Monduran arvo fun!

[Steve B]

In keeping with the theme of updates from Awoonga and Tinaroo, I thought I'd post a quicky from Monduran. Finally the weather Gods and my RDO's lined up perfectly!!!

The week before last I managed a few fish and hookups in various parts of the dam. Then we had the Basspro on the weekend here. They managed about 24 or so bass for the weekend!!!

My next door neighbour ' Spud' Is one of the majority of locals here that love barra fishing, but has never caught a barra!! yes, there is heaps!! Spud had and RDO, so we ditched the 'family day' activites that had been planned for us by the women folk, and off to Monduran for the arvo!!

First stop, a couple of open bays in B arm to test out his casting ability in open water....all good!! but no fish. Saw some good boofing. Next we went WAY WAY up the dam to 'F' .....F stands for F$%%#ing long way up. We slowly motored under electric into a quiet bay. Spud launched a cast in front of a sweet lantanna bush. As the lure hit the water a bow wave peeled off in the opposite direction!! I couldnt stop laughing....Spud was devistated. A few more cast later, I was slow rolling a plastic back to the boat...not concentrating...and a fish smashed me 1 metre from the boat...powered into the open water and dumped my lure in one leap and spit.. All cool, we left the bay as I had another area I wanted to hit on the way home. As I lifted the electric...we spooked another 6 or so fish hovering hard up against lantana bushes in the back of the bay. (note for future!)

It was getting late (about 5pm) and not much was happening...water was calm, a couple of beers were getting demolished, I notices a fish tailing in the shallows. (Got it on video- I will post it tonight) I swam straight at us!! Spud got the landing net....I thought this will be interesting!!! it was well over a metrey. as soon as the landing net touched the water.....goooone was the fish!!

Activity for the next hour had to be seen to be beleived. I reckon there would have been 10 fish in various parts tailing around...not getting spooked easilly either...boofs going off like guns every minutes or so. We had 6 hookups, countless swirls behind lures and spooked swim offs. I landed 2 fish (103cm and 88cm) on Spuds rod and lure as I had to retie a leader for him...whilst I was doing that he picked up my Egrell and wouldn't give it back!!!.....SO I caught the fish on his rod and reel and lure!!.

Spud had the best day he reckoned he could have without landing fish. Classic moment was showing him his chaffed leader and explaining what happened....."WHAT...How can it NOT hookup after the lure has been right down its throat"!!!....YES thats fishing. He is keen to get out again. He got a picture with my 103cm fish...I think it may get used for false bragging amongst workmates at Ergon.

For the record, the girls are still up us for being late home, however the night spent in our respective dog kennels was well worth it for the action on the water.

I will try and post the video of the barra tailing in the shallows in the video section soon.

cheers steve

[BR65]

a days barra fishin vs a nite in the kennel, baby just call me rover woof woof
good to see ya on the water steve
how were temps, fish sittin up the back looking for warmer bath water??
nice to hear they were boofin, loooove that sound
cheers
brian

[BR65]

how goods that timber up at F mate, plus shallow mid stream banks and the little inlets, were you up near the alley, Im going to linger with intent for a little while up there this summer

[SeekingBarradise]

Well done Steve a good read mate. Sounds like a bit more going on compared to last weeks weather front....Colllllddddd and frosty....and slower fishing...It's great to hear you got in to them and had some fun.

Keep up the posts mate. Cheers Lyndon & Kel.

[NAGG]

Hey Steve ....... A session like that is worth time in the Sin Bin ( maybe that's why I'm twice divorced ;) ) A great read again & thanks for keeping everyone up to speed with the situation!

Cheers

Chris

[the_matrix]

Great report Steve, water temps 19 degree's at Monduran today Brian, cold drizzle and cold breeze but biting fish in the right area's. No-one around. Landed fish just over a metre, smallest 91cm, hooked some way bigger "things", one next to the boat.

Tailing Barra is a sight to see hey Stevey Boy!, see it in the salt up here as well as Awoonga.
Quite often when they are tailing they have their mind on other things though.
Thanks for your report, nice work on ol mates rod hehe
Catch up soon.
Jas

[Steve B]

Thanks men,

Brian...I have never been up there before!!! honestly...we just kept on motoring for something to do!! its definately on my 'go back to list' the whole area. It just looks like an areas seriously underfished.

Jas, we were chasing them around trying to get some good video to show! I have a new video camera and still trying to work out downloading ect. I wish I could overlap the JAWS theme to one bit of footage as the fish swam straight at us..ot was pretty cool to witness. We had the dam pretty much to ourselves too!

Water temp was 21.9 got up to 22.4 in the middle area of dam. When the moon came out on sunset, the action kicked in.

Steve

[Fishbait]

Stevo - sounds like a great day out up at 'F' arm. If you have a spare seat oneday again in the next couple of months, I'd love to come up to Monduran again with you to try me another barra mate - hopefully this time I can get lucky.;D Can't wait for the video your puttin' up. Cheers, Darren.

[Dick Pasfield]

Sounds like a great session:D, sorry to hear there's lantana in that neck of the woods>:(

[Obi _ Wan]

Steve thanks for the report mate, it's a cracker.

I can see i will have to get more serious about Mondy and stop driving past it after its only 4 hours away.

Cheers,
John.

