Monduran antics

[Plasticin]

Lyndon (seekingbarradise) has instructed me that I must report our barra trips so here goes the first.

Headed up for a crash and burn trip on Thursday night to Mondy with Al (tippers) and a few new ab rollers. Put in the water to a very foggy and warm, monduran main basin on Friday morning round 6.30am. Main basin temp was around 18 degree. Headed up to an area where Lyndon had seen some fish when he was up there last weekend. Note to all fog and sticks not a good combination. Plan was to start fishing some of edges surrounding the flats with the theory being that the fish would hold in the deeper water where the temp would be more stable until they moved up into the shallows and ate our lures as the water warmed. (Mr Mitchell should take the credit for that one, though I would like to think that I applied it at the right time and added the "ate our lures bit") Water temps were around 19 deg when we started. First few casts and Al has a hit on a viscously twitched x-rap. He called it for a barra I said it was more likely a marlin. 3 casts later he is on and I am eating my words as this thing is pulling drag off him. Suddenly he turns it and up came the biggest eel tail cattie I have ever seen. Allister -1: Scott 0.

The day transgressed with us falling into the trap of fishing a few bays that had produced before without us considering the current conditions. The weather was perfect warm and little breeze. We moved into a series of bays that looked the goods. Water temp by the time we left the bays was around 21.5 deg, positively balmy. After a couple of hours, without a touch we thought we would venture to Secret Squirrel Bay for a bit of a look. My first cast with an x-rap twitch, pause, twitch and bang I'm on. Looked like it was going for the timber but the 40lbs put a stop to that. Next thing I know a grunting machine is on the deck. I am trying to get rid of it before Al sees it but my earlier call of “yep” had gained his attention. Allister: -1: Scott -2. (complex demerit point system guys)

Moved further into the bay but things did not look good at all. The water looked all wrong but we kept fishing it, Al with a little more gusto than me. We came to one spot were it was different. Al casts in and bang he is on. It was one of those yes I’m on and I look up to see a metre of fish jumping out. How good are they. Al dominates it on 30lbs and next thing I’m sliding the net under his PB and first impoundment barra. I ensure that I did the correct thing and shortened a possible 1005mm to an exact metre. Boat rules. Most interesting thing was that it was caught on “two twitch crank” cast or something like that Al will tell you on a silver b52. The retrieve suggested that the fish was active or at least in the mood to take a very active lure. Fish hooked on the rear treble inside the mouth bottom jaw. Water temp when we entered the bay 21ish. Allister 1: Scott-2 (2 for a PB)

Fished the bay pretty hard for a while and then needed a break so we went for a bit of a run up the back of B with the plan of giving the bay a rest and fishing the rest of the arvo in it. Raced Jas through B, nearly beat him but the stacer and our ab's weren’t up to it on the day. Saw Pete had a quick chat and found out that he was headed back to the same bay(secret squirrel bay) that we were. Couldn’t really say/do much so decided to head back and check out Bird Bay. Time was around 3.30pm. Put into practise some of the Mitchell theories/laws of barra and found some quality bays, two in fact. Took a gamble and went the right one which proved to be correct choice the further we went into it. Fish went 105cm and took a two twitch crank b52 delivered courtesy of Al on 50lbs. Not really much of a fight due to Al’s domination of it. Fish hooked in the side of the head. Allister 3: Scott really needing a fish. Kept fishing for another half an hour or so and called it a day. Water temp 21ish when we entered the bay.

Day 2:

Headed back to Bird bay but condition had changed overnight, wind dropped out and changed direction. On the water at 6.30am. Another bay about 100m to the right took our fancy and we moved into it. Saw numerous barra finning on the surface unreal but certainly knocked my confidence around. Until around 7.15am I’m on. Fish took a gold b52, seriously mod-ed fished with a twitch-twitch pause retrieve. Fish was kind enough to give me back my lure early in the piece, estimated at 186cm long. Maybe. Gave the bay a rest for halfa and came back. I was in fairyland volvoing an ecogear bm125 when Al yells out. I look down and wow that’s a big swirl. Wow that’s right where my lure is. Unfortunately I get my lure back in one piece. Another halfa’s gone and I cast the bm125 up onto the bank. Volvoing and then bump crack/crank/crank/crank “I’ve got some weight” thinking it was weed or something. Suddenly this thing is swimming, not very fast but under the boat. No idea what is going on I call it for a flathead. I have it on for about a minute and a half and next thing I pull up another boat. I am not kidding, there it is floating on the surface and it looks as long as the stacer, maybe longer. I try to “dominate” it and you guessed it hooks pulled. The fish is lying on the surface for what seems like an eternity. Al still had his rod in his hand, he thought I had hooked a cattie or something, and dropped his silver bullet over and jagged it through the back. Fish swam slowly off with Al’s lure attached until Al coaxed it to the surface. I slipped the net under it. I good-morning’d it into the boat. Don’t worry Lyndon I had my TA on. Thank god for that Ab roller. Length bigger than a brag mat, and weight, I couldn’t lift it. We both got photos with it and then deadlifted it back into the water. Estimated at 125cm.

