2016 Top End Barra Series Round 4.

Hi there,

Not long ago was the fourth round of the 2016 Top End Barra Series.
Here is the story of it.

• It was at Corroboree Billabong.
• Lots of crocodiles, few fishes.
• All my "good" fish were caught with soft plastics.
• It was truly a good weekend.

For this round I was fishing from Rossco's boat.

Thank you for inviting me on your boat for the weekend Rossco.

At 5:30 am his car and boat were in front of my home, and it was great to see him after so long.
It was still dark, and the road to the billabong was spent talking about fishing and catching up.

On the rod again.

It is only a short journey to Corroboree Billabong from Darwin, and we were soon able to launch the boat, at a near empty boat ramp.

Early morning launching.

Most of the participants in the fourth round of the 2016 Top End Barra Series had already launched, on the Friday evening, to spend a night between mates on the water, before the competition start.

The weather was typical of a dry season morning: Cold!

Cold morning on Corroboree Billabong.

It might have been cold, but there is some kind of magic to this place. The seemingly peaceful waters, full of big crocodiles... 

It is beautiful, and it keeps you on your toes at the same time.

Peaceful morning.

In fact it was so cold, that when we saw the first boat that was part of the competition, they were dressed for the cold. And remember that this is tropical Australia...

Fishing in the tropical winter.

The crew of the Liquid Diet Boat, was to give me a very nice present in the form of two fishing lures painted especially for me:

Two fishing lures painted Bleu Blanc Rouge.

I already had one lure in this colour that had been made by Dean B. the maker of the Barratastic Lures, and he had named the colour Pecheur.  I will soon do a post about all my lures in the Pecheur colour.

Rosso also gave me a beautiful Lee's Lures made of Timber at the same time. It will too be in a post on this very blog soon, watch this space!

With the sun slowly rising, the resident crocodiles started to make themselves visible. Trying to get a bit of warmth in their cold blood.

Salt Water crocodile warming up.

We had some intel telling us where in the previous week, a few nice Barramundi had been caught in full daylight, and we went to the spot.

Pandanus on the bank.

Yes this is the spot.

We did spot a few fish there, even got a few half baked hits, but nothing to write home about. Sometimes in fishing a day can makes all the difference.

Yet it was good to be there, and enjoy the relative peace of the place.

Water Lily flower floating away.

When I say relative peace of the place, it is of course because of the numerous crocodiles that were lining the spot. 

Yes, there was fish in the water, but the crocs knew it too, and were around for a feed.

In fact later on in the evening, we got chased from this very spot by a cranky big crocodile and had to move away.

But during the day, it was easier to keep an eye on them, and we started to cast weedless lures deep in the lilies.

I was using a weedless soft plastic lure in the Drop Bear colour, and had just flicked it as far and deep in the lilies as I could. I had let the lure drop to the floor of the billabong, and was bringing it back by little successive jumps very close to the bottom. When the line tensed, and the fish came straight to the surface: It was a Barramundi!

Lucky me, instead of trying to go further away in the deep water, it swam near the surface, and straight to me. Rossco was quick to put it in the net, and I had a fish on board!

First Barramundi of the weekend.

For a billabong fish, it wasn't too bad of a fish, coming in at 62cm (24.409449 inches).

Most of all, it was our first fish in the boat, and it showed us that everything was still possible.

It was early afternoon, we hadn't caught a fish in all the morning, but now we were talking.

Or saw we thought. 

Yes, it was hard fishing especially when you see where the first fish came from:

This is where we had to cast our lures.

After this, it was to be a no more Barramundi kind of day.

The sunset arrived and was as great as they can be on the billabongs, event in the middle of the dry season.

Sunset on Corroboree Billabong.

It was photo time:

Rossco, snapping the sunset.

From there, we tried a bit of night trolling, but to no great result, only a few little tap on the lures, with nothing staying connected. Some other participants in the round achieved great results by night trolling. A 92cm (36.220472 inches) Barramundi was caught, and it is a great billabong fish. 

But for Rossco and I, it was going to be a long time until the next Barramundi.

