A Morning On Darwin Harbour.

Hi there,

Yes, it had been a long time since I last went fishing.
So when Theodosius sent me a text message asking if I wanted to go fishing on Sunday, I said Yes Please!

The plan was to go and spend the morning on Darwin Harbour, to try to catch a fish or two, and hopefully they would be Barramundi.

At 6:27AM on Sunday I got a text message from Theodosius saying that he was in front of my place.
I ran out with all my gear, impatient to go and get some fish.
Ah the expectation...
Ah the excitement of going on a fishing trip...

We launched easily, from Dinah Beach boat ramp, and headed for some little arms in the harbour in the morning light, as the sun was just rising.

Zooming in the morning.

As we neared the first spot that we were going to fish for the day, I couldn't help to think how lucky we are, living in Darwin. To have such a great harbour on our doorstep.

Sunrise over the mangroves.

Flat waters are the best.

Yes, it was picture perfect, it feel like if we were in an advertisement from Tourism NT.

Once the sun rose high enough to give us some proper light, we saw fog or mist on the mangroves.

For a little while we could have believed that we were in Scotland on our way to fish for Salmon.

It was just a bit warmer that what I imagine Scotland to be.

Dawn on the tidal creek.

It was calm and peaceful, but we wanted the mayhem created by catching some angry fish.

So we set ourselves to the task and started to fish.

Fishing in the first light.

Theodosius, said that a submerged snag was just in front of us, under about two meters of water.

We could see some little Trevally and Queenfish smashing the baits above it.

So we tried to send our lures deeper into the snag. 

And it didn't take long for Theodosius to get the first fish, a nice little Flathead:

Theodosius first fish of the day.

Despite Flatheads being delicious to eat, this one would have been a bit too small to fillet, and as such was released to grow a bit more.

And from the exact same spot Theodosius proceed to reel in two beautiful Golden Snapper, one after the other.

He put back the smaller one in its natural habitat, and gave me the bigger one, that I placed in the esky, as I was not yet sure to catch a fish on the day. And as they say, a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.

Theodosius releasing the smaller Golden Snapper.

I then got hooked up on a medium sized Queenfish, who promptly took my line around a submerged branch and got me truly and properly snagged.

I had to break the line and loose the lure.

So I decided to try my luck with a surface lure and started to flick around a small walk the dog type of lure. As I was doing a cast that should have been pretty average, something happened.

And no, not something great...

The leader knot got stuck on the line guide on the rod, and this here is the result of it:

Bird nest.

Yes, the best bird nest I had in ages was now in my hands.

I looked at it for a few minutes, and decided to leave it as is, and continue the day with my other rod and reel. I would take care of this mess later on at home, and not continue to waste any more of precious fishing time.

With that, we decided to move a bit further and arrive to a beautiful snag that we could perfectly see under shallow water. 

And among the many branches of it, we could see our coveted target, Barramundi!

A few go them were in there, and at the first pass of Theodosius lure, they went straight for it.

Sadly none stayed connected to the lure.

So it was my turn to cast in there, and what a sight.

We could see the Barra coming out between the branches and fighting for the lure. Some of them were really fired up, and had that white line on the front of the head, that they have when full on in feeding mode. One of them had a few go at my offering but failed to hook despite biting on the lure at many reprise. 

Theodosius casted again and this time came back with the good:

Theodosius with the first Barramundi of the weekend.

Even if this one was just slightly too short to keep. I was quite simply getting a lesson in fishing, as I was yet to land a single scale. While my skipper was already on his fourth fish.

It was time to wake up!

As we moved a bit further again, I finally caught my first Barramundi of the day. It was 57cm, so good to keep, and I gave it to Theodosius, as he had given me a Goldie not long ago, this was the least I could do.

And I was now happy to see that I could still catch a fish.

Theodosius was fishing from the top of his ladder, from where he could spot the Barramundi much better than I could. And would regularly point them to me, so I could cast at them.

But he was better than I and came back with another fish:

His second Barramundi for the day.

You could see in the back, how calm was the water. 

The tide was now falling rapidly and we could not stay as close of the mangroves as previously, without the risk of getting stuck in the mud.

So we mover a bit further away:

Falling tide on the mangroves of Darwin Harbour.

At one point, we got surrounded by a school of Blue Salmons, and yes once again, I was not the sharpest hook in the bag, so I wasn't the one to catch one of them.

