The Rapala Fortnight Freebies Prize.

Hi there,

Yes, I did get very lucky : I won the first 2017 Rapala Fortnight Freebies prize for 2017.
What is that?
Some of you may ask...
Well every fortnight Rapala Australia do a little competition on their Facebook page. And every time a lucky participant get to received for over $200 of Rapala products.
And what did I had to do to become a lucky boy?
Well as it was the first Rapala Freebies of the year, they made it an easy one, so I was in with a chance...
I had to look online at what were their products and tell on their Facebook page which ones I would like to received.
And my choice was really simple, I wanted some fishing lures to chase the mighty Barramundi.
So I said that I would love to get some Storm So-Run Akame and some Twitchin' Mullet.
And that was it, I was the lucky one whose name came up in the draw.
Now, what did I received for such a big effort?
All of that:

All the Freebies from Rapala Australia.

So lets look at it a bit more closely.

Starting first with the ones I really wanted, the big bait:

Storm So-Run Akame.

This is a big lure, with single hooks, made to catch big fish. My goal with these is to catch a big Barramundi. It measure 19cm for 67g, and has a running depth of 0.3M. This looks like a good lure to use for big Barramundi, and I really hope to up my personal best catch on this lure.

Then comes the other lure that I was very interested to put my little fingers on, the Twitchin' Mullet:

Rapala X-Rap Twitchin' Mullet.

The Rapala Twitchin' Mullet is a lure that I really was hoping to win, because I had never seen it in shop in Darwin yet. But after looking at it online it seemed to be exactly the type of lure I would love to flick at some run off creek or even from the shore at some of my urban land based fishing spots.

It is a relatively small lure, 8cm for 13g with a diving depth of 0.3 to 0.6M, which is also what might make it a good land based fishing lure. It has a subsurface walk the dog action, and anyone who knows my fishing preferences knows that I love surface walk the dog lures. So this one should be really interesting to fish with.

As a companion to these two little lure came what could be described as their big brother, the Twitchin' Minow:

Rapala X-Rap, Twitchin' Minow.

This one is bigger and longer that the previous one. It is 12cm for 26g.

In fact there is two sizes available for this lure the 12 cm one and a smaller one at 10cm and 14g.

I am rather happy to have the bigger one, as it will nicely complement the smaller Twitchin' Mullet that came with it.

This one too is a shallow lure with a running depth identical to the Twitchin' Mullet, 0.3 to 0.6M that is. So I intend to fish both lures in the same zones, depending on what type of natural bait swim there on the day. Because as they say, the best is often to match the hatch.

With them came the Shadow Rap Deep:

Rapala Shadow Rap Deep.

This is a lure that I had never seen before, so it is more than welcome in my tackle box.

It is 11cm long for 13g, and is a slow sinking on pause lure.

It will be interesting to see how the Barramundi react to this lure.

It cam in the Clown colour, it is a colour with which I have caught Barramundi with in the past, so I am for the moment quite confident that it too should bring back a fish.

Then in all the goodies, I found some stickers, first this one:

Rapala Auto/Boat Emblem.

I do not have a boat, but I can see it placed on the bonnet of my car.

It will be like driving a Rapala's car, and will continue to make me day dream about fishing while driving to work. So you know, I could stay focused on the task at hand.

And now the proper stickers:

Full set of Rapala Pro Decal.

These stickers will find places on my pushbike and other perfect sticker's spots. My child has already spotted them and I might have to share.

Fishing lures and stickers, what could be missing here?

The cloths!

And here they are:

Rapala Coasting Lure T-Shirt.

Now for a guy like me who is borderline obsessive compulsive when it comes to fishing lures, what a T-shirt to wear!

To go with the shirt was a short:

Rapala Catch Boardies.

When I received an email from Rapala asking me about my pants size, I looked on their website, and this very short was my favourite. So the stars must have aligned properly, as this is the one I received.

And last but not least, you may have noticed it on the first photograph of this post, a bucket:

Rapala stainless steel lures bucket.

This is all what I received from the good guys at Rapala Australia for the Rapala Fortnight Freebies.

