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.

A day Of Small Fish.

Hi there,

I hadn't fished in a long time, and decided to give it a go, as I was starting to show some serious fishing withdrawal signs...

So to an easy and close to home spot I went, East Point was the chosen location.
It was much later in the day than the time I usually fish there, and thus wasn't sure that I would be able to catch anything. Yet the idea to spend a few hours under the sun on the water edge was enough to get me there.

I first went to a spot where I have caught reasonably nice Barramundi in the past...
And it was not the spot to shine on this day.
Still, I quickly got a small Cod:

First Rock Cod of the day.

This made me happy, as I honestly thought that it was just going to be a day walking along the water.

It was a rather small fish, so in the water it went back, like all the fish I was going to get on the day.

From there, it didn't take very long to catch another of these little Cods:

Second Cod of the day.

Both fish at this location were caught using weedless soft plastic lures. The place is full of mangrove roots, and it has shown me in the past how a good fishing lure cemetery it can be. So now, I prefer to diminish my hook-up rate, instead of offering lure after lure to the mangrove gods, hence the use of weedless lures at this spot.

But the bite slowed to a crushing halt, things went very quite, and for the first time of the year I had a feeling that the dry season was either upon us or just around the corner.

And the Dragonfly seemed to think alike:

Dragonfly at rest on my fishing rod.

Obviously that one could not have found a more suitable, calm spot to rest...

I took a sip from my water bottle to give it a bit of time, then gently shook the rod to signify that I was ready for action again.

The dragonfly went it's way, and I started to wonder if I shouldn't do the same?

And the same I did.

I decided to try a spot I had often been told about but had never tried: the gun turret.

Got there, and found two other anglers who had gotten the same idea.

One was fishing with live bait, the other one with lures.

The live baiter wasn't catching anything, the lure guy seemed to catch a few.

Beauty! I told myself, I might get a fish or two.

First fishing on their right for absolutely no love, I decided to walk pass them an go further on the left.

Once there, I waded in ankle deep water to what seemed to me a good spot.

Where I was able to perch myself on a rock that was coming out of the sea.

This is when I saw just a bit further on the left, the bait being absolutely smashed by what seemed to be a few Barramundi!

Quick! I told myself get yourself over there and flick your lure at them!

Trying to be fast on unknown terrain can sometimes be a stupid thing...

And it was...

I put my right foot in a drop, and suddenly wasn't ankle deep in water anymore...

I lost balance and fell face first. It wasn't that deep, but enough to get myself and all my gear wet.

I told myself: "common boy don't be overtly sensitive, it is just a bit of water and fishing gear are made to be wet"...

Well yes kind of...

Anyway, I pulled myself back up, had a laugh and got myself, slower where I wanted to be.

And that was the spot!

I first got another little Cod:

Third and last Cod of the day.

Still happy to have caught this little fella, but slightly disappointed as I was really hopping for a Barramundi, because of the way the bait had been harassed just a few minutes before.

Any way, perched on another rock, it all become right...

I could now see them little Barramundi, swimming in the water not very far from me, eating small baits.

It was like going on a boat on the flat doing some sight casting, except that it was land based, and that the fish were smaller.

But the kick from it was the same, the excitement of seeing them was great.

This is how I got my first little Barramundi, the first one in about a month.

Not big, but mine mine mine!

First little Barramundi of the day.

Yes, to me being mostly land based, even small fish are sweet, and this one made me really happy.

I got another one in no time at all, but as it was at my feet and I got the camera ready, it managed to spit the lure and swim away. This one was a funny one, it was the first time I saw that, it kept boofing with the lure in its mouth, to try to dislodge it. (Which worked good for him). It was really fun to see this little fish going Boof, turning around and going Boof! Boof! Again.

Well it was amusing until it spat the lure, little bugger!

Still it showed me something I had never seen and was a good experience.

I moved to the next rock, and got my third Barra for the day:

Third Barramundi of the day.

This even if small, was going to be the best one of the day.

As they were obviously all too small to keep, I tried to photograph them all in the water, to minimise any arm.

That is all except the last one...

Because it was what I believe might be the smallest Barramundi I ever caught:

Smallest Barramundi ever on my lure.

It was fun to see such small fish get so greedy in their attack on the lure. And already displaying all the qualities of their biggest brothers and sisters: boofing, jumping and all.

