And The Winner Is...

Hi there,

So last month I started a little giveaway for one great KO Lure to be won.
The giveaway address was just this, if you want to see what it was all about.

The winner had just one thing to do, and that was to tell us what is his/her favourite fishing lure colour is, and then I was to draw the winner, with the help of Random.org.

I have to say that I am a bit surprised by the very low number of people who entered the raffle.
It was pretty easy to enter and I got a number of 1499 visitor during the duration of the giveaway competition.
How many people entered?
A grand total of 4... So they each found themselves with a 25% chance of being the winner, not bad odds when you think about it.

So who won you may start to wonder...
Wait no more, for here is a screenshot of the draw made on Random.org:

Yes this is the number one!

You could say that it is a case of first in, best served.

Congratulations Fish Whisperer, you love Blue and Silver fishing lures, and you just won a blue and silver one, with a bit of gold thrown in the mix.

So please, just send your contact detail of where I should send the lure to the following email address:

iwon1lure@hotmail.com 

And your lure should be posted in the coming week.

Yes, this very lure:

The big bad KO lure.

KO lures is a new brand of Australian fishing lures, with a headquarter in Darwin, NT, Australia.

It is interesting to note that of the four entries, two were from Australia, and two from overseas.

And we also had a very poetic entry, thank you Mud.

To the people who didn't win, sorry guys, hopefully your will be the winner and grinner of the next one.

And just remember, as I often say...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

One KO Lures To Giveaway.

Hi there,

This post is all about giving away a free, brand new fishing lure.
I was very fortunate to won a door prize at the last event of the Top End Barra Series, and this prize was a voucher to go and pick up some gears from KO Lures.
Ko Lures, is still a new and young brand of fishing tackle, a company started here in Darwin.
Being made in Darwin, KO Lures caters mostly for people fishing in tropical waters, making some very strong and robust gears.
KO Lures is one of the sponsors of the 2012 Top End Barra Series.

So what did I pick for myself?
Easy to guess, some more lures!
But the truth is that I got these lures, because Dean, a competitor in the 2012 Top End Barra Series had made a generous donation to the lure company, so they could offer this voucher as a door prize.
And my chance didn't start or stop there, no.
Sheeby, another competitor, and a good fishing buddy of mine, won the door prize...
But as he had finished the round second and got a very nice reel for his effort, he decided to put the prize back in the hat for a redraw, a very kind gesture on his part.
And yes, the person whose name was called after that, was happy me.
I have never fished with a Ko Lure yet, but I can hardly wait to go and give a swim to the ones I got for myself.

One  model of the lures that I picked up, is a big Barramundi lure, and I took two of them.
So I will give one away to a reader of this blog.

Want to see it?
Here it is:

Are you ready for a KO?

This is a large lure of about 19 cm (7.480315 inches) and it comes with some whopping sticky sharp hooks.

Look at the eyes, it says KO.

With a nice pattern on the back.

This lure is made with a wire through construction, so the fish of a life time should not get away.

Nice isn't it?

So what do you have to perform to win this lure?

Very easy, you do not even need to follow this very good blog of mine, or to live in Australia. You can be from any country in the world, if you are the winner, I will send you this lure free of charge wherever you live on this planet.

You just need to leave a comment, in which you tell me your name and what is your favourite lure colour.

Don't leave any contact detail yet, Only if you win, I will then need your contact.

Just remember if you are not a follower to keep an eye on this very blog, at the end of October 2012, to know if you have won.

This is not a tricky question, I will not give the lure to the person who as the same favourite colour than I, simply because I change my mind too often when it comes to lures colours.

I will use the help of Random.org to draw the winner.

You can leave a comment from today till the Saturday 27th of October 2012.

So you have about a month to do it, but if you do it today, you will not forget...

Good luck to all!

There is just one lure to be given away, so there will be only one winner, sorry about that.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2012 Top End Barra Series Round 5.

Hi there,

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

Dinah Beach boat ramp in the sunrise. 

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

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

Dean's first Barra of the weekend.

