Barra Braid Baitcasting Rod??

[Rev]

I know you're saying that looks pretty open to me, so here is a picture of another fish that went near 33lb.
This pic was taken looking back the other way.

This guy cheated, he was using 20lb Fireline.

I can quite safely say I've only lost one fish to a snag and it was in a creek junction near Maningrida and I think it was a huge Cod (estimated at 80lb+ by a glimpse of the fish at the take) and it got me on the snag we were tied to, 'cause we couldn't get the motor started as the battery was flat. Although I was connected for at least 20 minutes before I was tree'd.

Rev.

[Wesley_Pang]

Rev,

You seem to be a BIG BARRA specialist.

We will have to get you up to Queensland to tackle out "Pet" barra in impoundments, Faust and Tinaroo(home to the biggest Barra on the Planet).

Do you prefer Fireline to Bionic Braid? Is Fireline rated the same way as Bionic Braid?

My brother George(team_mongo) has fished Liverpool River(Maningrida, N.T.) with Russell Kenny. He said it's an awesome Barra fishery. How does the Liverpool River compare to Bensback? Did you go recently to Bensback, since it's been re-opened? Is Bensback good for Papuan Black Bass and Spot Tail Bass? I recently got into a lot of Red Bass(close cousin of the Papuan Black bass). The Red Bass pull hard!!!

Keep the photos of the Big Barra coming.

Wes

[Rev]

The Biggest Barra from one of our groups came into the boat at 63lb and a Salty to boot and sorry to say it was on only 20lb Fireline.

The "impoundment slacker" comment was just a friendly dig, but was mainly because impoundment fish don't have any predators or never swim into a current, so therefore are 'considered' an easier prospect once hooked, even freshwater river fish and Billabong fish have things they need to escape from and therefore have a stronger survival instinct.

We've been able to reproduce the larger Barra catches over the last three years by picking the right tides and moon-phases for just after the wet.

Bensbach is pretty much a Barra only fishery, but there are also some pretty good Saratoga too.

One of the crew landed a Saratoga of just on 6kg, this trip.

We were at Bensbach at the end of August this year and I would go back there in a flash, but maybe in June or even May, next time.

There are no Bass of any type at Bensbach or anywhere in the Bensbach River, so we'll just have to settle for the Barra.

We landed possibly four Barra over 40lb for our trip, possibly I say as one wasn't confirmed, not even a picture, so we'll call it three.

Mine, as pictured previously, was caught in the Freshwater upper reaches.

Maningrida is good, I lost my first Barra that would've gone over 30lb there, due to a cut off, of the leader, on the Gill Cover of a madly leaping fish.

From that very moment, I stopped and will never use 60lb or any other size Jinkai again.

As far as comparing Maningrida to Bensbach? There is no comparison, Bensbach would blitz it, although I would like to try the Liverpool during March rather than later in April when I was there a few years ago.

I've learn't a lot over the times I've been Barra fishing and now pre-book my Barra Trips to the Northern Territory almost 12 months in advance, based purely on the tides and Moon-Phases and#I can tell you it works.

I don't know how to rate Fireline against Bionic-Braid, but I know one thing for sure, it don't break at it's indicated breaking strain if you tie your knots correctly.

I'm off to chase the Black Bass and Spot-Tail Bass in New Guinea in August 2003. I'm due a bigger Fish, as my best so far is around 9kg. We're looking for a couple of others to go. We can only take four at a time.

Below is a Black-Bass of around 9kg.

This is serious gear used;
20kg Live Fibre Custom Bait-Casting Rod, complete with a full set of Fuji Gold-Cermet, Titanium Body Guides.
Daiwa CVZ300A.
50lb Fireline.
80lb Jinkai Leader.
Nilsmaster 4" Spearhead.

If you've fished for and caught Mangrove Jack you know how these fight, most unfairly and they're ten times as big as an average Mangrove Jack.

By the way I fish for Mangrove Jack with a 4kg Live Fibre rod and 10lb Fireline with no problems so far.

Like the Mangrove Jack, the Black Bass hit the lure on the way back into the snags at full pace, so you have to stop them dead in thier tracks or it's all over in a second or so.

If Barra fought like that, then I might be using the heavier gear, you guys are talking about.

Rev.

[Rev]

One for the road.

Katie from earlier this year, again, in the Northern Territory.

Same Creek.

Barra of 36lb.

20lb Fireline again.

Her husband, Bob, (that's him with the light blue shirt and the 52lb fish above) brought her along on this trip for her 50th Birthday.

We named the creek "Jenny Craig"

Because of these fat ladies waiting out the front to get in.

