Barra Jigging At Lake Awoonga

[Phil_Alder]

Last year I saw many big Barra on the sounder but just couldn't get lures down to them. This year I went back armed with Soft Plastics in 6" size with 45 grams of lead and jigged them in their faces. I just left them right in the zone until they just had to smash them. These lures swam really well and were a mullet shape with a thin tail giving lots of action. The photo speaks for itself. I also flicked smaller 4" sft plastics with 14 gram jigheads straight into the snags. I found 14 grams was perfect as I believe you need the lure to fall at a reasonable speed to give the tail plenty of action. I learn't this method in the NT. With the small hook you will find it fits snuggly around the barra's lip when hooked and you won't hardly ever drop a fish. The bigger hooks tend to tear the mouth and leave a hole that makes it easy for the barra to throw the hookwhen it goes aerial. You just need the smaller hooks to be high carbon. When you get snagged up just lean on the rod, flick it a few times and the hook will straighten a bit and you can retrieve the lure. Straighten the hook back again with pliers ( this is where high carbon hooks are excellent) and off you go again. Really cast right into the snag- don't be timid. One hook on a jighead allows you to work the lure up over the snags and if you do hook the snag its no real drama. Enjoy catching the monsters from Awoonga.

[RayB]

Excellent report. I read about jigging for Barra in a mag recently but I hadn't heard of anyone actually doing in the impoundments.

cheers
Ray

[Cammy]

can anyone tell me where lake Awoonga is


cam

[powderfingers]

Lake Awoonga is near Gladstone

[Callop]

Might have to try your method when I go to Monduran in January.

[warrior]

i have seen huge arches in 50ft of water at peter faust dam sitting in the thermoclines and wondered how to get them to bite, next trip i will find out

[setthehook]

I was planning to try big bibless minnows for the same reason, you can drop them into their faces and lift and asink and jig em around, works on bass and they are just a tiny barra really. The hooks straightening on snags, what about on the big barra?
Cheers Rob
p.s top fish!!

[Awoonga]

MMM .....Bozos..... ;D.....plug plug......Get the picture,,,,,,

[Sniper]

The best soft plastics to use is called C4. Guaranteed to catch everything in the area. Works at any location too. One of the most versitile soft plastics ever made. Not to good if you want to release them though. lol Just make sure you get the hell out of there quick. lol. Seriously though, sounds like a good idea. If your jigging Jackals though, make sure you've got a big bank account. I heard in last years ABT comp that someone was jigging Jackals and had a ball. Didn't land too many fish for the $400 or so worth of lipless crankbaits they lost.
Billyboy

[setthehook]

Sniper

Dont plan on using jackalls, something about 4 or 5 times that size ;) and 1/4 the $$$ ;D

[TinarooTriumph]

I tried this 'Jigging' method out this year when the ABT came to Tinaroo. We were having a bad afternoon due to the Electric conking out, so we planned to fish some calm bays... And I suggested we fish one of the Bay's that I knew quite well, were the water would be very warm. Most of the Dam was probably around 21/22 Degrees, head to this particular spot and straight away it would have been around 29/30... Nice warm water, and absolutely packed full of BIG fish said the sounder, and I wasn't really suprised. The fish were hanging all along the bottom, and we gave it our all for close to 2 or 3 hours with no luck. So, we resorted to start at one side of the Bay, and let the wind slowly push us over to the other side, seeing as though the Electric had packed it in for the day. So, I went Jigging with Plastics! 110mm Squidgies, just bottom bashing them infront of their faces... Swapped to 80mm to see if that would bring them on the chew... A few bumps and missing tails on em', but no fish. Wanted to modify my plastics like a few of the other guys were doing, but on that particular night I had left alot of my Gear in the car. Cheeky bloody fish!

Id give it another go If I were to be that desperate again, but Id probably go a Lipless Crankbait rather then a plastic, as it would put more fish in the boat. Jackalls... mmm... no thanks - Im not a millionaire! Maybe a cheapo Berkley Frenzy, and then just throw some Owner Hardware on him? The Frenzy's have some size to them last time I looked in the 'Redundant' Box!

[Awoonga]

Ok jigging works ...but at Awoonga there is a problem ...Catfish :P you have got to get through the cattie layer before you get to the barra....Not so easy....9 times out of ten catfish.....

[griz066]

Snodger mate 8-)

[barraphil]

MMM .....Bozos..... ;D.....plug plug......Get the picture,,,,,,
I didn't say what lures I used and that was very difficult but what I used worked a treat especially in the Flickin Colour as welll as Lumo.
Cheers

[Phil_Alder]

I must be the only bloke that doesn't have a problem with the catties. I have only ever picked them up on the Western side from the boat ramp. Its these really big mothers that sit deep. Even following the old river bed often you can drag a lure straight past their noses and nothing. Stop and try jigging. This methed really works but you do need a lure that will swim its head off and swim at very slow speeds. The slow swim speed of Bozos is what I think makes the difference. Stays in the zone an dthe mullet shape gives the perfect profile. Squidgies Slick rigs also work well as I have spoken to a few blokes using them with great success. Barra and especially empoundment Barra can be really lazy but this method really works well. I even stay at home at night now and only fish the morning up until about 11am. Once the wind is up I head back for a beer and BBQ.
Cheers

[Awoonga]

Gee l will have to come fishing with you Phill...or do l just buy a packet of Bozos....and my Catfish problems will be solved....The answer to every Awoonga fishermans dreams..... ;) ;)

[SeekingBarradise]

Good topic guys.

