Top End Barra Series Round 4

Hi there, 

Last weekend was the fourth round of the Top End Barra Series this very friendly competition organised by two member of the FFF forum, Bandit and Dingo.
The round number four was taking place in the Darwin Harbour.

Saturday:
For me the day one of the Round 4 started very nicely, with Arrabmundy picking me up at 9:30 am on the Saturday. That is a neat change of all these fishing trips, where I have to be ready between 4 and 5 in the morning. (But rest assured that I am not complaining!)
We were quickly on the water, launching from Dina Beach.
From there we sailed toward Middle Arm, on a sea so flat that I had never seen it like that in Darwin harbour yet, and it was going to be even better on the following day.

We first flicked some lures around Channel Island, for not much but a few baby cods. They were cute, but we put them back in the water…
From there we crossed over to a little creek of which I do not know the name of. Not trying to keep a secret spot secret, just totally unable to remember if this creek even has a name. 
Any way as we arrive there, we saw a guy by himself on a boat who hooked up and lost a fish just under our eyes.
This is good sign I told myself. Then after 3 or 4 cast Arrabmundi got a rather large Barramundi coming and slapping his lure, just in front of the boat. Even better sign I told myself already counting in my mind, the extravagant amount of enormous fish that we would extract from this creek… I was partially wrong. We did get 3 Barramundi from this creek, but only two were going to be legal ones.
As we drifted in the creek we kept casting to every snag or drain that we could see. And not much else was happening. Then we arrived to a point were the water was too low to continue further but the place looked the goods. 
A little intersection between the three arms of the creeks, a few snags and some very agitated mullets. So we start to cast with even more enthusiast in every nook possible for not much, but the mullet getting more and more nervous around us, and some big splashes starting to be seen here and there.
Not exactly like a school of pelagic harassing the bait fish, but this is what it reminded me. 
On the left hand side of the creek was a tree falling in the water, we both did about ten cast to it for nothing. Arrabmundi turned around to cast his lure where we could see the most commotion in the water. 
Being myself I was thinking that it is so nice when you can do that perfect cast, land your lure just where you want it, against a snag, and get a nice Barra for your effort. 
That I wanted to practice and tried one more cast toward the fallen tree, and first got upset with myself for it not being the perfect cast that I would have loved. At least 50 cm short of where I wanted it… Then a big boof and some flying mullets! But just on the opposite side of the stream… 
This is where I started to get a little bit more upset with myself as I had in a very typical way send my lure just as far as I could from the action… 
Looking at where all this was happening, I mechanically made a little twitch of my lure and started to turn the handle of my reel when the thing stopped without looking I though: "Great on top of this I am snagged". And before I even finished to think it the water literally erupted under the fallen tree and a nice piece of piscatorial chrome took to the air. Lucky me, it swam straight for the centre of the creek, away from the snag. 
Remembering what Double Haul told me on the Daly: Keep you rod down! I did just that and after a short but honest fight the fish was netted by Arrabmundi who was saying it is in the 70s! I was thinking, ok it’s look like this one may be legal. 
Ho yes it was, it was not yet 12 noon and I had just caught what was going to be my best fish of the weekend, a 74cm Barramundi from Darwin Harbour. And this was done by casting a lure made to dive to 2.5 meters in a less than a meter deep drain…

My first fish of the weekend.

The water around us was still full of very stressed mullet so after some quick photos, with high hopes of doing it again we were back into it. This is where Arrabmundi caught his first Barra of the day, but this one was a tiny bit on the small size and not yet legal. We did not try to seat on it to make it longer, we put it back in the water, honest.

Arrabmundi first Barramundi.

Then he started to drop a few in a row, and pretty fast the water went calm, and no hits no more… So we decided to go and try some rock bars.
First Arrabmundi got a little cod once again, then just close to the boat a Mangrove Jack made a dash for his lure and guzzled it with gusto, and it was an immediate fight just under our eyes. Sadly the fight did not last very long, as the hook to which the fish was attached broke and the fish swam away. That was really bad luck, because this fish could have been a prize-winner.
So we continued to drift a bit around this rock bar and I got a very decent hit on one of my small Ofmer lures, but the fish managed to get ride of the hooks in no times. So I sent back my lure in roughly the same spot a few times and was rewarded by a 54.6 cm Barramundi… 4 millimetres too short… 

Barramundi on the Ofmer X-minnow 110F.

Ha! This I learned a few hours later was going to be the curse of many competitors in this round.
We continued to go from one rock bar to the other for the same kind of results, baby cods, and undersized Barra…
I even got another one on another of my Ofmer lures.

Barramundi on the Ofmer Jerker 80F.