I suppose that you guessed who got one:

First Blue Salmon.

This fish was released to fight another day.

It didn't took long before I heard the Yep! I am on! again.

Yet this time, even if smaller, the fish was handled with more precaution, du to his good set of teeth:

Baby Barracuda on the lure.

Yes it was just a young one, but it already would have had a nasty little bite, and was treated accordingly.

We then went to a little creek where Theodosius told me that he had once lost a nice Barra in there.

I really hopped I would get one in there.

And it happened:

My second Barramundi for the morning.

Coming in at 66cm (25.984252 Inches), I decided to keep this fish too for a good feed.

And by now, I can tell you that it tasted delicious.

There I also caught a Catfish and a little shark. Both were released, rest reassured.

After that we went back to the first snag that we fished earlier in the morning. 

With the now lower tide we saw the lure I had previously lost, dangling on one of the now visible branches, And Theodosius managed to grab it and gave it back to me.

We then went to a last creek to try to find some more Barramundi. But what we found was a lot of Blue Salmon.

We even got a double hook up on them, and here is the result of it:

Blue Salmon double.

Both of them were released as we already had enough to provide our respective family with a good feed of fresh fish.

So on this good note, we decided to call it a day and to head back to the ramp.

This was a happy day, we saw many fish and stingrays. Even a small pod of dolphin on the way back.

Thank you Theodosius for inviting me on your boat.

So I had a great meal of fresh fish, but now I still have this bird nest to take care of...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

First Try At Kayak Fishing

Hi there,

Yes last weekend, I had my first real try at fishing from a kayak.
And I loved it.

• I fished from a Hobie Kayak.
• The kayak belong to my friend Aaron.
• We fished at East Point.
• I used a DUO lure.
• I made a short video about it.
• It is a very exciting form of fishing.

Aaron had sent me a message, asking me if I wanted to go fishing from one of his kayak the following day. He just had a great morning fishing, and wanted to do it again the next day.

I love fishing, yet I was not too sure about doing it from a kayak. Above waters in which crocodiles and sharks are swimming.

Yet it is a long time since I had some fresh smoked fish, and the idea of it made me say yes.

We arranged to meet at 6:30 am at East Point, one of my favourite land based fishing spot in Darwin. With the day rising and the cold of the dry season on us, (it was actually on the coldest night/morning of the year so far). We started to get the two kayak ready, loaded with all the fishing gear that we would need, for just a quick trip on the water.

And just on sunrise we launched the two small embarkations, in direction of the fishing grounds.

Kayaking at sunrise.

This was at the same time beautiful and relaxing, but with a tiny edge of nervousness. I have many times seen crocodiles around there, and I was not overtly comfortable entering their territory, and being so close to the water at the same time.

Close to the water.

Fishing from the rocks on the water edge is one thing. But being literally sitting a few centimetres above it, is another.

Aaron told me that as soon as I would get a fish, I would be alright and forget all about it.

Well, it didn't take long, 19 minutes after launch, I was battling a Queenfish that had taken my lure. I know that it was only 19 minutes after launch, because I had turned my video camera on just as we were launching, and on the movie, the hit came in at 19 minutes on the dot.

We were fishing in close proximity of each other, as they said that there is safety in numbers.

When we saw a school of Queenfish, following and trying to take hold of Aaron lure.

As we both screamed about it, I immediately casted my lure toward the watery commotion and reeled in as fast as I could. To absolutely no results. Aaron did a second cast, and as he was retrieving his lure at high speed, I casted too. Just as I had casted my lure, who was still flying in the air, I saw once again the Queenfish having a go at his lure, and this time very close to his kayak.

I could only exclaim with a big Ah! Thinking that I may have now casted my lure way too far from the school of hungry fish to stand any chances to entice one of them to chew on my offering.

Yet, I still tried to get my lure in as fast as I could. And not far from the kayak, I first saw a fin tail, a bit of a boil in the water, and I could not reel in my lure anymore, it was being taken away from me at great speed.

I was on!

The fish didn't take long to make a nice little jump, and then I knew for sure that it was a Queenfish.

I think that I must have then started to shout and screamed like an over excited kid. Who has never fished before and has just caught his first fish ever.

Yes, sometimes when fishing, I can act a bit like a happy child...

Bringing in the Queenfish.

