Beneath the water in the heart of the CBD in this Queensland city lurk urban saltwater giants.

And we’re not talking about the massive crocs.

Welcome to the country’s new “Barramundi capital” where some of the world’s best anglers are hitting the water to target a trophy-sized catch.

The not-so-secret fishing spot in the Fitzroy River (Tunuba), in central Queensland, is seeing monster barramundi measuring more than 130cm caught — just a stone’s throw from the city’s iconic pub, the Rockhampton Criterion Hotel.

Michael Powell has been tagging and releasing fish up-and-down the east coast of Australia for 25 years.

The long-time Queensland recreational fisherman said it had been a record start to the barra season.

“If you want the numbers, you go north to the Cape [York] or up into the [Northern] Territory,” he said.

Find your catch in the middle of town

The Fitzroy River is the largest river catchment flowing to the eastern coast of Australia.

Mr Powell said fishers were catching significantly bigger barramundi in parts of the state where commercial net fishing was banned in 2015.

“In the last 12 months, the fellas in the [Fitzroy] river have been catching the one-point-two, one-point-threes, and these are all fish that are caught up in the town reaches,” he said.

Mr Powell, who is president of the longest-running tagging club in Queensland, said the pursuit of landing a trophy fish and “a once-in-a-lifetime catch” had risen in popularity.

“To hook one to start with is amazing and the initial hit is massive and the biggest thing during the whole fight is that you want to land the fish and the power of the fish always dictates that,” he said.

Mr Powell has tagged more than 11,000 fish in the past 25 years and said about 20,000 fish were tagged across Queensland each year.

A barramundi he caught 14 years ago measuring 55cm was recently re-captured in the Fitzroy River at 132cm.

“The data we’ve got from our tagging program [Suntag] shows that we’ve got people right throughout Australia that have come to Rockhampton and caught tagged fish in the Fitzroy in the last number of years,” he said.

“The data that we’re getting now is just magic and the boys that are catching these big fish, they are reporting them, which is great too.”

Australia’s new ‘barra capital’

Rockhampton Regional Council Mayor Tony Williams is an avid fisherman and has fished the Fitzroy River his entire life.

He said the latest prized barramundi to catch the attention of anglers “from far and wide” were the biggest he had seen yet.

“They’re definitely some of the largest and that’s just an indicator of how passionate people are about catching and landing trophy fish,” he said.

“And they come from far and wide to take advantage of that.”

It may be called Australia’s Beef Capital, but since commercial netting was removed from the Fitzroy River in 2015, Mr Williams said it had become a mecca for recreational barramundi fishing.

“To see a horse of a barra that was caught in the town reaches is great not only for the fishermen catching the fish, but for the rest of the community to see what actually can be landed in the CBD,” he said.

“That’s something that not every city can boast about, so we’re not only the beef capital, but the barra capital as well.”