A successful little lure.

To the credit of these lures, in a weekend where the fishes were so finicky, they worked very well. To the extant that another competitor who was using them got all his legal Barramundi for the full weekend on the Ofmer Jerker 80F only.

It was time to find another plan if we wanted to get the real thing, the big fish...

So we moved to Pioneer Creek, this one I remembered the name, because I was wondering why it had been named like that?
In there we did a bit of trolling for a little while and I had put back at the end of my line the now trusted little lure that had caught me my only legal Barra so far, earlier in the morning.
This lure, a little warlock with a diving depth of 2,5 meter kept bouncing on the muddy bottom of the creek, and as I was starting to think that I should replace it with a 2 or 1,5 meter lure the rod without any warning bent in my hand and the line started to peel from the reel: this was no snag or mud bouncing, this was a fish! The battle was decent but not dirty and my skipper for the day did a good job at netting the fish. 

60cm of Darwin Harbour chrome.

As I was taking a photo of this 60cm of fine Barramundi specimen Arrabmundi offered to rectify one of the treble on my lure, which seemed a tad bent in the wrong way. Just as he grabbed the lure in one hand and was going to grab the hook with a plier, the lure came of the line, the knot was busted… Miss luck had been on my side, because if this Barra had fought a bit harder, or stayed in the water a few more seconds, he would have swam away with my lure as bling…
Yes I know, I should always check my knots after each and every fishes… But all the previous ones were so small that I had bothered doing it… I should have.

But that was about it on the fish catching front, so we decided to go back in the first creek of the day, where I had caught my first legal one and try to get some more love from the fishes.
As we entered the creek, I was going to take a photo of Arrabmundi at the helm of his vessel conducting a Barra troll, and just one or two second after I pressed the release on my camera, a big fish jumped behind the boat. 
The fish was on his line! Quick smart we are both on our feet him trying to reel it in, and me trying to get the net ready. This was going to be his first legal fish of the day, no doubt about it. Well not in the fish mind, as he spat the hook and disappeared under water…
Ha!
So chin up we started to troll again…
And sure enough a few minutes latter, he got hooked again and this time I was really hoping that this fish was going to see the net… 
Well not only did he saw the net, but it also visited the esky. This was a nice and healthy 61cm Barramundi, and Arrabmundi was now on the board!

Arrabmundi reeling in his Barramundi.

We could start to relax, but it was already nearly night fall, so we made it back to the ramp and home, after what had been a great day of fishing in some place of the harbour where I had never been before. It is always nice to discore some new places, specially when these places are in fact on our doorsteps.

Sunday:
Dingo and Muntzy picked me up at roughly the same time and of we went, for a new day of fishing advantures.
On the previous day, I had seen the harbour as flat as I had never seen it before. On the second day, it was even more flat, an amazing sight, and my eyes went without asking me in the search of a Tuna school breaking the surface. 

With Darwin on the horizon.

But Tuna were not the target of the day, so after a few quick photos of the flat waters, we motored to were the action was going to be.

Are we going fast or what?

The first place where we arrived Muntzy told me that on the back of the boat, on the opposite side of where he and Dingo had already started to cast was a good spot for Queenfish…
Well did I need to be told more to be distracted from a Barramundi competition? 
No, I dully casted my lure on the Queenfish side instead of the Barra side… And guess what?
I hooked very quickly a small queeny, who managed to escape me before I got it to the boat. That was as close as I would come to get a fish for the next few hours… I could see Muntzy and Dingo getting with the job hooking up and landing some Queenfish, Mackerel, Trevally, small Barra and Flat head but me nothing… 

Muntzy hooked to a Mackerel.

Dingo with a small Queenfish.

I got a few half hearted hits, with no real hook ups, nothing would stay connected… Maybe I had caught the disease that had plagued Arrabmundi the previous day and was no under a sever spell of Dropsy…
Or at least this is what I thought till we went to what was going to be the last creek of the day. Where we saw the McMinns Mobs getting on some fish. 

Between a creek and the sky.

In there it started with my first catch of the day, a nice little Goldie, my first one ever on a hard body lure.

My first Goldie on a hard body lure.

I was very happy with that, and decided to release it hoping for a bigger one. I realised my mistake latter when both Dingo and Muntzy told me that this in fact had been a rather nice specimen for a creek one… And they were proved right as I ended up catching 4 other ones and they were all smaller. Dingo and Muntzy were catching also, but they were catching some young Barra and even what was a nice Flathead for the area, but none of the Goldies that were slowly destroying my lure. 

And knowing that I had a 74 cm Barramundi in my bag from the previous day, Dingo kept saying with a big smile that all he wanted was a 75…
Ha!

