Stockyard barra - Lake Kinchant

After a hectic past 12 months of setting up a new business & buying / renovating a house - I along with my old time fishing partner "Whitey" finally managed to get away for what is normally our annual NQ barra trip ...... This one was particularly anticipated as it was 20 months since our last .
The plan was to tow my 5m Seajay from Sydney to Cardwell - camp on Hinchinbrook Island for a week & then wing it on the way home.
The trip north was uneventful arriving at Cardwell via the inland highways (Roma / Emerald / Charters towers) but Hinchinbrook gave us very little via inspiration - fish (a few undersized barra) & a feed of crab ...... the weather kept us in the creeks & it wasn't looking better for the rest of our week ...... so we pulled the pin & at the constant sounds of Kinchant in my ears from old mate - off we went.
The sight of a rapidly receding water level / muddy banks & a full caravan park hardly was what we had become accustomed too ...... but we were here.
The first few sessions had us following past preferences of fishing plastics off a point or bay & catching fish ...... now I have to say - I had no intention of fishing Kinchant & was hardly prepared ..... let alone motivated. Eventually when fishing slowed to a trickle ..... I pushed through into new grounds & a shallow , muddy but warm watered bay had me thinking (come back here if conditions deteriorated) Attachment 111367
Conditions deteriorated & armed with a small selection of topwater & shallow running lures we made our way into this weeded (3ft deep) stockyard & over the past few days had a ball playing with fairly decent barra that were limited to blistering runs to the weed creating bow waves as they tried their best to escape to freedom. Attachment 111373
Daytime sessions sight casting to cruising barra Attachment 111372..... setting up an ambush with a well placed lure left to sit as a barra approached - then the trap sprung saw a good dozen fish landed & many more lost on jump offs , worn leaders , popped line , opened hooks . Most of the fish ranged in the 85-99cm markAttachment 111368Attachment 111370Attachment 111371 ...... I managed a 107 & a 105 and Whitey a 102 Attachment 111369 ........ lets hope the next couple of days see's a few more :P

Nice report Chris good to hear you are getting a barra fix

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by STUIE63

Nice report Chris good to hear you are getting a barra fix

---

Finally Stuie ..... finally

Nice to see you get a couple of nice fish mate congratulations ....Matt

What a cracker of a session this afternoon - 8 landed ...... including this 117 which looked like a submarine blasting through the shallows Attachment 111397

Some of the other fish landed were all of good quality & did their best .... some (more than some) succeeding to free themselves Attachment 111401Attachment 111399Attachment 111398

This shallow water fishing was a blast & it certainly took its toll on tackle ..... Attachment 111400Attachment 111402

What a session .... :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bluefin59

Nice to see you get a couple of nice fish mate congratulations ....Matt

---

Thanks Matt .....

Got even better this afternoon - certainly great therapy

Chris

Some very nice looking Barra there Chris. Well done mate.

Gotta love it when you find a spot in a dam that is going off.!

Great work on the barra fellas👍, would someone be able to explain why so many split rings on the lure in the photo?

You get more movement in the trebbles so a bit harder to throw the hooks when they shack there heads as i see it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chris69

You get more movement in the trebbles so a bit harder to throw the hooks when they shack there heads as i see it.

---

That's one advantage ...... but the bigger benefit is less ability to twist open the split ring (180 deg Vs 45 ish) or rip the wire out of the lure .
I'm also using the splits as weighting - suspending / slow rise

Chris