The signs didn’t look good. I’d never seen such dry country. The Toyota Landcruiser took us across dusty brown hills toward the riverside town of Mannum. Alongside the road ran a 58-inch diameter pipeline, carrying the lifeblood of the river to the thirsty mouths of the city of Adelaide. The combination of drought and extensive water abstraction for agriculture has left the Murray-Darling system with a widely reported environmental crisis. Expecting a stagnant trickle, I was pleasantly surprised to see the river at the same level as my previous visit.
Mannum – on the west bank of the Murray – is a historic port town and a popular tourist destination. Houseboats and shacks are available for hire. A team of two car-ferries makes for easy crossings of the river. Usage is conveniently free of charge.
This was really a picnic outing with rods thrown into the car as an afterthought. I wasn’t expecting any great fishing, but I was content to remove some of the invasive carp which disrupt the native species. I set up my borrowed rod with a simple two-hook 1/0 flapper rig, baited with tiny ‘tiger worms’. A pelican positioned himself on a pole nearby, happy to play his part in the disposal of any captured carp .
I propped up the rod against the railing on a small jetty. The picnic beckoned. Flocks of noisy corellas (a small white cockatoo species) swooped around the gazebo where we’d set up our table. Coots and gulls pecked the ground outside, looking for an opportunity to steal a morsel of our food.
I kept an eye on my line. A couple of times the tip of the rod bent over, and I wound in. Each time the line was snagged irretrievably. The hook and sinker were lost. There were mutterings of “I’ll have to re-stock my tackle box” from the rod’s lender. I re-rigged with a smaller, single size 10 hook, which was better suited to the tiny bait.
A bite-less interval followed. I settled into my lawn chair, sipping a local wine and googling all the fish species of the Murray River that I wasn’t catching.
The rod indicated a bite once more. I wound in to find another snag. I pulled on the line to what was surely breaking point…the snag gave way and the line freed. With a few turns of the handle a plump 30 cm-ish catfish broke the surface and was swung up onto the boards.
I had learnt of the freshwater,or eel-tailed catfish literally minutes before, and was quite surprised to see one due to their supposed rarity. It is compulsory to return this fish unharmed. The locals cautioned me to avoid the sharp dorsal and pectoral fin spines which contain a venom. A few photos and the Silurid was safely back into the muddy river. I was very happy with my first capture of a catfish of any species, and third new species from this trip Down Under.
Total Catch:
- 1 Eel-tailed Catfish
A Fishing Diary 