Monduran - Weed beds, Slick rigs & Barra!

[Peter4]

We headed up to Monduran again on Thursday with plenty of motivation after three donut trips in a row. Our preparation included reviewing our previously unsuccessful trips and watching the Fishing DVD barra stories a night before we left........also made sure I wore my lucky shirt, shorts & hat that caught me barra in January!

Arrived to hot and breezy conditions with surprisingly few boats on the water. Threw a few hardbodies around the timber and weed in rainforest bay for no interest. Headed up to area B and tried a few points and timbered bays for the same result. No bait or bird activity to be seen. It was not looking good!

Tried a shallow troll and had a brief hook-up with a medium sized barra and scored three or four catfish. At least something had started to happen. We abandoned B in the late afternoon to find some more fishable water.....

Stopped at a prominent weed bed island opposite A and quietly cruised around it under electric power and (thanks to the videos) decided to slow roll some slick rigs around the edges. On the shallow (1.6m) side I got my first hook-up since January! I had forgotten how hard these beasts go.....a few airborne leaps and hard runs but the fish was no match for my virgin S10. A couple of minutes later Kyle slides the net under a 93cm barra. Woohooo......the stretch of donuts was over!! We got a couple more taps and some short strikes but no more hook-ups.

Next morning saw us back at the weed bed before first light. A dead still morning and bait was flicking everywhere. Numerous pelicans & shags were feeding though there were no fish on the sounder. After 30 minutes Kyle hooks up to a rocket powered beast that gives him a great run for his money. After a hard fight I net him his 90cm fish. High fives all round as we both have a fish for the trip. A few catfish and then Kyle hooks up again. This time it is a brief fight as the big girl clears the water and spits Kyle's 130mm drop bear back at him. We take a close look and see that the 5/0 Owner hook has been straightened!

It goes quiet after that so we head into bird bay. No luck there. I headed into Foxies in Gin Gin at lunchtime to replenish the slick rig supply and run into half of Ausfish!! Paul, Navi, Scott - just to name a few....

Nice to meet you all guys!

Late that afternoon sees Kyle and I back at the weed bed. Almost immediately I get a hit from a small barra that fails to hook up but clears the water with the force of its strike! Ten minutes later and I get a solid hook up. Kyle slides the net under a 95cm barra and again we celebrate! Right on sunset 40 minutes later, as I slow roll an evil minnow back to the boat, I stop to talk to Kyle. As I pause and only a few metres from the boat I get smashed.

This is a bigger girl. Some strong runs all over the place sees me stick my S10 full length into the water twice as she goes under the boat. She comes up out of the water shaking her head right next to the boat and smooth as you like Kyle nets her cleanly. A 104cm and my second ever metery. She fought well above her weight and nearly abraded through my 80lb supple leader.

Next morning things go quiet and we only manage a few catfish at the weed bed. We try elsewhere but return to the weed bed on the way home at around 8.30am. All is quiet until Kyle has his stunned mullet inhaled by a monster. This is easily the biggest fish we had ever seen! Kyle fights her well and she is clearly tiring. Right next to the boat she goes for one last run and snap! The line breaks and she is gone.... Kyle is surprisingly upbeat and an examination shows that the leader was abraded through completely so she must have been hooked deep.

That was the end of our barra action. We ended up with four fish - 93, 95 and 104 for me and the 90 for Kyle with as many again lost. All were caught slow rolling slick rigs around and in the weed beds.

The only other incidents of interest were me getting spiked in the thumb releasing a huge catfish (blood everywhere) and some inconsiderate blowflies that pushed us away from three different locations........also met some great Ausfishers in eotbmg (Ben) & Frank OO who gave us daily updates and BR65 (Brian) who is a font of barra knowledge and a nice bloke to boot!

Enjoy the pics.

Regs

Pete & Kyle

[Roo]

Well Done Pete & Kyle.
Glad the donut run has ended. I'm jealous as! keen to get up there again soon....but thats never soon enough. some quality fish there Pete, that weed bed has been taunting me every time I've motored by in the past, until last trip when Kim and I both got fish in the general vicinity. How good does it feel once the Donut run ends....like a load lifted and the rest of the trip becomes just fun! I had a short run of trips for nought and I was really feeling it! especially when everyone else is spanking them.
Well Done mate.
Cheers Roo.

