Sunbaking Barra!

[arpie]

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'?

[Flattieman]

Hi Roberta,

to the site. Personally, I haven't ever heard of the "sunbaking barra" phenomenon, so I can understand your surprise when you tried to pick it up!!!

Flattieman.

[wettingaline]

Poor bastard he was proabably just trying to get a tan to impress the female barra's and you went and interupted him...

[The Iceman]

At that size it would have been a female barra getting a tan to look good for the males

Strange thing to happen to a barra though may have recently been caught and hadnt been revived properly and you may have forced some water through her gills and revived her

Did you tell the rangers about it?

[arpie]

At that size it would have been a female barra getting a tan to look good for the males

Strange thing to happen to a barra though may have recently been caught and hadnt been revived properly and you may have forced some water through her gills and revived her

Did you tell the rangers about it?

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!

[The Iceman]

One of the rangers is a mate of mine Ill see if I can find out if they know what causes the barra to do that

[trev]

How do you reckon they get that nice Golden Colour.

The normal colour for Barra is silver the golden colour is after they have sunbaked

If they sunbake too long then they go pink and are called coral trout.....

And thats the biggest load of s@#t I have ever typed

[arpie]

One of the rangers is a mate of mine Ill see if I can find out if they know what causes the barra to do that

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!/

[arpie]

One of the rangers is a mate of mine Ill see if I can find out if they know what causes the barra to do that

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??

[The Iceman]

Oops forgot sorry

Just sent off an email to Andrew the marine bioligist at the hatchery in Gladstone to see if he knows Will post the reply when I get one

[Guest Dont Shoot Da Chinamen]

Poor bastard he was proabably just trying to get a tan to impress the female barra's and you went and interupted him...

[patl]

Roberta

How did you go up at Lake Awoonga? We will probably stay 4-5 days there and then onto another dam

I am going up there early September....any advice

Thanks

Patrick

[arpie]

Roberta

How did you go up at Lake Awoonga? We will probably stay 4-5 days there and then onto another dam

I am going up there early September....any advice

Thanks

Patrick

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!

[The Iceman]

Spoke to my brother(rainbowrunner) who used to work at the hatchery in Gladstone a few years ago and he said it was quite common and is due to the stress of being caught and released to quickly without being swum at the side of the boat to regain its strength What happens is the lactic acid buildup in the barras body causes the swimbladder to not function properly therefore the barra floats to the top eventually the lactic acid dissipates and they swim off normally They are very skittish when floating so will take off when approached

[patl]

Roberta,

Thanks for the info much appreciated, closer to the date I will talk to a couple of places up there.

I have caught lots of barra before when I lived in NQ, just wanted to try something different later this year for a week or two.

Hopefully we will get a couple, still havent decided what other dam we might try but will may even decide on the way up.

Thanks

Patrick