The Territory Saltwater Fly Fishing Challenge is easily the most-different annual fishing competition held in the Top End.
Convened by the Darwin Flyrodders, the 23rd event was held over three days recently.
As always, the fishing ground is Bynoe Harbour, and it’s a gruelling event because there are seven eligible species: barramundi, salmon, tarpon, queenfish, trevally, mackerel and snapper.
Competitors fish in teams of two as any more than that is too difficult for everyone to cast at the same time.
Basically, one angler casts from the bow and the other casts from the stern; if there was another angler in the centre whipping a fly line back and forth, he’d soon be hooking his fishing mates for sure.
Over the three days of competition, the goal in this catch-and-release tournament is to catch all seven species each day.
However, that is far from easy, and generally requires a fair bit of running around, lots of local knowledge and plenty of skill.
After all, you’re not really going to catch a mackerel in the same location that you might target a barra.
Other species also earn points, but only according to length, whereas the seven target species each have bonus points attached to them, and the bonuses increase exponentially the more different species you catch.
As an indication of how difficult it is to catch seven species on fly on the same day, only one of the competitors, Tim Harding, achieved that milestone, and only on one day.
The Champion Team in the Saltwater Challenge was Two Casts, comprised of Robyn Gless and Shane McCarthy.
They were on fire, catching six target species on each of the first two days, and a respectable five species on the third day.
A close second in the team category was ZedeX, comprised of Warren and Jarryd Jefferey.
Third by only a fly feather was Team Rantipole, comprised of Tim Harding and Gavin Christison, and Glen Hubble and Quinten Pope in Territory Towel-ups came fourth.
Robyn Gless cleaned up the Champion Angler category, followed by Tim Harding, Shane McCarthy and Warren Jeffery.
It’s interesting to have a look at the fish statistics.
There were only four mackerel caught, but that’s no surprise; conversely, just eight barra caught over three days is a surprise.
The highest catch number of any species was trevally at 414 fish.
Snapper was next at 274, noting that all snapper species, including mangrove jack, counted.
These were followed by queenfish at 225, salmon at 77, tarpon at 25, and other species at 141.
In total, there were 1168 fish caught on fly.
The Darwin Flyrodders meets monthly at the Palmerston Game Fishing Club premises, and also holds regular club outings and social events.
If you’ve ever thought of having a shot at fly fishing, then there’s no better way to do it than to get in the mix with Darwin Flyrodders club.
You’ll find them on Facebook or you can also check out the website: darwinflyrodders.org.au.
Matt Hayne’s queenfish was the biggest caught in the Territory Saltwater Fly Fishing Challenge.
Dwayne Devanny’s barra was one of only eight caught.
Snapper species were prominent in the fly competition – Roger Sinclair caught this beaut goldy.
There were 414 trevally caught, including this fabulous diamond trevally.
