North Australian FISH FINDER forums

Some previous years Daly comp results are on the attached image.

To compare ...

2021 Barra Classic was 1045 fish
2021 Barra Nationals was 2134 fish

2020 comps were cancelled because of COVID.

Someone here mentioned there may have been a different scoring system at the 2021 Nats that might have changed the total compared with previous years, I have asked the Nats mob if this is true as I dunno. Will post again when I confirm either way.

Regardless, this year on the Daly - after a decent Wet, following two dud Wets - was way better than some people predicted.

Was plenty of fish in 2021, but not many really big ones.

Elsewhere in the NT, like the Mary and Kakadu, plenty of big barra were posted on social media, not sure how that translates overall as I have not talked to anyone out there yet about how the "season" compared, but what reports have filtered back suggest it was good.

I haven't fished as much as I did 5-10 years ago but I was even more of a gumby back then so it's hard for me to compare

Updating this thread, total fish caught at the two big Daly comps.

I'll look up total local rainfall for each year later ...

2021 Barra Classic 1045
2021 Barra Nationals 2134

2022 Barra Classic 934
2022 Barra Nationals 980

2023 Barra Classic 279
2023 Barra Nationals 1440

A top-scoring competitor told me that teams who know how to use 'Active Target' technology are doing well in barra comps, picking out and targeting big fish.

Haven't updated this for a while.

The year 2026 was a record Wet for the Top End, it even washed the Woolianna road in, and the two big Daly comps were delayed, unprecedented.

The 2026 NT Barra Nationals catch was 2237. Near a record. .

Barra Nationals
2021 - 2134 barramundi
2022 - 980 barramundi
2023 - 943 barramundi
2024 - 2620 barramundi
2025 - 1384 barramundi
2026 - 2301 barramundi

NT Barramundi Classic
2021 - Barra Classic 1045
2022 - Barra Classic 934
2023 - Barra Classic 279
2024 - Barra Classic 1797
2025 - Barra Classic 854
2026 - to come

Tides and timing of the comps vs flooding timing affects scores, but overall big Wets consistently produce the goods. No good though if the comp is held when river is too flooded, this can produce a low score.

Nationals comp catches going up the past four years, good news amid all the climate change bad news elsewhere

Will be interesting to see the 2026 Classic result, hopefully they can get all the team spots filled after the late cancellations.

Incidentally, I asked AI slop what the total Nationals catch was for past four years and it was completely wrong except for this year.
(AI says
2023: caught 1841 barramundi
2024: caught 2129 barramundi
2025: caught 2017 barramundi
2026: caught 2301 barramundi)

Edit - checking my stats with Nats, they say all time record was 2024 with 2620 so I am going to recheck the other totals. They also said 2026 score has been revised to 2301.

Suggest not using Chatgpt for tide times either, based on recent experience. AI slop is real.

Have to wonder if the missile that hit the girls school was AI targeting at work.