Scare Tactics for Barra

[chewy01]

hahaha steve apparently we were typing about the same thing at the same time

[NAGG]

Ran into some old blokes at seaforth a couple years ago and they were running the tinny into the tre/snag they wanted to fish.18/20 ft water.Their theory was the barra (coming out of winter)would be stirred up and move away then after a period of time move back.they fished livies and got a few.in saying that it was a fair depth of water so if they were layin deep as the ones we got a bit further down were maybe the level of disturbance wasnt that great.ie not the same as a snag in 3 ft of water.they got a few so i guess whatever rocks ur boat.not for me but they got some.
on a different note speaking of stealth in winter,i learnt a valuable lesson last year stealthing in on a bay full of barra.While using the m/kota to sneak in i thought i was super sneaky with barra with thier backs out of the water and driving virtually over the top of some they were quite happy till i changed direction.i may as well have started the petrol. so next w/end ill be setting the boat up to drift/motor straight into point i want to fish.i didnt think the servo motor wood have had that effect but you learn something new everyday.(if your prepared to listen)

Chewy ..... Nothing wrong with quietly slipping an anchor over the side ...... & laying back to fish a point ( nice & quiet .... no issues with the leccy servo) ..... Use a buoy to toss over if you need to chase

Nagg

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

I'm that critical of noise on any of my boats, lake or sea in stealth mode. I run a tiller operated motor for charter trips in super calm quiet water as the noise from the electric steering motor on the bowmount is enough to spook fish. The tiller is silent to steer.

[ifishcq1]

A few years ago I did a story on sonic berley and although it hasn't worked on barra it has worked on most other estuary fish. My mate Leggy and I would head up to Corio for the day charged up with Jim beam and bad manners with midnight oil on fairly loud, his quinny used to vibrate and put a pulse into the water around the boat, hence the term sonic berley.. we caught so many fish from salmon, jack, queenies, tarpon, cod, bream, flathead, fingermark and steelies at the blackbanks but no barras...whenever the fish were slow and we knew they should be going off on came the oils and the fish followed..

SL

[Crisp Bee]

I guess I would want to get closer to the Oils as well

[Little grey men]

Don't know much about barra ( learning slowly though ) but I've had a few thoughts on their relatives, Australian bass and yellowbelly. When I fish for bass I make as little noise as possible. I guess barra would have a few similar traits in regards to what sort of noise or water disturbance spooks them and what makes their ears prick up...if they had ears that is
I know that yellowbelly get spooked by unfamiliar noise. from about twelve years old, every Saturday morning, because my Dad worked on the weekend, my Uncle Jack would pick me up and we'd head out onto the Condamine chasing yella's. Uncle Jack was a gentleman of the first order and he taught me a lot for which I'm eternally grateful. But he would have to be one of the worst fishermen to ever walk the face of the earth.
If the fish didn't bite within the first five minutes he'd start off by flicking his rod into the water with a dirty great sinker on the end, over and over again.
Then he'd jump back into the boat and proceed to do dohnuts with the two stroke roaring, while yelling " THIS"LL WAKE EM UP MATE "
When this started I'd grab my rod and my crayfish and go for a walk up the bank to find my nice quiet spot and start bobbing for yellas.
Guess who brought home the bacon most times ???
I was always taught by my Dad and my Grandpa to keep it quiet.
My thinking is that the fish would put up with a certain amount of disturbance, say a lure splashing into the water may sound like a small bird or other struggling creature which may trigger the fish to investigate, especially a large fish like a barra. Anything that creates too much disturbance could be seen as a danger and see them heading off in the other direction.
Although when we fish for bass early in the morning my little boy likes to sing, and the fish don't seem to mind at all.
That's what I reckon, for what it's worth.

[Roo]

......i learnt a valuable lesson last year stealthing in on a bay full of barra.While using the m/kota to sneak in i thought i was super sneaky with barra with thier backs out of the water and driving virtually over the top of some they were quite happy till i changed direction.i may as well have started the petrol. so next w/end ill be setting the boat up to drift/motor straight into point i want to fish.i didnt think the servo motor wood have had that effect but you learn something new everyday.(if your prepared to listen)

......I remember Jas turning his boat with the electric JUST as he was about to cast. It spooked a big fish in the zone his lure landed...he wasn't happy with himself. It opened my eyes.....

..... I've seen too many fish break from cover when you come within casting distance ...... even on the leccy! & most of the barra that I have hooked & caught ..... have been on maxed out casts.....

I'm that critical of noise on any of my boats, lake or sea in stealth mode. I run a tiller operated motor for charter trips in super calm quiet water as the noise from the electric steering motor on the bowmount is enough to spook fish. The tiller is silent to steer.

