Jason soon got him along side the boat , and yes it was a catfish of all things .  We took a photo and released him very  carefully avoiding his spikes.

Well  today was my day, as we only went another 150 mtrs  and  then  I had  a hook up .  This was  a barra and he came straight out of the water and did his famous surface tail walk , which is quite spectacular to watch and  part of the reason for the  Barramundi being a sought after sport fish in Australia .  He fought and performed  well  yet with so much open water and a good drag setting on the reel , he soon tired and Jason was able to lift him in with the lip grips.

A   Nice Billabong  Barramundi   70cm

Hey..Life is Good..

Well  I was quite happy to get a fish and  it topped the afternoon off, you see Jason generally catches more than I do when we are out together, and he was out of luck today.  It was time to pack the gear up and head off down the track back home .  Nothing worse than fumbling around in the dark and we had about half an hours light left , this  little fishing trip today is very typical  of one of many  different things we do  here in the Northern  Territory .  So folks I only hope you felt like you were with us  here  Billabong  Fishing for Barramundi , and you never know one day  if your passing by we may get to fish together and  have a few cold beers at  the  Adelaide  River  Inn  where the beer is always  cold and refreshing .  Will sign out now and see you soon for our next day out , stay safe and   Tight Lines to you all .

Allen  Sentance
Fisherman