Sport
22 April, 2025
Fish of a lifetime nets Normanton Barra Classic win
Ben MacNicol landed his first one-metre barra to claim victory in the Normanton comp.
Landing a one-metre barra is the dream of every local angler, so it’s fair to say that Ben MacNicol was stoked when his first “metery” netted him the grand prize in the Normanton Barra Classic.
“I’d been wanting to catch one for ages,” said Ben, before adding: “I said to my now-wife that I wasn’t going to propose until I got a metre-barra, but she got impatient, so that happened a couple of years ago. I should have waited!”
Now living near Ayr, Ben lived in Normanton for a couple of years and returned to the Gulf with his family for a weekend of fishing and catching up with old friends.
“I caught this one probably an hour into the competition,” he told North West Weekly.
“It was about 7 o’clock in the morning ... we’d probably thrown about 30 lures for the day.
“I don’t know the exact name of the creek but it was a couple of kilometres back from Wills Creek (which connects to the Norman River).”
Ben said his 1.19m barra was caught using a soft plastic resembling a mullet. The beast made him and the rest of the boat work hard to be captured for a photo in the catch-and-release competition.
“When it first hit, it just hit on the surface and it was in the middle of a snag, so it just wrapped around the snag a couple of times ... the drag was loose enough that it took off in the middle of river and I could feel the line breaking on the snags,” he said.
“We ended up having to start the boat, and the young fella had to lift the electric (motor) up, and we had to put the boat into these trees and unwrap the line.
“Luckily, this big girl (the barra) went back into the middle of the river and sat and just waited while we untangled all this line.
“It ended up taking us probably about 20 or 30 minutes to get it into the boat. It took almost all three of us to lift it out of the water.”
For winning, Ben and his family won $5000 cash, as well as a “beautiful mounted plaque”.
Normanton Barra Classic chief organiser Greg Cameron said almost 600 people had registered for the event, which drew people from far and wide.
He said more than $40,000 had been raised, which would be shared with Normanton community groups later this year.
Meanwhile, the Karumba Fishing Club will hold the Karumba Runoff Fishing Competition this long weekend, starting Friday.
NORMANTON BARRA CLASSIC PLACINGS
Seniors: Longest barra
1. Ben MacNicol (1190mm)
2. Riley Tiberi (1100mm)
3. Troy Hamilton (1020mm)
Seniors: Longest king salmon
1. Jayden Redsell (815mm)
2. Loklan Darlington (800mm)
3. Liam Willis (790mm)
Seniors: Longest catfish
1. Andrew McLuckie (1060mm)
2. Samantha Perkins (1050mm)
3. Casey Rossow (1010mm)
Juniors: Longest barra
1. Layne Probert (940mm)
2. Joshua Grieve (865mm)
3. Jarvis McLuckie (850mm)
Juniors: Longest king salmon
1. Declan Batt (790mm)
2. Layne Probert (750mm)
3. Fletcher Matthews (735mm)
Juniors: Longest catfish
1. Jarvis McLuckie (940mm)
2. Rylann Fields (930mm)
3. Fletcher Matthews (865mm)
Juniors: Longest other fish
1. Declan Batt (750mm)
2. Rylann Fields (710mm)
3. Fletcher Matthews (620mm)
Little kids: Longest catfish
1. Kyson Callope (935mm)
2. Chancey Fields (850mm)
3. Alaska Perkins (850mm)
