Top End Barra Series Round 1

Round one of the Top End barra series 2012 was held on the Daly River on the 3rd and 4th of March.
Unfortunately the weather gods were against us and due to some heavy upriver rainfall we were going to be fishing a rising river, so the decision was made to fish as far downstream as the competition allowed, namely the Palmerston Island area.
Picked up James around 3 pm on the Friday and headed off to the Daly.After an uneventfull road trip we launched and headed downstream, intending to hook up with Bill and Jason Luck to overnight around Clear Creek before heading further down in the morning. Arrived at Clear in the dark and after a few slow touchy feely approaches with sand bars around the mouth managed to get there and found Bill and Jason. Tied up to their boat and proceeded to enjoy quite a few beverages whilst enjoying Bill's selection of music on his in boat sound system,( note to self, could be a good thing to have in Draco )

Up at sparrows for bacon and eggs breakie before heading downstream, all new territory for James and myself from there on.

Eventually arrived at Palmerston Island and after a quick discussion with Bill started exploring this area.
Turned out to be a slow day with lots of time between fish, but we managed to land 6 barra, from 57cm to 88cm and a small Salmon. Bill and Jason had similar luck but with a lot more Salmon.  Finally set up camp in a nearby creek and had a feed, a few drinks and after a pretty hard day and late night before, we all hit the sack reasonably early.

Heres a few pics of the better fish.

88cm, my biggest so far this year

Up early again for those great bacon and eggs and back into trying to find more fish. Unfortunately, apart from one hookup which I lost in the sticks, we were unsuccessful and so around midday we started upstream to head for home.

Only saw a few other boats on the way back so assumed that they had either caught heaps or had given up.

Round one results .....

Of the 58 competitors,

19 competitors did not score.

10 others did not fish.

I came 10th with 445 points

Bill came 14th with 345 points

Jason came 19th with 130 points

James, who is not competing this year would have ended up with 520 points around 7th.

It was a great weekend, even better in that we had avoided any rain, and I can't wait for round 2, Shady Camp, heres hoping we have some more rain before then to get those creeks pumping.