Honestly, it is more than what I was expecting, and I am very grateful for all of this, thank you guys.

If you live in Australia, you should definitively go on their Facebook page and try to enter the fortnightly competition, it is well worth it, and lets face it, not too so hard. So that everyone is in with a good chance to win.

Here is a last photograph for the road:

Storm, So-Run Akame.

The only problem for me receiving all these fishing lures early in the week, is that I had to wait nearly a full week before I would be able to test them...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

The Channel 9 Prize.

Hi there,

Luck was on my side, and I have just won the Channel 9 Catch Of The Day prize.
What is it, you may ask.
Well it is a very simple kind of thing. You send a photograph of a recent fishing catch, in the landscape, or horizontal format to Channel Nine in darwin. With a few words to say what kind of fish it is and how or where you caught it. And if your photo is selected, it goes on television at the end of the news segment in the evening, during the weather forecast.
This is great way for Channel nine to interact with the Northern Territory community.
And in exchange, when your image is selected, you win a prize.
The email address to send your photo is: newsphotos@nine.com.au
Just put Catch of the day in the subject line, and Voilas!
If you live in the Northern Territory of Australia, you should do it, it is fun and if you have kids, this is an easy way to make them proud.

What is the prize?

• A Channel 9 backpack.
• A Channel 9 fishing hat.
• A Channel 9 fishing shirt.
• A Channel 9 branded Reidy's fishing lure.
• A first aid kit from St. John Ambulance Australia.

Now, what photograph did I send to win all these cool stuff?

This one:

Queenfish from East Point.

You might remember this photograph and the short video that went with it, from my post called First Try At Kayak Fishing.

This first experience in a kayak had been great, and suddenly had become even better.

And here comes the prize:

The Catch Of The Day Prize, courtesy of Channel 9.

Of course, my favourite in all this is the Reidy's fishing lure:

Channel 9 branded Reidy's fishing lure.

The lure in question is a Judge by Reidy's lure.

I love both Reidy's and this particular lure in their range of offering.

And yes, I am still collecting fishing lures with advertising on them, So I am very happy to have this one. As I didn't had a Reidy's with Channel nine advertising on it before, in my little collection.

This also means that this lure is going directly to the "collectors cabinet", and will never swim.

I can already ear all the people that say that lures are made to catch fish and not to stay dry in a display...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

New Hooks from P E Tackle.

Hi There,

Just a quick post, to say thank you to P E Tackle, for sending me a few very deadly fishing hooks.
They had a small giveaway on their FaceBook page, and I did enter the very simple competition.
Basically, you had to be in the first ten to send them your address to win…
No rocket science there, and I was able to make it.

To be honest I had never heard of them before.
They are a new online fishing tackle  company, based in Australia.
It is good to see a new entrant in the game, who try to have only very high quality gear. A nice change from all the people selling cheap import.

So what does these hooks look like?
Here they are:

Thank you for the present.

Yes, I said thanks for the present, because they arrived in my mail box on the 24 of December.

How good a timing is that?

My favourite ones are the chartreuse ones.

Here is another photo of just one lot:

PE Tackle hooks.

I can't wait to test them, I was even thinking to try to put one or two behind a jig to see what would happen…

So yes, I know, no fishing post in a long time…

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

2013 Top End Barra Series Round 5.

Hi there,

Not long ago the fifth round of the 2013 Top End Barra Series took place on the very picturesque Corroboree Billabong, not very far from Darwin.

Nomad was not sure if his boat would be fixed in time for the round, so I was very lucky to be offered a spot on Peter's boat.
It was still dark when Muntzy picked me up, and on the road to the billabong we went, To catch up with Peter and Dingo at the boat ramp, picking up Dean on the way.

Last year round at Corroboree, had been an absolute fishing failure for me.
With just a minuscule Catfish caught in two days of very heavy fishing. I had not hooked a single Barramundi, and had been hit by countless Saratoga, but could not stay connected to a single one of them. For a full year, I had been waiting, to take my revenge... And more than anything else, I wanted to catch a few Saratoga, and if possible a good one.
Well, yes, for me during this round, it was going to be the year of the Saratoga.