As darkness fell upon us, we caught up With Dean who was fishing with his son.

We rafted the two boats, had a bit to eat and drink, and talked of all the very important matters that fisherfolk  talk about when they catch up... I will let you imagine what it could be...

While talking I cold not help but flick a fizzer here and there, to try to catch a surface Barramundi in the dark of night. One very exciting for of fishing. The only fish having a go at my fizzer were Tarpon:

Night time Tarpon.

They were great fun, but not the targeted specie. One Barra did boof my lure, but must have missed by a few centimetres and didn't even inhale the lure, so not a chance in the world to be hooked.

After a little while, everybody on both boats was deep asleep.

Despite waking up a few times during the night, I could not hear any fish feeding activity near us, and went back to sleep each time, hoping for the sound of boofs.

Finally the morning arrived.

First light on the water.

It was beautiful but cold, and I stayed in my sleeping bag a bit longer.

Cold morning at Corroboree Billabong.

The only thing that could keep me warm in this cold morning, was to move.

What kind of movement can you do on a boat?

Well it is pretty simple, I got in on the action, and started to flick my lure. Doing the longest cast that I could, at the back of the lilies, trying to get warm in the raising sun.

When far away, deep in the cold water, a fish found my lure.

But this one had decided to fight dirty, and went straight for the bottom, trashing in the lilies underwater stems. After a bit of tussle, he was next to the boat. Yet still green and ready to fight some more, he wrapped the line around a few lilies, just a feet or two from us. This is when I truly believed that this fish was lost to me. It was at netting distance from the boat, but every times that Rossco tried to put the net under it, the lilies stems blocked the net, with the other fish moving to the opposite side.

The stems looked green and strong. 

Both Dean and his son had jumped into Rossco's boat to see what was happening from a better vantage point. 

Dean realised what was going on, and brought his long lips gripe to try to secure the fish.

But just then the combination of Rossco pushing on the stems with his net, and the line sawing in them, made them break, and the fish was in the net!

What a fight that had been!

The dirty fighter Barramundi.

at 67cm (26.377953 inches) it was going to be my best Barramundi of the weekend.

But not the last, and it had been caught on the same lure than the previous one too.

In the background of the photo, you can see from which terrain this Barramundi came from.

It was still early, and a fish so soon in the morning was a good sign for the day to come.

The four of us, quickly finished our breakfast, said goodby to people from the other boat and went our way.

It had been a very good night and morning, in great company.

It is nice to see people bringing their child with them for the weekend. That is what I would call real quality time, and it would for sure build in the kids some great memories for the rest of their life.

Dean & Son, going for another day of fishing on the billabong.

I say good on you to the parents who can bring their child for a weekend of camping in nature.

So this first fish brought our expectations to a new level of fishing envy.

Yet, it was nearly a fluke, as the next catch was going to take a long time to come to fruition.

Another of all the iconic fish that we have around Darwin is the Saratoga. 

This is a fresh water fish, and as such was part of the target fish for the weekend. It a beautiful fish, and I love to see them. I did caught one, but a very small one:

My little Saratoga.

Despite being on the smaller side of sizes, this fish totally destroyed my lure and I had to use another one after it.

It was again a hot day, the wind had started to blow, and made the fishing difficult.

We had to look for sheltered spot, where we hoped to find some fish.

Finally, less than one hour before it was time to get the lines out of the water, casting against Pandanus roots, I retrieved my lure, in a very steady way. Slow, but without any jig or jerking of the line, I was remembering how Brett alway tells me to stop jerking that lure! So I was trying to be a good student. And it worked, I got my last Barramundi of the day.

At first I called it for another Saratoga, due to the yellowish colour I saw when it hit the lure. Rossco was calling it for a Barramundi and me for a Saratoga.

And lucky me there was not to many snag around, as this fish was strong and kept taking line and making runs every time I had it to the boat.

Finally it was netted:

Last Barramundi of the weekend.

The last Barramundi of the weekend came at 62cm (24.409449 inches), just like the first one of the weekend.

Some people might say that I am easily amused, but yes I did find that funny.

