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.

2016 Top End Barra Series Round 3.

Hi there,

A week ago the third round of the 2016 Top End Barra Series was taking place at Bynoe Harbour, here comes the tale of it.

• It was very hard fishing.
• I fished from two different boats over the weekend.
• I didn't come back home empty handed.

For the first day, I was fishing with Jason, who had never fished on Bynoe Harbour before.

Luckily for us, Brett gave us all the good information on how to catch a fish over there.

And did we put this knowledge to good use?

No we didn't...

We arrived early and full of confidence, to see a beautiful sunrise over the harbour:

Sunrise at the boat ramp.

From Six Pack Creek, we launched.

Zooming to our first point of attack. The place was already occupied, by some really keen anglers, who had beaten us to the spot.

We stood to the side and tried to get a fish, with no success. 

We moved from one spot to the other, but could not get a fish.

We finally went all around Turtle island, but for no results, once again.

Jason fishing at Turtle Island.

From there we went to try our luck in one of the numerous creeks of the harbour.

Where we didn't get anymore chance than before.

It was great to catchup with Jason, to enjoy a calm day of fishing, even if the day was hot and humid. 

The water was real flat, like a mirror.

Living the life!

the only fish I got on the day, were three little cods.

All released to grow bigger.

With not much to call home about, we decided that it had been a hot and long day, and to cut it short.

So at around 3:00pm, we were off the water, starting to roll back toward civilisation.

And just then, the rain started falling...

At this time of the year, we should have had a nice and cool weather, it should have been the dry season...

At home in the evening I called Brett, and told him how the day went.

He said, that tomorrow was going to be a day with some fish.

So Sunday, one quarter of an hour early, I was in front of his home, texting him to ask if he was still sleeping. Yes I was keen to go back on the water for a revenge against Mr and Ms Barramundi.

Light at the ramp was even better than on the previous day.

View from the boat ramp.

Once the light started to shine, we could see that the water was still like glass.

Not a ripple in view.

Cruising in the clouds.

Being a bit early for the Barra, we decided to go and try to hook a few Queenfish behind a small island.

There we didn't really see as many Queenfish as expected. But the light show was worth the journey.

Rising sun over Bynoe Harbour.

Brett and I had nearly as much trouble to find the fish than Jason and I had on the first day.

Yet we finally found some, hiding in very skinny waters, straight against the bank, between tree roots.

The first fish to swallow a lure, had grabbed Brett's offering. And what a show it gave us!

It was all over in about one or two second, but it will stay etched in my memory for a very long time.

The small lure swimming towards the boat.

The Barramundi following it, and engulfing it very close to the boat.

Turning straight away and breaking the line nearly at the same time.

The line clacked in a very sharp way, and I thought that the rod had broken.

Thankfully it was only the line.

Never had I seen that before, it was pure raw force. It didn't even look like the fish had made any effort, yet the line had broken like if it was made of the most fragile material.

On this, Brett decided to put a stronger leader on his line.

And it did pay off, for the first Barramundi of the weekend was caught.

First Barramundi of the weekend.

With Brett on the board, it should have been my turn to catch a fish.

But he had other ideas, and while I was constantly putting my lure in the trees branch, or snagging the tree roots. Because, yes, by this stage, I was getting too excited every times that we saw a fish. Sight casting to Barramundi, can be really entertaining. So while I was busy catching trees, Brett caught his second Barramundi:

Brett's second fish.

And the fish disappeared, and the action went down.

It started to look like I had totally missed my chance.

Slowly we were on the way of the ramp.

Casting lures towards any bank where we could see the bait being harassed, by what we estimated to be Salmon. 

At one stage right on the bank we saw once again the bait being very nervous and the splashing of a Threadfin Salmon.

We sent our lures flying in the direction of the action, for no avail.

Halfhearted I flicked my lure, and thought that it had fallen in the water way to short of where the commotion was taking place. Just reeling in the lure in a slow roll, I suddenly felt my line tense, and saw the rod bending. I was on, I had the Thready! Fighting the fish and reeling in, it was only once it was near the boat that we saw it and realised that it was a Barramundi.

I was so surprised that I nearly lost my ability to reel.

But after a little while, the fish was in the net, and all the effort of the weekend forgotten.

My Barramundi of the weekend.

Just like that, along a muddy bank, without any structure or snag, I had caught a nice little Barramundi. That little fish made me very happy, and by now I can also tell you that it tasted very good.

Alas, as it is often the case when fishing the time flew quick, and it was time to go home.

Boat going for the ramp.

It was a great weekend of fishing, thank you to Jason and Brett for having invited me  on their boats.

Leaving the fishing grounds.

Yes, I do hope to fish Bynoe Harbour again in the future.

This is the kind of place that can turn magic, when the condition for great fishing all aligns.

So as it has been said in the past: I'll be back.

Now it is true that I was thinking at the beginning of the weekend that I would have caught a lot more of Barramundi... Yet fishing is sometimes like that...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2016 Top End Barra Series Round 2.

Hi there,

Here comes the long awaited story of the second round of the 2016 Top End Barra Series.

• It was on the Daly River.
• The water was very dirty.
• The fishing was real hard.
• The camaraderie was great.
• I fished it with Jason.

This year the second round of the TEBS as it is known around our part of the world, was taking place on the mighty Daly River.

And what a round it was... The water was really low for the season, despite the Daly round being much earlier than on years gone by. A few people damaged their props or got stuck on the sand. And more than should have been, came back without having caught any fish at all...

Not even some little cat fish.

But that was not our story, we did get some fish!

Now how dirty the water was?

Well take a look:

Daly River.

As you can see, the river was dirty and dangerous.

