First Barramundi In 2014.

Hi there,

I finally got my first Barramundi for the year 2014.
Not a big one, but a fish is a fish, as they say. And to be honest, I was still very happy with that, as I had nearly forgotten what it feels like.

Jim had offered to take me on his boat, to some of his secret spots, I was hopping to finally break the drought and catch a Barra.

We launched at around 10:00 in the morning, a big change from all the trips that require a 4:00am start.
And just after the launch, we sailed along the mangrove, toward our destination.

Along the mangrove in the morning light.

But once arrived there, we didn't catch a single fish. We did saw a few Barramundi and sight casted in their direction, but without success. At one stage Jim got a good hit, but the hit didn't transform in a hooked fish. Yet navigating in a tight creek, with mangrove on bot side, was really pleasant, something that I had missed.
I realised very quickly, due to the amount of times my lure ended in the trees above the banks. Instead of the water where the fish are supposed to live, that I had become a bit rusty, this was clear.

So we decided to try our luck, at another spot. On our way there, we trolled our lures, in the hope to snag a stray Barra. I had a Gold Bomber on, and was just thinking that I had never done any good with them. When I got a smallish hit on the line, and started to get excited. I reeled in  the line, sure that I finally had a baby Barramundi and the end of it. Alas no, it wasn't a Barramundi, it was a Pufferfish.
And worse of all, it hadn't try to have a go at my lure, no, the poor little thing had been hooked, near its back side…
I can't find the picture anymore, or I would have shown it to you, honest.

Then we tried to cast at some snag along the bank of another creek, and Jim landed a Cod, but it was no monster:

First cod of the day.

This cod was taken on a Reidy's B52's, in a colour that I had never seen, not even on the Reidy's catalogue. But obviously, that was a good colour, as in no time, Jim got a second little Cod.

Two in a row.

Seeing that I decided to change my lure for a smaller one, in white.

And in no time, I too was on the Cod board, with an even smaller model:

My baby Cod.

All these little Cod were returned alive to the water, as they definitively needed to grow a bit more before anything else.

Oh, and this photo is also the why I should not try to bear the beard…

The water clarity was pretty good, and we saw a very little snake swim in the water, Jim put his lure near it to give you an idea of size:

Snake (Hydrelaps darwiniensis) and fishing lure.

My friend the snake specialist, B. Schembri, has since told me that this little guy is a black-ringed mangrove sea snake (Hydrelaps darwiniensis) and that they get to about 50 cm long. 

(19.685039 inches).

With such stellar results, we decided to make our way back, and maybe stop at a last creek on the way, depending of the tide.

On our arrival to the last creek, the water looked good, clear, with some snag and some colour change in places.

In my second or third cast, I got a hit and missed it before seeing it, but to me, that felt like a Barramundi, no doubts about it. I said to Jim: I got a hit! Just there, close to the boat, just in this spot!

So Jim, cast roughly in the same direction, and got nailed by a feisty little Barra! I asked if he needed the net, he said that no, this was just a rat and he would deal with it by himself. 

Well, he didn't really had the time to, as just at the boat, the Barramundi spat the lure and swam away without asking any question.

Ha!

Anyway, we were now in the right spot, for sure we were going to catch some nice Barramundi.

Hope is a beautiful thing, isn't it?

Well Jim got another hit, from what he believed was a better fish. We then went as far as we could in the creek, keeping in mind that with the tide going down, we should be carful not to get stuck.

We saw Mullets and bait, but no Barramundi.

On getting out of there, we tried again where we got the three hits before. Jim casting at the front of the boat, and me at the back. When I finally got a hit that stay connected.

I quickly realised that this fish would not beat any records, but I was still surprised by its energy.

Jim got the net ready, and my little fish made another small run, he really didn't like the look of the net. Or maybe my attempt at growing a beard…

But in the end, in the net it went, and I finally had my first Barramundi for 2014.

First Barramundi of the year.

Not a fish of gigantic proportions, but still enough to make me smile. But being an undersize model, I gently dropped it back in the water, for him to grow big and fat, and hopefully we will met again in the future.

This had been a very pleasant half a day trip, and got me my first fish of the year.

Thanks Jim for inviting me on your boat.

And yes, once again I didn't bring back any fish home, and my little one said to me in a sad voice: "Daddy, you never bring any fish home any more, for me to eat…"

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2013 Top End Barra Series Round 1.

Hi there,

Not long ago was the first round of the 2013 Top End Barra Series, and all the action took place at Shady Camp. For the people who don't know Shady Camp, this is like a big fish supermarket, a destination where people goes to break records, or at least try to catch their first Barramundi over the meter mark.
So let's cut to it straight away, I did not catch a meter Barramundi yet, but 8 of them were caught during the first round of the competition. This shows the potential of the place.

For this round I had found a spot on Nomad's boat, thank you Nomad.
We drove early, to be at the Shady Barrage at the same time than the tide, so we could launch, and launch we did. As we were zooming down the river, we heard a strange noise coming from the outboard at the back, as we worryingly turned around to have a look at it, we immediately understood...
The noise was not coming from the outboard, but from a small chopper that was following us at close quarter.

Straight on our tail.

This was in fact one of the choppers from Helifish, a company that photographed most of the competitors during the first day of the round 1. Personally, I have never used their service yet, but if I was to suddenly become rich, that is certainly one of the thing that I would do.

As we arrived at the mouth of Sampan, we were greeted with the view of about 60 boat already trolling the area. Despit the big number of boats fishing the spot during the whole weekend, everybody seemed in a very good mood and well mannered, which is certainly due to the very relaxed and fun spirited attitude that most competitor show in the Top End Barra Series.

