FFF Seadogs 2016 Prize.

Hi there,

Yes, I was lucky enough to win a round of the FFF Seadogs 2016.
And not any round but the last one, basically I really got in by the skin of my teeth.

So first what is the FFF Seadogs competition?
It is a friendly fishing competition organised by the FFF fishing forum, in Australia.
The competition is made of eleven rounds, and the angler with the best fish in a round win this round.
At the end of the year, the person who had the biggest number of points (Allocated by the sizes of fish entered in the competition each rounds) win the Grand Prize of Seadog of the year.

Now, I have entered this competition since it's beginning, and it is only the very first time that I win a round in it. This is a testament to the quality of the many anglers who compete in it every years.
And my win was I believe due more to sheer luck than anything else.
But hey, I will take it anyway.

So what did I win?
This:

Yes, all of this!

Now let's have a closer look at all these goodies.

First the Rapala:

Three Rapala fishing lures.

Yes, note one, not two but three Rapala fishing lures.

One Max Rap and two X-Rap XR-12.

The Max Rap swim at 03 to 09M (1-3FT.). And the two X-Rap dive to 1,2-2,4M (4 to 8 FT.).

Then come the Halco / RMG:

Three fishing lures from Halco / RMG.

This lot is made of a 40g Outcast in white, one of my favourite lure when fishing for Queenfish and other small pelagic from the shore. It cast like a bullet and fish love it.

Second is a Laser Pro 120MT, with a swimming depth of 1M. I have never fished with a Laser Pro, but many of my fishing buddies told me that they love it for Barramundi, so I will definitively try it.

And third is the ever reliable Poltergeist 80. A great little lure, which already caught me plenty of fish, and that I rate highly.

Then come the Reidy's:

Two of my favourite Barramundi fishing lure.

One of them is a B52...

Yes, I have said it before, my first ever Barramundi on a lure was on a Reidy's B52.

I have since always had some in my tackle boxes, and always make sure to have a few with me when ever I go fishing. 

The other is a Little Lucifer, these are great lures when fishing the billabong, or at the start of the run off season, when the bait is still relatively small. I have caught some fish with this lure too.

And then came the timber lure:

Deep River Lure.

This one is a Deep River Lure Mugil.

Deep River Lures are handcrafted in Queensland, and are very well finished. I already had two of them, and really like them, even if they are nearly too beautiful to be fished.

They are even signed under the belly:

Deep River Lure Mugil.

But what does the average angler would be with shiny lures and nothing to attach them to?

So here come the fishing line, from Platypus:

Platinum+ Braid by Platypus.

This comes just at the right time. It is here the beginning of the run off season. The time when I get my reels serviced and change the lines that need to be changed. With 300 years of 30lb braid, I will be ok for a little while. Platypus fishing lines are made in Australia and as such are well suited for the harsh condition under which we fish.

And last but not least, the Tonic sunglasses:

Tonic Evo polarized sunglasses.

Each round winner for 2016 was supposed to chose the frame of their choice, and they should have come with polycarbonate lenses. But the guys at Tonic Eyewear decided to give us a nice surprise, and send the glasses with real glass photochromic lenses.

Now that is some super cool stuff!

I already owned a pair of Tonic glasses with photochromic lenses, but I had them for several years and they have suffered the bad treatment that I inflict on my fishing accessories. So a brand new pair is more than welcome.

Oh and what kind of fish did I catch to get rewarded with all these nice things?

Do you remember a post I did in December 2016 about a Barramundi that broke my fishing rod?

That the one!

Yes it did broke my fishing rod, but it brought me a lot more.

I would like to give a big shout out to the FFF Forum for organising this great fishing competition.

And to all the sponsors in no particular order:

Reidy's, Halco / RMG, Rapala, Deep River Lures, Platypus fishing lines, and Tonic Eyewear.

Thank you all, you are making this competition even better.

Now what are my chance to win a round in the FFF Seadogs 2017?

Well, I wouldn't ask you to hold your breath on this one...

As so far I am yet to catch a Barramundi in 2017...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Head-Cam First Try.

Hi there,

Haven't posted in a long time, things with the work situation might change for the better in the next few weeks, so I should then be able to get back into it.

Ok so first a very quick thing about the round 3 of the 2013 Top End Barra Series...
It was not long ago, it was on the famous Daly River, and it was real hard fishing...
74 participants, fishing day and night over a full weekend...
Only twelve Barramundi over the legal size caught over the weekend...
None by me...
But still had a very good time!

Now back to what this post is mostly about, my first try with a video head-cam.
I got one for free, and wanted to try it.
With my luck on the fishing side, seemingly on holidays very very far away at the moment, I decided to  do the testing with a top water lure. In case no fishes were interested in my effort. A popper producing big splashes on the water surface, would give me a few minutes of interesting footage anyway.

