After this the pressure was off and the first of many beers were cracked for the day. Not long after we were trolling down stream out from the mouth of Tommy cut when both our rods got hit pretty much at the same time! As I was trying to back the boat up and get out to the middle my line went slack as the fish dropped the lure but Joel’s line was peeling of at a great rate. The fish hadn’t jumped yet so I wasn’t to sure what it was but it obviously had some size to it by the looks of the bend in Joel’s rod. Talking about Joel’s Rod this was the first fish he had hooked on it as we had just bought this combo a couple of days ago for the trip. Once the boat was out in the middle and in safe water I picked up the camera and started filming. About 5 minutes later a beautiful big Barra made its first appearance by coming out of the water shaking its head trying to dislodge the lure, a Elton john 160 +3 classic, and things got pretty exciting on board! As the barra got closer I had to put the camera down and grab the net so I missed the last of the capture on film but managed to somehow fit the fish into the net and pulled her on board. Yeh hah there was high fives all round and heaps of back slapping as we looked down at this massive fish.
Joel put his rod down to grab the brag mat and as he did the fish did a massive jump in the boat and landed on his new rod breaking it! We were both so stoked that we just had a good laugh and went oh well. The brag mat measured 115cm and it blew Joel’s previous PB of 80 cm out of the water and he was in the meter club! We called the Bandit over for a look and took a few quick photos so we could get her back in the water as quick as possible. 
It didn’t take long for the fish to start biting down hard as I held it in the water and she swam away strongly hopefully for someone else to enjoy catching in the future.
This was a great start to what is probably the best fishin mission I’ve had up here so far. We went on to catch a heap more barra plus a few big threadys at the mouth of Sampan which topped of a great trip.
Big thanks to Lee for showin us around, taking some great photos and helping us drink some Ord river rum!
After this trip I couldn’t help myself and did another day trip down to sampan the following sat. We trolled the mouth hoping for another big girl but it was all pretty quiet. We ended up flicking all the creek mouths on the way back up river and caught 4 or 5 fish all between 50 to 60 cm on soft plastics. We dropped a heap more as the fish were hitting them right at the side of the boat but not hooking up. We ended up at the third barrage where I jumped of the boat onto the bank to fish a likely looking junction.
I was using my little spin rod with a 65mm drop bear when I saw a big bow wave right on the edge of the bank. I flicked my plastic just past it and dragged it in front of it and a massive metre plus barra came out and engulfed it right at my feet! As soon as it felt pressure it burned of down stream and I started screaming to the other guys to get the boat so we could chase it. The barra pulled of about 150m of line before I just managed to turn it then the hook pulled leaving me standing there stunned!
So no Metrey for me for Feb but im hoping that all changes next month! Hopefully it rains solid till im back next break and the fish keep biting.Cheers Link
, when you got ord river rum 
! Can't go wrong and a few fish always a bonus!