And not long after we started to get in the line and had our lures in the water, that Nomad was on, to a nice sized Threadfin Salmon of 85cm (33.464567 inch).

First Threadfin of the weekend.

Just after getting this fish in the esky, Nomad bumped the brag mat in the drink... 

We had just started fishing in the competition, and we lost our fish measuring device... 

Lucky, he had a spare one tucked in the boat, so we were able to continue.

Yes this was going to be the weekend of the Threadfins. Good mates Seano and Sheeby told me that in the first day they had caught eighteen of them! And many of them over the meter mark...

I had never had a big Thready on the lure yet, and could not wait to hook on one, even if this was a Barramundi competition.

No long after that we saw Rosco, who gifted me a new lure for my little collection.

I am not sure if the lure is a KO Lures, one or not, I will have to ask him the next time that we catch up.

Anyway, Thanks for the lure Rosco, it is a nice one.

We saw Doors Off and Collen both catch a meter Barra. But it had seriously started to slow down for us, and I was starting to wonder if ever I was going to catch a fish...

And also if we were going to be able to dodge the storms that were all around us.

Storm over the mouth of Sampan Creek.

I could see people catching fish all around us, but I could not hook on anything.

We did get a few hit, but couldn't stay connected to any of them...

I had not been able to reel in a single good fish in a long time, and was considering that maybe, I had lost all of my fishing luck, the mojo must have drown...

When I finally got a jolt in the line, and I was on!

Just as we arrived at the end of the troll run, and were about to turn, and my Big B52's in the Guns N Roses had been nailed. At the end of it was fighting a lovely Threadfin Salmon.

I didn't know if I should have been disappointed as this was not a Barramundi, or if I should get excited to get my first Thready on a lure. In the end, a fish is a fish, and I was rather happy with that.

It was just shorter than the one previously caught by Nomad. 84cm (33.070866 inch), but was still so far my first and thus biggest one.

My first ever Threadfin Salmon on a lure.

I was very happy with that, and the spirit shoot back right up.

And we started trolling again.

Then we started to cast at some snag near the creek's mouth, and there we saw another competitor boat a Barramundi.

Get the net ready!

And yes in the background is the early beginning of the round raft up.

The Top End Barra Series raft up have become a bit of a tradition, where a few boat, sometimes over a dozen, raft up together and start to party.

This is generally not conducive to very good fishing, but definitely a very good spot for some great laughs. And a good indicator that there is still a lot of participant in this competition who are there more for the good times than for the prizes.

Then it was the evening, the storms had retired for a little while, and the place become illuminated by one of these end of wet season sunset that makes the Top End a magical place. As most boat were heading to the shelter of the creeks for the night.

Boat heading for the creek.

Fishing in the sunset.

We did the same, went in a nice little creek, dropped the anchor, and had dinner.

We then put some fizzers at the end of our line and started to wait for the tide and the boofs...

But the early start and a fulld day fishing got the best of us, and we just fall asleep...

I woke up at around three in the morning, to the sound of a boof not far from the boat.

In no time I was up, and casting all around.

For nothing else that one boof on my fizzer, and it didn't hookup.

As the day was starting to shine, the rain came with it.

But it did not last long, and as we were then well awake, we started to troll again.

And Nomad, asked me to steer the boat, while he would cast a fizzer at all the fish that we could see surface feeding. Well for the people who know me, steering a boat, is not a thing in which I am highly qualified yet, but at the Barramundi trolling speed, I was able to do it. 

Then we saw more and more of the fish feeding on the surface, so with Nomad at the front on the casting desk, I tried to get as close as I could and put in neutral, still twitching my rod with a lure at the back... And Bang I was on! As I was trolling with the spin outfit instead of the bait caster, we heard the ratchet going on, a sound I always like, at any time of the day. 

As I turned around to look in the direction of my fleeing line, I saw a nice pice of chrome jumping out of the water. It had fully jumped and I was able to see its entire body, there was no doubt, this was a Barramundi, and it was of legal size.

I was now trying to stay as calm as I could, but was worried that the fish would cut the line on the prop of the outboard, but Nomad told me to not worry about it to just worry about the fish and to reel it in. Which I did.

This was no monster fish, but this was my best Barramundi on a spin reel. It went 81cm (31.889764 inch).

Barramundi from the mouth of Sampan.

As you can see in the photo, it was early in the day, and I was still wearing a jacket. You know that you have acclimated to the tropics, when you need a jacket in the morning...

Just there, I told myself that this was going to be a day that I would remember.

And I am sure that I will remember this day, for some peculiar reason...

I then decided to change my fishing rod, and to get back to a bait caster, but to continue to use the same lure that had caught me my Barra, a Big B52's in the Strawberry and Cream colour. This lure was going to hook on something even bigger a bit latter on...

Then it was Nomad turn to hook and boat a fish. It was a nice Blue Salmon.

Nomad's Blue Salmon.

It was still early in the day, when my rod buckled down and I was on again!

Very quickly I knew that this was another Threadfin Salmon, but I also knew that it was bigger than the one I got the previous day.

I was going to upgrade my personal best Thready on a lure, if i could boat this one.

And boated the fish we did.

As the fish was still in the net, Nomad was telling me to be careful, that these fish sometime go mad in the boat, and that we didn't want any problem with the hooks. 

Well you guessed it, not long after he finished to say so, someone got hooked...