On the kayak in the background was Tristan, who had just arrived in time to see that the fish were there. This Queenfish wasn't one of the biggest ones. But it was healthy and gave a very good account of himself. Once it was near the kayak I was afraid that it would dive under and resurface on the other side. Luckily, it didn't happen. The little Queenfish was boated, photographed, and released.

Released, when I wanted to eat some fresh fish?

Well yes, it started so well, that I decided to wait for the next fish before I kept one...

Will I ever learn?

That was the only fish I caught on the day, and if I want to eat some fish this week, I will have to eat some frozen one...

Anyway, here is my little fish:

Queenfish caught from the kayak.

Yes, this is definitively a very exciting form of fishing, where you are in very close contact with mother nature. I was starting to love that.

Aaron for his part got a nice little Trevally, which he released too.

Aaron fishing from his kayak on Darwin harbour.

Aaron has now written a few magazine article about fishing from a kayak, and is a great advocate about it. His passion for it is contagious, and he has even talked about it on the local radio.

Thank you Aaron for inviting me to fish from one of your kayak, this was a great morning session.

One of the funny thing about this fishing trip, is that in his messages Aaron had told me to take some popper and some skipping lure or stick bait.

Now, I have some popper, but don't have any skipping lures or stick bait. So what did I take with me?

A walk the dog lure, and used it as a stick bait, reeling it in very fast.

And it worked.

I had already caught smaller queenfish with that very lure, but using it as it should be, walking the dog. Just a bit faster than normal, but still walking the dog style. In fact I have caught Barramundi, Trevally, and Queenfish on this lure so far, so I really like it.

This is what it look like:

The DUO Realis Pencil 110.

And because you have been reading so far in this post, now you can see the little video of our morning fishing, from the kayak, like if you were seated in it:

Fishing from the kayak.

Yes, it is a short film of only four minutes, And I am definitively no Stanley Kubrick, I need to make a lot of progress in the video department, I know. But it is four minutes of angling bliss.

It would have been better if I had a film with more fishes in it.

So you would all get excited and would want to go and fish from a kayak too.

But hey,

it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2013 Top End Barra Series Round 5.

Hi there,

Not long ago the fifth round of the 2013 Top End Barra Series took place on the very picturesque Corroboree Billabong, not very far from Darwin.

Nomad was not sure if his boat would be fixed in time for the round, so I was very lucky to be offered a spot on Peter's boat.
It was still dark when Muntzy picked me up, and on the road to the billabong we went, To catch up with Peter and Dingo at the boat ramp, picking up Dean on the way.

Last year round at Corroboree, had been an absolute fishing failure for me.
With just a minuscule Catfish caught in two days of very heavy fishing. I had not hooked a single Barramundi, and had been hit by countless Saratoga, but could not stay connected to a single one of them. For a full year, I had been waiting, to take my revenge... And more than anything else, I wanted to catch a few Saratoga, and if possible a good one.
Well, yes, for me during this round, it was going to be the year of the Saratoga.

Arrived at the ramp, before we launched the boats, in the morning light, Dingo gave me the Tonic Sunglasses that I had won for a photograph that I had made in the previous round.
The sunglasses, were going to prove themselves to be very helpful during the weekend.
They are great,  simply the best fishing sunglasses I ever had.

We went straight to the Rock Hole, to do a bit of trolling first thing.

The Rock Hole in the morning.

I love the place, it is beautiful, with always a lot of wildlife to look at.

Other competitors were doing the same thing:

Trolling along the Pandanus.

Trolling a hard body lure along the pandanus, is a great way to get into some good Barramundi.

The technic worked fort the boat in the above photograph, as it caught the biggest Barramundi of the weekend.

It even worked for us, but not on the Barramundi front...

Peter and the first fish of the weekend for our boat.

In no time Peter got a hit and we got excited... He reeled in a little Catfish, yes, there is a lot of them in the waters of the billabong. But a fish is a fish, and we, or at least I was very happy, as I believed that this was proof that we were onto a fishy patch.

Well it would be a bit of time before the next fish.

Between the first one and the second one, we were lucky enough to spot a rather large buffalo, having a bit of a bath at the water edge.

Water Buffalo having a chill out time.

And not long after, Peter got a Tarpon:

Peter's first Tarpon.

This was Peter first ever Tarpon, and it is alway very satisfying to catch a new specie.

The mood was on the happy side of things.

Then, one more time, it was going to be a few hours before we get some fish on boards again.

