Winter barra at Tinaroo

[Barraboss]

G'day guys. I have not wet a line in awhile since the cold snap came through in Cairns. I am itching to get back into it and take the boat up to Tinaroo (and to test the new ute towing the boat). The last few trips (pre-cold snap) did not produce a hit, so I left a little deflated!!!! Has anyone got any ideas/techniques for Tinaroo this time of the year? All info appreciated, I just want to get a few more meterey's on my picture wall..
Tight lines;D

[cy_taylor1]

Hi Boss,

If your casting - Try fishing suspending lures in the shallows.

A good technique is to make casts to the bank and then go back along it.

Tinaroo can be a tricky dam to consistently catch metre+ Barra, even to the most experienced.

Just cast & cast & cast and keep changing spots. Eventually you'll strike gold.

Last winter we caught a 117cm from a shallow bay. It chomped a 110mm Slick Rig swimbait on a slow retrieve.

Here's a pic for you, note the background. That's where we caught it.

It is very overlooked!

May the force be with you at Tinaroo!

C&K

[Barraboss]

Thanks heaps for the advice. I realise that Tinaroo can be a tricky place at the best of times. Some of the "featureless" banks seem to produce from reports I have heard, and like you have mentioned often overlooked.

Would it be fair to say that I could deploy the same techniques used in Awoonga? Maybe I will check some of the threads out for a few of the other dams.

Cheers Matt

[TinarooTriumph]

Hey Matt,

C&K - You must have caught that fish on a weekday... you'd get tidal water into your boat from all the Ski'ers if you fished that bank on a weekend!!!

Well... Cy and Kerrin have pretty much summed things up. In winter you need to put in a lot of casts and work the area's you fish really hard. Those 'featureless' banks are home to fish... travelling fish. Barra in Tinaroo move from bay to bay, gully to gully, Creek to Creek, and Barra are quite often caught in no real structure (The Livebaiters at the Barra Bash proove that!). These fish are ofcourse looking for a feed and most importantly in Winter, warmth. During the day, working the shallow bays and points is definetely the way to go this time of year... and I think there are definetely certain time slots which are better then others. You could fish there all day and catch a few for sure, but early mornings are by far the best time to fish. Also, I think structure plays a big role... horizontal timber, or light-vertical timber is what you'd want to be chucking slugs at. Lure choice is critical... that and your retrieve would be the biggest factor.

At night time, Id be inside with a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label. Seriously... that cold snap a few weekends ago scared the living worms out of me! Last place you'd wanna be fishing at nightime in winter, is Lake Tinaroo.

May the WIND be with you (wink wink nudge nudge)

Cheers

Theo.