Remote Aussie spot is a bucket-list item for fishing fans

Spirits are high the morning we launch off into the blue waters of what’s considered one of the top fishing spots in the world, teeming with more than 30 species waiting to grace the dinner table.

This is a place two of the six of us on board have been longing to visit all their lives, while for the others, this is a definite highlight of a 13-day tour of Arnhem Land from east to west at the Top End of Australia.

Seven Spirit Bay.

“I can’t believe I’m finally here,” says Victorian businessman Des, looking with satisfaction out over the Cobourg Marine Park at Port Essington, about 300 kilometres north of Darwin by plane or boat, or 570 kilometres by 4WD. “This is going to be so good.”

The waters of the coastal creeks and reefs and the Arafura Sea off the remote luxury lodge of Seven Spirit Bay are famed internationally for their plentiful supplies of barramundi, threadfin salmon, Spanish mackerel, queenfish, longtail tuna, golden trevally, coral trout and mulloway.

Today, on one of the Outback Spirit resort’s state-of-the-art six-seater speciality fishing boats, with two expert guides on board, we surge 28 nautical miles to the chosen spot and Des readies for a heavy haul.

Barramundi on board.

Guide Brett Amos peers at the marine sonar, we slow and he ties lures onto two fishing lines and hands them over for us to cast out and troll. “It helps if you sing to the fish,” he says, tongue in cheek. “But the beauty of this place is so many fish, and so few fishermen …”

It’s not too long before there’s the first bite, and we all shout, as we’ve been instructed – “fish on!” Gary winds his line in, straining against the weight of the catch. As we all watch on, his line suddenly slackens, the fish darting beneath the boat after releasing itself. It was the first to get away.

I take over one of the rods and stand and admire the high, ochre-red cliffs of the coastline, the white beaches and the vivid blue of the water. It’s just as well the view is so good. There might well be scores of fish below us, but none is stupid enough to take my lure.

They routinely face far more skilled foe than me, though, as 13-day Outback Spirit tours of Arnhem Land culminate here. Keen anglers also head straight here, coming from all over Australia, as does the world, often in their own planes onto the resort’s airstrip.

On the terrace at Seven Spirit Bay Lodge.

You can understand why it’s such a high point of a visit to Arnhem Land, too. Quite apart from the fish, the scenery is spectacular. The boat darts into creeks lined with mangroves and crocodiles, there’s always the chance of dolphin and dugong sightings and the birdlife is stunning: egrets, wedge-tailed eagles and whistling kites soar above.

Our keenest fisher finally has luck and catches a nice 40cm-long snapper. He’s thrilled – until a fellow fisher Anne, who confesses she hasn’t fished for years, hooks a 1.5-metre mulloway. Des looks crestfallen.

Back at the lodge that evening, our tour group assembles on the open-air pavilion looking out over the water, which glows orange under the setting sun, and compares fishing tales. There are the ones that got away, the ones that should have got away – the ferocious barracudas with sharp bones and teeth that make terrible eating – and, best of all, the catch of the day.

There’s a spirited argument about who caught the biggest fish, the sizes growing larger in line with the amount of alcohol consumed by the contenders for the title. But by consensus, it’s Anne who gets the prize and her “biggest fish” is cooked by the lodge’s chef, presented as one of a series of delicious canapes to feast on before dinner.

“But, really, it’s not all about size,” Des says. “Yes, my fish was smaller, but I reckon it would have been even tastier ...”

THE DETAILS

TOUR
Outback Spirit’s 13-day tours of Arnhem Land, ending with three nights at Seven Spirit Bay, take place from May to October. From $14,495 a person twin-share. See outbackspirittours.com.au

FLY
Qantas flies from Cairns to Nhulunbuy daily. See qantas.com.au
Outback Spirit has aircraft which fly from the Cobourg Peninsula to Darwin.

The writer was a guest of Outback Spirit.