A couple of years ago I got the opportunity to travel over to Australia to compete in a tournament circuit for barramundi, one of the most popular sport fish in the land down under. My wife Shelby and I jumped on a plane, and had one of the best trips of our lives. The fishing was phenomenal and we just enjoyed everything about Australia; the people, the food and the scenery.
As I write this, I’m back in Australia for the third year in a row, back again to compete on the Australian Bass Tournaments Barra Tour. While I am not competing on the full tour, I’m getting the chance to fish four tournaments over a ten-day period.
Barramundi are a saltwater fish that they stock in some freshwater reservoirs, where they do well. Instead of calling it a lake, Aussies call these reservoirs “dams”. The fish are caught in all sizes but to do well in the tournaments, you need to catch barramundi over 100 centimetres, which is a fish in the 25-pound range. Our biggest of the trip was 114 centimetres, a fish over 40 pounds.
Because the fish are big we can’t’ put them in a live well. We catch them, measure them, take a photo and then release them. The fish are then given an assigned weight in kilograms, based on their length. They are the hardest fighting fish I have ever caught. They will break your equipment if there are any weak links, including your line, rods, hooks and even the split rings on the baits. I had one fish this week that tore the hook and split ring right off the bait. At least that means my knots were good!
It is the start of summer in Australia so the temperatures are hot during the day. The tournaments run from 4 pm until midnight, so we fish for eight hours, similar to our tournaments back in North America, but about half of the session is in the dark. It’s different but these fish bite better in the dark so it’s a fun. It’s almost too hot to be out there during the middle of the day so it works out great.
This year, I am teamed up with my friend Carl Jocumsen, who I fish against on the Bassmaster Elite Series. Carl is from Australia and moved to the U.S.A. to pursue his pro fishing career. We have become good friends and getting to do this with him has been awesome.
Two years ago, we had a few good events but we’ve been learning more every year and have had some great tournaments this time around. We finished second and third in the first two tournaments, then took the win in the third event, an all-night session, fishing from 4 pm until 8 am the next morning. It was a marathon, 16-hour session, but we had an epic night and caught a bunch of fish.
The scoring is done on the five biggest barramundi you can catch in each event. We have one last night of fishing left as I write this, so hopefully we’ll finish strong. Between 30 and 40 teams compete in each tournament.
After the fishing is done, Shelby and I are planning to take in as much as we can in Australia over the next week. It’s a long flight to get halfway around the World, but it’s an amazing place when you get over here. I have made some great friends and just enjoy everything about it over here. It’s crazy when I think about all of the amazing places that my love for fishing has taken me over the years.