It wasn't me, it was him, as he was trying to get the hook out of the fish mouth. He was using a plier, but the fish had suddenly jumped all over the place, and by the scream and expletive coming from Nomad, I knew something was wrong.

One of the treble point was now firmly stuck in one of his finger, way pass the barb.

We had to get the other treble out of the fish, and start to think of what we could do.

Nomad tried to pull it out wit a piece of leader, but it didn't work.

Frenchy from the Tackle Box rafted up to us, and got his first aid kit out. And a little plier that he had for over twenty years, which was absolutely perfect to cut the hook. 

Then Seano and Sheeby rafted up on the other side of the boat and came to give us a hand. Seano tried to pull the hook out with Nomad saying: If you hurt me, I will punch you and send you swimming!

So Seano did what any one would have do in this situation, he took the biggest filleting knife he could find, and said with a big smile, no worries, I will just do a little cut on the top of your finger. 

After sharpening it with a sharpening stone, he put the blade on Nomad's finger and said, ok, at three I will make a little incision, and we will be able to pull that out. He started counting aloud, but It seemed to me, that he used the knife at two and not at three. 

Any way, I don't know if that because he had the knife, but Nomad did not punch him, and Seano was able to pull the remain of the hook out trhought the little cut. 

Frenchy passed on an antiseptic liquid from his first aid kit, and some band aid.

We were ready to roll. 

Ho and what did the fish that was the cause of all of this, looked like?

Here is it:

Nice and fat Threadfin.

So yes, at 86 cm (33.858268 inch) at the fork this was a bigger Salmon that my previous one, but I still think that the biggest thing that my new lure had caught was Nomad...

And we did joke about it later on.

Nomad who till then had caught all of his fish on a Gold Bomber, decided to change lure, and put a small Taipan from Reidy's, grey with red strips. And that was going to prove a if not an unusual lure for Shady Camp, a very successful one.

On the first troll run he hooked on what we though might be a monster, but it was just a nice Catfish. A nice one, but not a giant one.

A nice Catfish.

Being hooked behind the head, it was impossible to turn the fish, and it did give a very good account of himself. We really believed for a moment that Nomad had hooked on a Jewfish. 

So the fish went back in the water, and the lure too.

It didn't take long, and this time it was a monster that took a liking to this little lure. 

It hit and run, at great speed. Just one very fast and long run. I was trying to reel in my own lure as quick as I could and was screaming: Thumbs it he's going to spool you!

And before I even got my lure back to the boat it was all over...

This big fish who took the small lure, had made a long run which ended in a little Ping! and there was no line left on Nomad's reel, he had effectively been spool in no time. 

This one must have been a big Jewfish, or a monster Barramundi. We will never know, but that was fast and strong, and very impressive.

So we went on a long troll so Nomad could get another eeel and rod ready, all the will I was swimming  one of my lures at the back. And fishermen being fishermen, we could not help discussing what the fish that took all of Nomad's line could have been. It was the first time that I saw a reel being spooled under my eyes, and I had some trouble to come to term with the speed at with it happened.

As we were talking about that, Nomad asked me why I hadn't caught another fish yet?

And as I was trying to make some excuse like I was just trying to be nice to him, and not catch a fish just after he lost one... Wham Bam! I was on again.

In very shallow water, and it was heavy as, and I had some problems to reel it in.

No jump, it wasn't a Barramundi, it didn't fight like a Salmon, and wasn't as fast as a Jewfish, what could it be? A big Grouper maybe? 

Well no, it wasn't any of these, it was a small stingray, which after the hook in the finger incident, made me think what will happen now?

So when it was at the boat, Nomad netted it:

Stingray in the net.

As we looked at it wondering what to do now, we realised that her barb was stuck in the net:

Stingray barb in the net.

This made things much easier for us, and I got my lure back.

This was going to be my last fish for the weekend, and all of my fishes had been caught on Big B52's, so I think that this will be my go to lure the next time that I will go to Shady Camp.

After that we trolled a bit more, but started to get worried about the tide, and if there would be enough water to get out at the barrage. So we decided to head back. And it was a wise move, as we arrived in very shallow water, and nearly got stuck on the rock, before being stuck on the mud at the ramp.

Thankfully there were other boats and some friends there, and with every bodies helping every bodies, we were able to get the boat on the trailer. Even if in the process both Nomad and I lost our shoes to the mud of the ramp.

We were then back on the road, destination home, when Nomad said: Have you seen the buffalo?

To which I replied that no, I hadn't, so he mad a u-turn, so I could get a photo of them.

We couldn't find them back and just as I was starting to tease him about him having some water buffalo vision, we saw them:

Water buffalo on the track.

And just then a car with some tourist from down south stopped to have a look at them too...

And they got out of their car and started to walk towards the buffalos. We shouted at them not to do that that they could be very dangerous animals, but they didn't really seemed to trust us, and continued to walk in the buffalo's direction, camera in hand.

Luckily for them, the buffalo ran away.

And then it was the road, with more talks about fishing and the ones that got away, and finally home.

It really was a great weekend, and I was very happy to have been invited on a boat once again, and to have been part of the first round of the 2013 Top End Barra Series.

Thank you Nomad.

Score wise, I ended up in place 22, out of about 80 competitors. I will need to lift up my game in the next rounds if I want to do any good.

Yes, poor old Nomad, in this round, lost a brag mat, got a hook in one of his fingers, got spool by a great fish, and lost his shoes in the mud... A hard weekend by all standards. 

But hey, It could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2012 Top End Barra Series Round 2.

