Daly River 12th - 13th April

On the road just after 3:00 am and on the water by 6:30, no deckie this trip and planned to overnight on the water.
Pulled up at a little creek just down from the ramp and pretty soon had a 57cm and a 60cm barra in the esky, my favourite eating size barra, both caught with a Sqidgie Mongrel.

Continued on to Catfish Creek and joined the flotilla of boats trolling between Catfish and Elliot and Hares Rockbar. The big girls were turning it on with meteries being caught one after the other up till around 2:00 oclock when it finally slowed down. Unfortunately none of them were on my boat, I only managed to land a 94cm, which I successfully returned, but I lost three others the same size or bigger.

Decided to camp up at Lookout Creek, so anchored up and tried casting the Mongrel to pick up my last keeper for the trip without a touch, tossed a Big B52 out the back as a stroller while setting up the boat and picked up a nice 84cm barra which was also successfully released.

Set up the mozzie net and hammock and after a steak and salad and a couple of Bundies, hit the sack.

Up early for brekkie and back into the troll.

No luck at Hares, so headed down for a look at Moon and back to Alligator Point where a smaller flotilla of boats were trolling. Once again saw a few big girls being caught, but managed to pick up a little 60cm to get my bag limit for the trip.

Headed back to Hares  for a couple of runs before heading back to the ramp and home.

No meteries for me but still a couple of good fish and 3 freezer size to take home to the Boss.



Top End Barra Series round 2 .. Shady Camp

Round two was held at Shady Camp. Round card was emailed early Friday morning  so around 10 am, Shane and myself headed off to Shady Camp. Arrived safely and launched quickly, no waiting in line unlike later arrivals.
Headed straight to the mouth of Sampan and started trolling amongst about 8 boats. It wasn't long before something grabbed my lure and started running. After a tough fight a nice silver barra was in the net and onboard. After a quick measure, 95cm, and photo we started swimming her to revive and release. Unfortunately after an extended attempt, she would not come good and so even though I usually release any fish 80cm or more she ended up in the esky.

95cm biggest for the year

Looking back, I can't help but feel that this Shady Lady had placed a curse on me with her last gasps.
Back into the conga line again and on to another hookup, this one only a 65cm.

That was it for the day despite trolling for the rest of the afternoon, so decided to head into the mouth to set up for the night.
Pulled up next to Dean and Luke with intention of spending the night, however later on we came adrift and while they reanchored at the same spot , we decided to camp up on the other side of the creek where we could anchor in the current in deeper water.
After a quiet night we woke to see the others had ended up high and dry, so it was just as well we had moved.

After the usual bacon and eggs brekkie it was back into the conga line.
Despite me getting a couple of good fish the day before, it seemed the curse of the Shady Lady had struck. We tried Sampan mouth, Swim Creek and back to Sampan, and even though Shane managed two nice fish, a 76 and a 78, out of 4 fish caught I could only manage two scorers, a 52 and a 53.
At the end of the day it was back to our camp spot for the night.

Shanes 76

Shanes 78

One of the scorers

Unlike the previous night, this time we were hit by two nasty storms, so rose in the morning feeling a bit worse for wear and pretty damp. Still after the usual brekkie we were back into it hoping to improve my lack of fish the day before.
Despite hitting Sampan, Tommycut and up near the dead forest, all we could raise was a 49cm barra for Shane, so around 1:00 oclock it was decided to pull up stumps and head for home.
The curse of the Shady Lady had well and truly put paid to this round, hopefully by round three it will have worn off.

Results after round 2 now put me at 20th position.