North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Righto fella's,

i get heckled a lot on here and shrug it off because most the stuff said about me is nothing i've done or said and half the time im told "camfish did this" it's new's to me.

but lately i've made a genuine mistake that i attempted to pull of for good reason's, and i dont like the fact i lied to you guys so i'm going to set it straight.


it all started after a week of hitting an "old faithful" lake rather hard now this durrak lake always has produced for me and i would average 2-3 barra a night. a good night is 10 or so and we have had the occasion where we've done much better,

i have not been able to pull a fish out of there this wet, and a few people know that fish it couldn't pull a fish too.

so after about 5 day's of fishing it every night with an average of 5-7 hour's a night i decided it's time for a change.

i picked a new lake and set up a game plan.



so the new area i chose was not familiar to me and was a little daunting to invest the effort into an unproven spot, however i knew they where some big girl's living amongst it.

so with that in mind i set a goal to catch that mtr+ barra before the week was over. i spent four night's there before the moment happened.

the first night was a touch half hearten as i was a bit naive about the task ahead, i got my livies and fished for a total of 8 hours. nothing.

second night i fished for 5hour's. nothing.

the third night i ran into started early and had a good old chat to blw. i hooked a huge fish as blw was leaving ( yes he saw it) i would have no hesitation as all to call it a mtr+ fish so with that new fire of knowing i was doing it right i steped up the antic. i fished from sun down till sun up that night a good 12 hour's i would have to say. and even got into a punch on with a guy who broke my reel, threw my cast net in the water and kicked over "bellfish's" motor bike.

the next night i was there a good 9 hour's for nothing.

the next day ( B day ) i went down at 4ish and collected my livies, rigged up and fished sundown for a new approach, for zip. so disheartened i went home at about 12 when i got a message from my mate asking to go fishing with him.
so still feeling beaten from the first attempt that night i dragged my ass back down there for round two for the night.

now you can see the crazy hour's i'm putting into catching this mtr barra that i know is there. i also went out and brought a much more heavy trace after i first lost this fish, i re taught myself a new knot to use with my set up with the heavy leader ( i like a loop style know with floating livies for more action)
i swam in that filthy aid's palmo water to the area i was targeting to check the depth as i wanted my bait suspended about 2/3 thirds of the way down.
i got into a brawl the whist waiting for this moment and busted my ass between work, sleep and keeping the girl happy to fish it hard. i sacrificed a lot and put all my effort into it. i refused to give up till i caught the big girl.

so back to (B day) it was the second time i had been out that night. and me and a mate where haveing a fish, bellfish happened to rock up too (not fishing just saying hi)

so i threw a livie out where i wanted it and went on the mission to grab two more livies. so i put the rod down, bellfish who (not there fishing or any part of the action) strategically sit's down by the rod's. was warned if a fish grab's it it's my fish and my points for the seadogs and to not catch anything on my gear.

that being said it was safe to gather up my other livie, as i'm walking back i hear the sound's of 1000 animal's being slaughtered at once, the mating call of the yetti, turn's out it was actually bellfish yelling out that he's on, much to my disgust and disappointment even slightly angry that all that hard work to bring myself to this moment had been stolen from me.

so it come's in and show's itself that it's the girl i was trying to get, i was feeling mixed emotion's, on one had i had had all that hard work pulled out from underneath me by somebody not even fishing, on the other hand i was happy for my mate as he's never got a nice barra before that i have seen or a mtr+ fish,

there was absolutely no way on earth i was going to let him enter this fish that i worked so hard for in the seadog's, especially after telling him it's my fish if the rod go's off and saying not to catch any fish on my rod if it go's off.

but on the other hand i looked at his face and i couldnt deny him of showing it off even if i didn't think he earn the fish, he was so happy and stoked he got his first mtr barra and wanted to show it off to the world.

so to make both side's happy, (him wanting to say he caught a mtr barra) and me for earning that fish and rightfully owning it, and wanting to enter it in seadogs (that's why i put in all that hard work to catch it)

we told a little fib that we both caught it in one night, no harm there and no cheating or anything happened, we did it so he could have his moment with the fish and i wouldn't be robbed of my point's that i put so much work into.

now after speaking with matt and watching the controversy unfold i decided not to enter that fish anyway as i don't want to be labeled a cheat.
it was never entered in the comp at any stage and nor was i going to.
so there was no cheating going on, just two blokes fighting over who deserved the fish more.


this story is in no way shape or form sledge fest between me and bellfish, we both talked in deep about the incident and nothing has been said here that we didn't say face to face, it's simply a 100% accurate version of the story as i finnally did talk bull poop and i wanted to correct myself as i draged my own name through the mud.


on a brighter note there is nice big barra to be had from the palmo lake's, but if you look at the hour's i and other's have put into catching them don't think it's just a "stroll in the park" however there are some lucky ones that catch them straight away.

anyway enjoy mine and bellfish's barra. i finally pulled a m mtr+ one from there and got pic's of it.

i was wrong with what i did but i was just scared to have my hard work and success robbed.

Brace yourself's the insults are coming!

Good to see you straiten up the matter cam I know a heap of people here will still make something out of this but good on you for the full story an its still a top fish an good to see you put the hours into getting a nice fish dont give up keep hitting the lakes I would love to see more big fish photos from there a few people I know used to go to the lake around palmy an get 1m+ fish from them but ive never given it a crack myself ive got 3 meter plus fish from manton an it took me a long time to work that place out there is a fella somewere in S.A with a photo of my 120cm barra he was up on holliday with his wife an ive never seen the photo but you never forget them big fish

like i said, i never lied to cheat i just did it so my mate could also enjoy this success, i simply did it so we could both be happy and i didnt want to see that smile gone from his face regardless of who earnt the fish.

tried to do the right thing by my mate and did it the wrong way.

Good on ya champ just hope others dont slam you for it bl..dy top fish all the same an fellas ease up on cam

Cams been bunging it on since the 23rd aug 2011, not really a isolated incident. Maybe this one was the lesson learnt, only time will tell.

Cam is the little boy who cried wolf!

We can always forgive, but we can't forget.

I still think it was funny and the thread was a great read.

I think that bellfish is the only one who can claim the fish. If I take a bloke fishing it's in my car, my fuel, my research during the week, but if he catches a fish even on my gear it's still his fish for the photo and to take home.

Good Fish, Hope you get onto some more.

Ben Jam wrote:Cams been bunging it on since the 23rd aug 2011, not really a isolated incident. Maybe this one was the lesson learnt, only time will tell.

Cam is the little boy who cried wolf!

na, this is the only time i've straight up bullshited. and i came clean and apolagised.

ohh, and regarding the fish, when i see you out fishing next and you're rod scream's of you can be sure i'll be grabbing it and claiming that fish

Good stuff.

Anyone have a summary? To many words so I didn't bother reading past the first parragraph

sheps wrote:Anyone have a summary? To many words so I didn't bother reading past the first parragraph

In brief sheps working , fishing ,fighting,rooting,live baiting, metre barra some small fibs yahoo yippee hooray
Good stuff for setting it straight canfish !

Regardless of how the story unfolded still a nice fish from close to home.
Well done both of you

It was a classic boys. A week of laughs as the original post was progressively updated. Loved it & was disappointed when it ended. Cheers for the chuckles.

Your certainly having a crack camfish, good stuff.
Mate a lot people will still doubt ya storys, the only way to start winning back bit credit is that brag matt and a camera.
Great fish

another great story