Arrived at the ramp, before we launched the boats, in the morning light, Dingo gave me the Tonic Sunglasses that I had won for a photograph that I had made in the previous round.
The sunglasses, were going to prove themselves to be very helpful during the weekend.
They are great,  simply the best fishing sunglasses I ever had.

We went straight to the Rock Hole, to do a bit of trolling first thing.

The Rock Hole in the morning.

I love the place, it is beautiful, with always a lot of wildlife to look at.

Other competitors were doing the same thing:

Trolling along the Pandanus.

Trolling a hard body lure along the pandanus, is a great way to get into some good Barramundi.

The technic worked fort the boat in the above photograph, as it caught the biggest Barramundi of the weekend.

It even worked for us, but not on the Barramundi front...

Peter and the first fish of the weekend for our boat.

In no time Peter got a hit and we got excited... He reeled in a little Catfish, yes, there is a lot of them in the waters of the billabong. But a fish is a fish, and we, or at least I was very happy, as I believed that this was proof that we were onto a fishy patch.

Well it would be a bit of time before the next fish.

Between the first one and the second one, we were lucky enough to spot a rather large buffalo, having a bit of a bath at the water edge.

Water Buffalo having a chill out time.

And not long after, Peter got a Tarpon:

Peter's first Tarpon.

This was Peter first ever Tarpon, and it is alway very satisfying to catch a new specie.

The mood was on the happy side of things.

Then, one more time, it was going to be a few hours before we get some fish on boards again.

To the extant, that we had a mini raft up with three or four other boats, chatting away, talking fishing and general fisher people's banter. All the while most of us were flicking lures towards the bank. Many of my friends, got hit by fishes, but none of them boated a fish on this occasion. I was the only one, to not get a single hit, this seemed very wrong to me. Most of them had already earlier in the day, caught either a Saratoga, a Barramundi or any other fishes that live in these landlocked waters.

But not me, I was yet to get a single hit, and was starting to question my choice of lure.

After spending so long thinking of a technic that would help me to have a better hookup rate than last year, I decided to stick to it a bit longer. 

That may have been my wisest move of the weekend.

As the raft up disintegrated itself, with everyone going in opposite directions, to get on with the business of catching some fish. Just our boat and Nomad's boat, which had been fixed just in time to enter the round, were still tied together, and as we drifted to the other side of the billabong. Peter, Nomad and I exchanging jokes about anything and everything, with me being the only one still casting my fishing lure around.

This is when I got my first Barramundi of the weekend, while I was targeting the mighty Saratoga:

My first Barramundi of the weekend.

They both said that it was rude of me, to catch a fish while we were having a deep and meaningful conversation... Of course I did not share their point of view...

The fish was 61cm (24.015748 inches), not really a giant, but it was one of the mystery sizes of the event. So it won me a prize!

Seeing that I had caught a fish, both Nomad and Peter started to fish too, and Nomad got a Saratoga!

This was a nice fish, and made us think that it was time to take things a bit more seriously, so we untied the boats and fished in earnest.

I got another hit, I hooked up and I then reeled in a new personal best for me. But it was not a Barramundi or a Saratoga. No, it was the biggest Archerfish I had ever caught.

A rather nice Archerfish.

I don't know if it was pure greed, or territorial or familial protection that pushed this fish to hit my lure, but seeing the size of the lure, compared to the size of the fish, I was in admiration for it's determination.

After three fishes had been caught in the same area, we though that we were on the right spot at the right time, and decided to work it a bit longer. This resulted in a fish that made me very happy, my first Saratoga of the weekend.

My first Saratoga of the weekend.

Yes it was a Barramundi competition, but I really wanted a Saratoga. And in fact, there was also prizes for the best Saratoga of the round. Secretly, I hoped to get one of the top three Saratoga of the event.

The first one was a good one, but I thought that I needed better for that.

So I persevered, and got a second one! Albeit a bit smaller.

A smaller Saratoga.

