Night Fishing on Tiwi Islands

Night time fishing adventures

Fishing in Crocodile territory during day light hours can be a hair raising experience at the best of times. They stalk the boat. Sometimes you don’t even know they are in the water with you. One minute its calm water, next, there are set of beady little eyes looking back at you. Size of Crocodiles vary on the two islands. I am not sure if I have mentioned the famous “Elvis” a roughly 5 metre croc that saunters of the coast of Parnappi where campers can see him from the front door of their tents. Crocs out there are always very quick to make themselves visible when there are dogs on the beach.
There are a couple small crocs that travel up and down the main beach area (nothing more than a pebble strewn shoreline) where barges land and offload their cargo and where we as fisherman launch our boats. These are around 2 – 2.5 metres long and not overly aggressive.

They have been hooked on during fishing trips, often being mistaken for massive fish until the tail creates a big splash or you see toothy jaws exit the water. Lines are quickly cut so the crocs can get out of the area fast.
My first knowledge of night fishing here on the island by non-Tiwi people was only a couple weeks ago when friends of mine went out at night without a track in their sounder for the trawl run. So with some very unfortunate luck they managed to get stuck on the run out tide sand bar. Subsequently they were there for 6 hours waiting for the tide to turn. Now night time croc spotting can be a little hairy and given that situation I would have been very wary, however the crew remained calm and quite jovial enjoying the clear night sky and shooting stars before safely making it home without fish in the boat.

Forward two weeks and my first experience of night fishing was about to happen. Queenie (my Boat) was prepped and ready to go. Head torches and spot lights at the ready a mate and I ventured out to the trawl run on a good tide, although minimal moonlight. Whilst on holidays over the recent bush break. The boys had borrowed Queenie several times to go fishing and the trawl run at night seemed to produce good solid barramundi around the 80-85cm mark with a few smaller fish as well. It was theorised that on a ¾ to full moon on the right tide would see bigger females out on the sand/mudflats hunting for food. This particular night landed zero fish, zero hits and after getting onto the water just before midnight a lengthy trip out and back.
Unperturbed by that first trip another one was on the cards when the tides were next right. I usually go fishing with a good mate of mine from up here Justin. However, my next outing would be with another mate Dave and his 4.7m centre console. A very quick afternoon meeting over a couple cold beers determined that tonight was the night (being Friday 4th August) that we would take 4 of us out in the boat with a much earlier start at 7 pm.

Tiwi Sunsets are awesome and none better from the water. At 6:30 we got into the boat and not wanting to get stuck on the sandbar again, Dave navigated the long way to the trawl run. Being quite early for the tide it was decided that we would go into a creek and fish a decent sized snag. Without bait, we flicked the snags for about 5 minutes before Dave landed 1 of 5 small snapper for the night on his vibe lure. Kev, who is yet to catch a Barra was high on the fact he had just purchased a boat. He was having some trouble with his leader so decided to tie the lure straight to the main braid line. When he said this both myself and Dave moaned at the decision but left Kev to his own devices. That decision would come back to bight him about 20 minutes later when something smashed his little pinky lure. A good size fish I would estimate to a just legal barra or good cod had him working the tip of the rod until that moment all fishos hate… the braid line went “ping”… no more lure, no more fish, just one very frustrated Kev.

Lesson learned, I rigged Kev up with a knot I have been using for a while with some variations. I use an Improved Albright knot. Normally an Albright knot is fairly strong, but I found a video where the knot has some extra loops chucked in. I could use a double uni knot or the fabled FG knot which despite hundreds of videos watched and what I deem perfect replication of the step by step process resulted in knot failure after knot failure. So back to the improved Albright knot I went. Since this trip I have come to be quite fond of this knot as even with 35ln Finns braid and 45lb Schneider leader line, it took a hell of a beating recently on a good little bull shark around the 1.2 -1.4m mark as well as getting absolutely bricked by something decent on a recent trip into snags and took a lot of force to break the line, however, the knots on the leader and loop knot held firm with the braid snapping first.

