North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Does anyone have any knowledge of the billabong upstream from KAB ? I stumbled across a mention of it but can't find it again...worth fishing camping there? contact number for someone who'd know?

When I lived there as a kid I used to fish a place called 8 mile hole. It was in the bush between McArthur River mine and the McArthur River station. We used to do good,no very good.

Never anyone living anywhere near it though.

Cheers

cheers mate...on google earth is it upstream from the big rockbar that's upstream from batten point? plenty of tracks heading in there but don't want to go barging in get set up then get turfed out

2 Mile...4 Mile...8 Mile...how many MILES ARE THERE in Darwin?!?!

Just asking...

Hi IIMB,
I fished the 2009 8 Mile Classic (lol) put on by the McArthur River Mine. There were two boats participating in the comp, but then again, there were only two boats really invited. I was invited by MRM and AFANT to help put some tags into barra to monitor the condition of the river upstream of the mine. We had a great time and hooked (and lost) many fish. The hole is about 4km long and extends upstream from the rock bar. I am sure that there is public access to 8 Mile Hole.....a few of the mine workers go out there for a fish but apart from that there is no-one who really gives the area a working over.

In our three hours on the water we managed about 6 fish, three on fly. The biggest of these fish was about 80cm and we missed a heap more about the same size. The river is shallow towards the rock bar and you can see cruisers swimming amongst the snags. Upstream further the river deepens and has some steep banks with plenty of snags. if you get out there, try to fish the snags that appear in the deeper water towards mid stream, they held a majority of the fish.

It is a very rough bank launch suitable only for small tinnies. We were in 12 footers and that was about the biggest I reckon you would get in there. There is a huge population of flying foxes all the way along the river so take a raincoat a peg to block your nose.

It is a worthwhile diversion for a half a day if you are heading to King Ash Bay but NOT worth the trip from Darwin just to fish that billabong. there are plenty more bigger and better fish in the McArthur.

Give us a PM if you need any more info.

Cheers

Warren

That's the spot swoffa as a kid we used to catch heaps of sawshark and Powertail in there too. Used special lures as I recall.

We used to fillet the lot and what we didn't want we used to share with the guys from the stockcamp.

Child hood memories

Cheers