Alex's Column 16 May 2025

Last week’s NT Barra Classic and Barra Classic Masters were both highly contested down on the Daly River.

Run by Darwin Game Fishing Club from the Banyan Farm venue, for the most part the tides were in their neap phase.

The Masters is a three-day event designed to be less grueling for the competitors who are all 60 years or older.

This was the second Masters and was definitely a trolling event for the dozen or so teams which competed.

Team Bad Karma is now on a hat trick after winning Champion Team again.

Led by angling stalwart, Rohan Short, with team members Brian DeMarco and Brently Hughes, Bad Karma won primarily because of the team’s consistency, amassing 200 to 300 points every day.

Mind you, Team Venom’s Dave Silva, Gaye Silva and Rocky Edwards were a close second after finding a swag of barra well down the river.

A true veteran of the Barra Classic, Dave was a convincing Champion Angler.

To everyone’s surprise, the five-day Barra Classic was a much closer contest than in the previous few years when Team Tackle World consistently blitzed the competition.

Tackle World’s Shane Compain, Bryce Neil and Cameron Briscoe certainly won again, but Team Irukandji wasn’t all that far behind, with Irukandji’s Jack Oswald winning Champion Angler after amassing an extraordinary 1540 points on the last day.

“On the second day of the Classic, we found some huge fish between the S-bend and Elizabeth Creek, and that’s when I caught my 97,” Jack told me.

“We ended up down at Alligator Head where I dropped one that was over 120cm.

“When the tides got bigger towards the end of the comp, fish were mainly up high during the first of the run-out and then went low as the tide dropped.

“The fishing was very slow during the last of the outgoing but, once the tide started moving faster, the action increased.

 “Our best session was on the morning of the last day when we saw heaps of 80s on the Active Target and caught fish up to 87cm,” Jack said.

“We mainly used 7-inch Irukandji Sicarios in a natural olive colour.”

Champion Team Tackle World mainly used the new Panic Stations soft plastic which was designed by Shane Compain.

There’s an excellent video clip on the Darwin Game Fishing Club Facebook page where Shane explains using his Active Target setup with great screen depiction.

Look for this post: “On board with Team Tackleworld as Nathan and Shane Compain talk setup and the thrill of the competition Barra fishing.”

The biggest barra of the week was Jack Hamilton’s 104cm fish.          

The total number of fish caught, tagged and released was 854.

Tom and Ben Banks flank Irukandji team mate and Barra Classic Champion Angler, Jack Oswald, who proudly displays his 97cm barramundi.

Team Venom’s Dave Silva was a convincing Champion Angler in the Barra Classic Masters event.

Team NAFA’s Tim Pel and Christine Mansfield with a double hook-up in the Barra Classic Masters.