I find it extraordinary that there have been 16 Sportsbet 10K tagged barra already recaptured in Season 10 of Million Dollar Fish.
That’s $16,000 and, on top of that, there’s been an incredible pool of gift giveaways to registered MDF players over the recent “12 Days of Fishmas” promotion.
There are more valuable prizes to be given away, including a Stacer 429 Outlaw boat valued at $35.000.
Hasn’t Million Dollar Fish come a long way in its 10 years of running?
We’re talking millions of dollars won with tagged fish and prize giveaways, including an actual $1 million barra being caught in Season 9.
Importantly, it has resulted in a huge amount of economic activity for the Northern Territory, with verified significant increase in tourist numbers.
Last week I had an interesting chat with Sportsbet’s NT Operations and Partnerships Manager, Thijs Bors.
He reaffirmed there are 10 red-tagged barra out there worth $1 million each.
“They’re in all five regions, including Mary and Adelaide Rivers, Darwin and Bynoe Harbours, Hope Inlet and Gunn Point,” Thijs said.
“In any metro area that you’d like to fish, there will more than likely be a million dollar fish.
“We’d love to see another $1 million fish get caught this season.
“To get two of them back to back would cement how legit this awesome promotion is,” Thijs said.
Apparently, one worth a mil was nearly caught in Season 8.
An angler hooked a red-tagged barra which jumped off.
He kept fishing and hooked and landed another one with a tag in it which was clearly a different size.
It seems there were only two MDF barra tagged in that area, and one was worth $1 million, so that was the fish that escaped.
Earlier this week, friends Roxy Woolley, Cooper Eccles and I fished Bynoe Harbour, fully aware that there are Sportsbet-tagged barra there.
We caught a bunch of barra but, alas, there was no red.
But we did make a pact that, if we did catch a tagged one, we’d share it equally.
In that regard, it’s actually not a bad idea to sign a document with all on board agreeing to how any prize money is shared.
An interesting and thought-provoking incident happened while we were fishing.
Around low tide just inside a creek mouth, young Cooper spotted a crocodile on the surface.
Roxy saw it too but it went down before I saw it.
Apparently it had been only 10m away.
Immediately my fishing partners urged me to get out of the creek, but we’d been catching fish and by the description it wasn’t a big croc.
I said what I always say on such occasions: “A croc won’t jump up into a boat as we’re much bigger than they are.
“They see a boat as one big animal and respect the size.
“The only time a croc might jump up and grab someone from within a boat is at night when it’s a case of mistaken identity; perhaps mistaking a silhouette for a wallaby on the bank,” I explained.
They didn’t seem convinced but humoured me anyway, and we kept fishing.
Not long after, Roxy hooked a whopper of a tarpon which, as always catapulted all over the place.
It came to the boat and I slipped the net under it.
However, what happened next was more than a surprise: a crocodile stuck its head out of the water and started biting the tarpon through the net!
Roxy screamed: “Get the net out of the water”… which I duly did.
The croc then slipped out of sight and we motored out of the creek to get tarpon photos.
By the size of its head, I reckoned the croc was 2.5-3m long, and it must have been sitting right under the boat.
But what amazed me was that its teeth didn’t get caught up in the net as it was chomping away at the tarpon with gusto.
Had its teeth got caught in the mesh, the net would have been pulled out of my hands, and the rod would probably have gone too, or be broken as the fish was still attached.
I commented at the time, and believe, someone has been feeding crocs in Bynoe.
If they try to grab a hooked fish, it’s because they’ve learnt to associate boats with food.
Notwithstanding, it really does go to show that you shouldn’t try to land fish by hand.
Likewise, if you’re releasing them, where possible just spear them back into the water.
