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Thread: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

  1. #1

    2cm short of the mark at monduran

    Well, Friday my brother chris decided that we were going to make our first trip to monduran, completely spur of the moment thing. So Friday night was spent packing gear and getting ready, and on Saturday when he finished work at 630am we set off. Arrived at the campground just after 11, set up our sleeping arrangements, then headed to the ramp.

    Once on the water we made our way up to the area B on the map I'd gotten from the kiosk. Having never been here before nor chased impoundment barra, we were flying blind. No luck on our first stop so we headed further up to the areas marked C and J on our map. The wind was gusting fairly strong at times and made things that little bit more difficult. The afternoon was getting on so we started heading back, stopping in behind the white rock and the area marked as cattle yards 2. Still no fish, not even a thump, a follow or a boil... zip .

    Got up at 530 on Sunday, had a quick coffee and headed back to the mist covered water. Headed basically NW from the ramp to a timbered area around the back of area A and fished around chucking our plastics until 930 for the same result as the day before. Quick motor back and packed up our gear and back on the water within half an hour. Stopped in area A again, nothing, so headed over to the cattle yards 2 again.

    Fished in this area for the rest of the day and it was in here that we finally got a touch up. I was at the end of a retrieve with the lure maybe 3 mts from the boat, and while talking to chris I felt a huge thump, looked down to see a metre odd fish swim off after having a swipe at my slick rig. Man that got the heart going!

    Was our only encounter with a barra for the next 2 hours. By 3pm we were contemplating heading home, but decided to fish one last spot we tried the day before. It was pretty shallow around 2-3 mts with weed growing everywhere. In an effort to keep the slick rigs from getting fouled with weed, we sped up our retrieves and burned them back over the top of the weed. Well didnt that fire them up!

    Chris had a thump and huge boil on his lure, then I had one follow my drop bear slick rig to within a couple of meters of the boat then turn away at the last second. We had plenty more thumps and boils, and it was only a matter of time before one of us hooked up. I was the lucky one, my slick rig got nailed and almost immediately the barra has cleared the water and then cleared it again within seconds. It powered off across in front of me and decided to jump again, this time its headshakes managed to throw the slick rig. I said a few choice words like "darn" and "drat", but still what a rush! I'm guessing this fish would have been close to the meter mark.

    Things went quiet for a while and again we were talking about heading for home, so the old "last cast" call was made, but I managed to get mine fouled with weed, so I quickly cleared it and threw it back out, burn it back and bang Im on again, no arial antics this time though, just lots of big runs. There weren't many trees around us so I wasn't too concerned. Still I had to make two laps around the boat to follow and I had 2/3s my rod in the water a couple of times too as it tried to go under us. After maybe 5 minutes, it surfaces and rolls on its side, a bit of guidance and it glides beautifully into the net held by chris.

    Heres the stats:

    98cms (just a touch over but not quite 99)
    weight? no idea, what do you guys reckon? I'm thinking 15-20kg.
    Caught using my samurai 7ft custom
    Daiwa Caldia Kix 4000
    30lb Tufline for mainline
    40lb Black Magic fluorocarbon leader
    Perfection loop to drop bear slick rig pro range

    Pretty bloody happy I can tell you! After swimming it around for a few minutes, it gave a big kick and I let go to watch it glide along side us for a moment then swim off into the depths.
    simon

    The ocean is the ultimate solution - Frank Zappa

    http://s428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/slyman71/

  2. #2

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    Well done Simon......We left for home on Sunday after a Barraless 2 days....That is one nice Barra....what I can gather soft plastics are the go at Monduran.....It's gets a bit foggy this time of year and impossible to see where u are going unless u have a GPS......Great photo's Id say u will return for more action...Good stuff......Whitto
    Good Mates....Good Food.....Good Fishing....Priceless



  3. #3

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    great report mate,
    im glad you got one in the end,
    98cm barra.....bloody hell i gotta get up there

  4. #4

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    Nice work Simon & Chris.

    Now you know why we are all addicted..........you'll be back!

    Regs

    Pete

  5. #5

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    Well done Simon & Chris.

    I was up there on the weekend and managed to get fish at Awoonga but not Monduran. You did very well mate in strange conditions, i didn't read them well enough. If you had of asked me how the fishing would be after 4 days of NE's i would have said we should catch 30 each.

    Top effort as the Mondy Muster crew i was in got a few fish but not a lot. I'll be interested to see the successful methods used by the other guys on the weekend as well as yours so we can all learn.

    Again great report mate well done it's a great fish. They don't have to be a metre to be great fish mate.

    All the best on future trips.
    Cheers Lyndon.

  6. #6

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    Nice stuff mate, welcome to IBD, an all consumeing and over powering urge to fish for big barra, go camping and drink beer whilst burning wood.
    Sounds like you experienced it all, a donut session, the agony of missed opportunity and the ecstasy of a big girl in the net, ah the joys of IBD. Sometimes you wonder if there are any bloody fish in there at all, then the planets align, and bingo.

    cheers
    brian



  7. #7

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    Well done on a great catch as we were up there too and got some good touches but came home empty. It was a hard fish and you have done well.

  8. #8

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    That's just brilliant - the old last cast strikes again!

    To get a Barra on your first trip is special, especially when they're not exactly firing! Well done!

    Cheers
    Tony

  9. #9

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    great capture good to finally get something for your hard work and troubles over the 2 days.

    i would estimate the weight of the fish at around 12kgs. but still a nice fat fish none-the-less.

    well done

  10. #10

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    Thanks for all your replies guys, it sounds as if we weren't the only ones doing it tough. We dont get to do much freshwater fishing, so to score a fish like this on a first impoundment barra trip has been simply awesome, even if it did take us the best part of two days solid fishing it certainly was worth the effort. IBD? There's only one thing you can do for that condition and thats to keep going back for another fix. We'll be back definately! Hopefully my brother scores one next time, he had a lot more swipes at his slick rig than I got at mine, but thats fishing for you.

    So Local Guy, you think its around 12kg? The only thing I can compare it to was the 10kg thready I caught in the brissy river a while back, but this barra was considerably heavier than that when I was handling it. Thats why I was thinking at least 15kg. Either way, I'm still stoked about my catch. I've been thinking a good way to weigh this would be to carry an old set of bathroom scales on the boat, then you could hold the fish and take your combined weight, and once its back in the water weigh yourself and subtract that.
    simon

    The ocean is the ultimate solution - Frank Zappa

    http://s428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/slyman71/

  11. #11

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    yeah. slyman, it's always hard to tell from a pic, but fish always seam heavier when your holding them too.... we've all done it.

    20kg fish come at around 120cm

  12. #12

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    Depends on how much they're feeding slyman....

    I caught a fat 114cm fish at Monduran last year that went 23kg.

    Great idea about the bathroon scales as it puts no pressure on the fish and is quick and easy. Another way is to keep them in an Environet and weigh them in the net and subtract the net's weight......

    Regs

    Pete

  13. #13

    Re: 2cm short of the mark at monduran

    Slyman,

    Nice fish and well done considering you haven't fished this dam or style before.

    Mate, I would guesstimate that fish around the 16kg mark - it's bigger then 12kgs.

    A general guide would be 1mtr = approx 18kgs.

    Most fish in mondy seem to be really well built however the 3 that we got over the weekend were a bit skinnier then normal.

    I'm glad you didn't weigh it though and it won't be too long before you smash that metrey.

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