Let me know if you want to see more.

Rev.

[Travis]

Rev for gods sake man put a hat on hehehehehe.......

Wes the Millerods are in a class of there own they are built to the highest quality,built on custom miller designed blanks and the cork grip and butt section are so comfortable in the hand price will be long forgotten.....

The miller pro barra is a powerful style rod the would handle 50 LB braid l think it is 5'6 but l do agree for double handed longer style baitcaster (6'2) with heavy braid the Top end braid rod sells itself.............These Barra rods of Ians sell for $495

The mag bass series of Loomis rods(IMX and GLX) will do the jobs you are wanting your rods to do l dont believe the crankbait will handle the pressure..

l do not have one at the moment in stock wes but there is a few other barra rods to have a look at along with the loomis range....

Travis

I do have an alliance with Millerods but l will happily sell you a Loomis,Strudwick,Shimano or ugly stick if you like

[Rev]

Rev for gods sake man put a hat on hehehehehe.......

Travis

A hat or a bag?

Thanks for that Trav.

Bad luck on the final results of the B.R.E.A.M. comp. You were in some pretty tough company and beat some of them you did well for an ex-pat Victorian.

Better luck next year

I'd have to agree with Trav there on the Miller Rods.

I don't use them myself, but you can't get the rods I use off the shelf either.

The build quality of the Millers is excellent with the only problem being delivery, at times. I've been waiting for my Bream Buster for just over 3 months now.

That might not be too much of an issue for the Barra Rods as they may have them in stock at Springwood.

If you want to just drag the fish out, then maybe the Gulf Bass or similar might be more suited, Trav'll tell us if the name is right.

It's definately worth it to dig your hand a little deeper into your pocket for a Miller Rod.

One thing I've found out recently, if you're using Soft Plastics, forget the stiffer rods and go for one with the softer top half. The Barra are just too hard to hook on Soft Plastics when using the standard type stiff Barra Rods.

On one day at Bensbach I would've dropped maybe a dozen fish on Soft Plastics before I landed one, a softer rod would've seen me into many more fish.

Trav, looks like that Pacific Composites rod I had built a couple of years ago and hated might just get a geurnsey yet.

Time to blow my own trumpet again, # 8)

My first "ever" #and only fish so far on a Soft Plastic (Squidgie).

A 24lb Barramundi from the Bensbach River.

Trav, one other thing on the Bensbach Lodge, most of the boats up there had brand new Mercurys on them and the sticker on the motors said, "Supplied by Springwood Marine"

Maybe you can get a trip up there to service them or something. 8)

Rev.

[Travis]

Its already happening rev,the merc deal with those guys was a good one 8)

As far as getting Ians rods the bream style of rods are the only hard ones to get thanks to the couriers and the popularity of the bream series this year but Rev l have a few bream busters left l'll do ya a deal if ya like

The barra rods are a little easier to get and Ian will now have a little more time to pump out some serious rods.....

Rev l dont see 17th as bad luck Taree fished hard and for a few it fished well,and yes l'm looking forward to the first comp at the Docklands next year.....

Guys the ET fishing show is next weekend at the RNA showgrounds Starlo and Bushy will be there so you may want come along and ask them some barra questions......

Trav

[Rev]

Its already happening rev,the merc deal with those guys was a good one 8)

Trav

Trav,

The motors need to be a bit bigger though, it takes ages to get up and down the river.

Be mindful of when you go, if you have to pay, it is not as good all of the time, as some would have you believe.

If you get there for the right price then I guess you can't say too much.

They also need a #healthy supply of Shear and Split pins, ask Paul about that one. #

The last lot of BB arrived at the store with a majority of them broken (thanks to the courier), the remainder I didn't want to touch even though they looked okay, so I wait another 10 weeks. #

Rev.

[Randall]

Rev, awesome fish!! As George has said, you certainly know your Barra fishing!
You obviously know how to handle a large fish on light gear, (practice makes perfect!! ;-) )
I still maintain that Faust is unique in that the Barra are nothing like anywhere else. Their deep in the body...so much so that they are as deep as a windscreen in a car!!

You have to visit this place Rev!!! You would have an absolute Hoot of a time!!

They are on-par with the NG Black Bass. Real dirty fighters with muscle to back em up.

Thanks for the photos Rev, I really enjoyed seeing these monsters.

Regards, Randall.

[tonyp]

Rev,
Yep you spend too much time fishing i am afraid.

This would have to be one of the best threads of info on fishing with pics and advice, I enjoyed all the photo's as i am a BARRA virgin.

keep them coming,

[bugman]

Being a barra virgin I can supply nothing more than the pic.