So I went to one of the city rock wall early in the morning of a public holiday, and started to flick away and go pop pop pop on the water.
Nothing happened, and I quickly wanted to try a chrome slice, as it is one of my favourite form of fishing.
The chrome slice was pulled out of the bag, and casted away a few hundred times, for nothing.
Then a hard body lure was tried without any better results.

Thinking that I would have to go home soon, I decided to try the popper again, now that the light was a bit better.
But for some reason, I could not get it to pop properly, and started to be sure that it would be a no fish day, with not many interesting footage from my new toy.
Yet, I could see at the end of the rock wall, some mullet getting rather nervous, if not outright stressed, the poor little things.
I could see a change in the water, where the current line break on the end of the rock.
Very flat on one side, and just a tiny little bit choppy on the other side.
This is where I casted my popper, I had often been told that this the kind of places where Queenfish and Trevally could be found.
And I was not lied to, as I got one!

Visioning the film back home showed me that I still have a lot to learn about how to use a video, the film is of pretty poor quality to say the less, I still have to practice, so my films show more water and less sky.
But it is my first one and it made me happy, so here it is:

Darwin Harbour's Queenfish.

All along I din't think that it was a Queenfish, as it didn't mad a single jump.

But I was very happy when I saw that it was one.

The gentleman with a british accent who was fishing next to me, and that I had never meet before, proposed to gaff the fish for me, and did it well, on the first attempt. As I was starting to fillet the bounty, I asked him if he wanted a fillet of it to thank him for his help.

To which he agreed with visible joy. He even asked if he could have the frame of it.

Now I was the happy one, and just finished to cut my fillet and gave him all that was left.

Telling him that he could have it all.

He then asked me if I was going to try for another one, but no, I did not.

I replied that I had enough fish to feed my little family and was happy with that for the day.

Just as I said so, a big splash happened right at our feet, and we could see a few bigger Queenfish cruising the water at speed.

He started to cast a chrome slice toward them, as I left.

I had caught a fish on my first try with my new and first ever video camera, that was going to be the best film in the history of film making!

Well, when I arrived home and looked at it I was slightly disappointed by what I had produced, to be honest. I had a good fish to eat, but obviously needed a lot more practice before making a good film...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Halco Birthday

Hi there,

Ok, the birthday happened two years ago, but it was nonetheless an important milestone for the Australian lure company Halco, as they turned sixty...
Yes they have been making fishing lures for sixty years.
And why do I write about it only now you may ask...
Well because in my great wisdom, I learned about it only two weeks ago. When I was very generously offered by nobody else than the great fishing photographer and writer, Peter Zeroni himself, a commemorative lure of this anniversary.
Thank you Peter.

The lure is a Halco Twisty 40g Chrome.
I had what was my best Mackerel session so far on a Twisty 40g, so this is a lure that I already liked a lot.

Let me introduce you to the birthday lure:

In the box.

The back of the box.

The back of the box reads:

" TWISTY 40g Chrome (LIMITED EDITION)

Halco's Twisty was one of the first lures produced when Halco started operation 60 years ago in Fremantle, Australia. Over the years, modern manufacturing techniques have made the Twisty stronger, smoother and shinier. Now Halco produces Australia's greatest range of hard plastic, timber and metal lures as well as a large range of terminal tackle.

This limited edition lure celebrates Halco's 60th year. "

I know, I could have put the back of the box last, but I just wanted to tease you a bit...

And it also gives you a bit of background information about this very lure.

So here finally comes the lure:

Halco Twisty 40g Chrome.

Close-up of the engraving.

Isn't it beautiful?

Even if the Twisty is one of my favourite metal lure, this one is sure to never ever get near any piece of water. I will keep it safely among the few other who form my little collection.

The more I look at it, and the more I think, that it has been a very long time since I went fishing...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

7 Fishing Lures For The Collection.

Hi there,

Yes I got a bit spoiled by Rossco once again, he offered me seven new, old fishing lures for my collection.
Rossco is a well respected member of the FFF forum.

First comes a Snarl from Killalure:

The Killalure Snarl.

So it is not Billy Idol snarl, this is the Killalure one, but I am really happy to finally have this lure which was missing to my collection. This lure not being produced any more, I was always on the lookout for one to show up at the op-shop or at a lawn sale, and it came to me in the form of a present.

Isn't it nice?

Now is a lure that look a bit like the Snarl:

The Killer Bait.

It is in fact a Killer Bait, an American lure, while the Killalure Snarl is an Australian one.

It is interesting to see them side by side.

Then a lure from Reidy's:

The Aqua Rat.

I love the Aqua Rats (I didn't had one in this colour), and might do a post just about them soon, as it was a very important lure for Reidy's, it put them on the world map of fishing lures.

Stay tuned for more about it.

And here is the JJ's lure:

Stumper jumper from JJ's Lure.

Once again a lure that I had none of in my small collection.

And I always like nice and simple colour like this one, white and blue.

The Manns:

Manns +20.

