Anglers' Choice had the pleasure of taking Steve Starling on a 4 day big barra run off safari in early March. Steve is one of Australia's best know fishing journalists and a master at the art of angling. His barra fishing accomplishments number many but until now a barra over the magic meter has eluded him.  Accompanying Steve for this trip was Emma the Barra Queen and Sally Neagle, both reel women who can fish. Sally was also chasing her first meter barra so for Mick the guide,  there was twice the challenge.

Our first day consisted of a morning troll at low tide, not really Steve's preferred method but a chance for the girls to catch a big one. Too many boats around for good fishing and we only got a couple of salmon. A quick trip to a creek mouth on the incoming tide got us on the board with Sally scoring a 79cm barra fist cast, Steve had another about the same size soon after we called it a day to head back to our mothership.

No more trolling was the plan from now on and the tides were getting better for some of our favorite big barra spots.

An early start got us to a very nice looking bit of water where a few bait fish were skipping around nervously. We actually had a barra about 90cm hiding under our boat for some time until it scoffed Steve's popper, and found a new home after being released. Shortly after Steve made another perfect cast and was hooked up to his first meter barra, a good fight and Steve was soon in the meter barra club, a true whopper at 110cm 40lb. Well done Steve!! Emma was next up for a horse, a good meter plus fish that jumped several times and ran and ran and kept running until she was almost spooled, forced to apply extra pleasure the hooks pulled and bye bye barra. Sally again chipped in with a few good fish but still wasn't in the meter club.

The next day we tried another favorite spot and the big ones were really on the chew. Emma was on pretty soon and landed a great barra at 102cm. A few more casts and she was on again, yep another meter barra 103cm. Steve picked the perfect spot to cast again nailed a big saltwater barra, 118cm 38lb ho hum another meter barra. Sally was starting to wonder if she would join the club at all. A few other good fish all around 90cm were caught and then, YEP Sally has on big time, a meter plus barra put on a real show. Sally played it perfectly and at 104cm 28lbSally joins the meter barra club, good on ya Sally. A great day fishing in anyone's book and plenty of cause for celebration that night.

On the final day the girls had to catch a ride back to Darwin so Steve stayed on in the hope for the ultimate prize, a 50 pounder. Steve invited Mick to have a fish, seeing clients land big barras is the ultimate for a guide but they still love fishing too. Mick accepted and landed the first meter barra for the day 107cm. Mick then asked Steve if he could try one of Steve's famous Squidgy soft plastics for a bit of experiment. Yep on again, 116cm 34lb barra on a Squidgy. Steve was impressed and so was Mick, these Squidgy soft plastics do catch big barra. Shortly after Steve was on again but this time it was a monster, a huge barra jumped clear out of the water and started going like a train out of the creek, Mick called it for 50 pounder and Steve did the job beautifully, yep you guessed it, 126cm 50 pounds!!!!

Congratulations Steve now you're in the 50 club and if big barra fishing was cricket, that's a hat trick!

  How can you beat that.

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