Hi there,

Last weekend was the second round of the 2012 Top End Barra Series, and the location was Shady Camp.
Everybody in the comp had some big expectations, as the area is known for it's very large Barramundi.
And yes I did get a Shady metery, but I will tell you  more about it in due course...

Once again for this event I teamed up with Arrabmundi, that was as usual a productive association and full of good laughs. We decided to leave Darwin on Friday night, as to be on the water very early on Saturday, to make the most of the two days of fishing allowed for the competition. Arrabmundi had arranged for us to be in an accommodation literally 300 meters from the boat ramp.
Which was great because the area is renowned for the huge amount of mosquitos and other bugs that make camping a proverbial pain.
To give you an idea, in the evening once we were in the safety of our accommodation the sound of the bugs bumping on the windows to try to get in and feast on our blood, sounded like if it was raining outside...

Any way, we were on the ramp, ready to launch at around 5:45 am on Saturday, and started to navigate the river with the help of a big spotter light, in which we could see the gleaming eyes of the river's resident crocodiles.

We arrived to our first fishing destination just before day break, the water temperature was around 32 C (89.6 Fahrenheit). This was the mouth of Sampan Creek and already a few boats were trolling the waters. So we started too.
And very quickly Arrabmundi was on:

Hooked at daybreak.

We got excited, but it was just a Caty, not a huge but still a nice Catfish:

First fish of the day.

A bit disappointed we started trolling again, trying to see the positive in it, and it was that the lure worked...

Not long after I was on, and yes it was on a Barramundi, the first one of the weekend:

First Barramundi of the weekend.

At 73 cm (28.740157 inches) it was in my books, not a bad fish to start the weekend with.

In fact it was going to be one of my five top fishes for the round 2. This fish I kept for our dinner in the evening.

I was happy to get the monkey off my back, now it was Arrabmundi turn to get on the board, and he did it in no time:

Arrabmundi first Barramundi of round 2.

This was a better fish than mine, it measured 81cm (31.889764 inches).

It was a nice and healthy fish, we let it go back in the water.

Most boats around us were getting some fishes, but despite having some very good hits on our lines, we could not boat another fish for the morning...

So at around 12:00 pm, we went just inside the mouth of Sampan Creek and had a little chat with Dingo and Muntzy, they were having lunch. 

We left them and started trolling just there and then, when I got a good whack on the line and was on again.

But I lost the fish not very far from the boat. The boat behind us was on too and netted their fish, so we decided to give the area a little work out and started trolling it in earnest.

This was a very wise move and we both got our five fish required to get a good score in the comp in the first afternoon. These weren't big fish, but still it was good, and step by step we started to upgrade our bags of fish.

The fishing was hot and we got our first double hook up of the weekend:

Double hook up result.

This was the first time that I was on a boat and that we had a Barramundi double hook.

And not long after that we got a Barra that I don't know how, but it  had managed to get hooked on both our lures:

Whose fish is that?

Even Dingo and Muntzy started to get on the fish.

We had been fishing the place for a few hours, getting fishes in the 70's cm when a boat came out of nowhere, cruised through and got a nice fish in the 90's on their first troll...

Just after that another boat arrived did their first troll and got a metery, the type of fish that we were all after. The prised Barramundi of one meter or more...

We did try a bit more but could not get such nice fish.

So Arrabmundi said to put some very shallow lures and that we would troll just on the edge of the mangrove to see if any fish were hiding in there.

This resulted in our second double hook up of the weekend.

And my fish had been caught on one of the Gone Fishin' lure:

Fish on the Gone Fishn' lure.

Not long after that we decided to call it a day, and to go back to the ramp and to the accommodation before night time.

And guess what we had for dinner in the evening? 

Smoked Barramundi.

I had taken with us my small smoker, so we could have some fresh, smoked Barramundi for dinner. We had also taken some pasta with us, just in case we didn't catch any fish...

But to me, this was much better than pasta!

After that we went to bed early as we had planed to get up very early for the second day of fishing. We wanted to be on the water one hour earlier than the previous day, and this is what we did.

When we arrived at the ramp on Sunday morning not a single other boat was in the line, so we launched in a record time.

The brief for the day was to start like on the day before by trolling the mouth of Sampan, and then to head for the inside of the Creek.

So we started trolling, and I was wondering if the fishes could  see my lure in the dark...

I was suddenly sure that they could, because my rod started pulling in my hands and line was peeling off my reel.

Yes we thought, the Barra are on!

Well, after a bit of a fight I got a small catfish near the boat, as a repetition of the Saturday, we were starting the day with a Caty...

The positive in that?

I then knew that the fish would be able to see my lure...

And I did hook a Barramundi not long after that.

And then another one :

Morning Barramundi.

At 78cm (30.708661 inches), this was going to be my second best Barramundi of the weekend.

Arrabmundi was now due for a fish, and he did deliver, we had just started to troll, my lure was not yet being pulled by the boat that he was already on to a fish that on the first jump seemed to be a nice one:

Best Barramundi of the weekend.

This Barramundi was 83cm (32.677165 inches), and was going to be the best fish to come aboard our boat for the weekend.

When it was close to the boat I started to get ready and to lower the net in the water, when the Barra jumped clear of the water and fell back with a big thump straight on my hand.

In retrospect, I was very lucky that none of the three trebles on the lure got stuck in my hand, as this could have been pretty nasty.

I followed with a massive catfish, which bent the hooks of my lure.

Then a smaller but still pleasant 74cm Barramundi. (29.133858 inches).

Salt water Barramundi.