A journo mate of mine went to Bensbach two weeks ago.

This was his first fish on his first cast - or that's what he told me. The guide is holding the fish.

They were up near the Irian Jaya border.

Regards Brett

[Rev]

This was his first fish on his first cast - or that's what he told me. The guide is holding the fish.

They were up near the Irian Jaya border.

Regards Brett

Brett,

Yeah I'd believe that. 8)

The 40lb fish I got was caught, maybe a couple of kilometres downstream from Weeam on the Bensbach River.

The story behind it goes like this,

We'd a pretty good morning with a few Barra landed, some Saratoga and around 50 Catfish.

The sun had got high and the fish were getting scarce, so we decided to troll along the front of some heavy-duty snags with deep lures.

We had on a selection of Lures ranging from 10 foot to 20 foot divers. There was a bit of shade on the water from over hanging trees and we were trolling along the shade line with the lures bumping and crashing through the outer reaches of the snags.

Nothing much was happening, so Bok suggested that "one of you should have a cast into the bank amongst the trunks of the fallen trees".

Now, you don't have to ask me twice, and on my second rod I had a nice, brand new, Gold Bomber B16A (the larger one).

This is a pretty standard thing for me, as, I will nearly always have at least one of the rods rigged with a Bomber of sorts. 8)

John, who was one of the other punters in the boat, said "you're always going on about these bloody Bombers, so show me what it can do".

So I stood up and cast the lure hard in against the bank, directly under the tree trunk that had fallen into the drink with the base of it still up on the bank.

Well, bugger me if after getting the reel into gear and moving the lure no more than six inches, this massive chrome fish appeared under the lure and went WHACK.

All of us in the boat saw this and just couldn't believe what had just happened.

The fish jumped, somersaulted, lunged and twisted and despite the de-barbed hooks, stayed connected.

One of the guys even said the "C" word (camera) before the fish was landed, but we still got it into the boat.

The three sets of 5x Strong Mustad trebles were trashed, one broken, one straightened and the last set we couldn't find. The u-beaut rings were straightened and the mounting points on the lure were twisted.

The fish gave her all in the fight and if you look at the state of her gills you can see she was pretty badly cut up. Nonetheless, we released her and she swam away, but I didn't hold much hope for her long term survival. She gave such a good fight and she was truly a magnificent fish so I figured that, eventhough survival was marginal, she deserved the chance and let her go after some pics.

After we released the fish we continued to move alond the snags. I was still so pumped after that fish, my casting was all over the place. Up the bank, short, long and caught up a few times. I finally settled myself down enough to get my casting in order, when another large fish (maybe a 30lb fish) had a go at my newer Gold Bomber and we saw it coming again, but I guess I was still too pumped because I struck before the fish had the lure and missed it.

I was busting to get up amongst the snags on the following days, but was out-voted, as the others wanted the easier option of the open water and blind casting down stream, so I missed out trying to get in amongst those snags again. > > >

So that's how it all happened.

Rev.

[Rev]

The lure!

Rev.

[bugman]

Nice Rev- Very nice.

My mate got a el-cheapo deal through a work friend of his - all worked related type of thing.

but I'm interested as to how much it costs for a trip up there now. Let's say for about a week with travel and accommodation. Are you nudging $5,000 yet.

Brett

[Wesley_Pang]

Just got a reply back from Ian Miller http://www.millerods.com about his range of Rods.

"Hi Wesley,

Thanks for the enquiry. The Pro Barra is a rod used for both trolling and
casting. As the name suggests, it is favoured by anglers in the NT, who do a
lot of trolling and generally prefer a no-nonsence rod when it comes to
hooking and fighting barra. In experienced hands it handles braid well but
in my opinion it is better suited to mono.

As the name suggests, the T.E. Braid Barra is designed for braided line use
and has a different type of action, as well as being longer at 6'2". Unlike
the Crankbait rods it is full graphite all the way to the tip, which makes
it a better casting rod and much more sensitive for when using soft plastics
or trolling. However due to the action and length it is a bit different to
traditional barra rods and if you are used to such shorter rods it does take
a few casts to get used to. But it is very good for braided lines!

The Salty Barra does have a nice light tip and as such is a good
all-rounder. I tend to use the Salty when I need a rod that might have to do
a lot of different jobs and/or when I am fishing an unfamiliar area. I
usually recommend them for those that prefer the more traditional style of
barra rods.

Please don't hesitate to ask if you want some more info.

Regards,
Ian"