Going after the big beauties

THE barra fishing may have been hard work, but by all accounts, last weekend's annual Humminbird Corroboree Park Challenge was a great success.

Darren Crawley

THE barra fishing may have been hard work, and the build-up conditions tough on competitors, but by all accounts, last weekend's annual Humminbird Corroboree Park Challenge was a great success nonetheless.

Hosted by the Palmerston Game Fishing Club, the Challenge is one of the Territory's oldest competitions.

It is held from the Corroboree Park Tavern on the Arnhem Highway and it strives in every sense of the word to be a true family fishing competition.

Prizes are awarded for the biggest barra in each of the categories, and this year the overall Champion Angler was Darren Crawley.

Competitors can fish anywhere from the Mary River east into Kakadu, and Darren caught the winning 93cm barra in Red Lily Lagoon which is part of the South Alligator River system.

"The barra, which was fat like a yellowbelly, came out of the shallows," Darren said.

"I had on a Classic 120 3+ in pink bling colours, and I tossed it into less than half a metre of water and then I began trolling towards the deeper water.

"The barra hit it almost straightaway," Darren said. Darren's wife Sharon caught several more barra casting from the banks at Alligator Billabong.

A different aspect this year was that three tagged barra from last week's Secret Women's Business competition each carried a price on their head should one or more of them be caught.

The capture of these tagged fish was worth, respectively, $2500, $1000 and $500. Unfortunately none was caught.

Corroboree Park Challenge Coordinator, Andre Camesi, said: "Competitors were spread across a number of locations, including Kakadu billabongs, both the East and the South Alligator Rivers and Mary River lagoons.

"There were 82 competitors, with 17 barra submitted and another 91 that were caught but not entered," Andre said.

The results were: Champion angler: Darren Crawley, 93cm. Champion male: Adam Rykers, 87cm. Champion female: Cathy Johnson, 66cm. Champion junior: Alan Jones, 50cm. Male champion junior: Ainsley Jones, 54cm. Female mystery size: Troy Hill, 54cm.

Also held last weekend was the 2013 Coopers Blue Water Classic, hosted by the Darwin Trailer Boat Club.

In this event, competitors can weigh in one each of several different species.

Importantly, the fish are not wasted: they are taken away by Ziko Ilic of Darwin Fish Markets.

Ziko and his team fillet and cryovac pack the fillets at no charge and these then go to the Foodbank for distribution to people in need.

Club General Manager, Alex Erlich, said: "Six hundred people had fish for one day of the year."

Darwin Trailer Boat Club President Tony Butler said that there were more than 140 entrants in the competition who were "more serious anglers" than in previous years.

"There were about 96 fish weighed in with more than double going to the Foodbank compared to last year.

"Most people who competed felt this was the best Blue Water Classic ever, including the presentation night," Tony said.

This year reef fish were banned because of the barotrauma issue - when golden snapper and jewfish are caught and released in water deeper than 10m.

Apparently this decision sparked considerable debate among club members prior to the competition.

Next year may be everyone can be kept happy if reef fishing is allowed, but only in waters shallower than 10m.

That way, any fish released will survive.

The competition's overall champions were:

Champion team - boat under 5m: Chasin Tail (Graham Walker, Michael Evans, Dane Smith). Champion team - boat 5m-5.99m: Hairy Clams (Luke Young, Adrian Bustamante, Guy Drinkwater). Champion team boats 6m and over: One More No More (Aurora Bayle, David Dobbie, Anthony Leech).

Joe Sheridan was champion angler boats under 5m, Ian Middleton was champion angler boats 5-5.99m, and Aurora Bayle was champion angler boats 6m and over.