The surprising thing with this Barra, was that he destroyed a split ring on my lure, and pulled it away.

This being a good lure, I took the split ring and the hook from another lure and putted them on it...

Not long after while we were trolling I said: I am snagged! Because my lure had totally stopped in its track, and the line was not peeling from the reel. It was more like a big dead weight at the end of my line...

Then, Bang! Bang! Two big sharp and very close to each other jerk on the line, and it went limp. The braid had be broken before I could even realise that I had in fact hooked a very big fish. Still I have no clues of what it was, but it certainly was my biggest fish of the weekend.

Not long after that we went back in the inside of the Creek to see if we could repeat the session that we had on the prior day.

And what a session we got!

It started slow but study, to become fast and furious.

At one stage I even managed to hook a fish at the start of the short troll, get it to the boat, unhook it while the boat was still on the troll and throw the lure back in the water, to catch another Barramundi before the end of the troll run.

This was my best Barramundi fishing session ever. 

We managed to boat over twenty Barramundi in the course of the weekend. 

I then picked up a 71cm Barramundi. (27.952756 inches).

Happy fisherman.

And then I got a massive hit, aggressive and violent, which took me by surprise, as it made some very fast runs and fought like no Barra had this weekend.

I started to get all nervous thinking that this was it, I had a big Shady Camp's lady on the line. I kept saying: This one has some weight to it!

And when finally netted, in was a 69cm Barramundi... (27.165354 inches).

This one fought well above its weight and really tricked me into thinking that it was a huge one...

We were starting to say that we would have to go soon, that we still had a long road to get home, when I finally got my best fish of the weekend:

My best fish of the weekend.

At 83cm (32.677165 inches) this fish made me really happy.

And of course, after that we had to do a few more trolling runs.

What was the lure that caught me all these fish inside the creek mouth?

It was a Classic F18 in the Elton on Chrome colour.

I had never really fished with these lures, but Rossco had told me that this was one of his favourite lure, so I wanted to try one...

I liked it, thanks Rossco!

Outside of the Sampan Creek mouth, the only lures that worked for us were the Big B52's and the Big Arse B52's from Reidy's.

So my five best fish for the weekend were: 71- 73 - 74 - 78 - 83.

How did I ended up with these?

I came in fifth place, which was a very good surprise for me, as I was just hopping to be in the top 20.

And on the overall score board, I am now in 7th position, with four more rounds to go.

I want to thanks once again, Arrabmundi for taking me aboard his boat and allowing me to fish in some fantastic places. And to Dingo, Bandit and Rossco for organising such a friendly and social fishing competition.

Ho, and what about my Metery?

I did get a Shady Metery, but it was a Caty...

So no Barramundi over the magic meter mark for me yet.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Upstream Of Goat Island.

Hi there,

It was 9:00am when I boarded the car of Arrabmundi, and we took off in direction of the Adelaide River. The plan for the day was to go and fish upstream of Goat Island, trolling deep divers over the rock bars.
The previous week a thread by Kai on the FFF forum, made Arrabmundi think that this could be a good thing to do. We were full of hope, and were not going to be disappointed.

We arrived at the boat ramp to be greeted by an almost empty car park, every body must have been at Shady Camp.
The boat was quickly launched and we started to flick at divers little creeks on our way to Goat Island, where we had planned to stop for lunch. Something I was looking forward to, has I had read and heard a lot about it but was yet to visit.
We did saw a few nice colours change but very little amount of bait in the water.
In one of these short stop, casting a B52's I got the first fish of the day. A very young and rather small Barramundi:

Autoportrait with a Barramundi.

This fish was only definitively undersize to be legal, so in the water it went back.

A fish this early is good augur I thought, but that was it for the morning...

We didn't raise another scale even at some spot that had been so productive a few weeks ago.

Had we made the right choice to come fishing this area at this time of the year?

The longest thing that my lure snagged this morning, was an eel... 

And it had wrapped itself around my line, the slimy thing...

It provided for some interesting times...

We passed a crocodile nest, sitting on the river bank, with the tracks of Moma Croc sliding towards the water just in front of it.

The place could have been fishy, but we didn't stay there for very long.

The Crocodile nest.

With Moma's tracks.

Coming from Europe, as a kid this is the kind of things, I would  have never imagined being able to see. We are very lucky in Darwin to be able to see such things not far from our homes. I do hope that my child will still be able to see them as a grown up.

Not long after Arrabmundi spotted a lure stuck in a snag, just out of the water.

It was a The Judge by Reidy's, he din't want it and gave it to me.

I was very happy, as it is one of my favourite +10 lure.

Thanks Arrabmundi.

Well we hadn't had lunch yet, and I was still full of optimism and confident in the ability  of my skipper to find some fish.

And talking about lunch, it was about time to go and get a little something to chew.

Kai had passed us on the river a bit before, and we had told him that we were coming and what we wanted to eat.

But as we arrived on the Island, he was still filling in the fridges that had been depleted the preceding night by some footy guys.

So we decided to go and have a look just upstream, at the places that we were going to fish in the afternoon while the burgers were being cooked.

That was just a very quick reconnaissance, and back we were, for a chitchat with Kai, and to eat the famous burger's from Goat Island. 

I have to say that this must have been the first time since I fish this part of the world, that I was able to sit at a table, in a fresh place, to eat a homemade burger, that tasted like a burger, while drinking a soft drink directly out of the fridge, and this is the kind of luxury I could quickly become accustomed to.

After that I felt refreshed and ready to engage with some mighty Barramundi.

And they were ready for us...

