ROUND 1 RESULTS: Congratulations to Peter Cooper who did the miles to get the smiles. Full results will be on topendbarraseries in the next few days. Well we could not have gotten off to a more exciting start to the 2014 Top End Barra Series at Shady Camp on March 7th and 8th with a massive amount of fish caught over the two days. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation leading up to round 1 that had me excited but also a little nervous as we headed into round 1.Competitors could fish anywhere along the coast between Marsh Creek and the Wildman and including the Wildman and Marsh Creek itself and the Shady Camp system. Without spending hours going back through the figures I can confidently say that there were more fish caught in round 1 than there were for the entire season last year. Well this may be a slight exaggeration, although it would be very close. Last year as long as you scored one single fish you were guaranteed good series points, well things were not like this during round 1. Points are awarded to the top 70 competitors in each round and in round 1 a staggering 82 out of the 100 or so competitors scored fish equating to only a handful going home empty handed. Crews were scattered all along the coast and up and down the Sanpan and Tommy Cut system and fish were caught in all of the various locations. The fabulous fact about the weekend is that there were fish everywehere, people did not catch fish at one particular area, basically fish were caught right from the top barrage and Dead Forest all the way down to the mouths and in all the coastal creeks, which is a great thing for the fishery. Steve Muntz even caught a 68cm Saturday night off the back of the Humbug mother ship anchored up in the middle of the river just inside the mouth of Tommy Cut. In saying this though, fishing was not easy with most competitors just picking up fish here and there with no particular area accounting for masses of fish. Even those who worked their way along the coastal creeks did not score masses of fish, but they did get fish at each of them. All of the competitors that finished high up the leader board will tell you that they had to work extremely hard for their fish, and even though they got quality, they were just getting one or two when the bite window opened. If you were at the right place, with the right lure, fishing the right method when the bight window opened, the fishing gods were on your side, but if you missed the small window, things were tough. From my time out on the water, there were clearly two bite windows for me and the crews around me, and that was the turn of the low on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. I did not see many fish caught on Saturday, just the odd one here and there, but right on the low at the Mouth of Tommy Cut there were plenty of fish getting caught for about an hour and then it shut down again. This happened again on Sunday morning in a more highlighted fashion. Sunday was certainly the pick of the two days as the tides got smaller and there were more fish registered on the Sunday than the Saturday. I would be thinking by the time it gets to the neap tides during the week the place will be firing on all cylinders. If you are reading trying to get the good oil on where to fish when you hit Shady Camp next, well it may be time to get a little excited. The exciting thing is that that there are fish all over the place, although you still need to work hard to attract them to your lures. I would be saying read the water and go with your instincts. As I mentioned earlier, teams were scattered all over the place. Some people trolling the mouths got rewarded in the barra lottery, but crikey there were a lot of lures in the water doing this, so your strike rate in this form of fishing is really quite low. There were also plenty of barra caught within a couple of kilometres from the ramp aswell, Brett Warren picked up his five fishing a small creek not far from the ramp on the way down Saturday morning. Shane Marie Dwyer picked up her personal best of 97cm all within a couple of kilometres from the main ramp, and her partner Leigh Jefferies nailed an 84cm up the top aswell. There were also a good amount of fish caught in the dead forest area, for example Greg Holman and Josh Robinson caught around 15 or so fish there on the Saturday flicking weedless rubbers, but they also mentioned it was dead on Sunday. Also on the eve of the competition Morris Pizutto caught a 110cm on the cast at the mouth of Tommy Cut on his own home made lure, and there were plenty of fish caught casting over the weekend, not doing the traditional Shady