The Darwin region is one of the best barramundi fishing regions in Australia. And the best time to be barra fishing is the run off period at the end of the wet season. Up to two meters of rain falls across the top of Australia between November and March, give or take a month. Once the rains have stopped the flood plains start to drain bringing loads of food into the rivers where the hungry barramundi and other estuary species such as threadfin salmon lie in wait. What ensues is a feeding frenzy and keen anglers from all over the country and around the world are there to enjoy the action.   

One hundred klms north of Darwin are the Aboriginal owned Tiwi Islands. Melville and Bathurst Islands are are a fishing mecca at anytime of year but during the "run off" season the estuaries, rivers and creeks just boil with barramundi fishing opportunity. If you ever get sick of the wild barra fishing there is plenty of reef, bluewater and flats action happening as well. With over 50 species regularly caught around the islands you will never get bored with the variety.

Right now we have a very limited number of heavily discounted dates available during the run off in April and May and if you are quick you will save yourself up to $900 pp and enjoy some incredible fishing action in a remote and exotic destination.

Download the special offer now.

Fishing in WA is incredibly diverse and rich with hundreds of opportunities over the 20 000 klm of coastline. Not to mention the multitude of rivers and streams. What follows is a list of some of the more popular and productive fishing hotspots in Western Australia.

Ord River

Running for 650 klm the Ord River drains a massive area of the Eastern Kimberley into Cambridge Gulf at Wyndham on the coast. This river is known for Barramundi fishing from Lake Argyle to the sea and large crocodiles in the lower reaches. The huge Lake Argyle now straddles the catchment providing water for the Kununurra irrigation area and there is now a constant flow down the Ord all year. The best of Kimberley rivers barra fishing is below the diversion dam wall at Kununurra all the way to Wyndham. The best time of year for barra fishing here is March to May and September to December and also June through August in the lower reaches.

Fitzroy River 

Flowing in a westerly direction for over 700 klm, the Kimberley’s Fitzroy River suffers massive flooding every wet season from Christmas to March or April. Barramundi Fishing after this flood is excellent until the river stops flowing around July or August, depending on the severity of the floods. Barramundi can still be caught in isolated pools and billabongs until the next flood.

Kimberley Coast Fishing

The isolated and remote coastline north and east of Derby is absolutely spectacular, to say the least. It holds a myriad of untouched fishing opportunities from rivers, gorges and creeks to estuaries, beaches, reefs and deep water. You will need a boat as the Kimberley Coast is very inaccessible. There are a number of live aboard vessels cruising the coast from May to November.

Derby

Derby sits on King Sound on the Kimberley’s west coast. The sound is known for its huge tides of up to 12 meters, large barramundi and massive crocodiles.

The large sound is surrounded by creeks and estuaries, boarded by mangrove swamps and full of mud flats. This makes it excellent for barra fishing and mudcrabs but difficult to navigate. A large well equipped boat is required here or you can fish of the wharf in Derby at high tide.

Broome Fishing

The picturesque tourist town of Broome sits on a peninsula between the idyllic Cable Beach and the shallow flats of Roebuck Bay. Great fishing for barramundi, mud crabs and other estuary species is found in the bay and excellent reef systems off shore present great opportunity for reef species such as coral trout, emperor and many others. Broome has  a well established game fishery with sailfish, mackerel, wahoo, marlin and others offshore between April to October or November.

Is there such a thing as a high maintenance man?

There have to be blokes who spend hours doing their hair and waxing their chests, who moan about every suggestion their partner makes for a night out, who expect to be lauded like royalty and, I dare say, who got bashed at high school.

If they missed out on a flogging behind the tennis courts after little lunch, I'd wager boys of this stripe have gone on to be men just as blind to their failings as are most high maintenance women.

Of course, I'm not suggesting these gals be smacked about, it's just instructive how the genders deal with the more annoying members of their sex - and how effective a clip under the ear in your teens can be in curbing punishing behaviour ...

So how would you define high maintenance?

I can do it in one word: complainer.

Frankly, I don't know a lot of men who complain. Blokes who whinge about stuff constantly tend not to have friends or work as talk-back radio hosts.

Women? Well, complaining is a genuine pastime for some chicks, a legitimate hobby they seem to enjoy as much as any man does surfing, Xbox, or picking scabs off his knees a few days after footy.

Granted, there are plenty of women who don't whinge, nag or complain but they're more than made up for by the ones who do.

What's bizarre is how these women can whine about everything from the food they're eating to the music that's playing in your lounge room and your driving skills in the wet, but they still insist they're not high maintenance.

I think this is partly due to the emergence of the concept of the "princess": highly groomed and rarely seen out of high heels or air-conditioning. The princess smells goods, tastes even better but, like taffy stuck to your back molar, soon starts a poisonous throb in your jaw.

And while there are a tonne of gals out there who eschew the trappings of the princess - they don't need to wear make-up to go to the shops, they may even cut their own hair and wear Crocs - they are still high maintenance.

What causes it?

Neediness is part of it, I reckon. A woman's anxiety is like a shopping trolley with a bung wheel. She has little control over it, so she runs it into other people's heels - usually her partner's - to make herself feel better.

This is commonly done through blame - described by one clinical researcher as "a way to discharge pain and discomfort". That means when the high maintenance woman feels it, you cop it too, kinda like herpes without the fun bit beforehand.

The tendency to complain and blame is also usually accompanied by a general air of displeasure when the high maintenance woman is not doing exactly what she wants to be doing.

Often times it's like sitting next to a revving two-stroke engine you know needs oil, and is bound either to seize or explode. You can't get comfortable, which is what she wants, so next time you're less likely to ask her to do something that's not exactly what she wants to be doing.

Now, I realise there's an irony in me writing a blog post complaining about women complaining - and that might be the nub of this particular gender disconnect.

What men see as complaining by their partners, women see as a simple observation of facts, kind of like Steve Price or Neil Mitchell do when they rant about stuff most of us don't even care about.

All of which makes me wonder why we don't see more high maintenance women as talk-back radio hosts.

Maybe it's because radio jocks (like a lot of men) see the world in black and white, while women just see shades of grey.

And maybe that's the cause of all this misunderstanding in the first place: one sex is frustratingly colour blind - we just can't agree on which one it is.

WHITSUNDAY WRITERS FESTIVAL
If you're interested in getting away this weekend, getting some sun and getting up close and personal with yours truly, you may consider attending the Whitsunday Writers Festival which runs from July 22-24.

The festival is held on Daydream Island and confirmed speakers are Victoria Cosford, author of Amore et Amoretti, Susan Wyndham, literary editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and author of Life in His Hands, Joanna Savill, well known foodie and founding editor of SBS world news, as well as Walkley Award-winning novelist Malcolm Knox.

Go here for more info.

TWITTER
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