Reference the Million Dollar Barra;
Million-dollar-fish campaign: Darwin fisherman finds $10,000 in his freezer
By Tales from the Tinny
Updated about 3 hours ago
PHOTO: Basil Te Aho didn't realise he'd won $10,000 until he went to cook dinner. (ABC News: Mitchell Abram)
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A fortnight went by with Basil Te Aho pottering around his Darwin kitchen, clueless to the fact there was $10,000 in his freezer.
But last night, he decided to cook the barramundi he caught with his 83-year-old father, Kimgi Te Aho, at Yellow Waters two weeks ago.
As he went to clean it, he noticed a small, red tag with the date — March 31 2019.
As part of the Million Dollar Fish tourism campaign, 100 tagged fish have been released into Top End waterways that will win the catcher $10,000, if caught before the end of March next year.
There are also five $1 million fish.
After a quick call to the campaign operators, Mr Te Aho realised he was a winner.
"There was fist raising everywhere," he said.
"I told [my dad], he was pretty excited."
$10k in the ice-tray
ABC's Tales from the Tinny speaks to Basil Te Aho, who took two weeks to realise he had a $10,000 fish in his freezer
He had no idea of the windfall when he caught it two weeks ago.
"We went to Yellow Waters and were just trawling along the lagoon," he said.
"And this thing hit my line, [I] pulled it in and there it was. Got it on the boat and put it in the esky straight away.
"[Then I] come home, stuck it straight into the freezer. Then went straight to bed, because I was that tired."
He said he would probably give some of the money to his dad, some more to his family and spend the rest travelling to his hometown of Wairoa in New Zealand.
Although he never got the chance to eat his dinner last night, he said he would probably smoke the lucky fish today.
Topics: fishing-aquaculture, tourism, lifestyle-and-leisure, travel-and-tourism, darwin-0800
First posted about 3 hours ago