Monduran Experiment

[whiting]

Will be going up there for 3 days in Dec. I have a bigger half cab not suited to stealth mode on electric, so am planning a bit of trolling. Have only been up there once and failed casting around timber.
Darryl, as I know there are only two ramps - dirt at the camping ground and the cement one?
I am planning a bit of investigation around these areas in 10 - 12 feet of water - am I on the right track?
Do the lures have to be hitting the bottom (like salt water mode for lizards) or just run them at differing depths?
Will post how we go.
Whiting

[darryl_l]

Whiting,

Regardless of which ramp you use you can troll in open water directly in front of the cement ramp right across the dam. I caught my fish in 58ft of water and the other two hits were in similar depths but I also saw arching on the sounder out in the 100ft of water. The depth of the lure will be dependant on whether you can make out fish on your sounder and what depth they are at.

Hope this helps

Darryl L

[whiting]

Thanks Darryl - I'll let you know how I go

Whiting

[RB]

Hi D L
I am going for another hit at Monduran this Saturday glad to hear the fish are still around I went 7 from 11 about 3 weeks ago we were just casting to the banks fish were all around 75cm
RB

[darryl_l]

Hey Russ (RB),

We are looking at a trip to the dam on Saturday as well but won't get there till approx 1.30pm as I have to work. Might be able to catch up with you on the water.

Darryl L

[RB]

Hi Darryl

We will be like you not to far from the ramp last trip I only travelled 7 NM
phone coverage is not to bad give me a call on your way in

Here is another fish from last trip

Catch u on Saturday
RB

[black_sheep]

LATE UPDATE - I have just returned from Monduran after fishing it from last Wed to Sun. The fish were very hard to find and even when we did find a few they weren't overly aggressive and only had a few inquisitive follows from rats. Wed and Thurs we fished the lower end of the dam for very little action. Water was very dirty with less than 1 foot visibility and quite warm too (up to 31 degrees). On Fri we decided to head right up the system to where we have done very well in the past. The water starts to clean up once you travel about 13 kms up the system and only gets cleaner and cleaner. We travelled about 25 kms up but water levels have dropped considerably since the start of the year and a lot of the good water is a bit shallow. We came back down the system by a few kms to fish some really awesome looking water. Heaps of lilly pads, lantana and timber but only managed 2 rats (under 60cms) and one big bust off (snapped 50lb braid). Couldn’t even get a few catties. Where are all the catties gone – we use to be able to get them at will by putting on the deepest diver you had and fishing the thick timber, but of late, we tend to be getting more Barra than catties. Not complaining one bit but it can be a bit of fun catching a few catties when the Barra shut down.

We expected to catch a few fish by now as we had good temps and lightish winds, however, we did have SE’s for the first 3 days which could explain the shut down and N/NW’s for Sat/Sun. The Barometer hovered between 1004 and 1010 for the 4 days. Every afternoon resulted in a build up of storm activity but non e of this seemed to help. We seriously considered packing up Sat morning and hitting Lenthalls but due to the overnight rain and tents etc still wet, we decided to give it another bash and make a decision by lunch as to whether we’d stay or try Lenthalls.

Sat - Luckily we stayed and found a bay within 5 kms of the ramp which still had dirty water but found temps reaching 34 degrees. We 3 little bays close to each other on the Western Bank and managed to get 4 Barra ranging from 54cms to 78.5cms. Tried a few other bays on the Eastern side and did no good.

Sun – Launched at 7.30am and as soon as we got into the main basin, there were 4 boats trolling along the cliff banks into the gorge. One guy was hooked up so we stuck around but after 20 mins, he still hadn’t made much progress on the fish so we headed off to fish the bay we found yesterday. Only had til midday to fish so got straight into it and by 8.00am had another 71cms in the boat and 15 mins later had a 52cms. Unfortunately, they did go quite after that but after going 3 days for 2 rats, it was nice to get a few bigger models before leaving. No metre plus fish although I did hook the 78.5cm fish in the top of the head and for about 2 mins, I was convinced I had a metre plus fish on as it’s stripped more drag than any of the mtre plus fish I’ve caught before (at faust). Like a lot of us, I’m still chasing a metre plus fish from Monduran. My goal is to get one before the new year.

Upon returning to camp at midday, we found out that the guy hooked up in the morning was trolling a tiny bass lure with super small hooks on it and didn’t want to put too much pressure on the fish so took his time – 4hrs! on 20lb mono. Obviously the fish came in belly up after that long a fight but they did the right thing by not wasting the fish. It was promptly filleted and iced. Unfortunately, at that size they do have a lot of grey meat which must be cut out so a lot still went to waste. I am yet to taste a dam barra as I’ve always been spoiled on Reds/Pearlies/Parrot etc. Is it an acquired taste or are they as average as I’ve heard and catties are even better tasting???

Still had a ball and will be back to get that metre fish. Hope this helps anyone going up soon.
Stillwater, thanks for your feedback – greatly appreciated it.

P.S. Oh, if anyone finds a gold Viper with red stripes floating up there – it’s mine. You should be able to tell by the lack of paint on it. Oh, there’s also a silver Viper and a blue Boof bait and …………

[still_water]

black_sheep,
Yesterday I to made the wrong decision to head up the dam to hopefully find some water over 27 deg , eventually found 29deg and only picked up 2 rats and lost 1 rat , where out of 3 boats around the dam wall area there were aprox 5 Barra caught trolling from 98 cm to 105cm.
Oh well if we were that good at finding them where would the fun be in chasing Barra on lures.
It would be like Bottom bouncing outside with a slab of dead bait and just hanging on for the next hit in a few minutes {or seconds at some spots.}.
Keep trying mate as we are starting to get a few meter Barra in the past 2 weeks as is a lot of other boaters.

[jimbolikes_barra]

sheep
i wouldn't touch dam barra just like sh#t on toast some like it most just fish them for sport, iknow i do.

[black_sheep]

Thanks Jim for the confirmation,

I have caught most australian natives (Mary and Murray Cod, barra, Bass, yellowbelly...) and am yet to tryany of them. Much prefer sticking to the reef fish and just sticking a tag in the freshwater stuff.

Cheers mate.

[black_sheep]

By the way Jimbo - what does a sh#t on toast taste like