Interesting notes:
Fish was hooked in the top of the head when I got it. Our thinking is that the bump that I felt was the fish hitting the line and when I cranked it I hooked it in the head. The fact that it was so sluggish during the fight, didn’t jump and lay on top of the water for so long makes us think that it was pretty crook. We are still counting it as a fish in the boat however I think that it was more good fortune than anything. Fish swam off but did not look good. We will be interested to hear the gurus thoughts.

Time was 9.30am and time to head back. What a trip. Cheers to the dudes that I was up there with last time for giving us some tips of where to find fish and more so making us think about what we are doing.

Thoughts:
Conditions were great
Barra were taking active retrieves
Estimated 125cm barra are heavy
Al "dominates" barra.
And what is with people coming to fish 30m away from you or coming into the bay that you are already fishing. Gives me the s$%@#. I know they are hard to catch the barra that is but come on, sooo not fair.

I’ll get the photos up asap because no one speaks the truth anymore.

Scott

[rc@hinze]

Great report Scott, well done on all the fish you caught. Thanks for posting it especially all the details you included regarding lures, temps etc. Also good to hear about the retrieves you were using. Sounds like you had a great time and learnt alot. Lot forward to the photos. Hope to be up there myself around the 25th and really appreciate the insights that others have given you that you have passed on- I need all the help I can get to finally land a Mondy Barra which didnt happen on my last trip up there. - cheers Richard

[SeekingBarradise]

Great trip Scotty and Al well done boys and thanks for sharing your trip for everyone to learn from.

I can't wait for the photo's mate. Again a great read mate well done it's great to hear you had a successful trip, you deserve it.

Were there many boats or people in the camp?

Cheers Lyndon and Kel.

[BR65]

Scott, good report mate with some interesting little details mixed in there, great stuff.
Know what you mean about blowies, this one time, at band camp, I was tied off on the bank fishing a little inlet about 20 meters wide when a punter saw me bounce off a nice fish and then decided he wanted to troll thru there, un-believable.
anyhoos, good report mate

cheers
brian

[DEANO68]

well done scott great read,,,just makes my twitch worse,coupla weeks will be cured i hope....

[NAGG]

Good read Scott ..... most informative
It sounds like things are starting to warm up a bit ..... both temps & fish wise

& it will only get better in 2 weeks

Cheers

Chris

[Callop]

Great report mate. Can't wait for the pics. Good to see JM's theories work but then there was never any doubt.

[Obi _ Wan]

Great report Scott, thanks mate, a bloody good read.

I know what you mean about the blowies, these days if i hear someone getting close, i just stop fishing and have a beer or a cup of coffee. That way when they see you are not fishing they appear to lose interest in your position.

Cheers,
John.

[BR65]

nice ploy John, might have to try that one myself

Blowie "anygoodmaaaate"
Me "nah mate, they dont call this spot SFA Bay for nuthin"
Blowie "where do you reckon the fish are?"
Me" no fish here mate, Awoongas the place to be"

Will let you know if it works lol

cheers
brian

[Steve B]

Scooty
Great report mate..Had a good laugh!! At least the weather was kinder to you guys compared to last!!

lookin forward to the pics. Hope you potatoes for dinner and not as a sleeping partner like last time (had to be there joke)

Cheers steve

[flairj]

Sorry to tell you mate but if you got that 125 to the left, through the tree stand, in Bird Bay, it was dead today.

We found a monster 130+ dead on the bank up one of the other arms earlier and fishing Bird Bay before leaving found that 125 (although we estimated it closer to 128 or 9) in that little finger bay.

We got squat by the way too.

Josh

[modo]

Great read. Dusting all my barra gear off as we speak. Ready for 2 weeks time and counting.

[fin finder]

great report thank for taking the time top read

[Peter4]

Great report Scott - you shoulda been a writer!

Heard you guys yahooing and squeeling like stuck pigs from a kilometre away when Alister got his metery in secret squirrell bay.

Sorry we muscled into 'your' bay but that's fishin.....it was empty at the time!

Can't believe that with only about 10 boats on the system and you had trouble with blowflies! We had a couple of guys fishin nearby with a pooch that barked at every cast! Drove us mad from 200 metres away so we moved!

Anyway, you got the goods. Can't wait to see the pics.

Pete

[themissus]

Thanks for the update, great read!! Looking forward to the pics.
Bring on the 14th.
Cheers Kim.