Monster Barra at Bullo River Station

It had been twelve months since my last holiday. It was now time for my long anticipated adventure to the cattle station, Bullo River, situated in the Northern Territory. It was here that I was hoping to catch some nice Barra.

Being a Customer Technician with Telstra, working on Sydney's Northern beaches, is a very demanding job these days. I couldn't wait for the day to arrive for me to get away from it all, relax and go fishing.

It was mid April when I caught the 747 out of Sydney. My first destination was Darwin. Here I would stay over night. It gave me the opportunity to visit a couple of the local tackle stores. I hoped to get some local knowledge on what type of lures the Barra were taking at the moment.

My own barra fishing tackle consisted of, my trusty old Abu 5000 reel spooled with 30 lb Fireline, a 6ft barra rod and a hand full of assorted barra lures. With this outfit, I hoped to land a few good barra.

The tackle shops in Darwin suggested I take some Gold Bombers, Barra Classic and some Halco Lures. I also got live bait hooks, as we would be doing bait fishing as well.

I was happy to use lures or live bait to try and catch that big Barra. My mate, who caught a 50 lb Barra at Lake Tinaroo, had been telling me what a great thrill it was to catch a fish of that size, a once in a life time fish. I certainly hoped that one day I might be lucky enough to get the opportunity to get one that size.

I was up early the next morning to meet up with the truck driver who was going to give me a lift to Bullo River Station. This was about an eight-hour journey. I arrived late that afternoon to a very friendly welcome from all the staff at the station. I was itching to have a crack at these Barra, but first I had to put in a couple of days doing cattle work, truck repairs and welding some of the broken gates at the cattle yards.

Two days later the time had come to go Barra fishing. The station schoolteacher and the cook were to accompany me to the river for our first crack at catching the big Barra. We all jumped into the Bull catcher and headed East along the Bullo River, passing numerous cattle grids, gates and beautiful Boab trees. The scenery was spectacular. Finally, we came to a large bend in the river. This, according to our mud map, was our destination, a proven Barra spot.

We eagerly got all the fishing tackle out of the bull catcher, cast net included. We didn't have the use of the boat today so we decided to fish with live bait, Bug-eyed Mullet as the locals call them.
It took a bit of practice throwing the net but I got to the stage where I could cast it good enough to catch a hand full of Mullet.

We all baited up and waited with anticipation. It wasn't long before the cook shouted out "I'm on". The way the reel screamed we all knew it had to be a good fish, a good fish indeed, 30 lbs of silver Barra, the first good Barra the cook had caught, he was doing cartwheels and the look on his face said it all.

Lines were re rigged and cast out again, there had to be more fish there. It wasn't long before we had another hook up; this time it was the Teacher's turn to catch one.

After a short fight a 10 lb Barra was landed. It might not have been as big as the cook's but the teacher was just as thrilled, it was her second time out and her biggest fish to date.

Over the next 2 hrs we all caught fish, sensational fishing. There were a number of huge crocs in this part of the river so we were on constant lookout for their movements.

Tidal movements are very rapid in this part of the world and with the peaking of full tide approaching it was nearly time to make tracks home. There was time for that one last cast. I cast my live Bug-eyed mullet to the right of where I had been fishing.

No longer had the bait hit the water when my Abu 5000 started peeling out line, I could feel the weight of the fish, it was big, was it a Barra, Shark or some other Monster that lives in these waters? It was taking line at a steady pace, I tightened the drag a little more, and still line was spooling off. I wasn't in panic mode yet but I was getting close to it. Not being an experienced Barra fisherman, I wasn't quite sure what I should do next, and I couldn't get any expert advice from my 2 fishing mates, as we were all amateur Barra fishermen. I was just hoping and praying that the line wouldn't break or the hook come free.

It must have been a good ten minutes of tug- o- war with neither fish nor fisherman winning.

Then all of a sudden the brown waters of the Bullo exploded, it was a Barra of mind boggling size, I shouted as loud as I could, 'did you see that, it's a monster Barra', I didn't get a reply, I didn't need one anyway although I did want the others to see it just in case I lost it.

By now the adrenaline was pumping, I was going to get this fish, I had to get this fish of a lifetime.

Five more minutes passed, and at last, I was winning the battle, the fish was tyring so I shouted to the teacher and cook to bring the camera and jaw grips. They shot of and raced back to where I had the big Barra slowly swimming in knee-deep water.

How was I going to get the grips in its jaw? My first two attempts failed, the big feller made a run for deep water, I had to get this fish and take a photo, if not, who would ever believe that I had hooked such a big Barra. I decided to resist the urge to land him quickly so I let him swim a while longer.

My next attempt to grip his jaw was successful, I had him at last, and he was a very heavy fish. I lifted him out of the water, what an awesome fish, the biggest Barra I had ever seen.

The three of us were all shouting with joy, yes yes yes!

Photos were taken, congratulations were showered upon me, I was a true Barra Legend. We couldn't weigh the fish, it was too big.

It was estimated to be around the 70 lb mark. After taking the photos we gently released the fish back into the river, the beast slowly swam away.

The joy of releasing my great capture gave me a great sense of satisfaction; the big Barra lives to fight another day.

The trip back to the Homestead was just a blur, all I could see was the big Barra exploding out of that River, a memory that will last a lifetime. It was going to be a big night at the bar tonight.

I was the talk of the station that night, and come to think of it, the whole time I was up there. Steve, L 927, stood tall in the Far North of Australia.
The photo of my great Barra has pride of place at Bullo River.

I caught many good Barra during the rest of my stay, but none bigger than the monster I caught on my first day's fishing.

Steve 'Barra' Barton