Dangerous for boat's outboards, and for lures that got snagged on so many drifting pieces of wood.

Yet, as we arrived near this spot, we caught up with Brett and his mate Karl. And Brett told us that he had caught four Barramundi the previous day, and to troll just there with a +10 lure.

Naturally I put a Reidy's Big Ass in the 008 colour, one of my all time favourite, at the end of my line and we started trolling.

We must have been trolling for about 10 to 15 minutes when I got a massive hit!

The hit was sudden, and the line immediately started to fly from my reel at great speed.

I could not stop it, no question about that.

It lasted a few seconds, then the line went slack, the fish had spit the lure...

This must have been a really big one and we both called it for a metery.

Wow, we thought, if it is starting like that, it will be a cracker of a weekend!

Well life is not like that, and it was indeed a great weekend, but with not many fish to play with.

It was going to be a long time before the next fish bite.

We then saw Brett and Karl again:

Paparazzi everywhere!

Yes they were getting ready to take some pictures, but not of us...

In fact they were getting ready to photograph Pete who had just caught a nice Barramundi:

The photographers at work.

And yes, I did take a photo too:

Pete with a nice fish.

This was a weekend where Pete was going to shine. Being one of two only to get his full bag of Barramundi (5).

Catch and release in action.

At least it showed us that their was still some Barra in this stretch of water.

This brought us to trolling it a bit more.

I was by then using a lure that I had found a bit earlier, floating by. It was a Classic +10 and as the saying goes: " A found lure is a lucky lure". I got a hit.

The line tensed and started to pull a bit on my rod.

We got all excited and I was afraid that the fish would go in one of the numerous snags bordering the river. But we got it in the boat, thanks to a great netting action from Jason. And I was on the board!

My first Barramundi of the weekend.

At 71cm (27.952756 inches), this was no monster, but still made me feel very content.

This newly found lure was a lucky one.

And look at the chrome on this fish!

It was release too, to grow bigger and fight another day.

Not long after, Jason got a rat of a Barramundi, too small to be a point scorer.

And that was about it for the day...

The river was as beautiful as it can be:

The daly river in the afternoon.

But it was time for us to go back to the camping ground.

On the way we saw some TEBS participants who had elected to sleep in their boat. Straight on the river ready to fish at night if the fish were to come on the chew.

But with what seemed to be a storm coming we went for the safe option.

Sailing back to camp.

The rain was only very short, and after a good shower and a steak at the camp, we fell asleep pretty quick. Yes fishing is exhausting...

On the following morning, the light gave a sensation of end of the world, or maybe new beginning...

Morning light at the Banyan Farm.

This is what I saw as I was getting out of my tent. 

And then we went to the boat ramp:

Light at the boat ramp.

There the light was a bit different, but still quite impressive.

No wonder I love going fishing so much. At any time of the day, there is something to look at.

Just wait to see...

Jason drove the boat past Brown Creek, a spot of very low water, where a few boats ran into trouble:

Jason driving his boat.

Not long after that, we were at the spot where I had caught my Barramundi on the day before.

And Jason line got stretched!

He was on!

The fish started by taking a good run, and quickly as I could, I opened the net.

Yes this was going to be the biggest fish of the day, but after a good fight we saw what kind of fish it was.

And Barramundi it was not...

Shark on the lure.

Yes the Daly too is a river with a healthy population of shark.

Even if we both felt slightly disappointed that it was not a Barramundi, we did have a good laugh about it. These sharks can give you a good work out on Barra gear.

Not long after I got my second Barramundi of the weekend.

As soon as it hit, I thought, Oh this is not a big one, but please be at least 50cm...

But it was only 48cm, not even a point scorer.

Still a fish is a fish, and it definitively made me smile.

It was on the same lure than my last fish too, the lucky found lure.

As we were cruising along the river, either trolling or casting our lures to snags and fishy looking spots. We kept an eye on all the crocodiles that we were seeing. Yes the Daly has a big population of large salt water  and fresh water crocodiles.

We then spotted a salt water one, that seemed to swim a bit strange.

So we went closer, once we realised that it looked pretty much dead.

And dead it was:

Dead crocodile on the Daly River.

It was floating along with the tide, and was really smelly. In fact you could even say that the thing stank like there was no tomorrow!

Now I don't know what killed it, but if that was another crocodile, it must then have been a very big one... Scary...

And this, was the story of the 2016 Top End Barra Series Round 2 from my own point of view.

The fish that I caught put me in the ninth position for the round and 19th on the overall scoreboard.

Which for me is not that bad really, even rather good.

We still had a great time, it was good to catch up with some mate, and to fish on that river where I don't go very often.

Thank you Jason for inviting me on your boat.

Yes we could have caught more fish...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Fishing Two Locations On The Same Day.

Hi there,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Corroboree Billabong in the morning.

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

Nobody was there, we had the place for ourselves.

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

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

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

First Barramundi of the trip. Akame!

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

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

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

And simply enjoy the morning light.

Lilie pads at Corroboree Billabong.

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

Saratoga on the Big Lucifer lure.

My first Saratoga of the day.

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

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

Sometimes simple little things like this makes me happy.

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

Jason with the first Tarpon of the day.

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

Pandanus on the bank.

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

Saratoga on the small vibe.

Between the Tarpon and Saratoga it was great billabong fishing.

Jason working another Tarpon.

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

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

Judge for yourselves:

Can you see it?

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

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

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

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

And this is just what we did.

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

Happy as a man who just caught a fish.

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

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

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

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

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

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

My dinner had been sorted.

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

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

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

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

And that was it:

When a shark gets the better part of your Barramundi.

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

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

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

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

Last Barramundi of the day.

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

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

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

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

The multiple colours of the sky.

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

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

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

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

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.