Bugman and Barra - An Awoonga legend is born

[bugman]

Hello all,

For years to come they will talk about the week that Bugman and the ABC Boys took on the great barra God and won !!!

Months of precise preparation and keen instinct came undone on the first afternoon throwing plans and ideas out the window but hell - go with the flow I say.

For those that missed the lead-up I took the ABC ex_Hacks and Has Beens up to Lake Awoonga from Monday to Friday last week. We stayed at the park on the dam in the 4 berth dongas. Let's just say it's prety basic but was enough for us with the ABC boys taking everything but the kitchen sink along anyway.

A lined up a trip with Johnny (A diff perspective) on the monday afternoon. What Johhny doesn't know about that dam isn't wurth knowing. His understanding of the habitat, and habits of Awoonga's barra is first class. His rig is also well suited to the different conditions the dam can throw up which includes 25knot winds and a good .5m of bad sloppy chop. Johhny taught me all the tactics of casting, lure presentation, retrieval, feeding habits etc etc. It was a great education. It just so happened that the Barra were off that day with only one fish reacting and then failing to accept my lure. The boat ramp was quite for everyone that afternoon but Johhny's education certainly paved the way for later successes.

As fishing goes - it also shows you that miracles do happen. As I sulked into camp on the first night the old boys were cock-a-hoop with laughter and frevolity. Driving around in a 15 foot cruisecraft with a 55hp Seahorse at about 6knots they had managed to hook and land a 106cm barra trolling a Halco Crazy deep. To make it even more special it came on a 600Alvey with 30lbp mono on a 20 year old rod and was lifted into the boat because they had no net. The boys wanted to taste the fish so it was in the biggest eski at camp and was still curled up.

Day two saw me hook up with a bloke called Trevor. Apparantly he's a gun up around those parts and has layed claim to quite number of barra. In fact if you look at his photos you would believe he catches nothing under a metre. Well I'm here to tell you that this so called gun was a real chance of being dropped from the starting line-up. To give him his credit he did put me on to my first barra which came from tight up in the sticks but later in the week during another fish he was 0 from 4 at one stage and really struggling. (I won't mention the three straightened trebles).

My best fish came from after dark trolling deep lures and once again thanks from the help of Trev and Brad (wotknot) to actually help me get the thing in the boat and photographed. It's very hard work single person fishing and latching on to one of those monsters in the dark - especially when the torch isn't on - the net is not set up and there are other boats trolling around.

All up I landed 5 fish for the week which I'm happy to day all went back to swim another day. The rest of the boys landed the big girl on day one and dropped a small fish on the last day but that's about it. Knowing and understanding the dam plays a very big part in fishing well at Awoonga.

I think the best part of the trip was meeting the fellow Ausfishers. Obviously John and Trev were great and it was good to catch up with Brad a few times. We actually stayed right next to Les (McCod) so had a few beers with him each night. And also briefly met CQ Hornet. i did notice another car sporting ausfish stickers in the car park which turned out to be Jason Bird (Birdy) who doesn't get on here much anymore.

To top it off I met George Manning and family from Tassie that stayed in the van after Les had left. They'd come to Awoonga just as a result of reading all the reports on this website - particularly those of Trev and John. He was rapt when I introduced him to Trev. He's not a member yet but I reckon will join up and reply after reading this. The power of the internet to make a family go on a fishing trip just after seeing all the photos here.

All up great week with great company and new good friends. Fishing was ok and maybe down a bit but I guess I'll never forget my first Barra adventure.

Bugman

My first ever - from the sticks and went 63cm

[bugman]

The old boys big girl. 106cm and 17.5kg.

When I was filleting it for them I found a tag. Andrew at the hatchery helped me with the info.

She was tagged in Feb 2000 at 162mm and weighed just 520g.

There's obviously some good food in that dam.

For the record I think the taste was very poor even in a curry - I'd encourage these fish to be thrown back.

[bugman]

My big girl.

Same size as the one above 106cm - as measured by Trev.

Doesn't look it - she's still swimming

[bugman]

More barra for me

[bugman]

more

[bugman]

This one was either an unlucky or lucky catch as I'd pinned him high on the head and through the dorsal fin.

[bugman]

The year class was quite prenounced

[bugman]

And now to the man who you've only seen carrying picture of metre plus barra before.

Well what can i say never saw anything like that coming from him

[bugman]

He wasn't happy about me taking pics of his small fish. Then again that's all he caught

[SULLY73]

FINALLY, THE POST WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING NEARLY A WEEK FOR.YES PEOPLE A LEGEND WAS BORN LAST WEEK, A MAN WHO CAUGHT HIS FIRST BARRA & THEN PROCEEDED TO JOIN THE METRE CLUB WITHIN A DAY OUT THERE IN THE DARKNESS ON HIS OWN(COMMITMENT,POSITIVE ATTITUDE)!!
CONGRATS MATE ,GOOD TO HERE U & THE BLOKES FROM ABC HAD A GOOD TIME & LATCHED ONTO A FEW.
WE ALL WANT TO KNOW IF NOW THAT U HAVE EXPERIENCED IT HAVE U GOT THE FEVER!!
CONGRATS AGAIN BRETT & IT IS TRUE THAT THE FISH OF AWOONGA WILL FOREVER FEAR THE NAME BUGMAN !!!

CHEERS BRAD.

[CQ_Fisher]

Good onya Brett, glad to hear you popped that barra cherry. It looks like you know it all know so i guess you wont be attending the M&G in Nov

Cheers
JD

[JB]

That is one arsy effort !! , so many ppl go up there and catch sfa. Well done bugman , you've scored a great trip there.

[smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

[agnes_jack]

Well done Brett!
That smile says it all mate.

Regards, Tony [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

[coraltrout68]

Congratulations BUGMAN, looks like you achieved your goal/s last week.

I hope to do the same this weekend - my goal is to finally catch a metre long Barra and I wont be coming home until I do! Well not until Tuesday.

If your at Awoonga this weekend - I'll see you on the water.

Shane

[szopen]

Very well done.

Outfishing the locals