Kayak1
27-02-2006, 03:24 PM
A week after her first trip (see Freshwater... Michelle's first barra) The inevitable question came from the 13year old. "We going fishing in the morning dad?" How could anyone resist???? The weather man was correct .. the morning became very hot, very quickly on the waters of Awoonga. Not a zephyr of a breeze to cool the air off. We tried the successful spot of a week earlier and applied all the cunning which we could dream up with nil result so explored various other options and promising sites but to no avail. Yours trully could not even stir up a cattamundi, something for which I'm gaining a reputation. Hey, at least I keep them occupied and give everyone else a chance at the barra. We decided to call it a day and head for home, but, using the one last cast approach, we trolled past a clump of submerged trees on the way. My lure, running about 1/2 metre deeper than Michelle's, started bumping the tops of submerged timber so I held my rod extended in the air. Michelle's rod gave two bumps then layed over lazily and she announced "I'm Snagged." I put the motor in reverse and backed up while retrieving my line. Michelle meanwhile kept light tension on her line to keep it clear of the prop and to guide me back along the path. The lie angled steeper and finally became vertical and I prepared to put the motor in neutral in order to retrieve the snagged lure. The line let go of the clutches of the underwater branches, much to our relief, but then suddenly began to move away from the snag and arc upward. With an almighty flurry of water a SSAM (SubSurface to Air Missile) erupted not a metre away from my position in the boat and my heart missed more than a beat as I tried to maintain my dignity. "What was that" exclaimed Michelle, followed shortly after by "Its a barra" as she answered her own question when the surface erupted again a couple of metres further away. By this time I had placed the motor back into reverse and was steering us away from the timber in order to give Michelle a better fighting chance. That barra put on a spectular aerial display trying to dislodge the lure, jumping 4 or 5 times while Michelle displayed considerable skill to subdue it and bring it back to the boat to be netted, measured, photographed and released. It had completely inhaled the lure so that even the bib was inside its mouth. I'm still wondering at what stage that fish hit the lure, before, during of after the snag??? Its marvellous what a difference 1 fish can make to a trip... and when that fish does something spectacular then all is right with the world.