Barra Nationals 2014 Good year for our team

[Ray R]

Hi Raiders, well this was our best year so far, the Daly River (200k's south of Darwin) was playing hard ball though, heaps of tiny barra with the odd big one..

The comp is a great event and this year our team finished 2nd overall and 1st mixed state team.

Points were hard to come by as only barra over 40cms score.

Our team Steve Compain, Mark Hutchings and Ray Rendall (me).

61 teams compete making a total of 183 anglers from all over the country.

We were stoked with our results and amazed at the catch that Mark had on the first day of the comp.

We had flogged the snags for a couple of hours then decided to have a troll with the incoming tide.

We got a few bumps so it was looking good for a capture and then Hutcho got smashed, an almighty whack, smash, turn, run and then for a brief second nothing,

he was coming towards the boat, Hutcho reeling in the slack like a madman, reel faster hutch was the call, around the skeeter he ran, Steve grabs the net and I gather loose rods and man the controls.

Ray go back, turn starboard, forward port, back , back, total mayhem but always in control of this fish.

Then we see a monster tail, somewhere during the hit and first burst the barra had somehow spat the lure and hooked itself through the tail.

So we now have a monster barra in an almost impossible netting position, it would rise then go down Huctho doing his best to hold on.

Steve then says to slowly forward the boat, Hutcho to wind up as much as he could and we kind of slid him up on his side, this gave Steve a shallow enough angle to slip the net under his head and we had him.

This all took place over about a 15-16 min period, what a sight and what a capture Hutcho has a 119cm barra.

We took our photos on the official measuring board then I grabbed a couple for ourselves.

This was a real beast and was not bettered for the 5 days of the comp.

Hutcho was awarded and the end with the biggest barra for the tournament prize.

There are not many barra pics so my apologies but I can assure that it is hectic on the boat during the comp and not much time for mucking around with cameras.

Anyway that's it for now, we had a blast as this is a great event and our best ever result.

Hutcho, Biggest Barra and 2nd overall, Steve and I were well down the list.

Our team was 2nd overall.

First place for the mixed state prize.

Hope you like my few pics of the event and the big one...

Hutcho's Mutant

The recovery

Our little 90kph Skeeter

[chewie]

thats a horse! can totally appreciate the tense moments especially in a comp. Massive fish and well done team.

[Scratchie]

Great report Ray and well done on your placings.

I know you look forward to this comp and it looked like a good time was had by all.

That's a cracking barra and something I only dream of. It would take a good team to land that monster!

Well done

Cheers scratchie!!!

[thefisherman6784]

That's a stonker barra

Well done

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Jew Stalker]

Well done boys, way to show them that raiders are serious competitors. It would have been a full tilt effort landing that horse foul hooked like that so massive cudos to you all. Champion effort.

Luc.

[chilledFisho]

WICKED!!! im super keen to get into barra now. so sweet fishing. i do trout n coastal fishing but long for the day of a any size barra. the day will come then im sure u will get addicted. nice barra sir.

[jenno64]

Ray,

That's an amazing fish and congrats to you and the boys for the 2nd place overall!

[Hodgey]

Congrats on an exceptional trip old fella. Well done!

Cheers

Hodgey

[Ray R]

Thank you guys for the congrats, so glad we got a good result for Steve as he has put up with Hutcho and I for a few years now..

[scratchie_junior619]

That's a NICE barra there mate !

Cheers scratchie_junior