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Barramundi

By Robert Fulton

 “Barramundi.”  The fish’s name sounds exotic, and it is, unless you live in Australia.  Since the RiverGeezer (a.k.a. Robert Fulton) has neither the funds nor the time to fly to Melbourne, Australia, I drove to Melbourne, Florida to do my exotic fishing. 

Fishing guide, Capt. Randy Dumars and I had discussed a fly fishing trip in the Indian River—yes, the place where all the citrus fruit comes from—for local summer species: snook, sea trout, bluefish, jack crevalle, snapper, and small grouper.  When we agreed on a date, my brother, Britt, a high school teacher in the Melbourne area, came along with us.

 

Casting around the mouth of the Sebastian Inlet, especially when schools of baitfish (this particular trip they were mostly menhaden) are plentiful, is always productive.  And we caught 6 species of fish. The water on the river side of the inlet is shallow and clear in many places, so we did a lot of “sight-casting” where we saw the fish and cast to it.  A few feet from the boat I saw a dozen mangrove snapper chasing my streamer, when the school split in two as a nice bluefish charged up and clobbered my lure.  If you’ve never caught salt-water fish, there’s a big difference in their strikes and their fighting stamina. The high point was when my brother and Randy both tied into and boated nice snook.

And herein lies the coincidence: our snook is a related species to the Australian barramundi.  Randy mentioned that a friend of his, Byron Hennecy, had some private lakes stocked with barramundi.  And Byron’s lakes are the only place in the US to catch this exciting game fish.  The clincher was when Randy said, “And his place is only a half-hour drive west to Holopaw.

It didn’t take long to make a cell phone call to Byron.  Of course when I mentioned I wrote for the well-known and nationally acclaimed Enquirer-Journal, Byron invited me out to fish his lakes.  And it was an experience.

Imagine 4 stocked lakes with 10 thousand fish that average 6-15 pounds, and you have an idea what the action was like.  Byron harvests the fish for food and sells to high-end restaurants around the country.  He also allows fishermen, for a fee of course, to catch his fish. But this is catch-and-release, only.  And if you can conjure up a largemouth bass on steroids, you have a good idea of what hooking a barramundi is like.

When Randy and I approached the first lake, things looked pretty normal: quiet water disturbed only by the twin water aerators at the far end of the lake.  I didn’t see any surface activity, so I was surprised when Randy suggested I tie on a red-and-white popping bug to the leader of my fly line.  And for the fly fishermen amongst us, I used no tippet, but tied directly to the 10-pound test leader.

 

I made 2 casts, stripping in the line and constantly moving the lure.  Nothing.  The third cast was up against some water plants growing along the edge.  On the first pull of the line the surface exploded where my popper had been.  I pulled back on my 9 foot, 8 weight fly rod and tugged down on the fly line in my left hand.  Big mistake!  The line ripped out of my fingers so fast that they actually burned.  “Whoa…this ain’t no 1 pound trout or 2 pound bass!”  For a couple of minutes I listened to the screech of the drag as line spun off my reel.  When I finally stopped the fish’s first run, it jumped.  I knew it would be a while before this fish was worn out enough to unhook and release it.

And so the afternoon went.  I fished less than 2 hours and caught 8 barramundi.  And I was tired after the fishing.  These fish fight hard and grow big.  There were some as big as 15 pounds in the lakes, though my biggest was 8.  And 8 pounds was plenty for me on a fly rod.

There’s a reason why anglers go to Florida to fish, which was shown by our trip to the Indian River; but now there’s another reason—barramundi fishing.  And about a half-hour from Disneyworld in Orlando.  So, next time the kids want to go to Disneyworld, say, “Sure, as long as I can visit Byron Hennecy’s lakes to fish for barramundi.”

 

If you’re going:

Capt. Randy Dumars:

www.fl-fish-guides.com

cell: 407 908 8498

e-mail: randy@fl-fish-guides.com

Capt. Byron Hennecy:

www.OsceolaOutback.com

407 892 6266

e-mail: Byron@OsceolaOutback.com

 

Questions:   Contact RFULTON@esouthernoutdoors.com

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