Marrakai wrote:Wow! Top End Fishing Supplies opened in 1994 I'm told.
Time sure flies...

Marrakai...thats right , Top end opened in around.....feb/march 1994. They only had one little shop , in the same position as now ( at the eleven mile ). It was the first division , on the far left hand side of their current position. Shop front was about 5-6 metres wide. Steves wife worked the shop , while he continued his concreting business.
First met them about 2 months after they opened when I was up there fishing the 1994 Barra-classic. The road to the Daly still had alot of unsealed road back then , and seemed like more of an adventure. Now days.....like a stroll in the park to go down there for a fish.
There were no boat ramps either....we launched just below the crossing , straight over the river bank. Or down to browns creek with similar launch. Browns creek was about 15 feet wide at the end of Wooliana rd then , and i walked across it .....just over the top of my shorts in depth. It was either the big wet in 1998 or 2000 that opened Browns creek up. Just can't remember which one.
I fished with Harro & team Daiwa in 1994.....we had a 4.2 mtr boat & 40hp motor ( which Harro could pull start )...It was one of the bigger boats and motors on the water back then. Amazing the changes since then. 6 metre plus boats and some running 175h/p plus motorsthese days. Not really sure that the fish catch rates have improved with larger boats and motors , but the travelling times down the river to the favoured spots has definately been reduced.
Reckon the old days were probably more memorable , or maybe i'm just getting to old. Great times and plenty of good memories. RDR