Nice fat reward after putting in the hard yards

I FISHED the South Alligator on the weekend with my son Sam and nephew Jacob Scott.

The author with his 112cm barra caught at the South Alligator

I FISHED the South Alligator on the weekend with my son Sam and nephew Jacob Scott.

The aim was to have a good look at the river before fishing the Klash in just less than two weeks’ time.

A bit of reconnaissance never hurt anyone after all.

We spent the first day above the bridge and found plenty of run-offs, but a lack of bait. Nourlangie looked good on the first of the incoming, but nothing eventuated and so we moved on further upstream on the incoming tide stopping at numerous gutters for a flick.

We worked hard all day and only managed a few small barra up to 65cm.

The next day we ventured downstream towards the mouth and found a creek that looked promising.

There was plenty of fresh in the system and it looked great as the tide backed it up. We fished hard on the incoming right up to the turn of the high, but only landed one fish at 71cm.

We persisted in this creek as there were a few tarpon around on the outgoing.

As the tide receded we worked a few eddies and were soon rewarded with another couple of nice fish in the 70s.

We found one eddy where there was the odd fish feeding and so we tied up and worked it hard. Once again we landed some nice fish in the 70s, but couldn’t crack a larger one.

Jacob and Sam both lost some good fish before my Spanyid vibe was crunched by a big fish right next to the boat.

I knew it was a big fish as it stayed deep and fought doggedly in the eddy for some time before finally showing itself.

The big girl never jumped, but just worked hard in the fast-flowing water, making it difficult for me to land her.

Finally after around 10 minutes she succumbed to the pressure and was netted by Jacob.

She was an extremely thick- set fish and measured 112cm before being quickly released.

What a sensational fish to land in such tight conditions.

Not long after, Jacob hooked another big fish around a metre on a B52.

It powered off downstream and unfortunately threw the lure before we could chase it.

I finished off the session with another great barra which measured 90cm before the tide dropped away and the fish stopped feeding.