Time for magic Million

THE starter’s gun is cocked and ready to fire at midnight when season three of Million Dollar Fish gets under way

Dwight Shephard’s ripper 80cm barra was the biggest from round five of the Top End Barra Series held in Bynoe Harbour.

THE starter’s gun is cocked and ready to fire at midnight when season three of Million Dollar Fish gets under way.

I have no doubt that there’ll be 100s of boats on the water tomorrow, each carrying anglers who’ll be fishing hard to catch one of the 100 red-tagged barra worth 10K each and, of course, that one tagged fish which will be worth a cool $million.

I won’t write any more about Million Dollar Fish in my column today as you can read all about it in tomorrow’s special MDF magazine.

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IT’S all been happening out at Bynoe Harbour lately.

Last weekend’s Top End Barra Series (TEBS) round five was held there across some pretty big tides.

TEBS co-ordinator, Ross Abraham, told me that competitors were so scattered throughout Bynoe Harbour that there appeared to be few people fishing the competition.

“Fishing was hard at times as there were masses of jelly prawns for predators to feast on,” Ross reported.

Matt Hayne with one of the better queenfish from the Territory Saltwater Fly Fishing Challenge.

One of things I like about fishing Bynoe Harbour is the variety of species you normally catch. When the barra aren’t biting, small soft-plastic and hard-body lures will generally turn up threadies, grunters, mangrove jack, goldies, tarpon, little queenies and always small cod.

On days when the barra are biting as well, it can get quite hectic.

Dustin Menke said 11 varied species came aboard his boat in this penultimate TEBS round.

“Having lures small enough to match the jelly prawns the fish were after was a dilemma for most competitors,” Ross explained.

NT Fisheries supplied this image which clearly shows that the new Shady Camp boat ramp is well inside the 100m zone from the Shady Camp barrage and only lures and flies with one single barbless hook can be used.

“The best times were around that crucial tide swing on the low.

“Flats fishing was the order of the day and people reported large schools of barra cruising the shallows,” Ross said.

Apparently, his team got so carried away looking for signs of fish, they ended up grounding their boat on a small finger of gravel, and remained there for several hours until the tide came in.

Another boat did the same.

All up, 112 barra over 50cm were caught in two days, better than both the previous two years at Bynoe.

The overall winner for the round was Steve Jones who managed some great fish over the weekend. Simon Bochow was second and James Park came in third.

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DARWIN Fly Rodders’ annual Territory Saltwater Fly Fishing Challenge was a far-less- busy affair, with just seven teams competing this year.

However, in two and a half days of competition across Bynoe Harbour, amazingly there were more than 800 fish caught. This competition is a challenge all right – there are seven eligible species and the emphasis is on the number of species caught each day, with bonus points awarded.

Laurence Russo was the TEBS highest-scoring junior angler.

Interstate angler, Gerhard Vrijburg, fished with Matt Hayne, and caught all seven species in one day.

Matt is Darwin Fly Rodders president, and he told me that, at one stage, he was hooked up to a good queenfish while Gerhard was also hooked up to a queenie. “The electric outboard was out of control and took us straight into a mud bank,” Matt said. “Buggered if I know how we managed to land both fish because it was farcical.

Tony O’Malley and Matt Harding in Team Strippers were runaway winners. Dapper Slappers, Glenn Hubble and Roger Sinclair, came second, while Team Totally Barraletic’s Matt Hayne and Gerhard Vrijburg were a close third.

Tony O’Malley was Champion Angler, followed by Matt Harding and Roger Sinclair.

Competitors raved about how well the Sand Palms Roadhouse looked after the fly fishos.