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

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

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

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

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

But not it was a different kind of surprise:

Mud crab on the lure.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dean's biggest fish of the weekend.

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

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

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

First Dean was going to catch a nice little Flathead:

Darwin Harbour Flatie.

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

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

Zooming on the ocean.

Mozz and Liam through the waves.

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

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

Well it started this way anyway.

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

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

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

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

Worm on the hook.

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

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

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

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

Yeeehaaa!!!

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

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

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

My baby Rock Cod.

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

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

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

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

The juvenile Jabiru.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My super rocket fish.

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

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

So head first it was pushed in the esky.

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

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

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

Then Dean got a nice little Queenfish:

Queenfish in the sky.

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

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

The giant little fish.

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

Muntzy with a point scorer.

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

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

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

Homeward bound.

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

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

Thank you Dean for taking me onboard of your boat.

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

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

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

Here is what I got for my door prize:

KO Lures.

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

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

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

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

How and what was my score in this round?

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

One point higher that at the last round.

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

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

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

I Have Been Spoiled.

Hi there,

Yes I have been spoiled, and by no one else than DUO Lures Japan.
Not long ago, they had a photographic competition, and I was with one guy from Portugal and another from the UK, one of the three winners.
If you really want to know which photo I had sent to win, you can have a look at their web site...

And yes I was happy about that, because as a prize, they sent me some really cool fishing lures.
Look at what I saw when I opened the parcel that I received:

Look at all the goodies!

There is too many great lures in there for me to do a full list with names and specificities of each one of them, so I will just show you the photos of them, and talk just a bit about a few of them.

This should be a good salt water Barra lure.

And this is his big brother.

Now this is a lure that I can't wait to test on the shallow, as it inspire great confidence in me. It is 15 cm long, and look just like a sea Mullet... It should bring home the bacon.

A Realis Jerkbait 120SP.

And another one.

This one is a suspending lure, and I love suspending lures.

Because, you can work them super slow, and yet they stay in the strike zone.

Just what you need to wake up a big Barramundi, when other lures don't produce.

A Beach Walker 120MD.

This is a lure that I have already fished (albeit in another colour), and it produced the good. It was a day, fishing land based from the rock, and it was the only lure to catch some fish on the day.

A Tide Minnow.

And another one.

Now why do I like the Tide Minnow?

Because the photo that made me won all these lures, had a Tide Minnow in it. With a nice Barramundi attached to it...

A Bay Ruf V-90.

I didn't had any lure like that one , and I am now very happy to have one.

At 40 grames, it get down deep when the fish are hiding in a hole and will only take a lure that is bumping in front of them.

And the kid in me, loves the fact that it glow in the dark!

Terrif.

This is a Terrif Radical Swim Edition, and the bib is made of titanium...

In fact I am not sure that I will use this one, or keep it for the collection.

Tide Vib Slim 140.

I can't wait to either troll this one fast, or cast it to a school of pelagic, and spin it back like a maniac. This, is to me a really exciting lure.

A really cute little Popper.

I might use this little Pocopoco when targeting bream, or whiting from the shore.

Realis Crank 48SR.

This one I want to use, either in the billabongs, or to try to get some Flathead in salt water.

The Manic.

When I saw it, I though that this one was just too cool to be fished, and would end up forever on my desk. But realistically I have to see how it swim, so I will fish it.

The Terrif DC-9 Bullet.

Here comes a lure, which I believe will shine when chasing some Barramundi on the mud flat or in some shallow drain. Hopefully I will be able to test it very soon, and I am sure that it will be a beauty. I already have a DUO Lure in this colour, and it proved to be incredibly efficient. Outfishing all the other lures that were tested the day I fished it.

This to me look like a Barramundi lolly.

and I also got a super neat little box to store all my little accessories like swivels, clips and hooks.

The Realis box.

So thank you very much DUO Lures, I am feeling real happy with all these toys, and hope to soon build some great memories with the help of them all.

My only problem about all these lures, is that since getting them, I didn't really had the time to try them...

But hey it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Mega Prize From The Show.

