The Commemorative Rapala.

Hi there,

I was offered a commemorative fishing lure, made by Rapala for a local tackle shop.
And by no one else than the winner of the 2012 Top End Barra Series, Mr. Gregory Shields.
Thank you Gregory, this is much appreciated.

It was during a nice evening at the Ski Club in Darwin, for the end of competition event.
Just by the sea, under the palm trees it was a great night.

Early evening at the Ski Club.

With the moon in the sky.

I really like this place, it is a great spot to relax at the end of any day.

But back on topic, I got a new fishing lure...

As part of his winning prizes as the 2012 champion, Gregory received this beautiful lure.

The very thing that I wanted to win in the last round of this friendly competition, but it had eluded me.

Knowing that I collect fishing lures with advertising on them, Gregory came towards me in the evening and asked me if I wanted it.

I was so surprised, that at first I believed that he was joking.

But no, he was being honest and generous and for my great pleasure, gifted it to me.

Thanks again.

The lure is a commemorative Rapala, made for the 40 years of Fishing & Outdoor World, the oldest fishing tackle shop in Darwin, NT Australia. And in a place like Darwin where fishing is an integral part of the local culture, this is saying something.

In fact, it is even my favourite shop in town.

The shop opened in 1972 and 2012 marked the 40 years anniversary... 

I wonder what they will do in 2022 to mark the 50 years...

So, want to see it?

Here it is:

The commemorative Rapala.

This is the X-Rap SXR-10. It swims to 1,2-1,8 meter (4'-6'), weight 13 grams (7/16oz.) and is 10 cm (4") long.

The colour is FOW of course!

I love to collect advertising or commemorative fishing lures, and this is my first one from Rapala, so I am very happy with it.

Yes I know, this is a blog post about a fishing lure, in which there is two photos of palm trees, and just one of the lure...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2012 Top End Barra Series Round 4.

Hi there,

Last weekend was the round 4 of the 2012 Top End Barra Series, and it was all happening at the Adelaide River Mouth.
Once again I teamed up with Arrabmundi, for a weekend of fishing.
We started early, leaving home at 4:00am on Saturday.
It is said that the early bird get the worm, but in this case it was the early fisherman get the fish.
As Arrabmundi got the first fish, just as the sun was about to rise:

Hooked in the darkness.

The fish had been hooked deep in the river, and we were full of anticipation, waiting to see it's colour.

And that was a nice surprise, as this was a fish that none of us had caught in the past:

Arrabmundi and the River Jew.

Not being sure if this fish was good to eat or not, it was put back in the water...

Later one some mates fishing the Barra Series too, told us that it should have been put in the esky, not back in the water... Well we will know it for the next time.

Any way, just after this nice capture, we started a little troll run, and I casted my lures at the back of the boat. Let some line out, to troll a fair way out, then put the reel on and started to wait for the lure to go down... But it didn't went very deep, as it was crushed by a little Barramundi as soon as in started to dive.

A quick and clean fight and the fish was in the boat!

First Barramundi of the weekend.

It wasn't a monster fish, but at 70cm (27.559055 inches), it was going to be my best Barramundi of the weekend. Yes the fishing was going to be hard. 

Still it was not yet 7:00 am, the sun was rising, and we already had boated to nice fishes, spirits were flying high.

Sunrise on the creek.

Then things slowed dramatically, and it was hard work to get a fish.

Yet, the landscape made up for it, this is another beautiful place for a bit of fishing.

Mangrove in the morning lights.

But after some more trolling, some more casting, and no more fish, we had a little meeting with two other boat involved in the competition, and decided to have a brainstorming in the best boardroom in the world:

Summit meeting in the boardroom.

After that we head to the creek number 2, where we saw Rossco and Lincoln.

Rossco gave me a cool little lure for my collection, thanks Rossco.

Then it was back to it, and Arrabmundi got a nice little Blue Salmon:

First Blue Salmon of the weekend.

This was the only Salmon for the day, but not the first of the weekend.

And this was a double hook up too!

Even if my fish was a bit smaller I was still very happy, because it was on a lure that I had never tried before. And double hook up are alway fun.

Snapper on the Tomahawk.

These Snapper taste real good, but this one being on the small side, I put it back.

At least it did give me confidence in the lure. It is always a good thing to catch a fish on a new lure, even if it is not of the targeted specie.

Some more trolling, some more casting and finally Arrabmundi got a Barramundi too:

Second Barramundi on board.

