The Rocky Barra Bounty has become an institution amongst southern and central Queensland barra anglers. It started only six years ago and got off to a shaky start, with the first event being flooded out. But since then the Bounty has gone ahead in leaps and bounds and is a must-visit tournament for anglers keen on catching wild barramundi.

The 2004 event experienced some impressive renovations over previous years, the most important being the beneficial linking with The Fitzroy Motor Boat Club. Their facilities just to the east of town were the ideal place for the Thursday night briefing, tournament headquarters and, for many, launch and retrieve area for the entire tournament.

Another notable addition to this year’s line-up was the film crew from WIN television’s Fishing Australia program, who filmed the entire event and captured some great footage of the competitors and the capture of a magnificent 94cm barramundi.

We at Qld Fishing Monthly also decided it was time to check out the changes and development of the Bounty, as it had been a while since we had been represented at the tournament. Steve Morgan fished the Bounty back in 1999, finishing in 6th place for lure casting, and the pressure was on for Team GoSo’s Shayne McKee and I to better that performance. If we didn’t, we were in for some serious ribbing back at the office.

Briefings are a necessary evil in tournaments, due to the risk of litigation and people unable to take responsibility for their own actions. The idea is to get the messages across on safety, rules and session times, while ensuring every competitor enjoys the couple of hours and can catch up with people they know.

A BBQ meal, competitor gift packs, general rev-up and a free drink went a long way to ensuring all these goals were met, and it gave us new guys a chance to meet some of the more experienced Bounty anglers. Everyone we met that night was enthusiastic about the event and just loved the social atmosphere. With the major prizes all random draw, most of the anglers were just fishing to have a good time.

After the BBQ, Kim Martin – the compere and one of the chief organisers – laid down the laws, wished everyone well and left it at that. Short, simple and left everyone ready to get out there the next morning at 5am.

Shayne and I had a great pre-fish day – we caught absolutely nothing, so our spirits were a little low as we launched at the boat club. But like all anglers we hit the water with enthusiasm, and within 20 minutes had our first little barra flapping around in the Environet. At 40cm it wasn’t a monster, but it did take us off the dreaded donut (zero) score.

Half an hour later Shayne landed a slightly bigger barra (42cm) and we were super confident. As we rung the score in, we were placed in fifth place.

The scoring system at the Bounty is in real time. You ring the fish through, tag it and snap a pic, and by the time you’ve had another cast, Bill Sawynok and Kim Martin have entered the details into the competition database. This info is then transferred to the scoreboard and everyone can see what other competitors are catching.

The rest of the day for us consisted of one big hook-up and loss, a small gold-spot cod and plenty of casting. We pulled back into our start area a little early and caught up with who was catching what.

Without any further fish we had dropped back in the field, but were still on the leader board and it became apparent that the baitfishers were cleaning up when compared to the lure casters.

The leaders had landed about 15 fish in the bait section and the lure section was being headed by a couple of young locals who were into their third Bounty, with nine fish.

The second day was hot and we hit some really good looking banks in the first three hours for one small jumped-off barra that must have thought it could cuddle up to the lure, and one flathead of 45cm. Shayne, fresh from the Flathead Classic on the Gold Coast, caught the flatty and copped a bagging for bringing his flathead tactics up north to chase barra.

As the tide dropped we decided to troll around a few ledges and rocky areas and amassed quite a few gold-spot cod and a couple of ripper catfish that had us calling for the winner’s cheque before their whiskery mouths popped to the surface.

We didn’t land a barra on day two, but we had a lot of fun. On making it back to the tournament headquarters we were talking about separating the tie for the biggest barra. Two anglers had landed 94cm fish and the organisers were a little baffled on how to handle it. As they almost reached a decision a call came in from a very excited Richard Dunkley, saying he’d just landed a monster. Measured at 116cm, this was a magnificent barra that is still swimming around the Fitzroy River somewhere.

So the tie was settled and the results were impressive, with 200 barramundi being tagged and a host of other species tagged as well. This was the most successful Barra Bounty ever, with the most barra ever tagged and the longest length of barra tagged, so all credit has to be extended to the organisers and their hard-working volunteer team.

While we didn’t trouble the scorers too much, Shayne and I, in our bright orange Team GoSo shirts, had a great time and met a heap of great people. The Rocky Barra Bounty is an event not to be missed. It’s not too serious, there are plenty of fishing options, the fishing can be good (if you know how) and the presentation dinner is a fantastic way to wrap up the event.