monduran family fishing comp 8th-9th Oct 2011

We fished a family of 5 out of our 4.5mt savage tiny with 60hp yamy 4 stroke, day one of the comp started on the water at 7am for us and we fished through until 5pm, a long day on the water with 3 kids (11, 9 and 5yrs) in a 4ft by 14ft alloy floating box.... Day two was short from 7am until 1030am for us after a sleepin....(not related to alcohol over indulgence) Brodie my 11 yo young fella threw 1000 casts+ each day using a RMG bleeding mullet lure, not one strike for both days,:'( I threw a fluro Tropic Angler barra floater with a purple back, (usually my best Mondy Lure) for both days with not a strike:'(, I put on a horny toad this morning for an hour whilst working lilly pads, weed beds and shallow points, not a strike:'(, and then used a beatle spin with Squidy fish on a jig head also with out a touch:'(, the girls used B52's, Voodoo lures, and zipping ziggies early in the shade of some points and the islands, with not a strike:'(, We resorted to prawns to catch a few catties to weigh in over the weekend, but even that was a struggle.... We sat out a 45 minute storm with pea size hail in the southern arm of B bay Saturday around midday, and this did not fire up the fish for us either....:'( There were approx 440 adult entries and 130 junior entries in the MASA comp, 2 legal barra were weighed in from approx 570 anglers over the 2 days. The Saturday winner was 59.5cm and todays was 68cm that won the overall best Barra approx 3.6kg.... The best Bass yesterday went 50cm caught on live shrimp near white rock near the eagles nest and so was the 48cm one that won the daily bass prize today.... Rumors have it that behind the island in D area was the hot spot with quiet a few under size barra landed, and one over 1mt lost before it reached the net....:'( Water temps were 20 degrees in the morning and 22.4 by lunch time in the areas we tried which included, the bay to the left of the entrance to Jacks bay, southern arm of B bay down to the Island and we worked the island and points in Wiggle bay this morning with all with no joy... So pretty much we struggled all weekend, which is often the norm when the boat traffic increases I guess. But to look to the positive sides, we had a great family weekend away, enjoyed a few beverages each night, and caught up with some fellow anglers over the weekend, so even though we did not get a barra this trip, we learnt more about the lake which was 100% full and it was so different to this time 12 months ago, Still we came away from the weekend postive that in future visits we will achieve a more positive result.... Cheers Kev.:)

Thanks for the detailed report Kev, looks like it was a real struggle. Well done for having a go.

The amount of bait in there at the moment is incredible, the whole lake and its surrounds are alive, I think it will be another season before the barra become easier. But at least there are a few there.

Cheers,

Matt

Hey Kev
It was a good comp was it not, plenty of people as i fished it as well for the first time with a young lad from Hervey Bay'. D bay was just a rumour mate no fish there lol.
The winning fish was caught 30 yards from us not far from white rock we were on the electric working the lantana and another fella i know was tied to a tree further down, the winner motored past us and went to a point on the other side of my mate he was there all of 5 minutes and bang he was on he quickly hauled ass to the weigh station lol
fishing was hard i had 1 brief hook up on a zman ,and was throwing a surface lure and paused it to look at a splash down stream then i got boofed 6 inches behind my lure short sighted fish lol
the storm on Saturday was a doozy i had a phone call from a mate telling me it was on the way so i hightailed it for the ramp and came back out after it

shane

Robersl, The storm was entertaining, with an astrophobic wife and 3 kids on board a 4.5mt tiny with graphite rods and alloy canopy it was a great 40 minutes. NOT... The D bay info was from a club member and supposidly reliable source of info, he told me the first day barra was from behind the island in D, and that the same angler dropped the one over a mt, and the other rats he got were all from the same area??? Bugger that you or your mate weren't on the lucky point, I got my 114cm that won the Saturday prize also near white rock a year or two ago, but when I sounded over the previous 3mt deep flat with a gully near by, it was almost 7mts under this year.... not to worry, the rum was nice before bed each night, and nothing broke and no one lost an eye, so all is good, as you said, just needs some time to come good again and for some of the edge weed to melt down a bit so we can get a better shot at the shallow areas. Bring on summer. Cheers Kev.

Nice Work Kevin! Good story mate. I can just imagine Marg abusing you through the storm!!!! If anyone deserved good fish its you lot, especially Brodie, who works his butt off every year trying to catch a barra.!

Went out Tues arvo with a few mate, for nothing either. Weather was perfect for fishing....sounds like it would have been a good day for you to chuck a sickie from what I heard at work...tough day mate.
Later mate.
Stevo