By then I could walk all the way onto the turret, which I had never done before.

Once there, I decided to take a photo, but with my phone instead of my camera...

And this is when I remembered/realised, that my phone was in my pants pocket when I fell in the water.

Now mobile phone and salt water are generally not the perfect match.

And when I saw my phone, I immediately decided to go back home and try to save this wet phone...

Will it work again?

Only time will tell...

So all in all it had been a great morning, with 3 little cods and 4 of the smallish Barramundi I ever caught. Some people say that size doesn't matter, so let be honest, I had great fun catching them.

If it wasn't for my wet phone, it would have been a perfect last day for the month of April.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2017 Top End Barra Series Round 1

Hi there,

Last weekend was the first round of the 2017 Top End Barra Series.
For the ones amongst you who don't know yet, the Top End Barra Series is a very social and friendly Barramundi fishing tournament.
Made of six rounds over the year, in different locations at different times of the year.
Each round last for a full weekend.
The competition is now in its seventh season.

Once the last round of the year is done and dusted, most of the anglers who fish the Top End Barra Series, can't wait for the next year first round and all the thing to restart again.
And this was the case once again, with this year what a lot of people expected to be a much better fishing than the last few years, as we finally have the first good wet season since 2011.

Like for the last few years, the destination of the first round was Shady Camp.
A place known for its potentially very big Barramundi. This is where everyone goes hoping to catch the much sought after Barramundi over the meter in length.

Now as some of you might remember, I do not have a boat.
So for this round, I was to be fishing with Jason on the first day, and as he was going to leave in the afternoon of Saturday, I was going to jump into Rossco's boat for the reminder of the round.

Jason, picked me up at 4:00am, I had been up since 1:45am, unable to sleep du to the excitement of going fishing for the full weekend.
Yes I was going to be really really tired on Saturday night...
But it was worth it!
We had planed to take some ice and refill the petrol at the last station service on the road...
Well you know that thing that they say that sound a bit like "Don't wait until the last minute to do the things you got to do"... That was a bit of a case of just that...
The last service station was closed, and we had to go back to fill up.

Still we arrived at the Shady camp barrage at sunrise:

Launching at Shady Camp Barrage.

For me launching there has always been a bit scary, du to the large quantity of very big crocodile that inhabit the area. So I do prefer when there is already a bit of light than in total darkness.

From there we zoomed without stoping to the mouth of Sampan River to troll.
To our surprise, not that many boats were trolling the mouth.
Just a few in fact.
Once we started to troll it, we quickly understand why...
It was a bit choppy.

Chop at the mouth of Sampan.

We had made two passes and decided to troll a bit further, about two kilometres out.

On the turn, I changed lure and put a Classic Barra 160 +10 in the Green Dazzler colour on the end of my line.

A lure that had never yet produced for me at Shady Camp.

And this is where I would love to tell you that, I spent a few seconds to read the sea and the waves, Made the perfect cast, of 32, 7 metres in length, so my lure would drop just in the dip of a wave.

I waited for the sun reflection to flash on my lures, and gently twitched it in front of a nice Barramundi that I had spotted just there, who eagerly wolfed it down...

But this is not how it happened...

With this lure that I had received as a present from my friend Peter, I made the biggest cast that I could as far away from the boat as I could, and it was not far enough. So still in free spool I let the line run and looked at my lure which seemed to be further and further away from me.

When I started to think that it should be enough, I clicked the reel's drag on, and in less than a wink, just as the lure made its first move, a fish took it in earnest!

I first thought that it must have been a big Salmon, as I saw the splash but hadn't been able to put an ID on the fish. The first run was long, and the fish heavy, I could not stop it. Then it jumped, it was a Barramundi!

Just right then, I felt the pressure rise a few notches. Jason had practically finished to reeled in his lure, and was looking at what I was doing.

I told him that this fish was heavy and taking all my line, that I feared that it would spool me.

Jason put the boat in reverse, and this is how I first gained a bit of line.

When we finally saw the fish, Jason started to say that it might be in the 80s. When it was closer, I could then see the lure on the outside of the Barramundi mouth and started to stress that it was going to be able to escape my capture.

And then Jason said, "oh he might be a good 90s"...

Finally it arrived close enough to be scooped in the net, and on the deck.

The monkey was off my back and I may have danced a little bit on the boat.