At one stage as I was being silly and mucking around moving my rod in rhythm with the music coming out of the boat stereo, I felt a nudge in the line and hop it started to peel line and I got a juvenile Barramundi. I deducted that this little fella must have loved the music that was playing aboard at the time, so as he showed good taste and was totally undersized, in the drink it went back.
Not long after that both Dingo and I were on at the same time. Double hook-up! Muntzy grabbed the net and asked who was going to need some netting at first, and what were we hooked on? Well none of us really need the net… Dingo got a small Queenfish, and I got another teenage boy Barra with attitude, trying to scoff down a lure to big for him…

Our massive double hook-up...

So it was starting to be around 5 in the afternoon, and the sun had already started his descent on the horizon, when as we were trolling along the bank of the creek Dingo showed to Muntzy a fish on the sounder. Not long after that without a sign of warning my rod tried to escape from my hand, took a serious bent and the reel let the line go at an alarming rate! 
It must have been this fish that they had spotted on the sounder. 
It jumped very soon after the impact, and we immediately knew that this was a Barramundi, and that it could be a good point scorer. 
So what did I do? I tried as much as I could not to panic of course! I wanted, no, needed this fish, and I was going to stay calm and just reel it in nice and slow… Yeah right! I think that I heard the boys say more than a few time: “Take your time, reel him in nice and slow”. This must have been because my anxiety at the risk of loosing it was showing. It took a bit of time to get it close to the boat, and once there, it took me to a little dance in an anticlockwise motion all around the boat. Which ended on the side where it had started, lucky me, this was the best side to net it. But he still had some fight in him and didn’t like the look of the net. After trying to bring him to the net a few time, he finally came the right way, and Muntzy showed his expertise in the netting department and got it deep in the net at first try.

Last fish of the weekend.

Yes a few cheering could been heard on the river. 
To say that I was happy would be an understatement, I now had my three scoring fish needed to have a full bag, and this one was 70cm. Not huge, but enough to make me think that I could end up in the top ten of this round with this fish…
And once again I believe that Miss Luck had a crush on me this very weekend. First why did this fish choose my lure from the three swimming behind the boat? 
And then when we saw how it was hooked, just by the skin of the upper lip. I recon that it would not have taken too much more for it to break the skin and swim free before being netted. It had fought hard and longer than most Barramundi that I have caught so far, so I still don’t understand how it actually stayed connected with such a thin layer between the hook and it’s freedom.
He was released after a few quick photos, he deserved it.

After that we did troll a bit more but not much, as Dingo would still have a few hours of driving to get back home.

Some people call it hard work.

So we crossed back the harbour toward the ramp, and they dropped me at home, what a service!

To me this round was the occasion to fish in some spots I had never seen before and to meet some new people while fishing. Exactly how I understood the project of the Top End Barra Series. This is great. 

Thanks again to Arrabmundi for having me on his boat on the Saturday. And to Dingo, for having me on his boat with Muntzy, who was very good company… Ha these delicious marinated pieces of porcs that he had brought onboard… So bad for my arteries, but so good under the teeth…
And also to Dingo and Bandit for organising the event, top job guys.

Now I can’t wait for the next and final round of the Inaugural Top End Barra Series.


Ho, and what was my position on the scoreboard at the end of this round?
Well, my biggest hope was to score a place in the top ten...
I came in first! For the first time of my fishing life, I made it to the top.
Yes I won the round, and for this I will soon receive a new fishing rod. A G Loomis GL2 CR665. A rod that I had looked at with envy more than once at the shop. But never bought as it is slightly out of my price range for fishing gears. And I also won a tackle box Plano 1374. All together some very nice prizes that I will use with great pleasure.
Still we should keep in mind, that I won a round, not the full series. And considering the score of some of the other competitors, there is not a chance that I will ever win the series.
I won because I had an enormous amount of chance during the weekend, while most of the other competitors had a very big quantity of bad luck...


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

Top End Barra Series Round 3

Hi there,

It was time for the round 3 of the Top End Barra Series, and this time the action was taking place all over the Mary River Billabongs.

I was ready to be deckie in a new team with whom I had never fished before. When on the Friday before the event I found myself boatless, as the skipper had to attend some very urgent family business. 

All seemed to be lost for my weekend of fishing and I put a message on the FFF forum asking if any one had a spot on his/her boat for me.

Well I did get very lucky to be offered at the last minute a spot on Arrabmundi boat for the Sunday, and even if I had never met him before, as soon as the offer came in I said yes in a heart beat.
I was not going to regret it.

