WHAT a couple of weeks I’ve had!
I’ve just returned from Port Macquarie, where the Daiwa-Hobie World Kayak Fishing Tournament and Grand Final was held. The vibe at this event was fantastic, and it was great to meet and swap stories with the international competitors. Big congratulations to Danie lBrown for defending his Grand Final Champion title, and to Scott Baker, the first Hobie Fishing World Champion.
Prior to heading to Port Macquarie, I had a week in the Northern Territory, sight casting to Barramundi in Arnhemland. What an experience. I flew into Darwin and joined the rest of the group on Steve Goodhew’s I’ll Take Ya Fishing Charter, aboard the Mothership Glenalan. Sailing overnight, we reached the Mini Mini System by morning, and it was straight into the fishing!
The group of five anglers, including myself, caught in excess of 160 barra for the five days, and this was a slow trip. Slow? Not as far as I was concerned, all of the fish were caught sight casting on the mangrove edges and on the flats. There’s nothing better than spotting these fish, casting to them, and hooking up. It’s visual and exciting, with adrenaline pumping, and there was more than one instance of “barra fever”, when the jitters and excitement were just too much…
A barra in the skinny stuff…
Most fish were in the 60-70 cm range, though there were close to 10 caught in the 80′s, one 95cm barra, with threadies, fingermark and queenies (to 102cm) as by-catch.
Although the other guys were using baitcast gear, I stuck to my “heavy bream” spin gear, in the form of the medium light Daiwa Black Label SSS 6101 MLXS matched to a Certate 3000.This outfit was perfect for throwing jerkbaits like Rapala 80mm Flat Rap & 110mm Clackin’ Minnow, Daiwa DB Minnow and Storm Thunderstick.
Itis a beautiful part of Australia, with great fishing opportunities, so stay tuned for the sight fishing video coming soon…