At 57 cm (22.440945 inches) this was a great relief for the two of us as we were now both on the board.

So we decided to get an early break, and stop fishing before sun down, in fact by mid afternoon. This would allow us to get back at the boat ramp before the low tide. So we could navigate the rock bar.

So at the end of day one, we both had a fish in the bag, and were discussing how to improve on that the following day.

The plan that was hatched was to come much later on the sunday, and to stay later on the day.

Bassically, to do the opposite of what we did on the first day.

Sunday saw us getting on the water at around lunch time, once again full of hopes and dreams.

We started by trolling a very little rumble in the middle of the Narrows, and it was nearly a Blue Salmon a pass.

It started with Arrabmundi getting one, then me, then hime again.

And on and on...

A little Blue Salmon.

And another one.

They were hitting pretty hard and giving a very good account of themselves in the rapid flowing current. And more that once we believed that we had hooked on a nice Barramundi, just to see that it was not once the fish neared the boat.

But it was still very good fun.

I even got a small Rock Cod in the middle of all that, but we couldn't get a Barra.

So we moved back to the Creek number one.

There, Arrabmundi got a very nice Snapper:

Snapper caught on lure.

And I finally landed my second Barramundi of the weekend!

Little Barramundi.

But it was 2cm (0.78740157 inches) short to be a point scorer!

Ha!

So I put it back hoping for better.

And do you know what I soon got in guise of better?

A Catfish, that is what I got, a small Catfish...

Ho, and we were both having a sever case of Dropsie, and dropped a few fish that we would have loved to net...

Then not long after that, at the end of a troll run, we had just started to retrieve our lures, when I got a hook up.

Not a massive thing, but it did make a nice swirl on the surface.

The pressure was not super strong, but I could feel it pulling on the line.

Then the fish took some serious speed and swam from the back of the boat to the side of the boat in no time.

Ho ho, was it finally my big Mama Barra that I have been dreaming of for so long, getting ready to take off for the centre of the river and deeper water?

I started to get excited and wanted to see what it was.

Then I saw it...

It was just a small Queenfish...

Little Queenie.

This one I kept for Double Haul, who often ask me to get hime some small queenfish, so he could use them as skipping bait for Marlin fishing.

It was starting to be late, and we really wanted to catch some Barramundi.

And it finally happened, as we were casting some soft plastic in some snags, Arrabmundi started to drop one more fish, then he was on.

But the fish took him directly in the timbers for a dirty fight.

At one stage it was stuck between some submerged branches and mangrove roots.

But Arrabmundi did very well, and got it out of there, and swimming on the other side of the boat. Where I was waiting with the net and in the boat it came!

Last fish of the weekend

At 62cm (24.409449 inches), this was a good upgrade for Arrabmundi.

It is funny how even a day like that, even if it is not your fish, but your mate fish, it still makes you very happy. And happy we were.

But it was starting to be late, and with the sunset approaching we decided to call it a day, and to head toward the boat ramp and home.

Sunset over the weekend of fishing.

On the way back, it was starting to be dark, and the water was much lower than we had anticipated, we nearly didn't make it pass the rock bar, and had to zigzag over it to find the deeper waters that would allow the boat to sail through.

And once at the ramp, we were surprise by the big step at the bottom of it and were wondering how we were going to negotiate that.

Well the trailer was put pass the step, and the boat winched on it. Then the four wheels drive pulled the lot out of it and we were all safe on terra firma.

We didn't get all the Barramundi that we were hoping for, but we got a very nice mixed bag. We got some Blue Salmon, River Jew, Rock Cod, Snapper, Catfish and of course a few Barramundi. This to me was a pretty good weekend of fishing, thanks again Arrabmundi for inviting me on your boat, I had a really good time.

And were do I stand in the comp after this round?

Well remember after the round three, I ended up in 7th position. 

After this round I and now in 5th place, so it is not so bad in the end.

But I am not sure with two more rounds to go, that I will be able to stay this well placed on the overall scoreboard...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

My smallest Barramundi ever

Hi there,


Yes I was invited by my friend Carl to go on his boat to fish for some Barra at Shoal Bay.
He called me and said, I need to test my old boat and motor, not really sure if every thing still work, so will go and spend a day at Shoal Bay to test it... Dave would follow us in his good boat in case we run into some trouble. Do you want to come?
I said yes, and started to think about all the things that could go wrong...