To the extant, that we had a mini raft up with three or four other boats, chatting away, talking fishing and general fisher people's banter. All the while most of us were flicking lures towards the bank. Many of my friends, got hit by fishes, but none of them boated a fish on this occasion. I was the only one, to not get a single hit, this seemed very wrong to me. Most of them had already earlier in the day, caught either a Saratoga, a Barramundi or any other fishes that live in these landlocked waters.

But not me, I was yet to get a single hit, and was starting to question my choice of lure.

After spending so long thinking of a technic that would help me to have a better hookup rate than last year, I decided to stick to it a bit longer. 

That may have been my wisest move of the weekend.

As the raft up disintegrated itself, with everyone going in opposite directions, to get on with the business of catching some fish. Just our boat and Nomad's boat, which had been fixed just in time to enter the round, were still tied together, and as we drifted to the other side of the billabong. Peter, Nomad and I exchanging jokes about anything and everything, with me being the only one still casting my fishing lure around.

This is when I got my first Barramundi of the weekend, while I was targeting the mighty Saratoga:

My first Barramundi of the weekend.

They both said that it was rude of me, to catch a fish while we were having a deep and meaningful conversation... Of course I did not share their point of view...

The fish was 61cm (24.015748 inches), not really a giant, but it was one of the mystery sizes of the event. So it won me a prize!

Seeing that I had caught a fish, both Nomad and Peter started to fish too, and Nomad got a Saratoga!

This was a nice fish, and made us think that it was time to take things a bit more seriously, so we untied the boats and fished in earnest.

I got another hit, I hooked up and I then reeled in a new personal best for me. But it was not a Barramundi or a Saratoga. No, it was the biggest Archerfish I had ever caught.

A rather nice Archerfish.

I don't know if it was pure greed, or territorial or familial protection that pushed this fish to hit my lure, but seeing the size of the lure, compared to the size of the fish, I was in admiration for it's determination.

After three fishes had been caught in the same area, we though that we were on the right spot at the right time, and decided to work it a bit longer. This resulted in a fish that made me very happy, my first Saratoga of the weekend.

My first Saratoga of the weekend.

Yes it was a Barramundi competition, but I really wanted a Saratoga. And in fact, there was also prizes for the best Saratoga of the round. Secretly, I hoped to get one of the top three Saratoga of the event.

The first one was a good one, but I thought that I needed better for that.

So I persevered, and got a second one! Albeit a bit smaller.

A smaller Saratoga.

This one was smaller, but started to make me think that I might be able to catch another one, that would hopefully be better. Still casting in the lilies, I got a hit, it connected and it pulled stronger. Was this the big Saratoga that I was pinning for? It jumped out of the water, and I could see that it wasn't, yet it was exciting nonetheless: it was a Barra!

A little Corroboree Billabong Barramundi.

At only 48cm (18.897638 inches), it was 2cm short to be a point scorer... I felt a bit like sitting on it, to see if that would make it longer, but instead, released it to grow a bit more for the next time.

This was fun fishing, getting the fish out of the lilies, on a soft plastic lure. I am more of a hard bodies lures type of guy. But flicking a lure among the lilies and Pandanus roots, I felt a lot more comfortable with a weedless soft plastic lure.

By then it was late in the afternoon, nearly evening and we decided to catch up with other people participating in the round, to see where the night raft up would be. With the time that it took us to find them, and to join the ones who had already started to raft up, it was night time.

Food was eaten, tales were told, and the party started.

All I will say, is that some loud music was played, and some multi-coloured  disco lights were seen. 

it must have been past midnight by the time I fell asleep. And the music was still going strong, lucky, there is not too many neighbours on the water...

It was a good raft-up, with enough boats to keep it alive.

Some coming and leaving as the night progressed.

But soon enough, it was morning, and the call for action sent some very tired fisherman, in search of their prey.

The morning on the billabong is always a sight to admire.

View from the boats before the rising sun.

DUO pocopoco  and sunrise over Corroboree Billabong.

With its matinal warmth, the sun finally came up, before grilling us for the rest of the day.

Quickly, I rigged my line, with the same lure that had worked on the previous day, a weedless Gulp soft plastic.

Weedless Gulp soft plastic.

Not only I usually prefer to fish with hard bodies than soft plastics, but to top it up, the Gulp really stinks. From all the soft plastic that I have ever used, they are certainly the ones with the worst smell. Yet  one of the main reason I wanted to used them, is that they are biodegradable. Having read about the destructive power of the Saratoga bony mouths, I thought that if they were to destroy my lures these ones would left less, if none pollution in the billabong water.

