North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

G'day Lads,

Had a recent trip down to Elsey Station and caught up with some good crew who made the journey up and down form all parts of this great country, mainly NSW.

There a good a bunch and normally never ever let the truth get in the way of a good yarn.

Any way Ill cut through the bull and get down to the nitty gritty and some pics of a yarn that I reckon isn't too bad.

On one of the trips down the mighty Roper one of the lads has seen a bit of a flounder (pardon the pun) on the surface of the water and naturally being the inquisitive type from the south decided to checkout what the fuss was about.

After a short fight with the lip grips they brought aboard this monster, apologies for the shite photo! Being reasonably educated folk they noticed that the big girl had some issues of the physically challenged department, she was missing quite a large portion of her rear propulsion system. After bringing her aboard inspecting the damage all realised that any thought of that lazy afternoon dip was definitely replaced with a safe camp shower

Not that these lads would place themselves in that scenario anyway, they have seen some very large lizards in that part of the Roper over the years.

They measured up what was left of her and from her mouth to edge of the last bite mark she went 90cm, after a few nights on the larger and rum we reckon we could add another 60cm to her? maybe more?

What was of interest and a great pickup of the lads who came across her was how a girl this big has avoided predation for so long without getting chomped by all accounts by a reasonable Bull Shark?

When looking at her on close inspection the lads noticed in the sensitive areas of her gills there were a number of puncture marks similar to what maybe caused by the spike of a Powertail (you guys I think call them power tails?) possibly these injuries may have left her in a vulnerable weakened state? Otherwise she was having a bask and the Bull Shark took its chance!

I would love to hear others views on size and why the big girl let her guard down so badly!

Unfortunately the lads didn't salvage any of her for consumption due to the uncertainty of what chomped her!

Not that that mattered as we all got some good Barra over the days that we were there, fickle though and only came on the bite for short periods of the day! Fun none the less.

Hope you all enjoy Jerro

Yeah, I recon you could add 50cm to her quite easily

Mother Nature ,,she's a bitch sometimes.
Cracker story and pics .. As for size I reckon your pretty close.

But when this yarn gets told a couple of more 100 times I'm sure this fish grow

Jerro wrote:When looking at her on close inspection the lads noticed in the sensitive areas of her gills there were a number of puncture marks similar to what maybe caused by the spike of a Powertail (you guys I think call them power tails?) possibly these injuries may have left her in a vulnerable weakened state?

Or a lure?? Usually at their most vulnerable after release from a long fight.



Melv

Thats one big unit

Great story and pics
Ive often wondered how barra get on when they have just engulfed bait incl cheribin and powertails that aren’t quite dead. Think about the pain when a live fish/cheribin kicking about in their guts

Interesting post. Reckon the bull sharks are more of a worry than crocs if you fall out of your boat. Had a bull shark smash the boat at the top of the Adelaide while trying to get a barra, that thing was aggro!