We are having a bit of quiet time over at Wilderness Island as its fairly warm at the moment and there have been a few cyclones whizzing around. Cyclone Narelle was getting very intense there for a while so it was into full pack up mode. It ended up heading out to sea after hovering off Exmouth for a couple of days deciding whether she wanted to cause us some grief or not. Finished up with a bit of wind but not much rain.
Anyway, we’d just finished doing the pack up and battening down the hatches, it was hot and humid so we decided to get out on the water for a bit of a fishing session. We went to one of my favourite Mangrove Jack spots and put in a few casts. We were catching nothing for the first 10 minutes which is strange for this spot. Usually its on fire right from the start so I was a bit surprised that no Jacks were turning up.
We decided to put some baits on and see if that would get things fired up. Second cast put an instant bend in the rod, “This is a big Jack” I thought, it really had some weight to it and as I we were very close to some sharp structure, I didn’t fancy my chances of getting it in. It did come in though but not a Jack, a pretty fair sized Barramundi. We reckoned between 650-700cm.
I know that these fellas are active at this time of year with the warmer water and all but usually, so is everything else in the water. I decided to put on some goggles and jump in for a look. I swam over to where the strike was and this huge Queensland Grouper ambled off into the murk ( he was pushing the 1.6m mark and as round as a 44 gallon drum). Not many other fish though till I swam round into the current from the incoming tide.
I have never seen a Barramundi the size of this thing, 1.3m easily and his mate was only marginally smaller. They were the two biggest and another 8 or 10 fish around the metre size with 5 others about 600-700cm.
I know these fish will be hanging around here till about the end of April when the water starts it winter cooling again. After that, we have to wait another 9 months till they show up again. Great opportunity to get a land based Barra if anyone is keen.