[Pete62]

Whoo, thank goodness you guys found em this time well done, the look on Kyle's face says it all.
Mate, u would have had some explaining to do if u had not got em this trip, happy days.
Cheer's Pete.

[reel scream]

Great read Pete. Congrats on your fish. Must have had a ball. Might see you u there again in the new year.

Cheers Scott

[NAGG]

Well done Pete & Kyle ........ Great to see that you guys got rid of that pastry taste! ....... You did it with some classy fish

Congratulations of going the plastic route ..... there is a lot to be said for using plastics & with the explosion in weed growth a compelling case for using them. .......... As we are seeing Mondy may loose the mantle of a hardbody only dam

That weed bed copt a floggin during the ABT ....... It would have been nice to have it to yourselves

GREAT STUFF

Chris

[Peter4]

Roo - relief was our prime emotion. I think we did OK compared to a few reports I heard. I do know that Ben got a few and Brian's crew had a couple......

Pete62 - cheers mate, happy days indeed.......

reel scream - thanks Scott. Good to meet you and look forward to seeing you on the water.....

NAGG - we tried a few different tricks Chris, including Kyle twitching a 7" nuclear chook rigged weedless. Kyle also had a strike on a shallow running barra classic thrown to the edge of the same weed bed. We tried to think 'outside the square' and tested quite a few innovative techniques (not many worked!!)......

Forgot to mention that my 95 and 104 were caught while a very blustery NW wind was blowing on Friday evening. Anchor would not hold and Kyle only managed to hold our position by keeping the leccy going at maximum. The next evening was the same and we ran out of juice! We were very happy to pull fish in less than comfortable conditions.....

Sorry about my long-winded report guys, but I get a little excited and enthusiatic when it comes to barra fishin. Only two weeks to my next trip.....look out Peter Faust here we come!

[themissus]

Hey Pete,
Woo Hoo!! At last!! Cracking read and great to hear the drought is broken. Nice to see you didn't let Kyle out fish too As Roo said we both pulled fish off weed beds not far from there last trip and I'm pretty sure Chewy land one or two from there this trip. It will be a goto spot for us from now on.
How many sleeps until the trek you lucky bugger!!
Cheers Kim.

[Peter4]

Thanks Kim,

We were quite pleased with our result! Could easily have been 8 or 10 fish if our luck was better......those weed beds were vacant all of Thurs/Fri but word got around and they did get a beating on Sat/Sun.

I might have accidently mentioned our success once or twice!!

We leave for Mackay on Saturday 20th December......

[DEANO68]

Well done pete and kyle, great fish and you didnt have to go to far to get them.
best of luck for your trip north . will catch up one day , our trips seem to always fall on different dates, but the muster in september should line up...
thanks for the report good stuff.
cheers deano...

[Peter4]

Well done pete and kyle, great fish and you didnt have to go to far to get them.
best of luck for your trip north . will catch up one day , our trips seem to always fall on different dates, but the muster in september should line up...
thanks for the report good stuff.
cheers deano...

Thanks Deano,

We already have a cabin booked for the 2009 Mondy Muster.

Will definitely catch up then.........

[chewy01]

Pete,
are you fishing the salt at mackay? the barra were goin off recently.

[Peter4]

Pete,
are you fishing the salt at mackay? the barra were goin off recently.

Nah Chewy, would love to but I have non-fishing wife and daughter with us. This means we are restricted to two days fishing during our week in Mackay (maybe three if I behave myself).

We plan to do one day at Teemburra, xmas day at Faust and possibly a quick session at Kinchant. On the way home (once the girls fly home) Kyle & I will do two days at Awoonga and one or two days at Monduran......

Isn't it closed season for salties now?

Any suggestions you have would be welcomed though.......

[eotbmg]

Gee you do it tough Pete

[chewy01]

Yea i meant in teemburra,they came on last week my mate got a stack one night.And kinchant looks to be going nuts. If you go to teemburra call into the pinnacle pub at the turnoff for a pie. B4 the closure my mate was sight casting schools of 20 small barra in st helens bay. The fingermark should be goin ok too. Magic place mackay... we usually go up in october b4 the rain sets in...hope you crack em in teemburra and have some luck in faust.

[PaulMark]

Good result Pete.I was up there Sunday 7th,very hot day. Got a casting arm like Popeyes but could not snare a fish.A bit disappointing as it was son Bens first trip and was hoping to get something.Had some knocks early but that was it,still he's keen to go again.be back up at Christmas I guess.
Paulo.