After that we tried to see if I could get another fish in the last twenty minutes of the round, but it was not to be.

We then quietly made our way to the ramp, enjoying the evening light and profiting of the last moment of peace for the weekend, before going back to civilisation.

That is when we caught up with a boat of Tebsies.

Fellow Participants in the 2016 TEBS.

They too had found the fishing a bit hard over the weekend. But one of them had caught the second biggest Barramundi of the weekend at 91cm (35.826772 inches). So the smiles were still on their boat.

It had been a great weekend on the water, thanks Rossco, but it was getting dark and it was time to go home.

Evening light at the boat ramp.

Rossco had been in pain during most of the round, and had been unable to cast his lure as often as I did. Yet he allowed me very generously to fish all over the weekend, when most people would have just gone home to try to mend their pain. 

During this round, I used, eleven different hard body fishing lures, and 4 soft plastic ones.

My first two Barramundi had been caught on the same lure.

And when it was destroyed by a little Saratoga, I really missed it, and cursed myself for not having brought with me the other similar one that I had at home.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Fishing Two Locations On The Same Day.

Hi there,

Yes we went fishing on two locations on the same day, and this is the short story of it.

• We fished Corroboree Billabong and the Adelaide River.
• We got fish on many different lures.
• It was a long but great day.

On the Saturday afternoon, I got a message from Jason asking me if I wanted to go fishing on Sunday?

It didn't take long for me to realise that really, there was not much else that I wanted to spend my Sunday doing. 

The plan was to fish Corroboree early in the morning, and then zoom to the Adelaide Rived in the afternoon.

So at 5:00am we found ourselves on the way to the Billabong. And yes, it is at least for me the city boy, always a very beautiful thing to see, the Billabong waking up in the morning:

Corroboree Billabong in the morning.

We had expected to see a long queue of boats launching at the ramp...

Nobody was there, we had the place for ourselves.

With no one else there, we decided that we could try first to have a few casts in the lilies just on the right of the ramp.

Well people often say that in fishing you have to do the miles to get the smile, but not this time.

We had just launched, it was not yet 7:00am, and just like that, I was on to a beautiful little fresh water Barramundi:

First Barramundi of the trip. Akame!

No it was not a giant at 65 cm (25.590551 In.), but hey, I was happy as one can be. Just a few minutes on the water, a dozen casts and we had a fish was on board.

Oh how that Barramundi fishing seemed easy just then. Well it was going to be a little while before the next Barra. But other fish were to be caught in the interim.

Yet with no other fish taking our lures, we decided to go for a bit of a troll along the waterways.

And simply enjoy the morning light.

Lilie pads at Corroboree Billabong.

A former colleague from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, had told me that if I could one day bring him back a Saratoga or Scleropages leichardti, as it is  called by the people of knowledge, for the museum collection. Well guess what? We hadn't been trolling for long, and once again I was On! This time to a nice little Saratoga who had taken an unhealthy liking to my Reidy's lure:

Saratoga on the Big Lucifer lure.

My first Saratoga of the day.

Mission accomplished, I had a Saratoga and it was going to go in the museum collection.

As such, we recorded the GPS coordinates of where it had been taken, the time (7:45am), and depth at with the lure was swimming (2,5 metres).

Sometimes simple little things like this makes me happy.

We then started to have a lot of success with the Tarpon, and it wasn't that hard because they were everywhere.

Jason with the first Tarpon of the day.

They were good fun, and some of them were really fat and hit hard, for such little fish.

Pandanus on the bank.

We even tried to fish with some small soft plastic vibes, and I got a nice Saratoga with them, and Jason got one too:

Saratoga on the small vibe.

Between the Tarpon and Saratoga it was great billabong fishing.

Jason working another Tarpon.

Still, I wanted another Barra, and started to think that for it to happen I would have to cast deep in the lilies again, instead than just on the edge of the lilies. Yet, I was not brave enough to flick a vibe with two treble straight in the under water forest made by the water lilies stems.

