S a case of barra fever
“The big fish started fighting roperly back and forwards and it didn’t ake too long to realise Makayla had hooked a huge barra,” Eves recalled. Makayla, a current Australian record holder for the largest pikey bream, layed the barra well and was elated when her dad slipped a net under the ig fish.
The fish stretched an official measuring tape to a whopping 97cm nd Makayla could hardly suppress her delight.
The big barra was happily let swim ree after meeting competition criteria, ncluding photographs.
“And Dad caught nothing,” Makayla heekily said closing her email.
Let me tell you Makayla, your dad ouldn’t be happier or prouder and here’s hoping your name makes omorrow’s Pirtek Challenge winners ist. Well done.
Virus disruptions
Plenty of fishing tournaments and atherings are being cancelled or ostponed in the wake of the COVID9 pandemic.
Burketown’s 40th World Barramundi Fishing Championships, which was set to be contested on the Easter weekend, is one of the first casualties.
Likewise, the 2020 Normanton Barra Classic is cancelled for the same eason and a call is yet to be made on he Fitzroy River Barra Bash.
The safety and wellbeing of ompetitors, visitors and local ommunity has also forced organisers f the popular invitational Hinchinbrook Catch & Release Tournament to pull the pin and it is a imilar scenario across the nation with ans on outdoor gatherings of 500 or more persons while indoor ongregations are limited to just 100 ersonnel.
Organisers of the Fitzroy River Barra Bash say they will make an announcement on the competition’s immediate future on Monday.
And the hugely popular Sydney Sportfishing Tournament has been rescheduled from its original March dates and will now be contested in late November.
While fishing competitions and holidays often go hand-in-hand and many anglers’ plans are now in disarray, these largely social functions are being scratched through no fault of the organisers or sponsors, and special consideration should be given to those sponsors and supporters when people are making local purchases. Let us all, in these trying times, strive to keep our local recreation fishing industries ticking over.
Meanwhile, Australian Maritime Safety Authority offices will be temporarily closed to the public beginning today.
“From close of business Friday 20 March, 2020, AMSA offices will close to the public due to the novel coronavirus
Enjoy a 12 month digital magazine subscription on us. (COVID-19),” AMSA said in correspondence to industry members. “This is part of our precautionary approach in responding to COVID-19. Our priority is to protect the health of our employees and reduce the impact on AMSA’S ability to keep delivering essential services to the maritime community. We are all operating in uncertain times and understand that people may be dealing with some disruption which we are doing our best to manage.”
Enjoy bestselling aussie reds from The Australian WINE and save!
AMSA’S emergency and critical operations for search and rescue are not affected.
I’m certain many anglers would dearly love to escape the COVID-19 buffering this weekend and revel in some of the social distancing measures asked of them.
Possibly, there could be few better ways to accommodate such official health authority advice than going fishing, yet boating forecasts hardly look accommodating for those wanting to do their thing among inshore or reef waters.
Creeks, rivers and protected bay waters are obvious choices when considering northern coastal waters are predicted to maintain a strong southeasterly influence with winds steady at 15-20 knots (27-36km/h) and reaching 25kt throughout afternoon and evening periods.
Near 3.5m morning high tides work in anglers’ favour, whether fishing landbased or boat, with the ebb falling to midafternoon low periods of around a metre both tomorrow and Sunday.
Barramundi are certain to be prime targets when live baits are set at likely spots including the mouths of most creeks and larger drains while lures used in shallow waters throughout the early stages of the initial ebb might find barras exiting from mangrove hunting grounds flanking bay sand and mud flats.
Grunter could be a worthwhile target near the mouth of Alligator Creek and whiting should be found foraging the shallows on the flats near the mouths of Sandfly and Gordon creeks.
Mud crab encounters should prevail in most systems and those that score best might do so by setting their traps well back into the mangroves.
Cocoa Creek and neighbouring Crocodile Creek have been crabbing well, as has the Haughton River.
Win a getaway thanks to Charlie’s Angels on Blu-ray .