[Whitto]

It's called in the Shite STILL not again Steve:(.......It no doubt was worth the grief........I know where u are talking about........Tropical Trout (Nath) has a name for the place.....The Hall of Chrome......it is well named.....last November he boated 22 Barra for the week just in that area......Your mate will be thinking of that for a week or more or several:o......Thanks for the report and look forward to the footage of the tailing.......Cheers Mate:D

[Peter4]

Thanks for the report Steve. Six weeks today and I'll be back there. IBD is kicking in, I'm starting to twitch and already counting the sleeps........

[themissus]

Cheers for the report/torture Steve.
Glad to see I'm not the only one that needs their leader knots tied::)
Going to be mid sept before we can look at heading back up there again....bugger.
Now I just have to find something to control the twitch I've developed whilst reading your report.:-/ :(
Roo's ends up in the dog house when he leaves me at home.;D
Cheers Kim.

[Steve B]

Dick, yeah we have lantana pretty thick in parts over here. Its a fishermans friend at Monduran!!.

John and Pete. Yeah its tough to go past. You guys must be getting seriously keen by now!!

Kim, He better not leave you at home. I am getting RRWS (rocky road withdrawal syndrome) I think its worse than IBD.!!!

For anyone interested, now and this weekend is looking sweet for the fish. As per Whittos report, Foxies is out there today.....I reckon he will get a few.

Cheers steve

Just downloaded the video on Youtube, I will link it to the video section here tonight.

[Brad Clark]

Great report Steve. Sounds like the area that Kevvie and I fished before the rise. Good to know that they can still be on the chew in winter. Not that Gin Gin really has a winter compared to us here in Toowoomba.

Cheers

Brad

[nipsta]

look like another great session steve good too see ya still hooking in hope we all have a good year on them once we get there

[vet]

Gday Steve, great report, keep them coming. Monduran is great. Trev is still trying to convince me to come down this weekend. The weather looks great, which would be a change for us to come there when it is good. If you see us, don't be afraid to point us in the right direction. Cheers scott.

[Steve B]

Thanks Brad, Simon and Scott.

Hey Scott, get down here this weekend. you will have a ball. I dont think you need my directions!!! Trev knows where they are. Actually I think they are pretty scattered all over the place from the catch reports I have been hearing, and seeing.

With some swearing and some technological deficiencies I mananaged to post the video of the barra cruising in the shallows. I thought I had footage of a fish I landed, but my mate forgot to press record.........this has happened before! I dont care, I'd say I may get another chance to catch a barra this year.;)

Drop into foxies,or give me a call when you get here. I am working this weekend, but I can come out for a drive and chat. I think Josh (Flairj) is going Sunday.

cheers Steve

[Whitto]

Great footage Steve......Well it was till someone mentioned Get the landing net......that thing dissappeared like it had a rocket up its clacker....Good Stuff...Cheers Whitto

[Whitto]

It should be every man for himself this weekend at the ramps I imagine;D:-/::)

[chewy01]

Thanks for that steve,andy read the report,dont think we can swing it for tomorrow but well be up nextweekend,weatherpermitting,so iv been told....:)great read btw...chewy

[mikooh]

You wouldnt think it was the same dam last weekend.. we woke on friday morning to find ice on the boat cover.. put the boat in and went for a look around and found the water temp ranging from 16.2deg way down in B and up to 20.1 up in C late in the afternoon. we found plenty of bait but no real good signs of activity. No boofing. No tailing fish. No barra sunning themselves in the shallows. Saturday we concentrated on a few of the warmer bays up C and the middle of the dam for no result.. it was tough fishing but good to finally get a look around the dam, and I cant wait to have another crack at em later in the year.

Mick

P.S. A 103 was landed on 4lb fireline and a Jackall Chubby in the timber on friday by one of the bassers during the prefish - Top effort that!

[Steve B]

Mick, I was wondering how you went!! Yeah it was a bit ordinary on the weekend weatherwise! A 103cm on 4lb, now thats a good effort!!!

Thanks mate
Steve

[NAGG]

Great footage Steve......Well it was till someone mentioned Get the landing net......that thing dissappeared like it had a rocket up its clacker....Good Stuff...Cheers Whitto

But it seems that ..... If "GET THE GAFF" was shouted out ....... The barra would have swallowed it!;D

Nagg

[NAGG]

Mick, I was wondering how you went!! Yeah it was a bit ordinary on the weekend weatherwise! A 103cm on 4lb, now thats a good effort!!!

Thanks mate
Steve

Steve ...... I think that is just a little bit of a minor understatement;) In the timber too .... with those little Jackall hooks & a leader that would have been 14lb ish :o ......... I'd love to know how long it took to land with a softly softly approach:-/
Yes .... a good effort alright:)

Cheers

Chris

[mikooh]

Mick, I was wondering how you went!! Yeah it was a bit ordinary on the weekend weatherwise! A 103cm on 4lb, now thats a good effort!!!

Thanks mate
Steve
Yeah Steve when we checked in on Thurs arvo and the lady at the kiosk informed us that "last night was the coldest so far this year and tonight is going to be colder" well lets just say that put a bit of a dampner on things..

The 103 was apparently hooked on the side of the head and the rod was passed around several trees in order to land the beast- would have been a few exiting minutes there I reckon!

Mick

[Tropicaltrout]

Nice Steve I like that bit of water Brian was talking about too. The are some great little pockets and sections.

Got me thinking of a trip soon, my wife will kill me but I am just so keen to get on the water its not funny, also want to try some New things out!

Ok Steve mate well done saw the tailer vid great visual.

Cheers Nath