This one was smaller, but started to make me think that I might be able to catch another one, that would hopefully be better. Still casting in the lilies, I got a hit, it connected and it pulled stronger. Was this the big Saratoga that I was pinning for? It jumped out of the water, and I could see that it wasn't, yet it was exciting nonetheless: it was a Barra!

A little Corroboree Billabong Barramundi.

At only 48cm (18.897638 inches), it was 2cm short to be a point scorer... I felt a bit like sitting on it, to see if that would make it longer, but instead, released it to grow a bit more for the next time.

This was fun fishing, getting the fish out of the lilies, on a soft plastic lure. I am more of a hard bodies lures type of guy. But flicking a lure among the lilies and Pandanus roots, I felt a lot more comfortable with a weedless soft plastic lure.

By then it was late in the afternoon, nearly evening and we decided to catch up with other people participating in the round, to see where the night raft up would be. With the time that it took us to find them, and to join the ones who had already started to raft up, it was night time.

Food was eaten, tales were told, and the party started.

All I will say, is that some loud music was played, and some multi-coloured  disco lights were seen. 

it must have been past midnight by the time I fell asleep. And the music was still going strong, lucky, there is not too many neighbours on the water...

It was a good raft-up, with enough boats to keep it alive.

Some coming and leaving as the night progressed.

But soon enough, it was morning, and the call for action sent some very tired fisherman, in search of their prey.

The morning on the billabong is always a sight to admire.

View from the boats before the rising sun.

DUO pocopoco  and sunrise over Corroboree Billabong.

With its matinal warmth, the sun finally came up, before grilling us for the rest of the day.

Quickly, I rigged my line, with the same lure that had worked on the previous day, a weedless Gulp soft plastic.

Weedless Gulp soft plastic.

Not only I usually prefer to fish with hard bodies than soft plastics, but to top it up, the Gulp really stinks. From all the soft plastic that I have ever used, they are certainly the ones with the worst smell. Yet  one of the main reason I wanted to used them, is that they are biodegradable. Having read about the destructive power of the Saratoga bony mouths, I thought that if they were to destroy my lures these ones would left less, if none pollution in the billabong water.

As a bonus, they proved to be very effective, for me on this occasion.

On the Sunday morning, we started to troll, on the edge of the water lilies. I could not resist and stepped   on the cast deck at the front of the boat, and began to flick again, straight in the lilies and other snags. 

While I had a rod trolling a hard body at the back of the boat.

As my trolling lure from the Saturday had not produced any results, I changed and put a little lure that had been offered to me by Peter Z.

And it worked I got a fish! it is just that, it was another Catfish...

Catfish on the Tilsan.

This was going to be the only fish I caught on a hard body and on the troll for the full weekend. All my other fish had been caught on a soft plastic, casting towards the Pandanus roots or in the lilies.

It was definitively exciting fishing.

And yes the Saratoga were on again:

I love fishing for Saratoga.

Double portrait.

We saw a few very large crocodiles during the weekend, and tried to alway be on the lookout for them.

One of them swam past not very far from the boat, but by the time I got my camera ready it was well past us.

Corroboree Billabong crocodile.

Then I got one of these little fish that I really like.

A Mouth Almighty, this is a rather small fish, but with great character.

It is a mouth brooder, the male keep the eggs in it mouth to protect them.

When Barramundi are very young and small, it is one of their worst nightmare, but as soon as the Barramundi become bigger, the roles changes, and Mr Barra then feast on the poor little Mouth Almighty.

And here is mine:

Mouth Almighty or Glossamia aprion.

Despite their small size, they are considered a very good table fish. But I let him go, he was a nice little fella.

Peter, had decided that he didn't want to fish anymore, and was very happy to just steer the boat around, driving me to the best spot, so I could fish, enjoy the moment, and hopefully get to upgrade my fish from Saturday to a better one. This was very kind of him, and I asked him a few time if he wanted us to go back to Darwin. To which he alway replied that no, he was having a great time too, just sailing the billabong. It is true that it is a very beautiful place.

Then I got another Saratoga:

Little Saratoga.