Manns are American fishing lures, that are commonly used for fishing in Australia.

I do have a few in my collection and like them too.

And interesting thing with this one, is the line attached to it.

If this is the line that the last angler to use this lure used to fish with it... He or she must have been after some kind of very big fish ... 

And talking of big fish:

The Barra Spoon by Halco.

Yes it is called the Barra Spoon, but it is also used by many people to troll for big pelagic.

In fact the first and only time I used one of these myself, was to troll in Darwin Harbour, and I got a nice Spanish Mackerel on it.

This lure is an old classic among the fishing lures used in the Top End.

And one advertising lure:

Classic Barra XXXX Gold.

Yes fishing lures with advertising on them have a special place in my collection, and are in fact the biggest part of it.

This is even what started it all for me.

This one is a Classic Barra +10 with the logo of the beer XXXX Gold from Queensland.

After a bit of research I was able to find that the Classic Barra, with this very logo from XXXX Gold were made to be distributed during a big fishing competition to all the participant. These lures were not for sale, so I am very happy to have it.

All these lures have been fished, and this is how I like my lures: when they have worked for a living.

Thanks again Rossco, these lures are a welcome addition to the collection.

Now, I realise that some of you don't comprehend why I will not fish with these lures, and will keep them dry. You may think that this is a waste of some perfectly usable fishing lures... 

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Three New Old Fishing Lures.

Hi there,

Here comes three new old fishing lures, latest addition to my little collection.
I got these lures as a present from Doors Off a member of the FFF Forum.
Thanks Doors Off.

The first lure on the top of the image is a Halco Combat.
But today's this lure comes with a different bib, they don't make them like that anymore...

Then comes a Reidy's Taipan, but with the eyes and bib different than what they look like on the lures made today. And the Quantas colour on this lure is also a variant that I was yet to own or even see, so very happy with it.
(Australian call the red heads and white bodies fishing lures Quantas, in reference to the colours of their national airline).

The third lure, the one on the bottom of the image is a Goulburn Jack from Reidy's too.
Once again with different eyes that what the Reidy's lures have today, and in a colour that is no longer on the catalogue.
And both of these Reidy's lures have the company logo on the back of the lure, another thing that is not done like this anymore.
These Reidy's lures are locally made in Darwin, and are among my favourite to collect.

Want to see them?
Have a look:

Three nice fishing lures.

I like the heart shaped bib of the Goulburn Jack, I am yet to fish with one of them, but have seen one being fished with success in the past, so I should try them one day.

And sorry for the quality of the photo, it was made with my phone, as my computer is down at the moment.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Upstream Of Goat Island.

Hi there,

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

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

Autoportrait with a Barramundi.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It provided for some interesting times...

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

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

The Crocodile nest.

With Moma's tracks.

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

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

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

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

Thanks Arrabmundi.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And they were ready for us...

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

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

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

We swapped information and parted route.

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

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

Arrabmundi first fish of the day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My first legal of the day.

Lure deep inside the Barramundi mouth.

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

I now had caught a feed of fresh fish.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here they are in order of arrivals:

74 cm of silver Barramundi.

76 cm of Lates calcarifer.

And 79cm of joy.

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

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

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

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

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

Moz was then able to net it.

Here is an image of it:

Moz and the tailless Barramundi.

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

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

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

Last fish of the day.

This was the last fish coming aboard for the day.

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

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

Thanks again Arrabmundi for the invitation.

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

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

The yellow Halco Trembler.

Hi there,

Here is another lure that has quietly entered my little fishing lure collection.
I found this one high and dry on the rock, one day as I was fishing during my lunch break.

I love fishing during my lunch breaks.
I am yet to catch anything on these very short fishing session.
But to spend 25 to 35 minutes on the water edge, flicking a lure and looking at the sea and the sky usually help me to come back to work a lot more focused and performant for the rest of the day.
Also, to be in the sun for a little while is good, as I work in a room with no windows.
Basically this help to keep me happy...

So what does this lure look like you may say...
Ok, here it is:

The Halco Trembler 110

Halco is another Australian brand of lures. (I find their  lure called Twisty very efficient when I fish for Queenfish).

The Trembler 110 is a fairly small lure, 110mm, sinking lure with two trebles. 

Yes a lure that needs to be retrieved at a rather fast pace.

I have tried it and it is quite nice to see this yellow little fish swim in the water at speed.

After fishing with it for a few times I started to notice that I was not seeing this very colour for this type of lure in any tackle shop.

So I looked at the online catalogue from Halco, and this colour was missing from there too...

Ha, this was beginning to be interesting.

Was it an export or overseas model?

Was it a fake one?

(Yes like with fashion items, there is some fake lures coming from unscrupulous places...)

Was it a prototype for colour testing?

So I made this quick photo and emailed it to the guys at Halco.

And the reply was that this colour had been abandoned probably over 8 years ago.

I don't fish with it any more...

To think that I could have lost it...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.