Two days after a full moon, the run-out tide flushed mullet over the snags and Hodgie's bell sang on the boat all morning. By mid-session his regular Northern Territory crew member Isaac had dragged 30-pound leader clear of the timber and netted a 109 cm barramundi on a 5-inch pink paddle prawn — a personal best, and a clinic in why small-lure logic still wins on big fish.
The party launched at sunrise to chase a surface bite for jacks and barra. Newcomer Harrison was along for his first session on the channel, and Hodgie ran spot-lock on the electric to hold the boat tight to mangrove edges. "We always talk about hating the full moon," Hodgie said. "As soon as the moon starts to sort of three or four days after is usually the best. This is only a couple of days after the full moon, but tomorrow will be even better."
The crew started with surface lures — a noisy fizzer for Hodgie, a subtle Fakey Dog walker for Isaac — and picked at schoolie barra and jacks on the flats. As the sun climbed, the bigger fish backed up into the snags and the boat went weedless. Hodgie talked through how he rigs an Atomic Prong: push the screw spring into the nose of the plastic until the thread is fully inside, hook through the eye, then back through the belly and out the middle of the back. "If they're not biting on the surface, you got to give them that presentation just that bit deeper," he said.
That was when the day turned. Hodgie's first hook-up on a 5-inch pink paddle prawn ran straight at him from a snag and busted him off on 50-pound leader. He was still re-tying when Isaac picked up Harrison's outfit, hit a paddle prawn off the same line, and felt his rod buckle in exactly the same way. "This is another metery," Hodgie called as he peeled the boat into open water on the electric. "Holy s***, mate. This is a monster."
The fight ran clean once Isaac dragged the fish off the structure. Twenty minutes of careful rod work later the barra rolled into the net on the first decent shot. "That was the most nervous I've ever been," Isaac said. The crew laid the fish on a measure sticker and read 109 cm. Hodgie reckoned it was closer to 112 by tail tip.
The release was deliberate. Isaac steadied the fish over the gunwale while Hodgie kicked the electric forward into the current to push water through its gills. "Now we got to be real careful with this fish and get him back real quick," Hodgie said. "There's nothing better than letting the PB go."
The lesson Hodgie kept coming back to was lure selection. The same 5-inch paddle prawn had broken him off earlier that morning on what he reckoned was a metre-plus fish, and he watched Isaac do it again on a second big bite. "We always talk about big lure, big fish, small lure all fish," he said. "This is exactly what you do." A quarter-ounce jighead, he added, is the lightest he will go before a 5-inch plastic stops swimming on the drop.
Isaac fought the fish on 30-pound leader through 40-pound braid on Hodgie's heavier Samurai spin outfit paired with an Abu Beast reel — gear he keeps spot-locked tight to the snags for exactly this scenario. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't," Hodgie said of the trade-off between drag pressure and timber.
The session ended with Hodgie content to put his rod down. "I don't have to throw a lure now to be happy," he said. "I've known Isaac since he was a real little kid and to watch him just get a PB like that is a pretty special moment."