But before it all started in earnest we saw Moz, who was fishing solo on his boat.

Had a little chat with him and he had I think a 66cm Barra in the esky, but was finding the going a bit slow. 

At this point he was going a bit further upstream, while we were going back downstream.

We swapped information and parted route.

It started with Arrabmundi getting a 54cm (21.259843 inch) Barramundi...

1cm (0.39370079 inch) too short to be of legal size!

Arrabmundi first fish of the day.

We are not criminals, so this one was put back in the drink, to grow a bit more till our next encounter.

We had quite a few hits on a very short troll, with Arrabmundi getting the bigest ones. Some of them nearly ripping the fishing rod out of his hands.

But we couldn't stay connected to anything...

Then I got a good hit, followed immediately by another one, then the rod started to take a serious bent...

Arrabmundi who had seen all this happening said: your on!

Almost dejected my response was: No, I just got two good hits in rapid succession, and now I am snagged on the bottom...

So he put the boat in neutral so we could drift back over the snag and he started to get his own lure back. All the while I was just merely getting my line back on the reel thinking how unfair it was that I missed these two hit just to get my lure stuck at the bottom of the river. 

Then the snag emerged of the river full of life, trashing around and shaking it's head with my lure in it's mouth: Barramundi!

That how your pulse rate triple in less than a second and you start to think that you have just done everything needed to loose this fish, so there is no way you are going to boat it.

I tried as much as I could to stay cool, like if I knew all along, but the laughs of my skipper left me in no doubt that I had been an absolute goose.

Still he did  manoeuvre the boat to the centre of the river to give me a chance at it.

Every time that this fish jumped I could see my small lure a Poltergeist by Halco RMG in the Oz  Frog colour, deep in his open mouth. 

In the end the "snag" was netted, after a few runs and a few jumps. It was in fact the only Barramundi of the day, that would produce a few jumps, all the other that were to come, fought mostly deep down in the water column. 

This was to be a 73cm (28.740157 inch) Barramundi and was going to be my best of the day.

My first legal of the day.

Lure deep inside the Barramundi mouth.

I was so happy to have this fish, which I should have lost many times over. 

I now had caught a feed of fresh fish.

Not long after, I got another fish on the same lure, but it was too small and was released to grow bigger.

And then I had another very big hit again on the same lure.

This time there was no pretending, I knew from the start that I was on, and that bit was a good fish.

It was peeling line, going from one side to the other. Not giving me much time to think of a plan, he was in charge.

Once again the boat was placed in the middle of the river, and from there the fight had a chance to turn in my favour, as by doing this we had been able to get this fish away from the snags.

But even once I started to see some of my leader near the boat, it went again for a deep dive straight down. It took a lot of persuasion to get it back boat side, the leader came back in sight, this was starting to be tense and sweet, when the line went slack, and my lure floated back to the surface all alone... With one hook bent... 

Ho, how I could have then cursed the people who build fishing lures with hooks that bent... 

The positive in this was that it had been a very exciting struggle, and that this kind of outcome quickly puts you back in check and reminds you who can be the other player.

Yet... I would have loved to get this fish, that I didn't even got to see...

And then it was Arrabmundi hour of glory, with a brilliant trifecta, with a 74, 76 and 79cm (29.133858, 29.92126 and 31.102362 inch) Barramundi.

Here they are in order of arrivals:

74 cm of silver Barramundi.

76 cm of Lates calcarifer.

And 79cm of joy.

In between Arrabmundi very nice session we saw Moz again, coming down our way.

He hadn't found any fish upstream, so Arrabmundi invited him to troll along the same run than us as it seemed to be productive.

He did hook on a beautiful fish, but this one was not to be caught and buried Moz in the snags.

Has for Arrabmundi 79 cm Barramundi, it was released, with the hope that we could one day catch it again...

But not long after being released, this very fish was attacked by a shark and lost it's tail in the encounter.

Moz was then able to net it.

Here is an image of it:

Moz and the tailless Barramundi.

I did catch another keeper, a fish of 70cm (27.559055 inch) on the dot.

I kept it for my mother in law, as I am among the few blessed men to have a very good mother in law. 

This fish should keep me in the good books for a little longer.

Last fish of the day.

This was the last fish coming aboard for the day.

A day that will stay a great day  of fishing in my memories.

We did loose a few good fish, but got some nice ones too. It easily made up for the ones that got away.

Thanks again Arrabmundi for the invitation.

Yes loosing a good fish because of a weak hook was frustrating...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Top End Barra Series Round 5: The Grand Finale.

Hi there,

Yes this was going to be the last round of the 2011 inaugural Top End Barra Series, the Grand Finale. This round was going to crown the champion.

For my skipper Arrabmundi, and I, it started with an early drive on Saturday morning, full of hope and expectation.

We had seen all the post on the FFF forum, from the previous weeks, about our destination.

And even if none of us had fished the Adelaide River Mouth before, we had all the marks that Cuddelscooper a respected member of this forum had given us, and they were going to be good. 

Nearly all our fishes came from his marks.

But once on the dirt road on our way to the boat ramp, at around 5:00am, the storm begin in earnest, and the rain was going to change a lot of things. 

Not just for us, but for all the competitors in the Round 5 of the Top End Barra Series.

During the peak of the storm, we could not see much further than the bonnet of the car, and we were not sitting in the back of a stretched limo.

But by the time we arrived at Salt Water Arms boat ramp, the storm had mostly passed and was just a drizzle of fine rain on the way out.