It was a nice fish:

My First Barramundi of the weekend.

Coming in at 97cm (38.188976 Inches), caught before 9:00am, this was going to be my third biggest Barramundi ever.

Oh yes I was happy and I still smile thinking about it.

She did take a bit of time to be revived and to swim away strong, but in the end thanks to the perseverance of Jason, she was fit and kicked away.

We deducted from this catch than instead of trolling fast as most people do at Shady, we would try to troll slow:

With a storm in the back.

Well this didn't work very well and just confirmed that Lady Luck had just been very kind to me when she gave me that fish.

So it was time to change tactics, and we moved back into the river.

There we started to flick soft plastic lures to the snags.

I got a hit, Jason got a hit. We could see prawns being stressed and chased by some predators.

we casted some more and Jason line went tense, he was on!

It was a nice fat little Barramundi:

Jason's Barramundi.

At 57cm (22.440945 Inches) It was no monster in length, but it did make up for it in weight as it was as fat as a happy piglet. So it might not have be bacon, but in the esky it went nonetheless, as it was perfect size to be eaten.

By then, it was time for Jason to go back toward the city.

We looked for Rossco and found him, his boat rafted up with another one.

We went next to them and I passed on my gear from one boat to another. Said goodbye and thank you to Jason, and jumped in Rossco's boat.

And just then the sky opened up and the rain fell upon the hearth and the rivers...

Rain over Sampan Creek.

It did fall hard, but not for very long, and once it stopped, we decided to troll our lures around the joint.

Which resulted in a very nice little Threadfine Salmon for me:

Little Salmon.

This one was also perfect plate size and as Rossco like his Threadfine, I gave it to him.

By then it started to be a bit late, and we had made plans with Peter and Rob to catch up in Tommycut, so we headed that way, in the sunset...

Stormy sunset.

We got lucky enough to not get rained on over the trip there. But we still ended up drenched, because of the wind and the waves:

Rossco steering his boat.

Once there we quickly found Peter and Rob, and rafted up the two boats together, in a nice and calm little spot. We had dinner and some good laughs. But once the night had fallen, I started to feel the the weight of a long day on my shoulders, and quickly crashed to catch as many Z as I could.

Night time over Tommy Cut.

As the morning arrived we were greeted by a rainbow and a drizzle:

Cloudy morning and rainbow over Tommycut.

A very quick breakfast and we were fishing again.

After a short troll run, Rossco said that we were now in front of a little feeder creek where one of his sons had caught some Barramundi in the past.

So we started to flick some lure in there.

Looking at the bait that we could see swimming around, I decided to change my lure, and to downsize, opting for a Junior B52 from Reidy's in gold and orange.

It took just a few cast and I was on to a feisty little barra.

When we saw it we both hoped that it would be a point scorer, but said that it wasn't sure...

Well it was 50cm (19.685039 Inches) on the dot.

So too small to keep, but just a point scorer:

Little Barramundi and Chupa Chups.

Yes, even if it was on the smallish side, I was still very happy to have a fish in my hands, for a quick photo and a release.

Noticing the quick success I got with the Junior B52, Rossco didn't waste anytime changing his lure.

He went for a Junior B52 too, but his was in the gold and black colours.

Well with that he nearly immediately hooked on a Barramundi.

But it was not exactly the mother of all Barramundi, it was rather the cute little brother, and little is the keyword there...

Reeling in a cute little Barra.

This one was too small to be a point scorer, but it definitively offered a great photo opportunity:

Baby Barramundi.

We had a good laugh about it thinking that if anyone saw us taking a picture like that they would have thought that we were crazy. Sometimes you don't need much to laugh.

The tide was falling and we still had regular hits.

This is about then that we saw Seano and Gavin passing by, and they stopped for a little chat.

They told us that like ourselves, they did find the fishing hard. Seeing fish on the sounder, fish that didn't what to eat anything. And on top of that, Seano had a few battery trouble on his boat.

As they left we restarted to cast  our lures and in no times, Rossco was on!

This time the fish seemed a bit bigger and gave an honest fight.

It was a better fish:

Rossco's last Barramundi for the weekend.

Coming in at 62cm (24.409449 Inches) it was going to be a good point scorer for Rossco. And a delicious fillet for me, as Rossco kindly shared the bounty with me. Once again, I was going to feed my family a fish caught by someone else.

