Back from Awoonga

[Popper52]

Just got back from a 6 day stint at Awoonga, we arrived there on Monday,8th Nov and got home Sunday night 15th...
14 hrs drive from here and full of expectations,after hearing tales tall and true about the abundance of Barra and ease of fishing this mighty lake.....not a single touch for the first 3 days and nights!!
We spent an average of 10hours a day on the water, putting in a few of 14hrs, when the weather allowed.
At first we thought we were doing something awfully wrong, but after talking to the other fishos it seemed no-one had landed a fish for the last week or so.
Even the guides were doing it tough...coming in each day with long faces and no hits?
On the evening of day 4 things picked up a bit, about 7.30 pm managed to land a smallish 800mm fish, then everything went quiet...no more hits that night.
Back on the water at 5am...nothing all day then back at 3.45pm, fished till dark, and again at about 7.15 that night I landed a nice healthy 1000mm, at exactly the same spot!!
Still hadn`t heard of any other fish landed in the camp.
On our last night, using the same lure...RMG150 Scorpion in the same spot, in about 1.5metres of water I wrestled an 1100mm Barra into the boat for a snapshot and speedy release!!
This guy has probably had his pic. taken a dozen times (See attached pics.)
So if you are headed up there, don`t quit, 300-400 casts per fish, but when you get a strike it`s all worth it. Just have to get back up there soon to catch one in the daylight,cos you miss alot of the visuals in the dark.
Cheers,
One Happy Fisher.
Popper52

[NAGG]

Good work on hanging in there poppa - seems you were duely rewarded.

Chris

[crab man]

Good honest report mate 3 fish for a week sounds like you worked hard for them thats for sure , i was thinking the same latley about how everybody seems to be getting carried away with awoonga like they did with mondy a few years ago , might be a good thing for our great southern mondy i guess hey ;) !!
Great fish good work Cheers Craig

[Young Gun]

Heading to Awoonga tomorrow. Hopefully i can do as well as you did mate. Great fish! What other lures were you using?

[robersl]

well done i have a mate from darwin there at the moment but they are struggling as well spoke to him yesterday he had nothing then been there since last thursday

shane

[Popper52]

Hi,
We tried everything from 100mm poppers,up to 160mm, 75mm-100mm frogs of all colours,deep divers, even some home made bucktail jigs, and aeroplane type spinners...yeah we both chucked everything we had in the box at them... and the only lure that got noticed as I said in the report was the Scorpion RMG150 3metre diver.
The Barra only seemed to stay on the bite for about half an hour..at around 7.30 at night, and we got the whole three fish in the same spot....about 700metres from the boat ramp! Hard to fathom? but hell I`m not complaining!
Cheers,
Popper

[matt fraser]

Congratulations on your success! you certainly earnt those fish. Great to have some photos like that to take home. It only takes one fish to get you keen for more barra action.

I'm heading up there soon, and just keep hearing tough reports. A lot of it is due to the water temps still holding around 24 - 25 degrees. They should be 27 - 28 by now, for some reason its hotter in Brisbane than Gladstone atm???.

Thanks for the report and pics, and well done again,

Cheers,

Matt

[rc@hinze]

Well done for hanging in there and earning your fish. Like the say, "you can't catch one unless you have a line in the water". The ones you do catch though sure make up for the many hours and also make for a satisfying trip home. - cheers Richard

[Barry Ehsman]

You certanly put in the hours mate ,, at least it wasn't a donut well done...

Cheers Baz