As a bonus, they proved to be very effective, for me on this occasion.

On the Sunday morning, we started to troll, on the edge of the water lilies. I could not resist and stepped   on the cast deck at the front of the boat, and began to flick again, straight in the lilies and other snags. 

While I had a rod trolling a hard body at the back of the boat.

As my trolling lure from the Saturday had not produced any results, I changed and put a little lure that had been offered to me by Peter Z.

And it worked I got a fish! it is just that, it was another Catfish...

Catfish on the Tilsan.

This was going to be the only fish I caught on a hard body and on the troll for the full weekend. All my other fish had been caught on a soft plastic, casting towards the Pandanus roots or in the lilies.

It was definitively exciting fishing.

And yes the Saratoga were on again:

I love fishing for Saratoga.

Double portrait.

We saw a few very large crocodiles during the weekend, and tried to alway be on the lookout for them.

One of them swam past not very far from the boat, but by the time I got my camera ready it was well past us.

Corroboree Billabong crocodile.

Then I got one of these little fish that I really like.

A Mouth Almighty, this is a rather small fish, but with great character.

It is a mouth brooder, the male keep the eggs in it mouth to protect them.

When Barramundi are very young and small, it is one of their worst nightmare, but as soon as the Barramundi become bigger, the roles changes, and Mr Barra then feast on the poor little Mouth Almighty.

And here is mine:

Mouth Almighty or Glossamia aprion.

Despite their small size, they are considered a very good table fish. But I let him go, he was a nice little fella.

Peter, had decided that he didn't want to fish anymore, and was very happy to just steer the boat around, driving me to the best spot, so I could fish, enjoy the moment, and hopefully get to upgrade my fish from Saturday to a better one. This was very kind of him, and I asked him a few time if he wanted us to go back to Darwin. To which he alway replied that no, he was having a great time too, just sailing the billabong. It is true that it is a very beautiful place.

Then I got another Saratoga:

Little Saratoga.

And I finally caught a better Saratoga, which I was hoping would get me in the top three biggest Saratoga of the weekend:

My biggest Saratoga so far.

This was my personal best Saratoga, at 72cm (28.346457 inches).

I know that they can grow much bigger, but this one was in fact going to be big enough to be the biggest of the round! It won me a prize too, this was two prizes for the round. It was a long time that I had won a prize for catching a fish, so two in the same weekend made me more than happy.

And also the fact that I finally had a revenge on the Saratoga that had proven so elusive to me last year.

I was indeed, very happy.

As a little extra, I then managed to catch a little Sleepy Cod:

Sleepy Cod from the Billabong.

This is another excellent eating fish, but I let it go too.

It made me happy that between Peter and I we had caught such a mixed bag of fishes. It shows that the system is very healthy, with a wide variety of fish living in it.

But by then, it was nearly mid afternoon, so we decided to catch up with other participants, for a little chat, and see what they had caught. We saw Moz, who had caught all his fish of the weekend, with his home made fishing lures. This was a great effort, and demonstrated the quality of his work.

We then left them fishing and headed for the ramp, then the road towards home.

On the road again.

This in my books, will stay as a great weekend. 

Thank you Peter, for the invitation to fish from your boat, I had a ball!

Even if, yes I know, I have done the rude thing of out fishing my skipper...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2012 Top End Barra Series Round 5.

Hi there,

Last weekend was the 5th round of the 2012 Top End Barra Series, and it was taking place on the Drawin Harbour.
Being able to fish on the harbour of the very city where ones lives, is nearly a luxury in today's world, and trust me it was much appreciated by most of the participant.
My usual skipper was interstate for work, so I gladly accepted the offer from Dean's to be his deckie for the round.
We started reasonably early at around 6:30 am on the Saturday morning, and were greeted by a glorious sunrise as we arrived at the boat ramp.

Dinah Beach boat ramp in the sunrise. 

We went to one of the harbour arm in some spot where Dean had caught some good fish on some previous set of tides.

And he did get a little Barramundi, not big enough to be a point scorer, but big enough to get us excited, thinking that we were at the right spot...

Dean's first Barra of the weekend.

Well this little fish was the first one and the only one for a little while...

Enough in fact for us to wonder what was going on.

