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The classic may have become too entrenched in its own history....

DGFC could increase their entry fee to cover employing enough pple to run a month long preseason regional comp.

Each weekend of that qualifying month anyone with a boat and a team can compete for a place in the Classic. They are competing for the spots vacated by the bottom eight teams of last years Classic. Only the winning teams from each Sat or Sun of each weekend goes through as conditions will change.

Places in the Classic should not be open for sponsors unless they win those places.

The top 5 Classic teams win the opportunity to compete in a 2 month (8 weekends) weekly comp covering the major waterways in the top end. There will be substantial prize money. The event is filmed and produced as a lifestyle show for pay tv.

The proceeds from the television show are returned to develop and promote the Classic as an international quality competition. Teams from other codes (trout, bass, salmon) are invited to compete for places and partly supported to travel by the competition management.

Just a thought.

m

Just read that and it sounds negative.....didnt mean for it to sound that way. It is an awesome comp run by dedicated volunteers who work tirelessly to produce an event universally loved by barramundi fishos.

The problem it has is that it is too popular. It is getting too hard to get in and without a skill based mechanism in place for selection the punters may (in some cases have) become resentful........I would like to see the competition grow and become the spawning ground for the fully fledged professional international programme it deserves to be.......

*scuttles back under rock*

Sounds good to me

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G'day Mud

Interesting concepts, some of which have already been discussed at length by the committee, but in some cases just not viable for a number of reasons. I'm on the Barra Classic committee/club committee & didn't take it as negative attack, just someone looking at it from outside the square with a different opinion. As over the last few years we have constantly introduced new ideas/rules in the Barra Classic & club comps for the long term good of the tournament & the club. Some competitors would agree, some would disagree with the changes. I suppose when they take up a position on a Committee & give up a lot of their time they can assess & implement changes for better or worse.

On Sponsors its becomes hard, however we've been lucky our Sponsors to date are very competitive & have probably all finished in the top end of the field over a number of years, having said that without sponsors these tournaments would be a lot more difficult to run/promote.

Just on the getting into the comp, this year we will host the most amount of virgin competitors/teams then ever before because of a number of reasons. Anyone who is actually interested in fishing the tournament needs to submit an expression of interest to DGFC, the earlier the better. The tournament is a culmination of about 50 weeks work, we usually have a couple of weeks break after the tournament before holding a debrief & starting all over again, this includes looking at next years line up, if positions are up for grabs we look at the expressions of interest, the more info provided on the team line the better, if you don't submit an expression of interes we would never know other then by word of mouth, but that just makes it hard for the committee.

On comp sets ups etc over the years I have looked at quite a few I would like to see run with different formats in different location etc, eg a five day comp with set requirements of using different techniques, say one day fly fishing only, one day lure casting only (bibbed), one day surface lure only, one day trolling only, one day soft plastics only, teams nominate their choice each day depending on weather, tides etc, something like this would really set the cat amongst the pigeons & assess anglers over all skills. I have lots of ideas on these, just not the time to implement them, maybe one day, cheers Balls.

Hey Balls...sorry to take so long to get back to you on this.

Thanks for your comments. They help shed light on the complexities of the issues you are dealing with.

I like your idea of a comp that mixes up medium. A lot. The anglers choose what will work for them on that day - knowing that at some point in the tournament they will have to employ their weaker skills.

I also like the idea of angler v angler ala bass tournaments. Almost like an ironman event. One fisherman/one boat/one day. Knockout format.

I guess at the moment competitions rely on a lot of work by volunteers. Good work DGFC for the classic and PGFC for the Nats. I guess I should pull my finger out and get back involved!

Anyway good luck in the classic!

Cheers
Mud

Anybody know if there is anywhere you can view all competitors results of the barra classic so far this year (2009)??

Give this ago
http://www.darwingamefishingclub.com.au/news/?cat=8

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Want to know what I reckon? I have competed in both the Classic & Nationals and both are very similar run events. Go back a couple of years and that's where the comps should be now. More fun, not too serious, great week on the water. No 'bass comp' cr.p, no other southern inspired rubbish either. The comps were good then and should remain pretty much unchanged. I have competed in 5 barra nats and this years event was not up to scratch with previous years (my opinion). Not much on the stage at night, no jokes, no entertainment as such, a pretty boring lure casting comp (hope they drop that one!) and too much empahsis on pleasing one of the major sponsors (not my beloved XXXX though!). One comp only, no lead up qualifiers, one venue and fish with lures of your choice.

I know it's a little left field to whats been talked about here but I would like to see a annual Darwin intra club comp. Each club could have a turn each year to host the event and in keeping the comp at a level that people could afford to compete and at a friendly level.......Just an idea

yeah I reckon that'd be a great idea.
Personally i think an intraclub Darwin harbour barra build up classic would be really good.
Showcase just how good our harbour is.

well it's something that our club would be interested in

G'day all

Bushie, not sure about the bass inspired/Southern influence, the Barra Classic has been going for 28 years, long before the bass/bream tournaments or similar came on the scene. A few years ago we looked at a back to the basics for the tournament, long story short we would have been cutting our own throats

Doggie 66

We used to hold a comp called the Grudge Cup, it was Arafura GFC verses Darwin GFC, it was normally held each year at the Peron Islands & based off the beach, in those days we used to have to go in a convoy to be permitted access & each car paid a nominal fee that went to charity (great idea & no dramas from all involved). It was a line class competition for gamefish, but some just chased bread & butter fish. After lines out it was really social night on the beach, yep the competitive side was still there, but you got to know people from different clubs & learn from each other & ended up with some new fishing partner options. We alternated who hosted provided the steak/sausages/salads etc for the BBQ on the beach. I think if enough people were interested a similar inter club comp could be re instated, options like Bare Sandy Island are also a great option for a similar inter club comp, lots of options it just depends on what spins peoples wheels. Any way if other groups or clubs are interested let me know & I will discuss it at our monthly meetings. Buckaneer 2 & a few others have probably been involved in the Grudge Cup & could probably shed some light if they enjoyed them. Note there were no prizes just the Grudge Cup retained by the winning club, cheers Balls.

Thanks for that Balls. I am sure that my club (RAAF Darwin) would be interested as we have spoken about it on a number of occasions. If you want to look into this more seriously please feel free to PM me and I'll give you my details.

And again if any other clubs are interested please let us know and I'm sure we could hold a very enjoyable annual comp, would also like to here from any porential sponsors.......

G'day all

No worries Doggie 66, I forgot we used to also hold the Mud Cup once a year at the Daly River against Arafura GFC, so it was a one Blue water & Barra inter club challenge each year. I'll have a yak at the next Committe & or Club meeting & see how much interest is generated & go from there, cheers Balls.