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If we knew what we were in for when we fished Lake Kununurra we wouldn't have allocated one solitary day to it. The place has it all - tough fish, a bizarre mix of species, scenery that makes you stop and think about life and in November it's all set in an oppressive but invigorating heat. Picture this. Slimy grey catfish that can grow to around the size of an average samsonfish or amberjack; archerfish, a fish that has the ability to spit its prey out of the air; fresh water long tom which have a beak with more sharp bits in it than a mouth full of broken glass; sooty grunter, the green bream of the north and the occasional fresh water croc and there you have some of the eclectic mix of species that run through this stretch of water.
Lake Kununurra is a stretch of water that runs from Lake Argyle, 50kms to the south, through to the Diversion Dam a few kilometres out of the Kununurra township. We'd been told that the lower reaches of the Lake were difficult to fish for sooties so our plan was to head upstream until the flow of water picked up and we started to notice a significant amount of tree branches hanging over the river. These are two things which indicate prime sooty territory so we didn't stop till we got there.
It takes a good 45 minutes to get that far upstream because not only do you have 25 kilometres of water to cover but there are points along the way that you need to watch out for. Infrequently dotted along the river are buoys to steer clear of as they indicate a large snag or rock that has been dumped in the middle of the river during previous floods. As well as that there are sections of river where the deep water veers quickly to the left or right leaving you in shallow water with a prop full of weed. These areas tended to be further upstream, especially around creek mouths were huge quantities of sand and mud have been pushed out into the river during floods but i f you use a healthy dose of common sense and a pair of quality polaroids to help identify changes in water depth you will minimise any problems through the area.
It was plainly obvious when we finally got into sooty territory. It looked fishy. Trees come down to the water's edge and branches hang out over the water. Some areas have pandanus palms down in the water mixing with dead logs and snags screaming to have lures dropped down into them.
The process from here was simple - we moved upstream, switched off the motor and let the river slowly drift us back to where we'd come from while we flicked lures in to the river bank.
We were both kitted up with pretty light tackle and simply using medium bream gear or something of similar equivalent weight is fine. Light spinning rods like a 6'0" Lemax Black Rose rated 3-5kg and a 2000 sized reel with 8-10lb braid with 15-20lb flurocarbon leader is sufficient and should provide a hassle free fishing experience.
We found sooties and archerfish to be the two main species you can pick up through this section of the river. These fish sit in the water under the tree branches, sometimes visible and sometimes down deeper, waiting for insects and small morsels of food to drop out of the trees. When that happens they're up in a shot nailing whatever it is that has fallen into the water - and when that's your lure and not a bug then the fun starts.
Both fish hit and fight hard. So many times we would drop our lure into the water and two or three dark shapes would suddently appear in teh water like thugs coming out of the shaddows in a dark alley.
Sometimes they wouldn't attack straight away, it was like they were waiting to see some movement to make sure what had just dropped into the water was an insect and not a branch, but it only toook one or two small twitches of the lure and they would smash it like they hadn't eaten for a month. Other times they wouldn't care. the lure would drop into the water and a brown bullet would come up out of the depths and ravage it in an explosion of activity or would chase it all the way back to teh boat. When this happened it's the boat that erupts into chaos - 'hit it, hit it... come on, get it' one of us would be screaming as the lure ducked and weaved through the water with a fish hot on its tail.
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