And I finally caught a better Saratoga, which I was hoping would get me in the top three biggest Saratoga of the weekend:

My biggest Saratoga so far.

This was my personal best Saratoga, at 72cm (28.346457 inches).

I know that they can grow much bigger, but this one was in fact going to be big enough to be the biggest of the round! It won me a prize too, this was two prizes for the round. It was a long time that I had won a prize for catching a fish, so two in the same weekend made me more than happy.

And also the fact that I finally had a revenge on the Saratoga that had proven so elusive to me last year.

I was indeed, very happy.

As a little extra, I then managed to catch a little Sleepy Cod:

Sleepy Cod from the Billabong.

This is another excellent eating fish, but I let it go too.

It made me happy that between Peter and I we had caught such a mixed bag of fishes. It shows that the system is very healthy, with a wide variety of fish living in it.

But by then, it was nearly mid afternoon, so we decided to catch up with other participants, for a little chat, and see what they had caught. We saw Moz, who had caught all his fish of the weekend, with his home made fishing lures. This was a great effort, and demonstrated the quality of his work.

We then left them fishing and headed for the ramp, then the road towards home.

On the road again.

This in my books, will stay as a great weekend. 

Thank you Peter, for the invitation to fish from your boat, I had a ball!

Even if, yes I know, I have done the rude thing of out fishing my skipper...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Barra Trooper Galore.

Hi there,

Not long ago, I had the chance to meet Dave, the maker of the fishing lures Barra Trooper.
He was extremely generous, and gave me some very nice  fishing lures.
Here comes the story of them.

First is the original Barra Trooper, but in a new colour, soon to be introduced on the market. The colour is called X RAY and you will, with no doubt understand why:

Barra Trooper X RAY.

Now, this is not just any lure in the new colour, no...

This is the very first one that was made for production. It is signed on both sides of the body of the lure, on the bib, and with a hand written note on the back of the card.

Here comes a close up of it's face:

Mean looking skeleton.

You can see the signature on the cheek of the lure. And yes, as you can read on the card, it is of course, a hand made timber lure, like all the Barra Trooper.

The evening I got this lure, I could not help, but send a photo of it with my phone to another fishing lure collector in Darwin, just to show it to him, even before doing a post on the blog.

After that came a Barra Trooper in a colour that he normally do only for himself.

The special colour.

I might be wrong, and that would not be the first or last time... But I think that this would be a great colour to target Mangrove Jacks. A fish that till today has managed to elude me. Classy in burgundy and gold, with black strips, this one makes me think of an old fashioned Chicago gangster. 

Then come a smaller lure, with a different shape that than the traditional ones made by Dave.

And it is a real little beauty:

Black and yellow like a hornet.

I have already said in the past, that one of my favourite colour for timber lures, is black and yellow.

For a reason that I don't really understand, this combination of colours remind me of a cafe racer motorcycle, and I really like that. It has to me a retro feel, that I don't get with other colours.

The finish on it, is just great:

Beautiful finish.

As an icing on the cake, this lure came to me, with a very special top up.

Three wooden pieces, that show how it was crafted:

Three steps to a good lure.

This is actually the first time that I have the wooden shapes, of a lure at different stages. This to me, is a very interesting piece added to my little collection. One could say that it has an educative purpose.

Finally, Dave gave me a prototype of a lure that he had been working on.

The overall shape resemble the traditional Barra Trooper, but is a bit shorter, a tad fatter and the tail is slimmer.

Have a look at it:

New prototype of Barra Trooper.

The photograph, don't really shows the depth of the paint job. It has a brown back, with a brass belly covered in gold spots. It is a beautiful and subtle paint work.

Portrait of a fishing lure.

And of course, like all the other ones, it is signed on the belly:

Signed on the belly.

Here they are, my precious little Barra Trooper lures, a very appreciated addition to the stable.

Thank you Dave, these will never see the water, but they will still be taken care of with great attention. 

I know that fishing lures are made to swim, and that most lure makers craft them in the hope that they will catch the fish of a life time... But those four compagñeros will definitively stay dry.

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.