My year on Bathurst Island, NT

96cm!!!! so close yet so far! The scene was set for a simple boating trip and the main aim was to get my mate Kev his first Barramundi. He has come close a couple times but managed to drop a few. We succeeded in getting kev his first this day but before that happened, a moment of pure joy.  Kev's first Barra I was fishing an unknown snag. This meaning I hadn't fished it before and wasn't sure if there were any fish on it. a couple casts in and boom! a hit from a good sized barra and I handed the rod over to Kev so he could land it. I reckon this fish was in the 75cm range. unfortunately the hooks hadn't been set all that well and after a jump the Barra spat the Lure. Not to be deterred I threw the lure back into the same area of the snag. I was not really paying attention not thinking there would e another fish there when all of a sudden it felt like a freight train was on the end of my line. My drag was set fairly hard and line was just peeling of...

ARE YOU OK?? (RU OK) Some days suck. Some days at work you look forward to the end of the day. Tuesday was mental health afternoon. The day was taxing  and about half way through I got a text message from a mate across in the primary school saying he felt like going fishing and we should put the boat in that afternoon. 1st Barra hit hard and was a good little fight We have been doing research on a creek for some time now and we thought it was time to try out our theories. so off we went, got the boat ready and launched it. the battery needed replacing so we quickly did that before powering away to the creek. the afternoon session was great. An hour and a half and we had 6 fish in the boat. All fish hit hard, especially the Barramundi. We landed 3 good legal Barra, a Mangrove Jack,  A little Blue Salmon and a Good size Snapper. Justin with his Barra. first pass on the new snag With 14th September being RU OK day in Australia Mental Health is very important t...

Some of you that follow this blog might know Hovo, most of you won’t. And that is a terrible shame. A teacher, a father, grandfather and husband. Lastly, my mate. I thought I would have more time before I would have to write something like this about Jim and I really wished I didn’t have to. But my old mate Jim Hovenden passed away on Father’s day this past Sunday. He was fighting Cancer for the last 18 months or so and at first we all had hoped it would be a successful fight but we soon found out it would be a prolonging of life more so then beating the disease. I am saddened by his passing. Really set me back even though I knew it was coming. I was walking to work when I got the text informing me of his passing. I was speechless for about an hour. All I could do was think of Jim and his family. He was a family man and spoke of his kids and grandkids fondly even when the times were tough. He often posted pictures of them on his social media site and looked really happy. ...