arpie

Hi Patrick We were there for 4 days & I was out on the water for hours every day! I didn't manage to catch any barra this time - was hoping to get my first 'unassisted' one at Awoonga (caught my first two ever with a guide some years ago up in the NT!) Will go up again next year & try again! They were going a bit quiet when I was there in June - hopefully the water will be warmer in Sept with a bit more activity. I only got a couple of catfish, darn it. We went to Monduran, but the lake was really low & the campsite a long way from the edge of the lake. Without a trailer, it was too difficult to get our boat down there without packing up the campervan, so we went to Boondooma instead, for bass! Awoonga, you can park your boat at the edge & walk up the hill to the campsite. From talking with the locals, the most productive time to fish from a boat was dawn & dusk. I didn't have night lights on my 10ft Portabote, so couldn't stay out after dark (also on my own as my other half does not fish, so safety a factor as well.) They were tossing very small-lipped 'just below the surface' lures (1m depth, metallic finishes were good, up to 6" long) from outside the weed beds towards the edges of the weed and were getting multiple hookups. Anywhere there are good weedbeds should find barra, they reckon, on or just after dusk. Casting from the shore over the beds you are just likely to get snagged up & lose your lures. Use strong hooks & 50lb leader (minimum!) During the day, the best trolling pattern (they reckon) was across the dam wall (you will see the big orange bouys that you can't go past) and then do a huge 'v' back into the middle of the dam and and then back to the dam wall again. Keep repeating! This follows the old river bed where the fish are supposed to hang out! The higher the sun, the deeper the fish go, apparantly! So change your lure accordingly. None of the aforementioned info helped me catch anything, but I didn't go 'deep enough' in the 'v' to take advantage of the riverbed! The Vipers were a very popular lure - outselling the others 10 to 1! Make sure you have a big net - they don't seem to catch small barras - mainly big ones! Lots of timber past the dam wall as well, to toss stuff at - I saw a couple of swirls, but no takes. Let me know how you get on - I'll take notes for my next trip!

I think it is this month's July Modern Fishing - a letter to Dick Lewers virtually asks the same question!! Any news from your ranger mate??

Thanks for that, the one thing I did notice before it disappeared into the depths was that the scales weren't nice & clean & silver - it was as if it was covered in some sort of greenish slime/grime - all the more reason I really did think it was dead!/

I didn't see any rangers the whole time I was there, so that would be a 'no'. However, I mentioned it to the manager in the camp ground/tackle shop there & they didn't appear at all surprised & it was them that termed it the sunbaking barra!

I have recently returned from barra bashing at Lake Awoonga, where I came upon a big dead floating barra. It was in excess of 1m in length & I was interested to see what had caused it's death. I killed the motor & sidled up to it & grabbed it's fin to flip it over for a 'look see'. Blow me down if it didn't go 'whoosh' & take off for the depths! I nearly fell out of the boat! Shame is I had a big net in the boat and could just as easily have scooped it on board for the look! I had previously seen a huge dead (very dead & smelly) barra up at Tinaroo once, so was not all that surprised to see this one, seemingly in the same state. My thoughts were it was recovering after being caught & released, or it may have been concussed from a boat hitting it. Either way, I won't make that mistake again in a hurry! It was the closest I got to a barramundi for the 4 days I fished there! At least I patted it! Has anyone else witnessed 'sunbaking barra'?