Back to the action with the tide now an hour from the low we decided to start trawling. The moonlight was perfect and one could see quite well to the bank considering sometimes you’re only 2 metres from the bank. Our first trawl runs were unsuccessful with Dave getting a hit but nothing substantial. We trawled for probably an hour or so before we pulled up to flick at a gravel patch that showed good marks for fish. Again this was unsuccessful and the occupants of the boat getting frustrated not only at the lack of fish but also the midgies and bugs going to town on exposed skin no matter how much repellent you had on. Once again we set out to trawl the run several more times with a lure change at ech end of the run. I ran gold bombers in the shallow stuff, Flouro Barra Classic in the 3-4 metre stuff and a mixture of colours and depths on alternating runs.

With the crew just about to pack it in and on possibly the last pass for the night, I was sitting on the inside of the run going against the tide with open water to my left, unexpectedly my rod tip twitched before being launched into a massive load up and drag unfurling at a quick pace. Kev who had no luck during the night quickly got us out into a bit more open water and killed the engine.

Like I mentioned before, I was only running 30lb braid and 45lb leader which has been well and truly tested beyond their capabilities, however, I did not want to lose possibly the only fish of the night. At first I thought it was just the forward motion of the boat causing so much line to peel off my Daiwa Tatular HD but I soon realised that this was a solid fish. My left thumb firmly planted on the spool, line continued to run off the reel I was watching as the line left on the spool quickly diminished. The fish then decided its first run was complete so I managed to gain back some of the first run. A second shorter burst saw the boat eerily quiet. No one spoke as the only sound was from the reel protesting against the fish and its desire to spit the treble of my barra classic lure. The fish decided to jump from the water in a classing Barramundi display but it was just out of eyesight range being dark. I managed to gain line back on the fish and it surfaced about 3 metres from the boat. Josh a good mate was up front with me and at this time was doing a great job of pushing everything out of the way to make sure I didn’t trip over during the fight.

When the fish surfaced, Dave exclaimed that it was a solid fish in the 60cm range… I however, was astonished at the size of the thing. Definitely Barramundi and definitely bigger than 60cm. At this stage the legs started to get a bit jelly and the realisation that this would be an upgrade on my previous best fish of 69cm. The next few minutes were spent guiding the fish around the boat, at one stage under the boat and safely out again. Thanks to Josh for his light work on the tip of my rod because I couldn’t quite see where the fish was going. It surfaced again and at that point the boys realised this was no 60cm barra. Dave expertly got the net in the water without spooking the fish too much and being a big girl and tired she made one last ditched effort to evade the net but Dave scooped her up and sat her next to me on the forward cast deck.

Stunned and unable to stand the elation was awesome. The adrenaline was pumping and the realisation that we needed to get this fish measured and back in the water quick set in. We got her to the brag mat and she went a solid 91cm. Now everyone claims that it isn’t a big barra unless over the magic metre mark. However, here on the Tiwi Islands the metre Barra is more like a myth. I am sure they are around but the creek and river systems here are different and don’t support big fish like that regularly. I was very happy to know that my 91cm is the biggest in recent memory on the south part of the island. So measured and some happy snaps later the big girl was placed back in the water and after some encouragement swam away back to whence she came. The feeling of putting back a big fish like that is two-fold. On one hand you want to be able to show it off, on the other it is a breeding female at that size, so its frowned on to keep them. So there is satisfaction that she will live on to breed and bring more little barra to the area and maybe even grow into the mythical metre fish we are all gunning for here on the island.

And how did my knots fair up? No slippage or undoing at all. With the fish let go, we trawled for another hour or so before hitting the tack back home. Getting the boat out of the water and cleaned up was tiring and around 2:30am saw us all trundle back off to our respective abodes and get some sleep.

Just a quick shout out to Dave, Kev and Josh for making the decision to go for the fish and to Dave for letting me fish in his boat.

The hunt for the elusive metre barra is still on and hopefully one day soon, someone on the island, hopefully me will land the big girl.

Until next time, stay safe and tight lines