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 fis.