Because the only fish that I caught after that was a small Catfish, which of course I let go.

We then made our way back to the mouth of Tommycut, trolled around for a little while, I did get a very strong hit, but it didn't stay connected.

We took the opportunity of a break in the wind to go back to Sampan.

There is was a bit of fishing again, but with not much success.

So we made our way back to the ramp, asking along the way to a few people if they were going back toward Darwin and could give me a lift, as it would have allowed Rossco to stay one more day to fish.

Alas, no one was going back so Rossco could not stay for the following day and he drove me back to the city.

The road back towards civilisation.

What a weekend it had been!

First round of the 2017 TEBS, as it is known by many.

I had fished from two different boats, thank you Jason and Rossco for offering me the chance to fish for a full weekend.

I had caught my third biggest Barramundi so far.

And I had a very good time in very good company.

When is the next round???

And yes, this is where it hurts, the next round is in about two months...

Two long months before being again in the ambiance of the Top End Barra Series, and a full weekend of fishing... 

This will be a long wait.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

First Barramundi Of The Year.

Hi there,

Yes, I finally got my first Barramundi for the year.

• We fished on the Adelaide river.
• We got all our fish on soft plastic lures.
• We got all our fish on the cast.

Jason had asked me if I wanted to go for a bit of Barramundi fishing on the Adelaide river.

Of course I said yes!

It is still early in the season, a bit too early in fact, but who could resist a fishing trip, instead of staying home doing some cleaning and other important stuff?

So we were on the road very early, and it was still dark by the time we launched the boat:

Launching in the dark.

But as opposed to all the other trips that I had done on the Adelaide river, this time we had decided to go down river, instead of upstream. This to me was a first, and I was excited to go to discover some new territories.

We stopped as the day had started, to a little creek and started to flick our lures across the little stream flowing in the river. We were using large hard body lures, and didn't register any hits, but who could hear and sometimes see little boof here and there around us.

One fish was rather constant on our left.

We casted many time in it's direction but couldn't get anything to have a go at our lures.

I even tried a fizzer, in the hope that it would provoke a strike.

Just as we decided to drift past a bit lower, we changed lures and both of us had now soft plastic lures on our lines.

I made my first cast with it towards the spot where the little Barramundi had been repeatedly boofing.

That was not the best cast in the world, and my lure ended in the weed bordering the water. I gave a sharp jerk on the line to get it off the weed, the lure dropped in the water, I gave one turn of the handle, and said: Oh! I just got a hit!

But it wasn't just a hit I was on! in fact the fish had then been swimming parallel to the boat and it did take me a few seconds to realise that I was on.

The fight wasn't very long, as the fish was no monster, and once at the boat, I just grabbed the leader line by hand, and pulled the fish in the boat. I had just boated my first Barramundi of the year!

First little Barramundi of the year.

This little run off Barramundi, made me very happy, it is alway nice to catch the first one of the year.

And lets be honest, this happen only once a year...

I had caught it on the first cast of the day with a soft plastic, surely this was going to be the lure of the day ... Well yes and no... Yes, because it caught me my best fish of the day, but no, because that was also going to be my last Barramundi of the day, for me.

But not long after that, as we arrived to another little run off, Jason was on!

And his fish was better than mine:

Jason and his Barramundi.

This fish too was caught on a soft plastic and on the cast.

From there on, the long desert crossing started...

No more Barramundi were to be caught for the day...

We did try every little colour change that we saw, like this one:

Colour change on the Adelaide river.

But to no avail.

So we went back up the river, as far as Beatrice creek. First as we arrived we had the place for ourselves. But it must have taken about all of ten short minutes, to have at least five or six other boats around us, all casting or even anchoring about where we were flicking our lures ten minutes before...

The junction of Beatrice and Adelaide, with a few boats.

Some of the boats even had stereo blasting some night club music...

I might start to be an old fashioned kind of guy, but when fishing, I still prefer the sound of nature and the birds than the Duff Duff music...

Anyway we persisted there for a while, and Jason got two very good hits, but none stayed connected.

The sky was starting to grow darker and more menacing by the minute, and a few lightning started to be seen in the cloudy sky.

Dark sky.

So we made it back towards the ramp, and turned in one last little creek to see if we could get lucky, one more time.