As we were changing from one spot to another one, either trolling or flicking our lures at any snags or rocks that we could see, I got what seemed to be a hit.

Something had grabbed my lure, and was flapping in the water behind the lure. Yet whatever it was, it was not giving me a fight similar to anything that I had seen in the past.

I called it for a small fish tangled in some seaweed.

But not it was a different kind of surprise:

Mud crab on the lure.

This Mud Crab was a female, and was full of eggs, so it was released as quick as possible.

Basically as soon as I could get my lure out of its claw.

In all my time of fishing this is only the second time that I have a crab catching one of my lures while it is moving. Both time it was during a round of the Top End Barra Series.

So we moved a bit further and trolled a favourite spot of Dean, in a little harbour creek.

Dean got a good whack on the line, but it didn't connect.

Then it all happened, he got the strike and stayed connected.

The Barramundi jumped at least four times, high and clear of the water. This was a good fish with a gusty temper. Jumping and making runs all over the place, constantly changing the direction of his attempted escape. In the end it was close to the boat, but still had it in him, not to surrender.

Each time that I was thinking that he was ripe for the net, he would dive and make another run for it.

But the run were shorter and shorter, and finally in the net it was.

Scream and shout of joyce must have ben heard from one end of the creek to the other.

We had a fish in the boat that was a point scorer:

Dean's biggest fish of the weekend.

At 71 cm (27.952756 inch), this was a good and healthy harbour fish. In the Esky it went.

Dean described this fish as fighting and jumping like a Doberman on acid, and that was a fitting description of the fight that he gave.

The monkey was off Dean's back, now we just needed to get me a fish... This was going to prove itself more difficult than planed. 

First Dean was going to catch a nice little Flathead:

Darwin Harbour Flatie.

This one was not big enough to won a prize, but it was a nice fish nonetheless. It was put back in the water, to grow a bit mpore till the next time.

By now the afternoon was starting to make itself known, and after talking to Mozz and Liam, we decided to scout towards Muntzy to catch up for a little chat.

Zooming on the ocean.

Mozz and Liam through the waves.

We did meet up with Muntzy, and not long after Chris arrived from the opposite side, followed by Sheeby and Cuddlescooper on another side.

We ended up five boats who rafted together, for a little chitchat and some refreshment.

Well it started this way anyway.

And it was in the end four boat who stayed tied to each other till the following morning, drinking, singing and cooking. While the fifth one took the fishing competition more seriously, and went in the pursuit of better fish. 

For the four vessels that stayed together, I was on one of these. But I think that what happens on the raft-up of the Top End Barra Series, should stay on the raft-up. A bit like what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas... So I will apply some kind of media black out, and not show on this family orientated blog, any of the picture that I made during that night...

Being a non drinker myself, I was one of the first to wake up, and as so far I only had for my name a big fat donut, I started to flick a lure around in the hop to catch a fish while every body else was still sleeping.

It didn't work, but I did caught a strange little worm on a popper:

Worm on the hook.

At one stage, there was literally hundreds of them swimming around the boat.

I didn't taste it to see if it was tasting like fish or not, I just dropped it back in the water.

Then every body woke up, some had a light breakfast, some other didn't felt like it.

Then, simply because boys will be boys, one of the lad started to run some donut on the river with is boat:

Yeeehaaa!!!

Dean and I went to explore some new spot in the hope of doing better than on the previous day.

And there, on my first cast of the day, using a Terrif DC-9 Bullet by DUO Lures, the same lure that got me a crab the day before, I finally got my first fish in the boat!

No, it was not a Barramundi, it was just a baby Rock Cod, but that was enough to make me happy:

My baby Rock Cod.

I then told myself that this was a good sign, surely it was going to be a day filled with numerous catch!

Well it didn't exactly panned out like that. It was a great day on the water, but not filled by numerous captures.

We went to another creek for not much apart a dropped Barramundi for me, and a few little Trevally for Dean. Then moved to another one, where we saw Billster, and started to troll the same troll line than him. 

On the bank of this creek we saw a Jabiru and I wanted a quick photo of it as we were going to pass next to him. I put my rod in the rod holder, and walked at the front of the boat to take a quick pic:

The juvenile Jabiru.

I had not yet made the photo that I wanted, but glanced in the direction of my rod: The rod was totally bent in the rod holder! But not bouncing up and done like when a fish is starting a fight and gives some serious head shake. No, it was just bent and the line was peeling from the reel.

