THIS year anglers in the third round of the ABT Barra Tour have bagged the biggest fish in terms of combined length in the tournament's 10-year history.

Steve Morgan of ABT said the Lake Proserpine fishery was proving its worth as a "fantastic big barra fishery”.

"We up-load every day,” he said.

"We do video interviews with the winners and we have talked to Lindsay Dobe down at Barra World and it has been really good publicity for the region.

"When people are choosing a barra destination do they go to the Northern Territory to catch a million dollar barra?

"Or do they go somewhere like this where there's no crocodiles, that is half the distance to drive and still catch a metre-long barra?”

The third round of the ABT Barra Tour on Friday and Saturday was an evening event, with every team's 10 longest fish measured and photographed on the boats before being released.

The team that scores the longest combined length with those 10 fish is the winner.

Morgan said the tournament was the ultimate in eco-tourism.

"These guys probably spend a couple of grand on accommodation, food, and fuel and when they go back every single fish is still back in the water.

"To me that is eco-tourism, use the resource, leave it where it is and catch them next year.”

Morgan explained the attraction of catching barramundi quite simply.

"They are big.

"You go marlin fishing, you troll a line along and you are waiting for the rod to bend over and scream off and you pick the rod up,” he said.

"Here it's like hunting. They go out, look on their sounder, find the fish and they start casting.”

"You have to throw it out, let it sink to the right depth, give it the right action and bang. You get the bite.

"They bite so hard and they jump, it's just a great experience when you catch them,” he said.

"Barramundi is the iconic Australian sport fish. People in Japan and the USA love it. They may get fish of up to 10 pounds in the States but we have 100 pounders here.”