15 Year old kid beats Pro's @ Awoonga - Saturday!!

[SeekingBarradise]

15 year old Jake Schwerin won the Awoonga Night Champs on saturday with a record total of 514cm for 5 fish with 1x 120cm and 1x 125cm swimming garbage bins in the mix.

He beat seasoned pro's and another youngster in Ben Platten came second. Well done boys. We have seen his father John at the wuruma dam comp (which he won) a couple of years ago and he is a good barra fisho in his own right - his son seems pretty good as well ha. Ggg there are a lot of Darling Downs fisho's that target Barra!

Each fish averaged 11 hours to catch for fishing nuts. So for the good fisho the average would (honestly) be much higher in the same conditions and for the fishos who only get up there a couple of times you could multiply this by 10 x for the real hour to fish ratio.

For a big fish dam the average size was a smaller than expected 81cm as many people say the average size at Awoonga is 100cm.

Some real good fisho's didn't get a single fish from 16 hours casting and no sleep. Last years series winner Gavin Dunne, John Schofield, Steve Starling and ranger Gary wode. Very good fishos on their day thats for sure. It makes us wonder honestly how many days fisho's on here or at the ramp go fishless in a year??

Now that everyone knows the spots the winner was fishing - will the fastest boat (70mph+) have first dibs on that spot if they beat the champs out there??

We think it's great to see youngsters in the mix with the pro's - well done and congratulations to the winners and all the placegetters as it sounds like it was hard work for most.

The results are all from the australian barra site.
What does everyone think of the results?

Cheers SeekingBarradise

[mylestom]

Well Kids, Women and pets shouldn't be allowed. ;D ;D

Bugger they beat you everytime.

Good luck to the young fellow, stand aside, a new generation coming through.

Trev

[SWANY22]

not far of the money i spent 4 days at awonga for one fish made the magic metere though.

[MORFIN]

Congratulations Jake, a well deserved win & no means a fluke to those who may asume that some kid won the round . Jake & his dad put in the hours , time & commitment to there barra fishing . They both know there stuff & deserve the win.

PETE MATE.

[SeekingBarradise]

Well done swanny on your metre fish - you have to be happy with that.

We agree Morfin as we have heard a bit about jake and his dad through fishing bits in toowoomba (3000 Barra lures there).

They get up to Awoonga a lot - especially for SEQ fishos - so well done to the father son team - i think we would all love to fish with a son one day - it would be great fun and John must be very proud.

Cheers SeekingBarradise

[Awoonga]

Yes ....Well....what can l say....Most of the guys caught fish.....l hooked up to plenty....but you have to get them in the boat... :'(......one fish boated in 16 hours is not good....My fishing partner came 4th....it was a case of staying conected...In the two day event that ended last light we both lost heaps of fish .... as most of the fishos did... Ater day one l was 9th...Brad 19.....Downhill from there.....only 1 fish boated last night it was a monster....40 cm.....Yes 40 cm of fury........... Caught bass bigger ::)....l dont know how Jake ended up in the two dayer after day one he had only caught one fish.....Just goes to show.... its called Fishing not catching.......

[SeekingBarradise]

Well done Awoonga and to your fishing mate - you guys sound like you can really fish. Hats off to anyone who can catch fish under comp pressure & conditions.

Thanks for keeping us informed with straight down the line reports.

We are interested in a few things about the comp.

How did the majority of fish get away? Light line/jumping/timber etc

What techniques and areas worked for most of the comp fisho's?
(lures/plastics/areas fished etc)

ps - If you get to the caravan park can you put the big guy with a cojack on to some fish for his first barra. They have a hornet and are staying in the cabins next to the toilet blocks etc.

He is a fellow ausfisher (just joined) and has never caught a barra before so it would be nice if he had a great trip as thats what it's all about. Hopefully they haven't been fishing no fish bay ha! If any other ausfisho's can help him out that would be great.

Cheers SeekingBarradise

[Awoonga]

All areas of the lake where fished Timber Weed beds...flats ...Squidgy slickrigs where what l used....and l have learned....heaps.... When you are in a comp you need lots of pinning points not just one or even a couple most fish where lost on the jump a few just worked loose....Scott Mcauley a Glady local has just won the two day event.....Now l fished with scott in the northern rounds of the Barra tour....he was using slick rigs He had never used one before...Best result was fourth but dropped a few fish.. At Awoonga after his first jump off he started using hard bodys and never lost a fish.....When the fish are on the chew like real hungry.... slick rigs...they slam them ....just about swallow them.... but when they are not they just seem to snap at them...Scott and l went to Faust for a prefish the week before the ABT....the fish where on..... 20 fish first night 17 next all over the meter....all on slick rigs the fish where on the chew... Had a mate fish there last week... slick rigs....lots of hits...a few hookups but not many fish boated......So...another lesson is learned...Off to Monduran for the comp.. Lets see what works there

[Fitzy]

Good on em!

Was a case of differnt areas firing on differnt nights. The first night was Flutter Creek & the basin area that fired.
Birdy did well on the 2nd night up Iverah Creek & it was the Riverston Arm that produced wwell on the 3rd night.

Interesting to see the times that fish were caught & the differences with other areas of the lake.