So I naturally opted for a small soft plastic, the smallest one in my bag, a little Reidy's of just a few centimetres, in the chartreuse colour. I would love to show you this lure, but really there is not much to show...

Judge for yourselves:

Can you see it?

Yes you can't see much, but let me tell you that the fish liked it.

With the temperature of the day rising, the action went down.

Every body needs a place to rest when it's hot.

So we decided that it might be time for a move toward the Adelaide River.

And this is just what we did.

Not long after starting to fish on the Adelaide, Jason got on his first Barra of the day:

Happy as a man who just caught a fish.

Yes, even after having lived outside of the Northern Territory for a few years, Jason was still able to find the Barramundi on one of his favourite rivers.

Not only he was able to find some fish, but he was able to put me on them too.

First I lost one at the boat, which if you ask me was totally unfair.

So we trolled again, when I got a nice little hit, and my line took a tangent for the bank.

Not wanting my fish to go straight for the snags, I thumbed my spool and jerked a bit the rod, and the fish started to swim my way. From the fight I quickly realised that it wasn't too big, but got a bit of a fright when it came boat side, as I had the impression to see a shark or a crocodile swim just under it.

Not knowing for sure what it was, or even if it wasn't just a figment of my imagination. The fish was rapidly lifted in the boat.

My dinner had been sorted.

At 56 cm (22.047244 Inches) it was just over the minimum legal size, and in the esky it went.

I was laughing at how I panicked when I had this small Barramundi on the line, thinking that it was going to be taken from me, by some underwater predator.

When Jason got a solid hit and was now connected to what was obviously a better fish.

As fast as possible I reeled in my lure, and got the net ready when I heard Jason scream: Oh there is a shark!!! Oh no!!!

And that was it:

When a shark gets the better part of your Barramundi.

Before I had even had the time to turn around with the net and to look at this big fish in the water, that shark had done his shark job... It had collected its tax, under the form of fresh food...

This is not the first time that I saw a shark taking part or even a full Barramundi from a hooked line. But this one was the fastest of them all. So fast that in fact, I didn't even see it.

But at least now I know that I had not dreamed when I had my smaller fish on the line, there are sharks in the water...

A bit further up the river, Jason caught another Barramundi:

Last Barramundi of the day.

All the fish we caught on the Adelaide, were very chrome looking. Not as fat as the fish we hooked in Corroboree billabong earlier in the day, but still very healthy.

Sadly it was starting to be late, and it was time to race down the river, toward the ramp and home.

As we started to make our way back, the weather dramatically changed, a storm seemed ready to pounce on us, and the sky kept changing all the way to the ramp, for the rain to start lightly falling only once we were in the car.

Yet the spectacle that the sky gave us, reminded me of one of the many reasons why I love going fishing in the Top End so much.

The multiple colours of the sky.

Yes I know, it is a lot of photographs of the sky, but I had forgotten how it can change so fast.

It was a good reminder of why I prefer going fishing than playing video games.

Thank you Jason for inviting me to fish from your boat.

And yes it is true, the best Barramundi of the trip was sharked...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2015 Top End Barra Series Round 5.

Hi there,

Not long ago the fifth round of the 2015 Top End Barra Series took place, and here is the story of how it went.

• It took place at Corroboree Billabong.
• I fished from Moz's boat.
• It wasn't easy fishing.
• All our fish were caught on hard body lures.

Early in the morning I arrived at Moz's, the boat was ready, so we quickly put my stuff in the boat and in the car, and we hit the road.

Destination fishing.

Arriving at Corroboree in the morning is alway a real visual pleasure:

Last stretch of Road before Corroboree Billabong.

Once again we were not disappointed, the scenery was breathtaking.

We launched as quick as we could, and soon found Greg fishing in the morning light.

Greg fishing Corroboree in the morning light.

We had a little chat with him, and a few cast, were both Moz and I got a hit. But this was Greg's spot so we left it to him, and went to a spot that Moz and I fished together four years ago.

As we arrived, we saw a few wallabies just where we wanted to go:

Wallabies on the bank.

Seeing use they hopped away in the bush, and Moz promptly took their place on the bank, while I fished from the boat.