I told Dean that I must have got snag on something, to which he replied that no he thought that I had a fish on.

So I grabbed the rod, and give it a jerk, thinking that I was going to prove my point...

The line started to fly of the reel twice as fast and still no head shake or splash like a Barramundi would do. So I called it for the mother of all Catfish. Dean said that no, he believed that this might be a Barra.

The fish didn't came to the surface, and was very heavy, every time that he was close to the boat, he didn't came up and jump, but just dived a bit more, and took some more line again.

At one stage I started to panic and said that I was going to be spooled! Dean in a very calm way, looked at my reel and said: "No don't stress about that, you still have plenty of line on your reel, at least 10 meters" and burst out laughing. Typical of the kind of thing that I needed to keep my cool! 

It was time for some serious rod work and under the good advices of Dean I got it back to the boat. Where for the first time it came close to the surface for a very short time and Dean said: It is a Barramundi, did you see it, it is a Barra! We got even more excited, and I started to think that I had just hooked the biggest Barramundi ever. Or at least my personal best. This fish was delivering me the best battle that I had ever encounter. Just as it was under the boat, one of the hook popped and the rod had a little jump in my hand when it happened. Even Dean saw it and said that I must have popped a hook.

Just another way to stress you even more when you are fighting what you are now sure is your biggest barra ever.

Dean got the net ready and on the first scoop got the fish in it.

It was suddenly very hard not to shout very loudly how happy I was.

This had been the best fighter I had ever had on the line while chasing Barramundi, even if it wasn't my personal best.

My super rocket fish.

Yet at 76 cm (29.92126 inch) it was my best Darwin Harbour Barramundi. I was not going to have a zero fish round in the harbour and I was full of joy.

Also, I was going to get some good fish for my little one, and this made me happy too.

So head first it was pushed in the esky.

Billster came by and joked that they had been trolling this stretch all morning for not a single fish and that on our first troll in there we had a decent fish: totally unfair from his point of view.

I nearly apologised, but was too happy for it, that wouldn't have ringed true.

We did get a few very nice hit in the same creek, one of them bending the hook of my lure, straight on the hit, without even the hint of a brawl. I just didn't got the time to do anything... This made me think that maybe, just maybe, I should ease my drag a little bit...

Then Dean got a nice little Queenfish:

Queenfish in the sky.

It was released, and we could see Muntzy who had joined us in this creek, getting some nice fish.

Dean then got a rat of a Barra, it was definitively too small to give him any point. But we had fun making a photo like if it was a very big fish:

The giant little fish.

Mutzy just to show us how to do it, got another fish:

Muntzy with a point scorer.

Fishing solo, he was doing a great job at steering his boat, reeling in and netting his fish all by himself.

But it was the end of the day, it was time to call it a day and to go back to port.

The wind had picked up a bit but it was still a nice trip on the harbour:

Homeward bound.

This had been a great weekend, with a lot of laugh, and some good fishing too. 

After all getting fish like that just next to a capital city is still a really cool feeling.

Thank you Dean for taking me onboard of your boat.

Then at the prize presentation, I didn't get any prize for my fishing, but I got a lucky door prize!

And when I say lucky, it was more than lucky.

Dean had got some really cool prizes in the previous round and had made a donation toward a prize for the round five. Sheeby won the door prize, but because he had won the second place in the round five, and had already received a very nice reel, he said to redraw the door prize so someone else get a chance at it. And that was me!

Here is what I got for my door prize:

KO Lures.

A voucher to be spent in the KO Lures shop in Darwin. 

For those of you that don't know KO Lures, this is a new brand of fishing tackle accessories, by a Darwin company. I have not yet fished with any of their lures, but they do look good and very robust, so I can't wait to try them.

Thank Top End Barra Series, Dean, Sheeby and KO Lures.

The two little soft plastics at the bottom were a present as a bonus from the boss of KO Lures, very kind of him, I will swim them as soon as I can!

How and what was my score in this round?

Well I arrived in seventh position for the round, and this placed me in number four on the overall scoreboard. 

One point higher that at the last round.

This is great, but I will not be able to climb higher on the ladder, as the three first ones, have way too much advance for me to catch up with them in the next and final round. Even if I was to win the next round (which I don't believe I can), I would just stay in the fourth position. 

And realistically, there is a lot more chance of me loosing a few point in he next round, which will take place in a billabong where I have fished only twice in the past.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.