Lots of hits on Tsunami & slicks, but not alot of hookups, put a stinger on & the hits stopped. damned if your do & damned if you dont.

Lots of stories of jumed off fish & short strikes.

My best was a 111, a good fish but still shy of some of the horses boated.

Good luck to the crew at Monduran rounds this weekend.

Cheers,

Fitzy..

[rick_k]

current go at Monduran is to fish in 10 feet or thereabouts with shallow runners, eg 3 foot classic barras.

On the troll. :-? the boat traffic in the spot gets a bit busy.

They are catchable casting to the bank, even by a mug like me, although not as easy. And, since I don't eat them, I don't keep them, so casting kind of suits me at the moment.

Casting up a quiet bay is certainly less stressful than trying to troll the same depth contour as 15 other boats. And it is magic to see the fish come out to hit the lure.

Saw some sexy boats arrive at Monduran today. Except that we had to be out by 10:00 and the boat owners looked a bit preoccupied, I'd have asked for a hot lap.
Rick k

[blood_rod]

well i just got back from awonga and picked up my first barra over the meter was the best thing just to land one , although we had two brothers staying next to us that caught a shit load. And yes i was there on saturday night and its good to see a young bloke beat all the pros that were at awonga.

[setthehook]

anyone know how they went at monduran today?

[SeekingBarradise]

17 Year Old Kids Beat Pro's To Win The Barra Series!!!

Hi set the hook we were up there at monduran to have a look and fish on the weekend and were camped next to the Taylors which was great luck. Thanks for the info re monduran Fitzy and Rick_K.
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Hi Blooded Rod we camped next to you at Awoonga mate well done on your fish mate. It's great to hear - we were hoping like hell all week you would get on to the big one - we left early and couldn't give your our contact details - won't put them on here but we will catchup again on a Barra dam as we enjoyed the yarns around the campfire with the wood that was now provided for us ha Ausfish does work. How did your side kick go? My big sidekick got the biggest fish for the trip with that 107cm model on sat the bugger he's been grinning ever since.
He also got the catfish title ha.
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Monduran.

The Taylor boys did it tough in the pre -fish and got 1 fish after a couple of days - and some catfish ha. They were that devoted to the task that after the briefing many were drinking but not these boys they were back planning the next days tactics and were going at it full on.


On saturday the best angler (John Schofield) landed 3 fish with some landing 2 and a few landing one and more landing none - we got the info from the boys so we didn't get the chance to put up the exact stats that we usually do. John won the 2 day tournament with 6/10 fish for a 548cm total and for a 91cm avg fish size. He had a tough time at Awoonga so well done to John!!

Cy Taylor didn't land one saturday - and landed a 84cm sunday. Kerrin Taylor landed one 73cm fish on saturday. We heard around 24 fish were landed on Saturday averaging around 18hrs per fish which was tough fishing for these pro's.

The best fish was 114cm from John Scherwin (Day2)with many from 80-90cm which is the average we managed to catch over our last 3 trips there as well and we can't wait to get one over a metre there soon. Great catch John!! Exact average was around 80cm.

Fishing times were changed and ran from 6am to 1pm. Weather: 3-6inches of rain smashed down thurs night flooding most campers ha. Days were hot with water temp up to 30degrees in the main bay on sat up from 25/26 which made for better fishing on Sunday with 37fish landed which averaged just under 12 hours casting per fish.

Summary: Well done to everyone that competed and well done to all the placegetters. Especially the young Taylor boys for showing that the younger generation can also do well - and that you don't need a flash boat to win - they had a nice 14ft yellow tinny with a 25 on the back.

Ruben (father) you must be proud as you should be - your boys are a nice and good fisho's to boot, it was great to chat and camp next to you - thanks again for the brag matt as we broke ours in the chaos of landing a fish on Sat ha and thanks for the soft plastic.

We hope we see you on a Barra Dam soon.

Cheers SeekingBarradise

[cy_taylor1]

Hi Lyndon,

John Schofield was on fire at Monduran!

His hotspot was a shelf, off a point in 10-12 feet of water that went for approximately 30-40 yards. Monduran is totally different from the other impoundments.

If you come up to Peter Faust Dam, give us a buzz.
You should enter the BARRA Tour next year, it's awesome fun!

8-)

Cy and Kerrin Taylor
Whitsundays QLD

[SeekingBarradise]

Hi guys thanks for getting back to us. Well done again it was great to see you in action and learn a lot.

We will get out on the water together for sure when we get up to explore the mighty barra dams up your way.

Let us know if you are coming to SEQ. It would be great fun to fish the comps with you guys- we have to improve a bit in our hour to fish ratio first though ha as there are some great fisho's on the Barra tour and we need to be able to land 2-3+ fish per session most of the time to stand a chance.

We might bring a couple of boats up and wear I Love Catfish Shirts if we don't catch barra in each comp ha.

But the practise will be fun - bring on a dose of lure arm!!! Monduran seems to be the best challenge so we are going to concentrate there as it seems to have less barra per acre etc which will make a great challenge for the angler.

We hear you have to do your own cooking and cleaning now ha and dad's taking 2 months off ha!!

All the best and stay in touch via email or phone etc

Cheers SeekingBarradise