Fishing any of Koombooloomba’s hundreds of secluded gullies and backwaters is like spotting sooties in an aquarium.

Koombooloomba dam is the poorer cousin when it comes to publicised impoundments on the Atherton Tablelands. Tinaroo steals the limelight for size and numbers of its barramundi, and rightly so - it has the productivity and stockings to create the monsters often adorning these pages. Surprisingly, however, I find myself fishing Koombooloomba more and more instead of its starry-eyed cousin.

Damming the Tully river, Koombooloomba drowns a pristine rainforest watershed for the benefit of hydro-electric power. This means that the watershed is quite nutrient-poor, the water is crystal clear, there is little (if any) weed growth and the water level in the dam fluctuates markedly.

These conditions conspire to make food a lot less abundant than in Tinaroo. Koombooloomba’s barra are gaunt versions of their cousins only a couple of hours’ drive away and sooties, while sometimes fish-a-cast, often lack in size.
That said, the barra are still there. While not stocked in the numbers of Tinaroo, fish to around a metre are available and provide incredible action in the crystal-clear water.

Fish in the two kilo class and up are usually associated with the largest structure in any given area. This fish came from beside a thousand year old drowned rainforest giant

The sooty grunter are the mainstay of the fishery and Koombooloomba is one of the few non-trout impoundments that offers spectacular sight fishing for cruising fish. The constant drawdowns and subsequent refills by an angry Tully river running a banker mean that from the thick rainforest verges at the waterline, a light coloured background is available for sight fisherman. Ranging form a mid brown to a near black colouration in this impoundment, enable even the most novice sooty-spotter will be casting to sighted fish all day long. Just make sure you wear your favourite polarised sunglasses and a hat

We’ve encountered barra to a metre and sooty grunter to half that in this impoundment, but I’m sure that bigger specimens are lurking. They always are.

Koombooloomba barra aren’t as contentedly fat as their Tinaroo cousins, but offer excellent sport nevertheless.

A fairly reliable tip for targeting larger sized sooties is to fish the largest structure you can find. Drowned rainforest giants with stumps as wide as your boat seem to consistently attract a better class of fish. Fishing sinking lures or flies parallel to the trees in these places virtually guarantees action.

Barra, not strangely, seem to prefer lures that imitate little sooty grunter. It seems that small sooties are one of the major food sources for these fish. Low-light at dawn and dusk increases your chances of an encounter, as does fishing areas where water is running into the dam. The inflow of the Tully is a favourite spot.

Most keen sport anglers cherish sight fishing above all else. If you fall into this category and visit the north without a day or two at Koombooloomba, you’ll kick yourself until the next time you get a chance to visit.









FACT BOX - GETTING THERE.

The turnoff for Koombooloomba dam is at Ravenshoe, on the Kennedy Highway, Atherton Tablelands, west of Innisfail. Follow the signs to the dam and be careful of the last ten kilometres. The road can be badly corrugated and dusty. Boats can be easily launched with two wheel drive vehicles from the ski area, which is on the right before the dam proper. This is the only “cleared” area in the dam. Skiers camp and ski in this arm and aren’t a problem for anglers. The other 95% of the dam is heavily timbered. Navigating through Koombooloomba can be daunting at first. Buying a copy of the 1:100,000 topographic map “Tully” is a great start. Also, while travelling up and down the dam, staying in the old riverbed ensures that there aren’t too many propeller-breaking hardwood trunks to run into. It may take a little longer to get from end to end, but at least you won’t be paddling it.