He told me that he would pick me up at 5:00am, so as a very eager kid, I woke up at 3:15am and could not fall asleep anymore...
So I got up to check my lure selection one last time and the overall state of my gears... 
Then before I realised it, he was there and I jumped in the car and we hit the road, destination the billabongs.

During the trip, I asked him as innocently as I could: "Have you fished the billabongs before?" and the reply came simply as any inexperienced angler who was going there for the first time would have dreamed it: "Hundreds of times mate".
Great I was in with a chance to catch a fish then!

Because yes, I had never been on these billabongs yet, and kept reading about it.

We had a quick stop at the Corroboree tavern for a few snack and a quick chat with Bullet and Co about the previous day of fishing, and then in no times we were at the boat ramp.
Where, as discretely as possible I was trying to scan the water for any signs of crocodiles...
None were around, or I did not see them, and off we sailed first towards the Rock Hole, to try to catch the first action of the day on day break.
To say that the weather was nice and fresh would be an understatement, And I started to wonder if I should have taken a pair of mittens with me...

A nice and fresh morning on the billabongs.

Yet it was a great thing to see, a place I would love to take my child to, one day.

Any way as we arrived to the spot we saw Zulk and Uncldug casting away in front of a Pandanus, and not far away Dingo, Doors Off and Muntzy doing more or less the same.

Casting lures in front of the pandanus.

The skipper decided to troll and that was absolutely fine by me.
First I used a Big Lucifer and got a strange hit wasn't too sure of what was going on...
I started to reel it in, thinking that I had a strange lump of weed, or maybe a baby catfish, a billabong's kitten maybe...
But no, I had a Glossamia aprion, a fish that most anglers know under the name of Mouth Almighty.
This was the first time that I saw one, what a great looking little fish!

My first ever Mouth Almighty.

In fact I did show the photo to the fish specialist at the museum today, and I was told that this was a very pale and interesting specimen.
And I was told that I should have brought it back for the museum collection...
I told them that I did not eat it, that I just put it back in the water, honest, scout honour and all... But now you know if ever you were to catch one of a simillar size and colour, the museum would be very interested to have it in the collection. I was told that this is because usually they are darker.

So we troll again, me just happy to look at the scenery and to have seen this nice little fish when bang! 
Another hit and this time with more punch than the last one.
I started to reel it in, but the thing do not jump at all just go for the depths and in a very amateurish kind of way I say: Maybe it's a Toga? (Remember that at this point I was yet to have ever seen a saratoga in the flesh).
To which I am told no, this is a Barra!
And sure enough this is a clean little Barramundi that Arrabmundi scoop easily in the net.
Ho yes I was happy! Only 61 cm, but hey I got it!

Look at the chrome on this fish.

Do I look happy or what?

Now, usually if you have a lure that caught you 2 fish in a few minutes, you stick to it... Well being who I am, I told myslef, time for a change of lure...
And I put a little Shaker 60 SR made by Ofmer, in the gold colour...
This was a good move, not even 15 feet in the troll run and I was screaming: I'm on! I'm on! I don't even think that this little lure had the time to descend as deep as it is made to swim. First a good pull on the line, then nothing... Then another pull and a nice jump, then another stronger pull and the line start to peel from my reel and .... nothing ... 
I got busted in open water...

I usually alway check my leader after each fish and I didn't do it after the first Barra...
Should have, this is a lesson that I hope to remember...
That was a nice little lure, and I had only one like this, but apparently a nice Barramundi liked it more than I...

This would have been the fish of the day, and it showed, albeit for a very short amount of time, how this little lure could be effective for Barramundi fishing.

And this was nearly the end of my fishing exploit for the day, and Arrabmundi turn to shine.
During the rest of the day, he was to boat 7 Barramundi, one Saratoga, a Giant Gudgeon and hook quite a few Tarpon too.
Here are two of his fishes:

A Barramundi on soft plastic.

A Saratoga in close-up.

And the full animal.

This was the first time that I saw a Saratoga in the flesh and not just in a magazine, they are very nice fish too. The colours on them is just amazing, for a fresh water fish.

He was getting most of his fishes on soft plastic...
I tried poppers, diver, walk the dog styles of lures, fizzers and finally decided to try some of my own soft plastic...
I did get a few little hits, but no hookup... And he kept telling me: You should try one of mine....
And I kept telling myself: As soon as I'll try one of his, I will loose it to a snag...
And finally by the end of the afternoon when he caught a 64cm Barra just under my nose, his 7th Barramundi for the day, I had to ask: Can I borrow one of your lure for a few minutes please? ...
He smiled to me and said: This is what I told you to do for the past few hours... 
So I did, and guess what?
Just after a few minutes of trying, just where he got his 64 cm Barra, I got an Oxyeleotris selheimi, more commonly called Giant Gudgeon.
This once again was a first for me! And Arrabmundi then said: I should have forced you to use one of these lures...

