Fishing
By Alex Julius 25 March 2010
If your’re on a boat on the South Alligator River today, you’re either competing in the annual Aurora Kakadu Barra Klash or you’re wondering: “What the bloody hell am I doing here?”
Yes, there will be yet another armada of high-tech sportfishing boats plying the vast tidal waters of Kakadu’s biggest river.
There’ll be big bucks up for grabs again too; publicity and press releases pre-tournament this year have been non-existent, but I expect everything will run much the same as it has for the last couple of years.
The Klash will run for three days, and boats/teams will be allowed to enter one measured-and-released fish each day. Each team will be issued with a camera which they will use to photograph fish on a measuring board with something in the photo that identifies the day.
Cameras will be collected each evening, photos will be downloaded by the organisers and scored submitted will be verified…or not, as the case may be.
With prize money for the winning team being $8000 or more, scrutiny is important because, unfortunately, there are people out there who will do the wrong thing if they are not checked.
Basically, if you don’t enter a fish on each of the three days, you most definitely will not be in contention.
Most years, a total team-length winning score is between 250 and 300 points, with each centimetre being worth a point. Typically, a winning team will catch one fish over a metre and two more between 70cm and 90cm.
I remember clearly the last time I fished the Klash, way back in the early days of this event.
It must have been ’92 or’93, and my team mates included a couple of Territory fishing stalwarts: Col Cordingley and Chris Makepeace.
It was different back then – the boats were smaller and no-one had really ventured way downstream to fish those productive saltwater tidal creeks down towards the mouth of the South Alligator.
My boat was a 4.3m tiller control with a 50hp, and it was one of the biggest and most-powerful of all the boats competing.
We began the first day by fishing way up the river on what many of us know as Big Foot’s Rock-bar, named after one of my great old mates, Garry Simpson, who a couple of years earlier had cleaned up at this rock-bar during a Darwin Game Fishing Club competition held in February of all months.
One of his fish was over 18kg and must have measured more than 115cm.
But that’s another story.
Back on the rock-bar during that early Klash, it was tough going, but we caught two fish, including one over 80cm that weighed about 7kg gilled and gutted.
Yes, they were the days when fish were killed and weighed, so to win you needed the greatest three-fish weight over three days.
I can’t remember our second weighed fish, so it can’t have been notable, but the last one came within minutes of the end of fishing…lines out, in other words. Chris caught that terrific 10kg-plus barra that must have measured high 90s.
It came from a lump about 500m below the mouth of mighty Nourlangie Creek, with a bit of colour delineation helping to explain the presence of quality fish.
You’ve probably guessed that we won that Klash.
It’s interesting that, for at least the last 10 years, I don’t think even a single one of these tournaments has been won by teams fishing above the bridge on the South.
Nowadays, teams mainly stake out a claim at one of those big creek mouths well down the river, and anchor up and fish there all day. The goal is simply to pin and land the biggest fish possible; numbers of fish don’t figure in the equation.
So, as there are definitely a lot more big fish downriver than up, it’s a valid tactic.
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Just in case you were worrying that I would not be publishing another great story of a monster barra capture this week, well here you go.
Alex Greer went fishing with Mark Parkinson of Adrenaline Barramundi Safaris on a five-day mothership safari.
According to Alex: “On the first day fishing we targeted jewfish out on a reef in Chambers Bay and landed fish to 20kg, which sure gave the arms a good workout; later we trolled the mouth of Sampan where I caught and released my first NT barra: a whopping 108cm…what a first day!
“The next two days were filled with heaps of barra to 105cm and threadfin salmon to 94cm, but on the third night I hooked something big that nearly pulled the rod out of my hand,” Alex told me.
“After a 25 minute fight, a monster of a barra surfaced near the boat, on its side and obviously exhausted.
“For second I stood there in astonishment at the size of this fish before getting back to pulling her towards the boat.
“No sooner had I applied pressure than the big girl decided she wasn't done and got her head and shoulders out of the water for a last ditch effort for freedom.
“To my dismay she was successful, cutting my leader like cotton in her huge gills.
“I froze as the rod went slack and she drifted off for a few seconds on her side before kicking her tail and disappearing into the depths.
“Now I know everyone's got a one-that-got-away story but this just took the cake,” a devastated Alex explained.
As it turned out for Alex, there is a God.
On his last day, Mark decided they should head to Tommycutt for a look.
Over to Alex again: “Tommycutt was crowded for a week day and the fishing was going to be tough.
“But, with the tide just turning, my Reidy’s B52 came to an abrupt halt before exploding into a 20m run then doubling back straight towards the boat.
“I wound like hell to keep up with the fast-approaching fish until I got pressure back and only then did I realise this was another monster in the same league as the one lost two nights before.
“Then the fish broke the surface with a huge lunge, shaking its head trying to free itself, at the same time showing its huge size.
“After 15 minutes of powerful runs, my knees were knocking as she approached the boat.
“I lifted her head as I guided her towards Mark’s net and she went in without a fight.
“Mark and myself lifted her into the boat where we quickly measured her (131cm) and got some happy snaps before releasing her to fight another day,” Alex reported with clear excitement.
Congratulations to both Alex and Mark, but I have to say that Alex is one lucky bugger for having two shots at a monster barra in the one short trip.
Alex Greer’s 131cm monster barra was caught trolling a Reidy’s B52 at the mouth of Tommycutt Creek, under the guidance of Mark Parkinson’s Adrenaline Barra Safaris.