Parksy's 50th birthday Barra Safari

From Monday 5th to Wednesday 8th of April Parksy, Trav and Glen hit the top end for some serious big fish action. It started monday morning with a fish on a high tide in a canal near Shady camp and first cast Glen was into a nice barra on a plastic. The action was non-stop for an hour or two with Parksy landing a nice 75cm model - See pic.

Next we went travelled to the river mouth which was about 54km away and fished the high tide trolling for the big barra. Saw numerous boats hook up to some serious fish but we only managed a few catfish and blue salmon.

Then it was off to the mothership (Our accommodation for the next couple of nights) that was based in Sampan creek to put our gear away, then up the river to fish a delta on the high tide. Trav hooked up first cast and Parksy chimed in with numerous barra and after an hour we all had some fish on the scoreboard, and they became dinner.

Tuesday saw us go offshore for some jewie action and Glen was into it first cast with an absolute monster. He followed it up an hour later with another and by that stage he was almost thrown overboard. Finally towards the end Parksy and Trav got one each but the day belonged to Glen. The amazing thing was that all four jewies caught were about the same size as the one Glen is displaying in the picture. Due to Parksy and Trav's inability to land one sooner we missed the high tide to fish for the big barra in the river mouth. Back to the mothership for some jewie for dinner!

Wednesday was our final day and it started trolling around the river mouth for big barra. After 45 minutes of trolling Trav hooked up on a 'green bomber' (His first hit trolling for the 3 days!) and after a tough fight, an 88cm barra was brought to the boat. It weight about 20lbs and was released to be caught next time when it's a metre!

After anouther hour of fruitless trolling we headed back, packed our gear and went back up towards Shady Camp. Just before our last stop we passed a dead cow floating down the river with numerous crocs attacking it which was quite a sight. We then went up into a freshwater billabong for one last crack. Trav missed an early hit then Glen cast a 'centimetre perfect' cast next to a lily pad and pulled a healthy little barra from it, which was to be the last fish of the trip.

Overall it was a great trip with Parsky celebrating his birthday in style and even Glen enjoyed himself!