Anywhere you have good water, current and pressure, you get eddies. The main flow runs past a tree trunk, a rock, a snag pile or a point, and behind it the water slows, swirls and doubles back. Bait pushed along by the current drops into that slack water to rest, and barra sit in it to wait for them.
Eddies change throughout the tide. With a bit of observation over a few trips, you can fish them through an entire tide change on the big rivers — moving with the fish rather than waiting for them.
Big and small
Eddies do not have to be small. Some are the size of a footy oval, and barra will move around inside them according to water colour, where the bait is, the water level against the drop-offs and snags, and the current itself. As the run-out builds and eases, the fast water shifts in relation to the structure, and the eddy shifts with it. Use your sounder to find where the fish are sitting before you start casting at them.
At the other end of the scale are the tiny ones. Along a cliffy bank there might be a single rock with an eddy pulling out behind it that is only half a metre long — but that is enough room for two barra. Find five of those along one bank, hook a few, land a few, and you have a tally at the end of the session.
These small eddies are why we say plenty of people drive past fish. It is a lot of work to pull up, get everyone organised and put three good casts into a spot the size of a dinner table, then move a hundred metres and do it again. Most of us head for the easier option of a creek mouth instead. But if there are one or two fish in each of them, working them methodically adds up — and it is some of the most rewarding fishing there is.
Where to sit the boat
The usual approach at a creek mouth is to line up parallel to the main bank and cast across the eddies coming off it. It is efficient, and it is the way to fit the most boats in without anyone getting cranky. It is not necessarily the best way to fish an eddy, though.
If you have the room, sit the boat inside the eddy, right on the current break, and cast up into it. You keep your lure in the eddying zone for longer, you have a bigger range to cast, and the boat sits in slack water so your electric is not working hard. Get a little either side of the break and you will swing and swirl around; sit right on it and you can hold position for a long time on a low setting and save the battery.
On a long straight edge, there is a technique the bream tournament anglers call cranking the wall. The boat runs parallel to the edge, one angler throws a shallow diver or surface lure tight to the bank, the other throws something deeper or heavier wider out, and you work your way along. It covers a lot of country quickly, and when you find a pocket of fish you can stop or pull out and fish back into it.
When the run-out is pushing too hard to hold against with an electric, work backwards with it instead. Start at the top of the run and take a controlled drift on a medium setting, casting into the eddies as you pass. If you find a good one, drop the anchor and let rope out a couple of metres at a time until you have worked it thoroughly.
Timing through the tide
On the big runoff rivers, the peak bites tend to happen at the tide changes — the first push of the incoming and the first of the run-out — and the creek mouths are the place to be for those. The eddies along the edges in between are what make the rest of the tide worth fishing.
- A couple of hours after the top of the tide, and through the main run-out, is the time to work the small eddies along the banks between the creeks. Fish drop back onto the edges as the water drains and sit hard against the trunks and undercut banks.
- As the run-out slows and turns, reposition back at the creek mouths — partly to beat the crowd, and partly because you are better off being there before the bite than arriving as it happens.
- On the incoming, the fish that dropped back into the eddies start leapfrogging their way back up towards the creeks, edge to edge and trunk to trunk. Once the tide gets into its strong middle stage, another little run of fish comes up with it.
If you sit at one creek all day on the big rivers, you get two tide changes and two bite periods, plus the odd fish transiting along the edges in between. A few mullet spooking as they go around a tree trunk is a good sign there is a barra tucked hard up underneath the undercut.
Spring tides and big eddies
On a big spring tide, the larger barra push right up the river on the incoming, and when the tide turns they slide straight onto the edges. A big eddy off a mud bank on a run-out spring is a place to sit hard on the bank and throw the biggest soft plastics you can cast across the current break — usually where there is a bit of a colour change. It is not high-percentage fishing. It is big-fish fishing.
Leaf litter and rubbish
When a river rises, or a big tide lifts the sticks and junk off the banks, it all washes down and bunches up in the eddies and bends. A lot of anglers drive past an eddy full of rubbish thinking nothing will be under it. Barra definitely sit underneath it — it is cover for the bait, cover for the barra, and food for both.
The trick is getting a lure through it. Bass anglers in the States punch weighted jigs and weedless baits through floating mats, and the same idea works here: upgrade the weight on a weedless plastic so it can punch down through the layer, let it head-first dive, and shake it around underneath rather than trying to retrieve it too far. With the rod tip up, the extra weight lets you steer it back through the sticks.
Lures for edges and eddies
Most of the barra we catch on the cast in these spots come on soft plastics, and to a large degree weedless-rigged. A weedless plastic on a worm hook lets you be aggressive with your casting and sink it right down in amongst the timber, and you can change the weight by changing the ball sinker. Once a big single worm hook is in, it rarely comes back out.
Vibes work well too, once you have a feel for where the logs are. And in a bit of dirty water, a noisy diving hard body to rattle the cage in an eddy can be what wakes the fish up — keep the subtle stuff for the really clean, clear shallows where they will be more alert.
Common questions
Where do barramundi sit in an eddy?
Generally in the slack water behind whatever is breaking the current — a tree trunk, a rock, a snag pile or a point — and often hard up against undercut banks. In big eddies they move around according to water colour, bait, water level against the drop-offs and the strength of the current, so use the sounder to find them before you cast.
Where should I position the boat to fish an eddy?
Ideally inside the eddy, right on the current break, casting up into it. Your lure stays in the eddying water longer, you can cover a wider arc, and the boat sits in slack water so the electric motor barely has to work. When the run-out is too strong to hold against, drift backwards with it or anchor and let rope out a little at a time.
When is the best time to fish eddies on the big rivers?
From a couple of hours after the top of the tide through the main run-out, when fish drop back onto the edges. Head back to the creek mouths as the tide slows and turns, then work the eddies again on the incoming as fish leapfrog their way back upstream.
Do barra sit under leaf litter and rubbish in eddies?
Yes. Floating sticks and leaf litter are cover for the bait and the barra alike. Use a heavier weight on a weedless plastic so it punches through the layer, then shake it underneath rather than retrieving it a long way.
Rather learn it on the water?
This is what the safaris are for.
Three to eight days, one guide, and the same water you have been reading about. Everyone fishes with Watty.