North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hey Lyndon! Thanks for that...soz I didnt see this post for a while.

Awesome that you get to fish with a legend like Rod Harrison...I grew up on his videos and prob a big reason why I'm in the NT now!

Your comments about buffalo remind me of a night some 15 yrs ago that me and a couple of mates went sown to Shady Barrage. There were lots more crocs in those days (more barra too)...when you shined a light it looked like you were surrounded by a city of red eyes...so you didnt shine the light. We used to take star pickets and bang them into the edge then string chicken wire across to fish behind. It was a moonless night and the headlights were off so as not to spook the baitfish. When out of the darkness we hear a noise. Now a normal noise is okay...sometimes the smaller crocs would get up on the barrage..youd just shoo them off. But this was scarier. It was heavy breathing. "WTF is that" said Pauley in the pitch black. "How should I know?" I said and turned on my headlamp. Bad move. Not twenty feet away from us..on the barrage...was a huge HUGE buffalo with HUGE horns. And we were trapped. The water was too high to get across to the other side....there were crocs everywhere else..and this buffalo was doing that foot dragging thing that says I dont know what you are but Im gonna stomp you. I slowly reached down beside me and picked up the tomahawk that we used to bang in the star pickets. Pauley put said "That will just annoy him" so I put it down. We froze and waited. For twenty odd minutes he watched us...and drank..and watched us some more...then he must have got bored cause he wandered off. I think we were very lucky.

On the way home that trip we had to go slowly through a section of highway where storm water had gone over the road. Half way through with water up to the doors we stopped for a tree that had fallen across the road. I got out to have a look and jumped straight back in. It was a 5m croc. It was sitting on the highway snapping up scores of juvenile barra who were scooting across the road lol! ......always an adventure....

Thats not my scariest Shady Camp story either. The scariest involved a HUGE barking spider!! But I cant talk about it yet..........

Cheers
Mud