In no time Moz was on, and he landed the first Barramundi of the weekend:

Happy as a man who caught a fish.

It wasn't yet 8:00am and Moz had already caught a 60cm Barramundi. (23.622047 Inches).

By then we become persuaded that this was going to be a cracker of a day, full of nice big fish...

It was going to be a great day, but not for all the fish caught.

As a matter of fact, it was going to be a very long time before we caught another Barramundi.

First we had lunch. Then we caught up with a few other boats, on the bank of the billabong, for a yarn and a few jokes.

Brett who was there, passed a few skewers around, that he had just cooked on his boat, Yummy!

Skewers on the boat.

These were followed by some warm garlic bread, this was luxury fishing for me.

Someone threw a few pieces of bread in the water to see if some little fish would come and eat it.

A kite came and took it:

Greedy kite pinching the fish's bread.

Despite all the fun that we had, it was time to try to get more fish.

So everyone went there own way.

Brett on his way to try to find the Barramundi.

We had opted to troll along the lilies, and I was casting weedless lure at the same time. From the front of the boat, while my trolling rod was at the back. Between two cast I looked at my rod, and saw it suddenly take a sever bent.

I dropped my casting rod on the boat floor, and hurried to catch the other one.

Yes the fish was still on, and was giving an honourable fight.

We identified it as a Barramundi, and it was netted as fast as we could:

A fat Barramundi.

Coming in at 74cm (29.133858 Inches) it was a reasonable size Barramundi, but was surprised me the most, was how fat this fish was. And it did fight like a big guy too.

Like the Barramundi caught by Moz before, it was released to grow a bit more.

One of the thing that anglers and visitors should never forget about Corroboree Billabong, is that it is the home of many, many big crocodiles:

Salt Water crocodile at Corroboree Billabong.

we did see many of them, and they kind of keep you on your toes.

By the end of the afternoon, geese were starting to get back in action:

Flock of geese in flight.

Geese coming to the water in the afternoon.

With the sun going down, Moz cooked a great curry, and it was time to search for a spot to sleep.

Sunset on Corroboree Billabong.

Doing so, we trolled some big lures...

And I got a massive hit, and the line started to peel out of my singing reel.

I was on to a very good fish.

It didn't come to the surface, was fighting deep down in the water column, we were in 20 feet of water.

I started to call it for a massive catfish, and finally it came to the surface just at the side of the boat.

And we saw it...

And Moz shouted: "It is a Metery! A big Metery!"

Yes, an absolutely massive fish it was. But catfish it wasn't, Barramundi it was...

It was too fast for Moz to have any chance to net it.

The big Barramundi sounded straight for the bottom. Moz said: "When they sound like that, it is not a good sign". I said: "Shut Up don't say that now!"

But he was right, first I felt one of the treble pop out, but I was still connected. Then the second one let go and the line went limp.

I had lost, the fish had won.

On closer inspection once I had my lure back in hand, I could see that in fact both trebles had bent.

I still remember it...

Not long after that we found a good spot to anchor the boat and spend the night sleeping.

Early morning saw us trying to snag a fish, mostly by casting weedless in the lilies.

Where I got a small Saratoga, not big, but enough to makes me happy, it was the first in a few year:

Small Saratoga in the morning.

This was a small fish but it was the only one that came aboard during this trip.

We did get hit by a few of them, some much bigger than this one (Because the one that got away is always bigger). But we could not land another one as they are notoriously difficult to hook properly.

But I did get a rather lager yet very skinny Archer Fish:

ArcherFish on the weedless frog.

And this was going to be the last fish from the Sunday.

We did persist the casting, flicking our lures against every structures that we could find.

Sadly to no avail.

We decided to go home in the early afternoon, as we still had a bit of road to do, and the fishing was not getting better.

Yet I still had a great weekend, it was good to be out in the sun breathing some fresh air.

Thank you Moz for inviting me on your boat for the weekend.

And I will remember for a long time that big Barramundi that I lost a Saturday evening in the dark waters of Corroboree Billabong.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.