We got lucky with the rain, that is for sure, as it fell upon us like there was no tomorrow.

The positive in it, is that it was refreshing.

And then the rain stopped... For a few minutes and restarted... And stopped again, and started again, a few time.

Flood plain from the last little creek.

In this little creek I actually got a fish, but it was either a Garfish or a Long Tom, not sure which one of them.

It was of the same colour than a Barramundi that would have spend the winter in a billabong. Never I had seen one of this colour before.

But between the intermittent rain and the lack of Barramundi, we decided to call it a day and to head home.

The sky was still full of rain:

Clouds over the Adelaide river.

when we arrived at the ramp, we saw that a lot of people had the same idea than us, and it was a bit busy.

Waiting next to the ramp.

But it wasn't that long before we were able to put the boat back on the trailer, and on the road again, home bounds.

Thanks again to Jason for inviting me fishing, it was great to finally get my first little Barra of the year.

In this trip I used 18 different hard body lures, and four different soft plastics, for a grand total of two fish caught...

I think that this is the absolute proof that I needs more fishing lure...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

I Broke Another Fishing Rod.

Hi there,

Today I went fishing to East Point, trying to catch a Barramundi, before the big rains that should arrive very soon.
At first when I rocked up to the spot, I didn't like my chances of getting any fish very much.
The water was dirty, and not very flat.
Here is an image of what the water looked like:

Dirty waters at East Point.

Now, I do know that Barramundi love colour changes and sometime dark waters. But for the fishing that I like doing at this spot, the conditions were not really auspicious. I usually prefer when the water is very clear, and when I can see my lure swimming underwater. Also because I can then see the Barramundi attacking the lure, and it always give me a kick.

But today, the water was dirty, at the sky overcast.

Oh well, I was there, after much deliberation at home, looking at the radar picture on my mobile phone, trying to see if it was going to rain or not?

Would it be worth getting out of bed on a weekend day?

Well as I said, I was there, with nothing to loose then.

So I started to cast my lure.

Wondering why I had been optimistic and even left home?

The tide was not where I wanted it to be, the wind was flying my light lure to the side of where I wanted it to be...

This looked like it was going to get a great day, with no fish and a chance of rain...

Oh well...

You are here now my boy, so cast your lure over there past these rocks...

After less than a dozen casts, as I was retrieving my lure, and thinking that it must now have been out of the strike zone, I glanced at the sky, wondering how long it would be before the heavens open, and I would get drenched by the rain?

Rod's tip down, flicking without even thinking about it during the retrieve, and it all happened...

Boom I was on!

A pretty sharp hit, and the line flying out of my reel.

A flash of silver in the muddy water, yes it is a Barramundi and not a cod!

It heads straight for some rock on the right, turn left for some other rock, jump in front of me, and go even more to the left. You Beauty I think, there is a little grove in the rocks there I will be able to pick you up, as soon as I get you there.

But no, it had other ideas and swam quickly back to the right and is finally at my feet, but in front of a step rock.

I really don't want to loose this fish, and I am maybe just a bit more excited than I should be.

Well ok, I am totally lost in the action, way more excited than I would like to admit it. 

And this is when and why I make a rookie mistake.

I high stick to lift the fish out of the water and onto the rocks.

Just as the fish is above the rocks, I hear a dry kind of noise, and the fish felt flat on the rocks at my feet.

I nudge it further on the rocks with my foot and look in disbelief at my rod.

It is broken in two, and this is not the first time that I did that...

Broken fishing rod.

This was the oldest of my baitcaster rods, I had it for nearly ten years, so some would say that it had made its time. Still I was a bit disappointed.

I could not help to think that in such a short time, less than twelve casts and I had this fish. So many other might have been around, and I was not going to catch them now...

And the fish? What did it look like?

The fish that broke my rod:

My fish of the day.

Yes, it was no monster but at 70cm (27.55 inches) it was in my book, still a cool fish to get land based. And in any way, better than what I got in a long time, so I was still very happy with that.

Now, with a fish in my bag, and no more fishing rod, I decided to go home.

And just as I got in the car, it started raining. Not for very long, but still pretty hard.

If I hadn't broken my rod, i would still have been on the beach, and would be well and truely wet by now. So in the end breaking this rod, still had a positive side to it.

Even if I really would love to stop breaking them so easily ...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.