Hi there,

Not long ago, I went to the Royal Darwin Show 2012.
There, I won a really cool prize, just by writing my name and phone number on a piece of paper, and dropping it in the barrel.
Another proof that to win it, you have to be in it.

This was a free raffle organised by the Department of Resources of the Northern Territory Government. Thank you guys!

Every times that I went to the Royal Darwin Show, I entered this raffle, and had never won it before. When you are going to see the prize, you will understand why I was happy, even if it is not all about fishing.
In fact when I entered it this year, my partner told me that it would be great if we could win, as it had things for the whole family in it. From our little one, to her and for I, even a little thing for the mother in law!

So by now, you might want to see what it is all about, no?
Here comes the best grin and grip photo of all times...

Two happy chaps.

Thank you Matt.

Ok, you can't see much of it there, so here it is in details.

First the parts that will go to my little one:

An aquarium.

Yes a full aquarium, with a pump, some little coloured stones, fake plant and even a $25.00 voucher to get some fishes from the pet shop.

Ho yes the little one is more than excited with that.

And this is not all what she got...

Quartz mining and bugs.

Now the people who organised this prize, must have some kids, or are still very young at heart. Maybe both...

Because yes the quartz/crystal thing made her jump with joy, and the bugs are so cool!

Hours of play to comes.

Then there is the thing for my beloved, the mother of our child.

Garden stuff.

Some seeds, a book about gardening, a bug catcher, and a card to buy stuff at Bunnings!

(Bunnings is a hard-wear store with plenty of gardening tools).

Ms Frugal Down Under was happy to get all this for her garden.

And she even got the mega pot in which all of these goodies came to us:

The big pot.

I am not sure yet of what will grow in this pot, but it will be great I am sure.

In all of this, there was also something for my mother in law:

Beescreek Honey.

A jar of Beescreek Honey, made here in the Northern Territory.

It is always good to have some local product on the table.

Where ever you are, the local products consistently seem to taste better.

And what about me and the fishing?

Here it comes, I kept the best for the end...

Now we are talking.

A great fishing rod Crystal Blue Power Tip in the Fishing and Outdoors World edition, one of my favourite shop in Darwin.

With a Shimano Alvio 4000FC reel, this combination might become my lunch break combo. 

With that was a waterproof book of fishing knots by Geoff Wilson.

And one beautiful Barra Blitz lure, handcrafted in the NT by Nautilus.

The more it goes, the more I love these timber lures.

So yes a mega prize, with goodies for all the family.

What else could we ask?

Nothing much really.

I did went and try the rod and reel this morning for about half an hour from the Fishermen Wharf, and it worked very well. In fact I was even happily surprised by the casting distance of this little rod.

Yes it would have been good if I had caught a fish in the short amount of time that I was there, that would have made for a great pic for this post...

But I came back from my field testing empty handed.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

A New Reel, Then ...

Hi there,

Not long ago, I got a new fishing reel.
And it is so far, a good story from start to finish.
Actually, I didn't bought the reel, but won it in a competition.
The North Australian Fishing and Outdoors, magazine had a competition to win a Daiwa Cosatal Barra 135 bait caster reel, and I won it.
The competition has been running for some time, with a reel being given away every month, and is still going strong in the current issue of the magazine. (If you tried, you could be the next winner of a Daiwa Reel).
For a few month in a row, I had entered the comp., hopping to win, as I have never owned or fished with a Daiwa reel, and they are supposed to be very good.
It is then very easy to understand how excited I was upon learning the good news, and I couldn't wait to received my new reel.
It arrived and was beautiful, blue and gold, but catastrophe! This is a right handed reel, and I use left handed ones...

Daiwa Coastal Barra 135.

The reality of it hit me hard, this is a reel that only come in the right handed version...
It was smooth and the spool seemed to turn for ever with just a little push from the thumb...
But the handle was definitively on the wrong side...
What to do?
I started to think that maybe I could swap it for a fishing rod, to replace the one that I broke the previous month.
So I started to monitor the FFF forum and other places to see if any one had a fishing rod for sale, hopping to propose a swap.
And it happened, a member for the FFF wanted to get ride of a G.Loomis GL2 baitcaster rod, and I was after any good fishing rod. This one would have fitted the bill perfectly.
Once contacted the fellow was in fact very interested in trading his rod for a brand new reel, and even offered to come to my place in the very same afternoon to close the deal.
And this is how I got a new rod to replace my broken one.

