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Rocky Barra Bounty celebrates its 10th year
  |  First Published: August 2008



It hardly seems like 10 years have past since 34 two-person teams nominated for the inaugural Rocky Barra Bounty tag and release tournament on the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton. The event has rapidly grown in popularity and reputation, and now proudly boasts a 5 Star NEATfish fishing tournament rating and national profile.

The 10th Rocky Barra Bounty will be conducted from 24-26 October this year and organisers are expecting to fully subscribe the 70 team limit for the event. The event will be enhanced further with the presence of TV fishing icon, ET – Andrew Ettingshausen.

The Fitzroy River experienced its biggest flood since 1991 earlier this year, and organisers are quietly confident that this should see good fishing during the event. Large numbers of large barra from stocking efforts upstream migrated down river during the flood, and although the rampant commercial netters and lawless so-called indigenous netters accounted for a large percentage of these fish following the flood, it is felt enough would have escaped the nets to provide exciting fishing in October.

The event will kick off with a briefing and BBQ on Thursday evening at the Fitzroy Motor Boat Club clubhouse on the river, with lures hitting the water from 5am on the Friday morning. Teams can fish right through until 6pm that evening and, if they have the stamina, they can fish again from 5am to 4pm on the Saturday.

After a much needed shower and freshen up, everyone regroups for the event dinner and presentation of trophies on the Saturday night. The evening will look back over the 10 years of competition, with all previous winners being recognised and a gallery of photographs showcasing the history of the event providing that element of nostalgia.

The Rocky Barra Bounty has always been about the prestige of winning, rather than the hope of going home with thousands of dollars worth of prizes. However, some lucky angler will win a boat and motor via a lucky draw and category winners will be more than happy with the selection of new rods and reels they will take home to compliment the attractive championship trophies they will receive.

Many competitors come back to compete in the Bounty year after year and there will be a number of them at this year's event who have not missed a single Barra Bounty since it started back in 1999.

If you would like to experience this great tournament, nomination forms can be downloaded from the event website where you can also study the catch statistics from all previous events and plan your strategy. Check out www.info-fish.net

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