By all accounts, last week’s fourth round of the 2022 Top End Barra Series was
a good one.
The area fished encompassed the lower Adelaide River and both Saltwater Arm
and Leader’s Creek.
According to TEBS co-ordinator, Tim Bolch, the water had warmed a bit
compared to earlier in the month, but it was windy on both days, with dirty
water nearly everywhere.
“Some anglers had trouble raising a single scaly critter of any type; others
found the prized Lates calcarifer in large numbers,” Tim said.
“Persistent anglers were left reeling at the strike, with one report from Regis
Martin that a barra hit so hard that it broke the lure’s bib and bent two of the
6x-strong trebles whilst being angled to the boat.
“Among the misadventures of the weekend was poor Mark Grosser whose
steering stopped working late on Saturday afternoon, and he was towed from
Wiltshire Creek to the boat ramp by Tim Morgan.
“James ‘Parksy’ Park marked a big barramundi on the sounder and swam a
75mm hard body lure past its nose.
“The lure was immediately crushed and line peeled at great speed from his
reel.
“Alas, the fish ran straight into a big pile of submerged timber, but Parksy
managed to get the fish out of the snag, and finally saw a nice big yellow tail
which, after a bit more fighting, turned out to belong to a fat Queensland
Groper,” Tim reported.
There were 85 barra over 50cm caught in this TEBS round, as well many more
barra under the 50cm scoring length.
Nine competitors were able to catch the bag limit of five fish, with seven fish
over 80cm and one ripper which measured 102cm for Dwight Shepherd.
Jack Oswald came third in this round, with fish measuring 68, 69, 70, 72 and
75cm.
Jack spent most of the weekend casting soft plastics and hard-body lures at the
snags in the Wiltshire creeks.
Tim said: “Jack is fishing TEBS for the first time this season and had already
claimed first place in Round 2 to go with his third on the Adelaide.
“In second position was an angler who regularly figures near the top: Peter
Cooper.
“Peter’s bag was full to the brim, with scorers at 75, 76, 76, 79 and 83cm…
impressive for a bloke who was fishing solo.
“Peter caught his first good fish on Saturday morning casting a soft plastic
around The Narrows, and followed up on the Sunday with his better fish
coming on the troll in the Wiltshires.
“The winner of this round was Dwight Shepherd, whose bag was bursting at
the seam with barramundi measuring 74, 76, 80, 89 and a stonker 102cm fish,”
Tim reported.
TEBS round 5 will be in Darwin Harbour.
Dwight Shepherd’s stonker 102cm Adelaide River barra helped him win
round four of the Top End Barra Series.
It’s not a point-scoring barra, but James “Parksy” Park was happy
enough with this splendid Qld groper.
Junior TEBS angler, Tore Ruddock, fished well on the Adelaide River.
Jack Oswald came third in TEBS round four.