My first ever Giant Gudgeon.

Made me very happy.

Now, this is the folks at the museum who told me that this is a Giant Gudgeon, and that it is not a sleepy cod.
Apparently the difference is in the fins and some little spots on them. If it has some darker spots on the dorsal fins, this is a Giant Gudgeon.

(Thanks again to the good people from the Museum in Darwin for all the information about fish that they keep giving me)

We also passed by Itsinmeblood and Turtle during the day, they were busy casting some scum frog in the lilies...
Not long ago if someone had told me that he or she had spent the Sunday morning casting scum frogs in the lilies, I would have wondered what was that all about?...

So all together, this was a very relaxing day on the water. Very enjoyable with quite a few new fish caught or sighted to me. 
In a truly fantastic location, where I had planed to take more photographs... But got myself busy with the fishing...

But I did manage a few photos of a White Bellied Sea Eagle, and here is one of them:

A magnificent bird.

Thanks again  to Arrabmundi, I had a great day, in a place that I really wanted to see.

So yes with just one Barramundi of 61cm, I was on the board, as this round proved to be hard fishing for most of the participants in the series.

It gave me the 10th position in the round 3, and on the overall board for the Series I am now 13th.

For a total of 38 participants.

And yes on the score board, I am very very far from the 3 first ones.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

The Ofmer Rambler 120F DR

Hi There,

I just got a new lure given to me by the good guy from Ofmer fishing lures in Australia, and the lure is the Rambler 120F DR.
And this is a nice lure, when I look at it, my only regret is that I didn't have it when I was fishing on the Daly River 2 weeks ago. As I am pretty sure that it would have produce over there.
I don't know if you remember, but I had already done a post some time ago about the Ofmer lures. Well, this is the same quality of lure, with a very beautiful finish, and some really strong hooks. And this one has a clear and see through body and paint.
Ok, no more game playing, here it is:

The Ofmer, Rambler 120F DR.

This is a floating lure of 120mm (4.7244094 Inches), it weight 32 g. (1.1287668 ounce) and dive to a depth of 4.5m. (147.6378 feet). It has a wobbling and rolling action.

It also has a magnet system in it, which can move the weight inside of the lure, for better longer casts. Very cool to see it through the clear body of the lure.

Now my big question, is will it be any good when chasing pelagic at  full speed, or is it more of a Barramundi lure?

To this I will be able to answer only once I will have made a few test with it.

So yes it is time to go out there and do some research!

I know, this is a hard life...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

My first fishing sponsor.

Hi there,

Today I received some new fishing lures, and I got them free, because they are my first ever fishing sponsor!
Yes I am getting sponsored to practice my favourite hobby...
How good is that?!?!

It started a few weeks ago, when one of the Australian agent of the Ofmer lures contacted me through the FFF internet forum. He then basically asked me if I wanted to try some of his lures in the Top End Barra Series, in which I am a participant.
Guess what I said?
Yes of course!

And today I went to the post office and picked up a parcel with my new lures in it.
So no more waiting game, if you have been hooked by the words, here are the images.

First the X-Minnow 110F, a 110mm long floating lure of 10.7g. It dives to a depth of 80 cm (2.6246719 feet).

Ofmer X-Minnow110F

The Jerker 80F, a 80mm long floating lure of 8.1g. It dives to a depth of 1 meter (3.2808399 feet).

Ofmer Jerker 80F

The Shaker 60SR, a 60mm long floating lure of 12g. It dives to a depth of 1.5 meter (4.9212598 feet).

Ofmer Shaker 60SR

The Shady 75F, a 75 mm long floating lure of 9.9g. It dives to a depth of 1.5 to 2 meters (4.9212598 to 6.5616798 feet).

Ofmer Shady 75F

And now two surface lures, which is great because surface fishing is one of my favourite.

There is very few things that I enjoy as much as seeing a nice fish smashing a lure on the surface.

The MJ-Pop 75F, a 75mm long floating lure of 10g. It is a surface popper, so it does not get down, it pop and splash on the water surface.

Ofmer MJ-POP 75F

And the Doggy 100SL, a 100mm long floating lure of 12.3g. Once again a surface lure this one just slid along the water surface in a walk the dog motion.

Ofmer Doggy 100SL

Yes they are all shinny and very well finished and I can't wait to use them.

I even think that I will have to give them a test run before the next round of the Top End Barra Series, which will come in May.

So I will have to wait a few days to test them.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.