At the ramp we saw Dingo, Muntzy, Tissy and a few other, all eager to get on the water and start to search for the big mama Barra.

As soon as we were on the river we looked at the stormy cloud above us, and then, just hoped for the best...

The faraway rainbow was a good sign.

We went through the Narrows, flicking here and there, then direction Wilshire #2, but when we arrived there, and were not too sure of where we were at, we asked to another boat who told us we were in number 3...

So back toward number 2 and there we trolled a bit, flicked a bit and started to search for the elusive Barra.

And we did not find any...

Our answer to that was that this was the rain's fault, it had muddied the water and shut down the fishes.

So we then went to number one for about the same result, but had the opportunity to see 2Rods and one of his sons, fishing at the time, for about the same result as us: Zip, Niet, Nada, Nothing... 

Except a little rat that Arrabmundi caught, and put back in the water for it to grow a lot more.

So we moved toward the narrow again, and started to cast our lure in some small creeks, and along the mangroves.

Mangrove's roots

It is funny how the roots of the mangroves always remind me of the architecture of Gothic cathedrals. Dr. Richard Willan once told me this and since, I am always reminded of Notre Dame in Paris when I see the mangroves.

Any way, as we were there trying, we started to see one boof on our left, so we casted to it.

For nothing...

Then a boof on our right, so we casted toward where it happened.

For nothing...

And this is about then that Moz and Sheeby arrived and we started to have a little chat with them, when a splash in the water on the side of their boat made us all look in the same direction.

Sheeby started to cast a few times to it.

For nothing...

And then stopped. 

So I started to cast a big B52's from Reidy's, a few time roughly where the splash had been.

And then I saw a big swirl in the water not far behind my lure, which I quickly told to Arrabmundi, who replied: "well cast in the same spot again then".

This I did, for nothing on the first cast.

For nothing on the second cast.

For nothing for a few more cast.

And I was starting to think that I was wasting some precious fishing time there when something fast and silvery slashed the water at great speed, and reminded me of a mack strike.

Immediate tension in the line, a jump and yes it is a Barra!

And it definitively looks like it is a legal one...

First he start to run along the mangrove on my right, but quickly turn and go for some snag formed by a fallen tree on my left like if he didn't mind the drag of my small reel.

Two thumb on the spool and a sharp jerk of the rod to try to turn it, and success!

It start to swim around the boat and is now between Moz's boat and Arrabmundi boat, where I am standing full of excitement.

Arrabmundi get the net and start to say that this is a good fish at least in the 70s and maybe in the 80s.

He came once for the net, saw my face and didn't like it, so swam away with a renewed vigour that surprised me.

Arrabmundi says: just swim him in the net straight and that will be good.

Yes well let me tell you that this fish didn't seems to think that this was such a good thing to do and fought against it, but was finally driven into the mesh of the net. 

Victory!

Ho, to say that I was pleased would be more that a slight understatement...

I was really happy: this was my first fish of the day, first of this round, and most of all, first with the new rod that I had won in the previous round!

And it went 81cm, which in my books is nice for a first fish with a new rod.

First fish with my new rod G.Loomis.

But I think that just then I overheard some comments between Moz, Sheeby and Arrabmundi going a bit like that: He can get his own boat now! Yes he is banned from mine! and so on... I just pretended that I didn't heard anything... I was just too happy to care...

And yes this was on one of the mark that Cuddelscooper gave us.

Then we moved to another of the mark that he gave us, and he said that on this new one it was possible to hook on some very big Barramundi and sometime some large Jewfish.

So I changed my rod, and took one with a reel which is supposed to have a much bigger drag pressure than my little Curado...

I put a Classic Barra 20+ lure, put the drag to the max and we started a first nice slow troll in a straight line.

Then a boat came and throw the anchor overboard, just a few meters in front of us and we had to change course to avoid running in their side. I was just thinking that this type of behaviour was pretty close to be rude as we passed next to them, when my rode pulled hard in my hand and the line flew out of the reel. I could not understand what was happening, this reel was supposed to have a stronger drag, yet the line was just peeling out of it like if it has no drag at all. And the rod was like bouncing in my hands.

But all this did not last very long, a few seconds at the most... and the leader broke at the knot...

Ha!

  

I retrieve a floppy floating line still trying to comprehend what had just happened, and Arrabmundi says that it must have been a big jewfish to hit in a so brutal and fast manner. 

I started to be a bit disappointed, as I am yet to get a jewfish on lure, let alone on Barra gears.

So I put another lure on the line and we start a new troll.

As it seems to be my lucky 15 minutes, I got a snag in 20+ feet of water...

As we drive the boat back over the snag I managed to get the lure back and while I am looking at it raising from the depth Arrabmundi and some people in a boat nearby all goes Ho or Ha or Look! and By the time I turn around to look at what is happening, it is all finish.

But Arrabmundi tells me that a very big Barra well over the meter mark just jumped out of the water, nearly all of it's body in the air, with just a small part of the tail in the water. And it shacked it's head and a golden lure flew out of it.

I quickly scan the water surface and easily spot the floating lure. 

We drove to it and I pick it up, sure enough, it is the one that I lost about ten minutes before in nearly the same spot.

It was not a jewfish it was a big momma barra. There is no doubt that this was the biggest one that I ever hooked, and I lost it all by my fault...

First I put too much drag pressure on it, and I did a knot that was not up to the task...

Well, I better have to find either a book or a web site to learn how to tie proper knots...

Now, it is important to always try to find the positive of things in life, and the positive of this story is that I got my lure back...