My new fishing rod.

It was impossible to wait, I jumped on my pushbike and went to the closest beach where I could to try it. Fannie Bay was the destination, and the rod is here coupled to an Abu Garcia Revo Inshore reel. 

It casted very well, and I am now rather impatient to test it with a fish at the end of the line.

Here is a little photo to show you the beautiful place where I was doing my field testing. Yes it is hard, but someone had to do it...

Fannie Bay, Darwin Northern Australia.

Yes there is some more unpleasant place to go to for a quick flick, just to test a new fishing rod.

The only thing that bugs me a little in all this... Is that I have still never fished with a Daiwa fishing reel yet, even if I owned one for a few days...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

6 DUO Lures.

Hi there,

Yes I was very lucky to be the winner of an internet draw made by DUO Lures Australia.
The rule was pretty simple, you just had to like their Facebook page and leave a short comment on it.
To win it you have to be in it, so I did it and not very long after I got a message from the guy at DUO Lures Australia, asking for my address as I was the winner of the 4 DUO Barramundi lures pack.
No, this is not a typo, they said 4 lures, and they surprised me with 6: Thanks guys!

I had never had one of their lures in my hands, and all I can say, is that in real, they look even better than on the photos.

So here they are, with in first the Tide Minnow Slim:

Tide Minnow Slim 140.

This one came without any hooks, so I rigged it myself, I would call this type of rigging "Free Style"... I have no clues if it will work or not, but this is something that I want to try.

And it keep in line with the slim profile of the lure.

You can be sure that if it works well, I will let you know.

I just hope that the guys at DUO will not bee too shocked by the new look imparted on this lure...

Then comes the Tide Minnow LD:

DUO, Tide Minnow LD.

A lure of this shape, in the gold colour, should be a great Barramundi lure.

I will have no hesitation to flick this one to a Barramundi's mangrove heaven when the time will be ripe for it, I am pretty confident that it should deliver.

And now let me introduce you to the Deep Feat 90D:

The Deep Feat 90D.

This lure is smaller than the other ones, and will be good for when the fishes gets a bit timid, then you sometimes really need to downsize your offering to tempt them. And it goes deep too, another good thing on shy fishes.

And here enter the Beach Walker:

The Beach Walker 120MD.

Once again a very well finished lure, with a lot of shiny all over it.

This one should cast well and hopefully bring home the bacon.

This is now the turn of the Tide Minnow SLD-F:

The Tide Minnow SLD-F.

I just like the colour of this one, a very bright and clear lure, which I intend to use on the mud flats, or in shallow water. Yet again, this lure as a serious bling side to it, it will look good at the end of the line.

And finally entering the stage is the Tide Vib Slim 140:

Tide Vib Slim 140.

This one is very different compared to the other, this is a fast trolling or fast spinning lure.

To target Mackerel or Tuna, maybe Queenfish and Trevally...

Yes a pelagic lure, this will be fun!

I will not kid you, this is in fact my favourite of the lot, and I can't wait to try it.

It look so much like a little Garfish green on the back with silver flanks.

In fact, I like it so much that this one will have two more photos, just to really show you how sparkling and well finished it is:

What are you looking at?

Yes this is a slim lure with attitude.

Head and gills.

Can you see all the wicked reflections on the gills?

Well it is like that on nearly all of its body.

Just imagine that lure swimming past at full steam in clear water...

Pelagics will love it.

Thanks again DUO Lures Australia, you have just given me one more excuse to go fishing.

The only problem is that I have had these lures for nearly a week now, and didn't had the time to use them yet.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

P.S: And if you want to see a few really good photographs of some DUO lure, here is a link for you to a great blog: Ze Kaywox, enjoy.