The Reef Addicts crew have ticked off a Top End helifish mission they had been talking about for years, chartering Nautilus Helifish out of Darwin to drop into remote barramundi floodplain country between two active cyclones - and walking back out with a 96 cm barra, a chrome threadfin salmon and a clutch of mid-80s class fish.
The trip came together on short notice. "We've been talking about it for years and then I always come up with an excuse to stop me going," Josh told the camera at the airport. "This time Shauny's booked it in. He said, I'll meet you at the airport." Weather was the elephant on the tarmac. "We've got a cyclone rocking up here and there's a cyclone on in WA and we're going to be sweet right in the middle of it."
Nautilus's helifish trips are designed for floodplain country that is essentially unreachable on foot - the operator brings rods, lures and the local knowledge with them. "On the Helifish trips, they bring a bag of tackle. You don't have to bring anything," Josh said. "They've got rods, tackle, and the fishing spots." The team booked at the front of the run-off, with the Reef Addicts knowing they were potentially early. "We're a little bit early," Josh said. "There's still a lot of water around. So they're going to try to get us onto a few fish if it's possible, but we're going to have to work hard today."
The first helicopter drop fired more or less the moment lures hit the water. Josh hooked what he reckoned was "probably the biggest barra I've ever hooked in my life," dropped it, and immediately swapped it for a thread fin salmon that buried him in the snags. Sean was already onto a barra a few metres away. "That's badass. Good fish," Josh said as the crew reset positions. "It's raining, but the fish are going off."
Lissa landed the trip's headline fish on a slow-rolled soft plastic, fishing a tight little run that kicked into the bank. "Oh, it's a good one," Josh said as the fish surfaced. "That's a cracking fish." The tape laid against the gunwale told the story: "96. 96. Just grabbed a 96 out of the creek."
The second drop produced more mid-80s fish, plus a flyover view of a buffalo herd, and confirmed the operator's spot-by-spot logic. "He's good. Mid 80s," Josh called as Sean's next barra erupted under the rotors. The conditions stayed brutal - cold rain, run-off pressure - and the helifish operator chose to keep the day to two productive locations rather than chase distance. "We battled the weather. We were patient," Josh said in the wrap-up. "Ryan brought us this one last spot, and there was a few big fish caught. Very, very cool just landing the chopper here and then catching fish."
For a one-day trip in the wet-season run-off, the Reef Addicts session lands as a strong endorsement of helicopter access to NT floodplain country. The Reef Addicts confirmed they had locked in a discount with Nautilus and that further trips were already on the agenda. "We're definitely going back," Josh said. "They have heaps of different trips that you can do. You can camp out overnight. You can go to lodges. You can do a lot more."