Alex's Column 9 May 2025

It seems last week’s Barra Nationals ran smoothly and produced plenty of big fish.

According to regular competitor, Greg Shields, the Barra Nats was nice and relaxed this year and didn’t have the usual heavy partying.

“What was really good to see was that skippers were helping out each other this year.

“The Palmerston Committee did a great job and that flowed through really well,” Greg said.

Greg fished in Team Barradise Boys with Jamie Ware and Stuart Rokahr.

There were 11 metreys caught this year, including a 114 for Greg on the last day.

“Those young fellas were awesome,” Greg said, referring to the top teams on the Daly.

“Flat Maggot dominated for the first couple of days but Team Mudskipppers – Shaun Stringer, Ben Vidgen, Matt Bolitho – came back strongly and absolutely smashed it on Day 5 to narrowly win Overall Champion Team,” Greg told me.

No Mundi’s came second with Flat Maggot third.

“Young Kai Hale in Team Flat Maggot pretty well led from start to finish to win Champion Angler,” Greg said.

“Everyone was using forward-facing sonar but plenty of barra were caught trolling.

“The big fish started to eat at the end; we were seeing them all week and then they finally started to bite.

The big ones were all really healthy and fat.”

According to the Barra Nationals website, there were six metreys caught on the last day, including three for Team Mudskippers which stormed home to win.

“Plenty of creeks were still flowing, mainly up the top but Elizabeth as well,” Greg said.

“Snag trolling was pretty successful – water clarity was beautiful and nice and green for the last couple of days.

“Most of the big fish were caught using forward-facing sonar, except for a 105cm caught trolling at the main Rockbar.

“Most days there were around 250 barra caught, with about 350 on the last day.”

Greg reckoned green-coloured lures worked the best, which is not surprising on the Daly.

“The smallest barra was 16cm,” he joked.

That’s one big barra tournament done and dusted.

Currently under way is the NT Barra Classic and the Barra Classic Masters which are run concurrently by Darwin Game Fishing Club, again down at the Banyan Farm Tourist Park.

It’ll be interesting to see how these comps fare as the tides are much smaller than those in the Nationals, at least until the last couple of days.

I’m sure there’ll be plenty of barra caught, but most likely nowhere near the number of really big fish.

Once again, the biggest tide, which falls on day 5 of the Classic, will be the best bet for bigger fish moving up on the morning incoming tide.

The Barra Classic Masters won’t see the bigger tides as this is only a three-day comp and will be over before they arrive.

For those looking for somewhere other than the Daly to fish this weekend, the South Alligator River, both upstream and down, has been fishing quite well.

Its neighbor, the East Alligator, has also been producing some nice barra sessions.

For a big barra session, Shady Camp could produce this weekend if it’s in the right mood.

In the freshwater, Corroboree Billabong is now open, and Hardies Lagoon has been yielding barra in the 80s and 90s.

This stonker 116cm  barra caught by Ben Vidgen from Mudskippers – Overall Champion Team in the Barra Nationals – was the biggest barra in the comp.

Jamie Ware, Greg Shields and Stuart Rokahr in Team Barradise Boys with Greg’s 114cm barra, one of 11 metreys caught in the Barra Nationals.

Winning Team Mudskippers’ Shaun Stringer is never far away from big barra – this one measured 114cm.