Awoonga

[Zahly]

Awoonga dam seems to be a red hot topic on these forums, so ill ask a few questions.

Fished there a few years back at a competition, and caught nothing but a catfish for two days of casting lures. Admittedly, i really didnt have a clue how to fish the place, and still really dont. Fished there again last wednesday and caught 4 barra, missing another big one to snags- was great fun. We caught all our barra trolling, and didnt really give casting much of a go. We were lucky, as just on dark where we were trolling the southern shores in about 10m of water. Alot of baitfish happened to be there, and so were the barra. We trolled from about 1pm to dark for 1 fish and another lost. Then just on dark it all happened, and we caught 3 in the space of 1/2 hour. I know it is said that this is the prime time to fish, or were we just lucky, being at the right place at the right time? (baitfish schools). All geed, thinking we would catch another barra trolling in similar places two days later, we couldn even get a hit. Does this happen to anyone else ?
I have been told, casting shallow runners in bays with weeds can catch a few, but what do you look for when trying to find a bay that would hold fish?
One more question, trolling deep divers in the main basin...does this work? it just seems really weird for barra to be in the middle of nowhere.
Not trying to steal peoples fishing spots, i just want to learn about the place, and this might fast-track it a little. Thanks to those that reply.

[maat]

Impoundment barra are know to be on the bite on day then shut down the next, I have had most of my success fishing the shallow bays in the arvo, but was there in october 2005 and picked up 4 in a mater of 1 hour in the middle of the day fishing a weed patch richt on the edge of a drop off. Its true that you can catch fish in the middle of the dam, at times bait fish school along the creek old bed and the barra are usually found amoung them.

Cheers maat

[coxy]

Zahly
I've noticed wind & barometer comes into the eqation also as time of day.
Depth & lure choice, there's a bit to think about but trial & error & a bit of effort always helps me a bit,
Coxy

[jack_attacks]

Not sure of the answers to all your questions, but we were up there the week after Easter and caught all our 10 fish on the troll. One of our metre (we caught 4) barra were caught in the middle of the basin. When fishing the middle we simply worked the drop offs.

Fantastic spot, and we will certainly be back

JA

[jackson_4300]

Nyeone now of any good spots for redclaw???
went up for 3 days got 2 little barra (one in the middle of the basin on a deep diving lure)

We had 6 redclaw pots in and not a single one, what bait would be best?
any help would be appreciated.

[Darren_R]

Gday, I have caught most of my barra trolling at night. The fish move up into the shallows and are more accessable. Deep lures do work through the day as the fish are generally deeper. I have had little success casting the timber (1 barra). #I know it seems wierd trolling in the middle of nowhere but it does work. Watch your sounder and look for the bait. Bays with plenty of weed are a good target. Night is defenitely my favourite time. I have found it a waste of time to fish between 10 am and around 3 to 4 pm.

[andrew73]

HI GUYS

You can catch fish any time at awoonga (and yes that does mean in the middle of winter as well)and probibily most impoundments, but i will speak on the one i know which is awoonga.

A couple general rules are that the higher the sun the deeper the fish and the hotter the temp the deeper the fish. With casting working real well from may - june thru to october - november and trolling working realy well for big fish from december thru to about now. But that is not saying that you wount catch anysize fish at any time of the year using either method its just that sometimes certain techniques work better that others.

The end of winter is actually one of my favorate times to fish the dam and has been for quite a few years,but i guess who wouldnt love to catch a meter plus fish in around 1 meter of water and in no.s as well all in an hours or so fishing after work, but the fact that i am local it alows me the oppertunity to go and fish so called weather windows ie days of warmer calm weather in the afternoon when i can knock off and duck out for a quick fish.

Where as if youm where coming from else where further a feild and you wanted to cast i would recomend leaving it until mid to late sepetember early october when the weather or more correctly the temp is becoming more stable as at this time, and that is what you are fishing zones of warmer temperatures where as later in the year when the water temps are higher all round the dam the shallows actually become to hot for the fish to be comfortable hence why they start to go deep. it is in actual fact a bit more complecated than this but i am sure you get the general gist of what i am trying to get across

Andrew

[Steve_Monckton]

A mate and I went to Awoonga late feb. this year and went all over the dam for the first two days casting our arms off for nil hits. Found the fish on the sounder but could not get a touch. Used every lure in our tackle box. Tried trolling and accidentally found the fish sitting 25ft down in 60ft of water. The fish would only bite an hour before dark and an hour after. We still spent alot of time on the water and for the next 4 days the large school of fish seemed to be moving constantly. In one day we tracked the same school of fish(on the sounder) for a distance of approx. 4km and the same applied with hits near dark. They almost appear to be moving in large circular patterns around the dam but always stayed in deeper water. Hoping to find them in the shallows next time we go. We caught and released 12 fish with 4 over a metre with the exception of one which would not revive. very poor eating quality. It was our first barra trip and we learnt a lot including how to look after the fish while taking a pic and releasing them. Fantastic fishing and still drooling over the pics. Can't wait to get back there.
While we were there one of our neighbours who is a local was after Redclaw and came up with half a dozen for 4 days work. It was suggested that the barra are eating them all along with anything else that swims in Awoonga. Cheers.

[Zahly]

thanks for all that shared their information and storys. Thinking about heading that way soon (only live at yeppoon), so if anyone has any recent reports on how they are biting, and whats been caught, let us know