And I think that this was about all the action that we saw for the day.

Back at the ramp Arrabmundi jumped out of the boat and said to me: just go in the middle of the river and idle over there till I come back with the trailer.

I am not sure if any one can imagine how stressed I suddenly become. I had never been in a boat by myself, and was very afraid that something bad would happen.

To give you an idea he even had to remind me how to operate the boat to move around while he would be back.

And as the local newspaper would have said: Alone in a boat above a crocodile infested river...

I was not too proud by then...

But no, in the end every thing went well.

We made our way back to Darwin and decided to do it all again the following day.

Sunday, I woke up early and saw on my phone that Sheeby had put a video of day one on FB, so I went to have a look at it, and then wasted way to much time on there and made one of the worst sin that a deckie can make I was late for the meeting with Arrabmundi...

Sorry about that...

Any way off we went again, and this time no storm in view so hope of a much better day was filling our heart.

We decided to try more or less to do the same as the previous day, and the water seemed a bit cleared by then.

And the fellow anglers that we started to see on the rivers were telling us that such and such had got a 85 or a 92, or a 78 and we started to want some of it for us.

As we were trolling along a bank that had been indicated to Arrabmundi by a mate of his, I got snagged and he stopped the boat to see if I could free my lure from distance just by giving it a bit of slack. This did not work, but as I was looking in the direction of my timber stuck lure I heard Fish! And Arrabmundi was on!

The tip of his rod was pointing in a totally different direction than the butt of it.

So we made the quick and evident decision do forget about my lure for the immediate and to focus on getting his fish.

Which fought well and hard and in a place full of snag as we could be reminded by my still, branches poking lure.

But Arrabmundi did well and landed a beautiful 82cm Barra!

Arrabmundi 82cm Barramundi.

Now talk about these insensitive skippers with no regards for the self-esteem of young willing and learning deckies...

He trashed me by getting a bigger fish than what I got on the day before.

I am sure that this was his subtle way of reminding me who was the vessel's boss...


Arrabmundi lure had all the hooks bent after such a nice fish in snag country, so he changed them all with some better and stronger ones.
And as this was a good fish, we decided to do a few more troll on the same stretch of water. This is when Arrabmundi got his lure snagged and lost it.
A lure with a full set of brand new hooks...

Nonetheless we continued to troll the same spot, as we could see some fish on the sounder. This is when we both got snagged at the same time!
He got his lure back while mine was still stuck at the bottom of the creek.
Once we came closer to it, we realised that I was not stuck on a branch or a rock, no, my lure was all tangled in the line of the lure that he had lost a few minutes before.
So we delicately got my lure, then grabbed the line with his lure on and finally got his lure back!
How good is that, hard to beat no?

After that we moved to the other side of the river where we saw Dingo and Muntzy and they had just caught a fish.

Dingo and Muntzy happy as.

They seemed happy and were eating some wasabi peas.

They invited us to join in the troll saying that they already had a few fish on this one.

So we obliged and started to troll.

Then this pain in the neck of a horse fly came and stung me on the heel.

So I was trying to shoo her away when my lure seemed to get snagged again...

Yes that looked like another of these 15 minutes of luck moments...

But hey! I was not snag, other was my line would not be moving away from the river bank, and this feisty little Barra would not be jumping at the end of it!

Quick my boy stand up and show him what your made of...

A few jumps and splashes and runs latter this fish was boat side, but once again, it didn't like the look of me.

What is wrong with these fish?

And started for another run, just after a jump so close to the boat that it could have fallen in it.

But in the end it went for a straight line direct to the net and in the boat was lifted.

It measured 79cm.

79 cm of fresh Barramundi.

This one was caught on a lure called The Judge, from Reidy's, and this was going to be my last Barramundi for the round five.

Not long after Arrabmundi got a 55cm which in the condition of fishing for this particular weekend was a point scorer. 

And we were hoping would be the closest one to the mystery size, but that was not.

Then I got a small blue salmon, that Arrabmundi kept for the esky.

Last fish of the weekend.

And then we trolled some more in the same spot where I lost Big Momma on the previous day.

But to no avail. 

Then we went to another mark where there was some rock oysters, and started to cast toward it as it was too shallow to troll over it.

There a quick thing had a go at Arrabmundi lure and we identified it for a small to medium Barracuda.

Then it followed my lure just right to the boat but didn't took it, and went for the one from Arrabmundi and caught it and jumped with it out of the water.

It was definitively a Barracuda. But it got away and we didn't saw it after that.

Not long after we decided to call it a day and to cruise back to the ramp and home.

This was a very interesting round which panned out in a different manner than expected, but with some nice fish nonetheless. And more importantly showed us the potential of this place that both of us had never fished before.

Overall the comp was a great thing through the full event of the five rounds, and I personally really enjoyed it.

I have to say thank you to not only Dingo and Bandit for having the idea of it and organising it. But also to all the people who took me in their boats during this year of the comp, I have meet some great people, thanks.

And I have seen some great places and fished for Barra 5 times more this year! 

Thanks guys!


Now how did I scored in this round? 
Well I finished in fourth, which on the overall scoreboard, put me in third!
Yes not first, but third is still much better than what I expected a bit over ten month ago, when the competition started.
And at least I am on the podium for the final results, and this should make the man who was my first ever fishing sponsor, (Ofmer lures) happy.

   

And to be honest with you, I have to confess that yes, I am a bit sad that this friendly fishing competition has come to an end. Now I just have to hope that it will be on again next year. Till then I will miss the friendly rivalry that existed at each round.

But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.