I guess i should throw my two bob's worth in here for what it's worth
Most of you guys on here, from what i have read, would not have any trouble locating the fish
I believe that the problem, as i alluded to in another post about patches, is getting the fish to take a lure
Over the past year and a bit i have seen this happen at both Faust and Awoonga.
Last year at Faust i had no problem finding plenty of fish, but getting them to strike, well that was another thing
If you could entice a fish to have a go most of the time it would be a half harted swipe, just a bump and nothing, no matter how long you cast or what hour of the day or night, just didn't make any difference.
Plenty of fish were found by day on the shallow flats soaking up the sun, bite? no bloody way, bump the boat and there would be swirls every where.
At the begining of winter at Awoonga last year with Trev, fish all day, zip and then cop a five minute bite just on dark
then gooonnne.
At Faust at the moment there are are lot of fish, the DPI just electrofished over 1oo barra to 126cm's. Fishing there now, a day or two good then nothing for a couple of weeks. Good bite today, tomorrow perfect weather no bite, WHY?????
Trev is not having any problems finding fish at Awoonga at this time, he is just not finding too many fish that will bite. One guide has stopped charters, another has gone pig shooting and another is working Mondy, go figure????
We are not talking about mugs here either, these blokes are the Guru's of barra fishing.
What's happened?? the only thing i can come up with is stability within the lake!
Faust has seen some massive increases in water levels resulting in weed beds dying out affecting water quality, other weed beds are growing in very deep water and at depths unheard of (certainly by me) Trev has told me of weed beds in Awoonga growing in fifty feet of water, they have almost reached this depth at Faust also as i am told. This is caused, i am informed, by the weed continuing to grow as water levels drop, it just lays on the surface and when the water level rises the weed straightenes up to stay at the surface or at a depth where it still gets enough light to continue to grow to reach the surface.
At Awoonga we had two increases in water level (from memory)that you could state as significient. So with that, what are we left with? massive increases in boney's shrimp and crays all good barra tucker, with the barra gaining good condition.
Most of all the barra are reluctant to take a lure, now i could be very wrong here but a desperate man with IBD will clutch at anything
if i can remember rightly, the golden days i have experienced at Faust came when there was very little in the way of weed beds.
Mondy i believe, is not the same as the other two yet, why?? no major increases in water level, a more stable lake environment?, no where near as much area covered with weed beds (or not that i have seen) but appears to suffer from a large amount of boat traffic, some driven by some with no consideration for others what so ever.
So my thoughts for Mondy next week?
I think we all know that shallow water heats up in sunshine quicker in the daylight hours cooling off again at night, so what does that mean?
Well the fish will move into the shallows by day to get warm and at night they will retreat to deeper water that will be more stable temperature wise. So i would select a spot where shallow flats adjoined deeper water in an out of the way place so as not to be disturbed by others, evidence of bait would also be desirable.
Methods?? Stealth will be very very very important, one bump in the boat will see many swirls in shallow water and the big girls will be goooonnneeee. Use all methods, meaning lures and retrieves.
I hope you can make some sense from this as i am only a silly old bugger who just loves catching barra and i really don't know what i am talking about.
Cheers,
John.