The Boys are Back in Town

One thing that interstaters hate is New South Welshman; especially if they a) drink all their grog b) steal all their woman and c) catch all their fish. I must admit i'd hate it too. But one such character is doing all that and more.

My great mate and fishing partner Sean Cremin from the NSW south coast hamlet of Lake Conjola recently made a move north for greener pastures. Work is a little skint down south at the moment and before he conceeded defeat and made a move back to Sydney he's tried his luck up at Darwin. It must be good to have no ties, pack up your gear and station yourself in Australia's fishing heartland! When i think of about it, it saddens me that i don't have those luxuries. Good luck to him i say.

Sean's one of those characters that immerses himself into the culture of any place he visits. I seen it first hand on a bush camp in the Kimberleys. He looked like part of the indiginous set after a few days. Might not sound difficult but Sean's 7 foot tall, white as a ghost and got raging red hair!I knew it wouldn't be long before he had the place sussed and was getting straight on the blower to give me all the goss.

Sure enough, in typical Sean fashion he's hit the motherload. Sean, and a few of his new local mates, have been taking full advantage of this season's run off. They tell me that it isn't a particularly good run-off but it's starting to get to the right levels now in the Daly and South Aligator. They have been getting a stack of fish in the 50 - 80cm class on diving minnows. This might sound like pre-school but fight a 70cm barra in a raging run-off torrent and se how you go! Chances are you will up anchor and have to follow in hot pursuit.

So today i'm sitting at my desk. I get a sms from Sean. I open it up and nearly fall off my chair. The bugger is holding a mamoth wild barra caught yesterday flicking lures in the Daly. The story goes; "I was flickin some lures around a snag, i almost got held up in the woodwork, floated the lure over the top and WHACK, this thing got nailed!I knew straight up this girl was big".

After a torrid 25 minute fight that was full of, yes, yes, i'm on, get out of my way, i'm coming around the back, shouts of get your hand off the drag from the support crew, more shouts from the sideline critics, get out of my way i'm coming back up the front, fish jumping, adrenaline pumping, braid signing, rod bending and knees buckling, a beautiful 114cm barra was boated. Time to crack open a tinny.

Now 114cms might sound run-of-the-mill these days due to the gigantic proportions the Dam barra grow up to but let me tell you 114cms of raging wild caught barra is a fish of a lifetime. Make no mistake about it. I know i'd be happy with anything over 100cms.

I might be cursing him, but there's a small part of me that thanks him for giviung me a glimpse into what the fight was like, putting me in the hot seat and dragging me away from my mundane reality!