Which one to fish for the first time start of November?
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Which one to fish for the first time start of November?
Hi Sparky. I have only fished Monduran and it is essentially a flooded river so pretty much a main channel, some offshoots, skinny in places with lots of standing dead timber in the water (and some just below). The cabin was good, air conditioned and comfortable. The boat ramp was pretty steep but manageable. The other blokes had all fished Awoonga and said it is more like Moreton bay. Wide and open unlike Monduran. We fished hard for 3 days and caught 6 cat fish between two boats though we saw a Barra roll on a lure right at the back of the boat. Some blokes had been there for a week and only caught a couple of fish and they knew what they were doing so not as easy as it looks on television! The water was putrid as well (cow crap and weed?) so my idea of being able to have a swim when it got hot was canned. I will stick to the salt myself in future...
Therapy
We used to fish Awoonga once or twice yearly. The last time was just after the flooding event that saw a good percentage of the larger fish go over the wall. The dam was a changed animal and it was the first trip we didn't catch a fish. Haven't been back since due to various reasons. Reports from the dam do seem to have dried up since that year - either the locals are keeping quiet or the fishing has never really recovered. The dam was big at 50-60 percent capacity. Full it is outright daunting as to where to start - it's a massive body of water.
I have never personally fished Monduran but my regular Awoonga trip partner has. It's a totally different thing to Awoonga with it's own challenges - mainly the sheer volume of structure in the dam. It's next on my hit list when I get back around to chasing pond barra and would probably be my pick of the two at the minute.
Read everything you can on dam fishing for barra - they don't come easy in my experience. Plenty of my mates have had week long donuts as have I. Take a variety of lures - hard bodies, soft plastics like hollow bodies and squidgies and surface frogs with weedless hooks. Also get yourself some big weedless hooks for the squidgies and hollow bodies - can be a very useful tool in heavy structure. If your castings not accurate - get to practicing now or you will spend a good amount of time retrieving lures from trees. Get yourself a couple of lure retrievers - we carry an extendable pole type and a heavier, larger home made version of a tackleback - they pay for themselves pretty quickly.
Have fished both. I have caught more Barra at Monduran. They are a fish of a million casts unless you are there when all the moons have aligned and the fishing gods are smiling upon you. Put in the time and effort and you can do ok. Always late arvo and into the night seems productive. Enjoy
Just spend the first day with the guide Jamie from Lake Mondrian Barra Charters. You wil get more than enough info to fish it after that.
Thanks guys, looking to spend about a week at the dam and plan was to take a guide out for a day or 2 first up
My boys and I spent a day with Jamie at Monduran. Really nice bloke. After a thousand well placed casts with a variety of lures... doughnut... but plenty of tips and nice day out. Have a chat to Foxy at Foxy' s Barra Havoc (tackle shop) which is now on the west to east side of the highway (ie on the white hotel side not the pink hotel side). He is a wealth of info and really nice bloke.
Cheers
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Right now either impoundment will be a challenge but anecdotally - Monduran would be the best bet . As Gunna said - for a Newby a guide is a must for the first day or two ..... what you will learn will put you in a better position to get a result . What will surprise you is where & how you will fish . get your casting eye in over the coming weeks - it;s a much more enjoyable way to fish & your opportunities will open for you many times more than relying on trolling .
For everything said .... it can be tough but it can turn on given the right conditions .
Most of all - enjoy the experience
Chris
Another question for you is what sort of boat do you have? My boat was probably unsuitable for Monduran (17 foot Sportfish runabout). The blokes in the cabin beside us had a Skeeter and used their electric to weave in between the standing timber, more or less jigging straight up and down, and that is how they got a couple of fish. They got those on the Squidgee's with the red head and white body in the 5 inch paddle tail (QANTAS colors work everywhere!). We tried everything; vibes, plastics, lures, frogs, cast, trolled, fished the points, the weed beds, the timber and all other methods short of dynamite! One morning there were Bass (?) surface feeding everywhere but we could not get one to bite. Frustrating but a good weekend away with mates and an experience none the less.
Therapy..
We were fishing out of either a 4 or 4.5 open boat. Without an electric the level of difficulty for casting goes through the roof - especially in amongst the weed which is where we got a good percentage of our fish. Trolling it didn't really matter.
Yeh my boats a 5m side console tinnie with minn kota electric up front
One item I found really handy Sparky was a bow mounted spotlight with a switch on the dash. We used to regularly fish through till midnight / 1am if we had a full moon. Having the light up front so there was no glare made things a whole heap better. Mine was mounted to the rail with a canopy fitting and powered through a plug socket arrangement so it could removed and not in the way during the day. Somewhere like Monduran with all the timber it would be invaluable IMO.
Mondy is at 143% and will not be fishable for awhile.