We agree with the Jackals being too pricey - there are many other products that cost less and do a great job.

Like Awoonga we have found catfish love jigging ha We thought the winner of the Barra comps would be a keen basser who used jigging as one of their primary methods - however some of the bass fisho's didn't do that well this year!

If we had more time maybe as a local we might give it a go for a few days/weeks/months on end to refine the technique - but we usually go back to tried and tested techniques that work as everyone loves to catch a fish after a long trip etc

The idea makes sense and we thought it would be a real winner for us.

If any other locals have given jigging a real go over a year please let us know how it went at Faust/ Awoonga/Callide etc.

Matt have you tried this method up north?

Taylor's how have you gone at Faust with jigging?

Barramad have you tried this method much at Awoonga?

Adrian at Monduran uses hard bodies as he hasn't had much luck with plastics at monduran when compared to traditional methods etc.

We will be interested to hear what everyone has to say. Keep the good topics coming guys.

Merry Xmas to everyone. Cheers SeekingBarradise

[barramad.]

SB,
Jigging has been part of the evolution at Awoonga for some time mate. The method is certainly nothing new and hardly ground breaking, but it can be a rewarding way to fish. Reading the initial post was great, the excitment of the angler was obvious, and he was kind enough to share with you guys his tecnique. Good stuff.

Most of us guys up here have been doing it for a few years, it does yield good results at times, however as Trev has stated it can be a catty-athon.
There is no real way of avoiding them, luck will see you avoid them for a session or 3, but once you start doing it a bit more regular it becomes part of the deal.
That doesnt worry me too much, on a good jigging bite I can expect a 3 to 1 Catty to Barra ratio, which I can live with. Some times I wont see a single Cattie, other times its full on. It can be worth it when fish are hugging the thermo, or when boat traffic has sent them down.

Awoonga was much more of a deep water fishery last year, this year see's a much cooler dam overall for the same period. Obviously the south Easters and eratic weather patterns have shaped that.
Hence fish holding locations throughout the basin are different, and jigging has been no-where near as spectacular as this time last.
Plastics are not the only way to go, lipless crank baits, rattletraps and some old cheap ass stuff (Smiths)can be lethal at times
dont be shy to mix it up.

Another scenario that plays out often on these impoundments is cottoning on to a new tecnique that works once or twice, then never again except under those exact same conditions. Getting more than two identical days is nearly impossible, esp with the incessant South Easters of late.
This happened to me twice last year, had something going but kept quiet on it in case it went sour, and on both occasions it did. Mind you it was pretty out there, but on a few given days, it belted the living crap out of them when others couldnt raise a strike.
Strange things happen out there........................Keeps us going back.

Hope Ive shed some light.
Cheers
JW

[SeekingBarradise]

Thanks for the great information JW it was a very interesting read which we don't often get to see in the mags etc

The challenge definately keeps us coming back - it's a special place up there and in our limited time on the water compared to you CQ guys we have found that every day can be so different on the water - which provides a great challenge!

Thanks again for sharing some of your experiences.

Merry Xmas Everyone. SeekingBarradise

[still_water]

Yes Jigging does work with Soft Plastics at Monduran, but I have not tried Lipless as yet.

Brett.

[Mak579]

Hey Phil,

Great post and pics, thanks for sharing. Your observations on lure weight and hook size has given me food for thought!

SB,

Did some jiggin' last year as well as the standard 'flathead whip' retrieve with some relatively good results. I was using the squidgy shads (gingerbeer is my favourite closely followed by TNT) as they seem to 'flutter' a bit better on the drop than the squidgy fish (I prefer the fish profiles for casting)!

Haven't done much jiggin' this year (except at the reef) due to the milder weather conditions so the barra I've been targetting are still relatively shallow and susceptible to a general casting presentation rather than vertical.

My experience with jiggin' involved targetting isolated fish at depth which IMHO is indicative of fish 'resting' , 'chillin' out' or sometimes fish that are just plain stressed! A fair bit of patience was involved and sometimes, no matter what was tried they couldn't be enticed!

I much prefer to target concentrations of fish in predatory or ambush positions as you generally have the oppurtunity to present your lure to more fish which are in a much more aggressive state - higher percentage fishing!

My bladder isn't strong enough to consider jiggin' the timber at Faust.....starting to weaken already just thinking about it!

Horses for courses though, not one technique will work ALL the time, when conditions dictate that jiggin' is the preferred technique I'm more than happy to adopt it and 'teabag' away!!!


Cheers
MAtt C

[Big_Ren]

Great topic Phil. We took some slick rigs up to Awoonga in October but were mainly slow rolling them. We are hoping to head up again in February so will definitely consider giving the technique a good go. Thanks for sharing some helpful info.

Cheers
Paul

[Tropicaltrout]

Done it at Awoonga and Callide and its has worked really well, found some big arks this last trip and got busted twice on twisted 80lb leader, it seems to take a couple of drops but the seem to get annoyed into biting it, bit like us bloke asking to go fishing all the time she will bite eventually.

TT