The Northern Territory’s love of fishing is being celebrated at the annual Barramundi classic on the Daly River. Apart from the occasional saltwater crocodile, heat stress is also a real threat to competitors spreading long days on the water. This years, the tournament’s organisers have created a modified version of the event to accommodate senior entrants.
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00:00With the wet season rains long gone, and the floodplains drying up on spectacular Malak
00:08Malak country, fishos prep their boats for another long day on the Daly River, chasing
00:14the elusive barramundi, with the salties prepping for another day hunting the same prey.
00:22But for the warm-blooded hunters, even with the right precautions, hours in the top-end
00:26sun can take its toll, especially for those more senior anglers.
00:31A lot of the older guys that have been fishing for a long time, they, oh the days are getting
00:36longer and hotter and you know, we can't sort of keep up all the time.
00:41Five days does take it out of you, even if a young fella, five days fishing.
00:44You're up at five every morning, you don't get to bed till ten, eleven at night.
00:48A couple of tournaments ago, organisers made adjustments to keep older members fishing.
00:53I said, well how would you like it if we had a Masters competition that ran for only like
00:59the first three days of the Classic, and had shorter hours.
01:04So you're on the water at the same time as everybody else, but lines out is a couple of
01:08hours earlier.
01:09Gives us a chance to win something maybe, and just be a bit more relaxed about it.
01:15Two years on, and the over-60s competition is a screaming success, with twice the number
01:22of Masters teams competing this year.
01:24They bring an asset money can't buy, years of experience on the river system.
01:28I think the longer you fish it, the more you understand the river, and you learn a lot
01:33more about where the rock bars are, where certain snags are, where certain eddies may form.
01:38They've also seen a cultural change.
01:41The old days, well people used to try and blow you up with crackers and bombs and all that
01:45kind of stuff.
01:46They used to float down the river, that's all long and gone now.
01:51As young and old, creating new memories.
01:53Sweet.