trolling method. But as I said earlier, it was not crazy fishing but those that stuck at it were rewarded, and after a very ordinary season last year, it was great to see bent rods, smiling faces and plenty of banter on the radios. One thing I would probably mention is that if you are heading out to Shady Camp I would avoid travelling long distances to the Wildman River. A couple of crews put in the effort and headed over to the Wildman but only caught a couple of small fish each, although this may change on different tides. Most of the other small creeks produced well and Marsh Creek produced a good amount of fish for Craig Grose and Ron Nurton, although none of them were massive. From this information those coastal creeks would certainly be worth the effort on the next set of spring tides. From around 105 anglers there were 276 fish caught in total over the weekend, with two going over the magical metre mark. This is up from 58 fish from around 80 competitors in the Shady Camp round last year, which is a massive improvement. Also for the entire 6 rounds last year there were only 11 times that people scored over 500 points, and in round 1 there were an amazing 24 competitors that scored over 500 points which certainly puts it into perspective. Sindy Shrog won the Bigfish/DUO Lures Biggest Barra with a 105cm caught in coastal Creek to the West of Point Stuart and Regis Martin picked up his first ever metery of 102cm also in a coastal Creek. There were 11 fish caught in the 90cm range and 22 in the 80cm range, and there were a stack of fish in the 60cm range all over the system. There were 28 anglers that filled their bag of five fish and another 11 that missed out on their full bag by one fish. They say ‘do the miles to get the smiles’ and that is certainly what Peter Cooper and his partner Sindy Shrog did over the weekend. After breaking a spring hanger on the way to the ramp and getting snatched strapped out the bog at the ramp by two vehicles on Friday, you could say that the start of their weekend was not looking to good. Well things improved dramatically over the weekend. Peter and Sindy basically fished every creek from Tommy Cut to the Wildman over the weekend doing a massive amount of kilometres and told me that they fished very hard. He said they were just getting a fish here or there and that they only got a couple of small ones at their most easterly point at the Wildman. Luckily for them they were rewarded with great quality fish with Peter picking up a 97cm, 82cm, 80cm 66cm and a 62cm totalling 985 points which was enough to land him into first place and be claimed the winner of the opening round of the 2014 Top End Barra Series. Peter wins a Helifishing trip with Mark from Helifish and an LJ Custom Rod for his victory. His partner Sindy Shrog came in third with a 105cm, 64cm, 63cm and a 61cm totalling 770 points. In between them in second was Steve Baker with a 88cm, 88cm, 67cm, 68cm and a 63cm to total 885 points, and he caught the majority of his fish trolling the mouth of Tommy Cut. Overall it was a highly successful and enjoyable weekend and a couple of memories I have from it that to me really pin point what this competition is all about. Saturday afternoon when things were quiet there were raft ups forming everywhere in Tommy Cut where new people met each other and everyone discussed what they were going to do for the change of the low. Also when the low came after Morris Pizutto shared some information he formed of 5 or 6 boat raft up on the edge of the Tommy Cut mouth where each boat was casting and catching fish. I for one got off the doughnut that night thanks to the sharing of information and there is something special about catching fish rafted up to another 5 boats amongst friends, some new and some old, thanks Moz. Another thing that typifies this competition is to see Regis Martin get his first ever metery. Regis does not even own a boat and each round someone picks him up as a deckie, and over the past 3 and a bit years he has now won a round and now caught his first metery thanks to the ‘Top End Barra Series’ so well done Regis. I actually did a bit of boat hopping myself on the weekend and fished from three different boats over the duration of round 1 and was the bridesmaid in everyone. I started in Steve Muntz’s boat and netted a 95cm for Andrew Dutton, I then jumped into Dean Blackman’s boat and netted a 98cm for him which he caught on his own handcrafted lure which was an exciting time. Then on Sunday I jumped into Bruce Dunn’s boat and netted a 92cm for Tim Morgan, so I had a great weekend handing out mojo to the boats I was on. But I would say that