Warren Steptoe that made a clear point in one of his recent Modern Fishing articles about fish spooking from the noise of the Servo steer electric motor. not the motor itself but just noise of the servo unit when changing direction. The common point in these reply's is that in some situations, the fish will not tolerate the less unnatural noises that they usually will in other situations. Perhaps the common point is the shallow situation or very calm, still conditions that make them feel vunerable to predators. remember that in the wild they are not always the apex predator and this underlying "programming" may come to the fore when in situations where they may feel a little exposed.

[Peter4]

n.
Although when we fish for bass early in the morning my little boy likes to sing, and the fish don't seem to mind at all.

Your boy Caleb certainly is a special one LGM.

Anyone who likes to sing early in the morning (while fishing), has landed barra at Awoonga, bass at NPD and no doubt other species at other venues has a bright future ahead of him.

Look after him well!

Regs

Pete

[black_sheep]

Firstly, thanks for all your thoughts and experiences.

I for one have always adopted the stealth approach and will remain to do so. As mentioned, it’s just frustrating when I yell at my brother for stuffing up a spot by making too much noise and 2 mins later, he has this cheesy grin on his face and all I can hear is the sound of braid peeling of his reel. All I can do is or or pretend I can't see the net .

Thanks for your response Johnny – as you said, statistics don’t tell the full story. From speaking to a couple of guys on our last Awoonga trip who you guided for the day (you may remember them, maroon boat and one guy was in a wheelchair) you put them onto a 115. They said the most important thing that they learned on that day was STEALTH!

A mate who got me hooked on sportfishing many years ago has caught a lot of barra at night using a technique that he swears by. One angler using a noisy surface lure and the other angler casting behind his lure with a shallow diver. The guy using the diver gets nearly all the hook ups as he recons the surface lure stirs them up. When fishing points etc, he has discarded his anchor and has melted down lead into the shape of a dome which he uses as an anchor as he recons the lead makes a lot less noise when it hits the bottom. He also only uses rope and no chain to eliminate as much noise as possible. He drifts in on the point from a distance before dropping the lead and slowly lets out rope to minimise noise. He also gives the spot about 30mins before getting serious to allow the barra to 'settle' again.

As a lot of you have said, the sound of a lure hitting the surface is a lot different to an outboard motor, dropped pliers, slammed esky lids etc.

I will be wearing my kung fu slippers at Monduran next week to further minimise the noise created by walking around the boat Ninja fishing.

[Little grey men]

Your boy Caleb certainly is a special one

Thanks Pete, he turned a big six yesterday. Couldn't be more proud of my little fisherman, but catching those barra has had some interesting demands coming from him. We'll be in the market for a boat shortly, but he's told me that if it's not a Skeeter, he's not getting in it. I'm thinking of getting an edgetraker and putting Skeeter stickers on it. That might work.

Sorry to highjack the thread a little bit there Black sheep.

[Big_Ren]

I will be wearing my kung fu slippers at Monduran next week to further minimise the noise created by walking around the boat Ninja fishing.

Navi

You might need flippers instead of slippers if you are planning on walking "around" the boat Feel free to read into my comment "Paul is just spittin' cause he can't get up to Mondy next week "

[Roo]

I will be wearing my kung fu slippers at Monduran next week to further minimise the noise created by walking around the boat Ninja fishing.

I can't wait for this. the Karate kid in action. Do we leave you to practise the crane on a lone tree stump mate

Don't forget, Wax on , Wax off.

[tunaticer]

I was in a creek near 1770 on a week long fishing trip mid winter about 4 yrs ago now. Every day of the week until the 2nd last day we spotted a bloody huge jack under a substantial iron bark tree snag but he would not move from the snag or take any interest regardless of how much we put livies or lures near him. Eventually he would sink slowly straight down out of sight in about 12 feet of water. This was the largest jack we had seen for the trip and between matey and myself we were boating 6-10 jacks a day working over the top end of the system.
2nd last day after tormenting ourselves with the big fella yet again i put the bow of the boat into the snag and gave it a fair nudging around for twenty seconds. We drifted off about 10m and started working lures again. We picked up a few cod and several bream and one trevally from the snag that we thought only held the big jack.
When we had enough of that snag we fished upstream for another hour or so then came back down to the snag using the outboard and we were not quiet at all. first cast bang the big fella hit the deck.

Noise in some instances will make a difference and I think that fish sometimes prefer noisy environments like road bridges with lots of traffic, they hold excellent stocks, yet foot bridges in close proximity hold less fish.

Jack.

[black_sheep]

Sorry to highjack the thread a little bit there Black sheep.[/quote]
LGM - not a problem mate. Tell Caleb he has a choice of a Skeeter or University - think I know which will he'll pick .

Big Ren - I recon Vin will have the flippers on in case he looses another rod overboard .

Roo - don't know about the crane but certainly the praying mantice works for me. I only wax on and wax off in private .

Tunaticer - I agree mate. BTW - how big did that Jack go??

[tunaticer]

Tunaticer - I agree mate. BTW - how big did that Jack go??

The jack went around the 50cm mark roughly substantially bigger then most we caught for the week. Next one down would be nudging 40 or so.

Jack.