Hot on the heels of last week’s column about the first two Sportsbet-tagged barra caught in Season 10 of Million Dollar Fish, I thought this week we’d look at a significant river system close to Darwin which has with several non-tidal waterways that invariably turn up at least one 10K barra: our iconic Mary River system.
There are four freshwater lagoons along the Mary River system that are each accessible to the general public: Mary River Bridge Lagoon, Hardies Lagoon, Corroboree Billabong and Shady Fresh.
The one thing they have in common is that one or more SportsBet red-tagged barra have been caught in each.
Casting or trolling, there have been some terrific barra caught in the Mary River Bridge Lagoon.
It is long and narrow, and is accessed straight off the Arnhem Highway.
There is a dedicated camping area with facilities, and a good concrete boat ramp.
Basically, you fish above or below the bridge, with small rock-bars and submerged snags punctuating its length.
It was on a snag just above the bridge that Ryan Curtis caught a double-tagged 98cm barra in MDF Season 6, and only last season a red-tagged barra came from Bridge Lagoon.
There is also a sweet feeder creek way up the lagoon on the right side that can fish well during the Runoff.
For what it’s worth, Bridge Lagoon has been fishing well this dry season.
Next lagoon down on the Mary River is Hardies.
The turn-off is sign-posted on the Arnhem Highway.
Hardies Lagoon fishes better early in the dry season than it does later in the year because, as the water level drops, the main section becomes inaccessible to all but small boats due to a shallow area that spans the lagoon.
Most fish are caught casting weedless plastics around clumps of pandanus, small snags and weed edges.
Of late, it has been fishing well at night in the accessible area.
The iconic Corroboree Billabong is the next inland waterway in the system.
Corroboree is massive, with 45km of navigable water along the main billabong, up inside the adjoining Rockhole and in different arms along its length.
This is a beautiful system and has been utilised for many fishing competitions over the decades, including last month’s Secret Women’s Business Barra Challenge which produced a plethora of great lagoon barra.
Most barra are caught casting at gaps in the lilies with soft plastics, vibes and small, bibbed-minnow lures.
However, jig trolling along the lily edges with fluoro Bombers and Reidy’s Little Lucifers will often do the job nicely.
Corroboree can be a good spot to fish at night, especially at this time of year.
Some years, barra to just over a metre are caught at night, mainly slow trolling down the middle of the lagoon with big lures.
There’s bound to be a handful of SportsBet-tagged barra swimming up and down Corroboree this Season 10, and no doubt the big lagoon will receive its fair share of angling attention.
The final freshwater lagoon heading down on the Mary River system is Shady Fresh, so called because it starts at the Shady Camp barrage on the upstream side.
To maximise results on this fairly short lagoon, there are basically three spots to target: the top rock-bar, the bottom rock-bar and Pink Thing Creek.
It’s easy to locate the top rock-bar which extends more than halfway across the lagoon from the eastern side.
It is fully submerged but your depth sounder will pick it up easily about 300m down from the top end of the lagoon.
Casting and working vibes and soft plastics across the rock-bar is a proven tactic, but you can also troll it, varying your angle of approach.
The bottom rock-bar is about three bends downstream from the top bar.
It has a funny configuration with a submerged rock-bar on both sides of the lagoon but a seemingly flat muddy bottom down the middle.
I’ve always found it fishes much better trolling than casting.
Pink Thing Creek is down a bit further on the western side.
It’s actually quite choked with lilies and grasses around the mouth, but the barra seem to hang in there and can be caught with weedless soft plastics.
Denis Levonis visited the Arnhem Land Barramundi Lodge and caught this metre-plus barra on a Guns N Roses Classic Barra lure.