But every thing went very well, mostly...


We were soon on the water, launched at Buffalo Creek and off to some rivers of Shoal Bay.
And when I say some rivers it is not because I want to keep the secret spot a secret, but because I honestly do not know the names of the places where we went to. Apart that it was part of the Shoal Bay system.

One of the rivers of Shoal Bay.

The only little worry we had on the way, was that the fuel stopped to get to the engine, so he had to change the little piece that connect the petrol tank to the tube that go to the engine, the thing with a ball bearing in it, and off we went again.
(Do you start to get some clues on my mechanic lack of expertise?)

Then we stopped at a little creek on the big river, where they wanted to catch some live bait.
I had my new cast net with me, the one with a ring on it, ant it worked very well: I too was able to catch some mullet!
But the annoying thing that we saw on the bank there was a gill net half hidden in the bush, (I had never seen one before).
That got my two fishing mates pretty upset.


Then we moved to another spot to try our luck, and in the drink went a few littles livies.
With not too much action happening, I started to cast some lures around.
Shallow lures, till 5+meters lures, but to no avail either.


There we saw the water police, two of them on a tinny, they came towards us and asked us a few questions. We told them about the gill net that we saw earlier and they asked where it was, as they wanted to go and investigated the thing.
It doesn't look like a bad beat for a policeman to go and hang out on the river on a nice and sunny day.
I guess that some of them deserve that once in a while.
And no, they didn't have any fishing rods with them, we asked.


So My skipper said lets go to this spot where I always catches fishes.
We went there, and caught nothing again...
But I got two hit on the lure, one of them just at the boat as I was taking the lure out of the water.

Landscape on the river.

So we went to explore a bit more of the rivers and went upstream.
We stopped at another junction and tried to fish it for a few minutes, and no action at all one more time...
So Dave went a bit further upstream, and we decided to go after him and see what was up there.
He came back and said to us: "it's not worth it, to much rocks over there".
So Carl said "lets go and have a look"
And this is when we went for gold...
Or at least plated gold, as it was no big fish, but a lot of them little ones.


Has we arrived Carl told me, "The current is really strong, but I am sure that all these rocks are good Barra country, you should try a few cast with your lures"
Not wanting to loose a good (read expensive) hard body lure on the rocks, I started to cast a soft plastic in the stream.
And second or third cast, I was on! But lost it before the boat.
Seeing that Carl quickly tied the boat to a tree and put a lure on his line, and we started to cast and got two fish in no times.
Both too small to be keepers, but we finally had some action, and they were using the force of the current at their advantage, so it was real fun.
Then Dave arrives and said: "You guys are wasting your time there, lets go back somewhere else".
To which Carl responded by saying that we just had two little fish in no time at all, so we were not moving, and that he Dave should anchor below us and start to get into it too!
Which he did reluctantly, but was on so quickly that he started to smile. 
And for about one hour, the last hour of fishing of the day, between all of us we finally boated between 15 to 20 little Barramundis. 
Not a single one big enough to take home, but great excitement nonetheless!
And all on lure after trying with live bait for most of the day...


As soon has I saw that this little stream was full of fish, I changed my one hooked soft plastic for a Junior B52's with two treble.
This increased my catch rate dramatically, but as they were all small fish, I decided to try to go for a B52's and put back the Junior in the tackle box. 
And this is when I got... The smallest Barra of all times caught on a lure...
What went trough his mind when he attacked the lure, must have been a very determined: I Am The Alfa Fish!  
So as a lot of people brags about their biggest Barramundi, I present you my smallest one ever:

A greedy little fish.

The only good fish hooked during this short session was by Carl, but as the fish was just a few meters behind the boat still fighting hard, something big came a just boofed it under our eyes! And we weren't sure of what it was, but we all agreed that it was not the time to fall in the water...


But it was really fun and exciting to catch all these little Barras in such a short time, all in the same spot.
It was like if two team of kids were pitted against each other. As this is what we must have looked like, screaming and cheering as we were on them, kids Barra, and sometimes with double hook up. The three of us casting in the same direction, all hoping for the big one that didn't came.


After that we went back, and got stuck on the mud a few times, but finally made it to the boat ramp in the dark.

On the river at dusk.

So it was basically the first time that I hooked  and boated so many Barramundi, but I could not bring back a single one home, as none were of legal size.


All in all, there was no fish to eat in the evening, but that was still a great day on the water.


So once again, I came back home without a feed.


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