AFTER arriving at the Daly River on the 7th of May our team had four days to pre-fish in the lead up to the five days of competition in the Barra Classic.
Myself and Lucky Strike team mates Ross McCubbin and (dad) Brad Job (also our Flathead Classic team) caught plenty of fish in the pre-fish, both casting and trolling. We caught barra up to 107cm, enjoying one hot session with 20 or so barra caught, all 80-97cm, in only an hour.
Team Lucky Strike
Barra Classic Day 1
We had a slow start to day 1, not boating our first fish until 11.30 – three 3 painful hours into official fishing time! We had a bit of mixed luck, catching a few more and losing plenty, before ending Day 1 with eight fish for 545 points. We were positioned 19th with plenty of work and 4 comp days ahead of us.
Day 2 proved far more promising with us starting with a flurry of fish, but no real size to speak of, but all still scored points. We spent the day trolling deep diving lures in extremely heavy cover; getting stitched up in the snags was a fairly regular occurrence which made for pretty exciting and challenging fishing. We finished Day 2 with 17 barra and 990 points. We were positioned 6th.
For Day 3 our plan was much the same as we stayed in the heavy cover which we’d named “tiger country”. It was a bit like fishing in an underwater jungle because there were so many snags. We ticked fish over for most of the day with a few nice ones up to 87cm. It turned out be a big day for us with Brad the quite achiever getting Champion Angler for the day with an impressive 850 points.
We caught a total of 13 fish for the team and scored 1150 points, positioning us in 3rd place.
Brad Job scored Champion Angler on Day 3.
Day 4 for us started a bit like Day 1 with a couple of big fish lost due to pulled hooks and fish getting back to the snags. We landed our first fish around lunch time and we managed to scratch together a quick 8 fish of fair size and 690 points. Luck was on our side as the competitors ahead of us also found the going tough. We ended Day 4 on top, positioned 1st by about 215 points.
Ross McCubbin with another nice fish for the team.
As Day 5 dawned, we knew a solid day would almost certainly see us score a Barra Classic win. The three of us are seasoned tournament anglers, and we’d decided on a game plan for the day, involving a one and a half hour run down the Daly River. Our lines were in at 7am and even though we had film crews following us doing interviews, we were doing our best to stay focused on the task at hand; barra fishing can be a bit of a lotto at the best of times and keeping fish on the line can be a real challenge, especially with the tournament’s barbless hooks rule.
It turned out luck just wasn’t on our side and we continued to lose far too many fish with a few of the lost barra exceeding 90cm – almost 300 points. It proved to be our worst day with us landing only three fish for 295 points. We finished the tournament in 4th place out of 51 teams. Although we didn’t win we were more than pleased in getting so close on an unfamiliar track. We’re hoping for better luck next year!
(Results below)
Ed’s note: Fisho’s David Green also competed in the 2011 Classic. His team Take A Punt finished in 12th place overall. We’ve unusccessfully tried to contact Greeny for his take on the event as he is currently enjoying an extended trip into remote areas of the NT. Stay tuned for more on Greeny’s Top End adventures in Fishing World.
The winning team, Classic Warlocks – Justin Jones, John Millyard and Trevor Robb – into another fish. Pic: NAFA
Tony Hare with one of several metre-plus barra caught in the Classic. Pic: NAFA
2011 Barra Classic results
Top 10 Teams
1 Classic Warlocks
2 Reel Easy
3 Fire Fin
4 Lucky Strike
5 Team Lowrance
6 Team Live Fibre
7 Barely Legal
8 Pilbarians
9 Polar Bears
10 Wrecktem
Individual Placings
1 Trevor Robb
2 Wade Rogers
3 Mark Cottrell
4 Brad Job
5 Greg Silva
6 Peter Politis
7 Col Cordingley
8 Skevos Politis
9 Darren Struylaart
10 Justin Jones