the funniest thing I saw was Shane Moon as he was getting a little bored late Sunday morning and started getting creative, he began trolling backwards which was a site to see and amazingly this is when he snagged his biggest barra of the weekend at 90cm. With round 1 done and dusted please don’t get too excited, as round 2 in a fortnight will probably be one of the toughest rounds in the Top End Barra Series short history as we embark on the upstream stretches of the Adelaide River. There is a saying around the top end which goes like this ‘There are no fish in the Adelaide’ and this was enough for us to set the challenge of fishing the Adelaide in round 2. It will certainly be a tough round for most, but we will all be fishing on a level playing field and to me as an organiser, this round is the most exciting round of the series as we get 100 fisho’s out fishing the Adelaide and get some true data on how it is fishing. Thank you to everyone for a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you all in round 2. Round 1 Prizes 1st Peter Cooper: TROPHY Plus LJ Custom Rod – Helifish One day fishing safari (round 1 to go with winner round 2) Value: Lots 2nd Steve Baker: Curado and Gloomis Gl2 with 30 pound Braid $450 3rd Sindy Shrog: Abu Revo SX $220 plus Leatherman Wave $179 4th, Alex Felsch: The Tacklebox 4th Place: St Croix Avid AVC58HF baitcaster (Aussie) RRP $370 5th Regis Martin: LED Lensor H14 2 Valued $115 plus Ice Kool 25 litre Ezky $99 =6th, John Langdon: KO Tackle 6th Prize: K0 Tackle Nitro Baitcast Reel =6th, Greg Shields: Reidy’s Lures 7th Prize: 6 Top End Barra Series Big B52 Reidy’s Lures 8th, Barry Johnson: Craig’s Fishing Warehouse 8th Prize: Craig’s Fishing Warehouse Competition Fishing shirt and hat and stubby holder 9th, Ben Maclean: NAFA- Barra Bass & Bream 9th Prize: Year subscription to NAFA Barra Bass & Bream 10th, Ben Hardy: Roma Bar 10th Prize: Roma Bar $50 Gift Voucher Big Fish Graphics/DUO Lures Biggest Barra: Sindy Shrog: 105cm: Trophy plus Bigfish Graphics pack (Shirt, hat and fish headz) & $100 RRP DUO Lures Pack Biggest Threadfin Salmon: Travis Housley 73cm Martini Knife Valued $89 plus Gulp Management System $35 Runner Up Biggest Threadfin Salmon: Bruce Dunn 72cm: Ice Kool 10 lire Esky $49 plus Wilson De snagging Pole $49 Mystery Size Prizes (Eligible to people outside the top ten, and who did not win biggest barra or threadfin Salmon)When more than one person gets the mystery size, the prize is awarded to the highest place competitor) LJ Custom Rods Mystery Size $100 LJ Rods Voucher: Barney Rae 69cm DUO Lures Mystery Size $100 DUO Lures Pack: Dion Mayfield 75cm Shenanigans Mystery Size $100 Gift Voucher: Shane Moon 60cm GME Mystery Size GME Emergency Torch $69 plus Plano Waterproof case 1460 $30: 83cm: James Ballantyne Results: Place First Name Last Name Points 1 Peter Cooper 985 2 Steve Baker 885 3 Sindy Shrog 770 4 Alex Felsch 710 5 Regis Martin 680 6 John Langdon 670 6 Gregory Shields 670 8 Barry Johnson 645 9 Ben McLean 640 10 Ben Hardy 635 11 Shane Moon 630 12 Dave Freak 605 13 Barney Rae 600 14 Steven Muntz 590 15 Sean Anderson 585 16 Larry Lockwood 580 17 Dean Blackman 570 18 James Park 560 19 Leigh Jeffries 535 19 Luke Tibbits 535 21 Shane - Marie Dwyer 515 21 Damien Lucas 515 23 Ross Abraham 505 24 Kai Argent 500 25 James Mitchell 490 26 James Ballantyne 485 27 Ron Nurton 460 28 Reece Carrier 455 28 Liam McDonell 455 30 Mark Callaghan 450 31 Stephen Pennington 445 32 Glenn Dinwoodie 440 32 Craig Grose 440 34 Stuart Easie 435 35 Greg Holman 430 35 Dion Mayfield 430 37 Troy Hill 410 37 Morris Pizzutto 410 39 Kelly Shipp 390 40 Justin Forbes 385 41 Dustin Menke 380 41 Brett Warren 380 43 Kieren Shaw 375 44 Tim Morgan 370 45 Craig Moffat 355 46 Paul VanBrugen 350 47 George Larner 325 47 Chris Rutishauser 325 49 Bruce Dunn 320 50 Anthony Dent 315 50 Mick Housley 315 50 Travis Housley 315 53 Brent Mathews 290 54 Josh Robinson 275 55 Jim Freese 270 56 Daniel Hayes 255 57 Melanie Reichlemeier 250 58 Matthew Guinane 245 58 Steve Jones 245 60 Jeremy Baxter 240 61 Chris Fuller 220 62 Chris Dunkerton 215 62 Chantelle Sanders 215 64 Kieren Gillespie 205 65 Isaac Murray 200 66 Glenn Lachlan 195 67 Chris Bates 185 67 David Weston 185 69 Travis Cooper 175 70 Jean-Marc (Frenchy) Maujean 170 71 Trevor Stinson 165 72 Evan Dixon 160 73 Sandie Dean 150 73 Jessica Dent 150 75 Michael Henderson 140 76 Niall Webber 135 77 Nathan Maujean 95 78 Cameron Pitkethly 90 79 Darren Eilerson 85 80 William Millward 65 81 David Totham 60 82 Carl Aurisch 50
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 21:07:59 +0000
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