Curmudgeon
01-11-2007, 09:42 PM
I gave Aplins Wall a good going over with the sp's again yesterday morning (Wednesday). Apart from a couple of half hearted bumps, it was quiet. Disappointed, I decided that I'd duck home to do a couple of chores and reassess my options for the remainder of the day. As I pulled into the driveway, the mobile rang. It was fellow ausfisher, Mozza, offering to give me a tour of a different stretch of the river. So an hour later, chores done, I arrived back at the river reinvigorated. I clambered down to the water's edge to idly chuck a flickbait around and await Mozza's arrival. Minutes later, a little jack was posing for my camera before skulking back to his snaggy abode. Mozza arrived and quickly directed me to the spot he had described on the phone. He was right. It looked incredibly fishy...
Half an hour later, with nothing to show for our efforts, Mozza headed off to gather some live bait for a last ditch attempt to snare a barra. As he climbed up the bank, I swapped lures and next cast, I'm on!!! A 36cm jack was swiftly subdued, photographed, and returned to maraud a passing school of mullet.
A quick change of location and change of rig and we're tensely anticipating our live herring getting comprehensively smashed. The herring were nervous too. We didn't have to wait long. Two more little jacks and a couple of missed shots at barra. Just as our 3pm deadline loomed, my livey was monstered. "This feels different" I grunted as the sound of braid zinging through the runners filled the air. It wasn't fighting like a jack or a barra. This thing was on a whole other level of powerful. It went hard and it went fast. GT. And it showed great endurance too, until eventually the little 4kg outfit prevailed and the fish was slid up onto the bank. He weighed two and a half pounds cleaned, and would have dragged a barra the same size backwards all day.
So the barra season closes without me having caught a legal specimen on a lure. I think the last legal barra I caught on bait was back in my teens. Nevertheless, I've met a couple of great blokes and contributed in some small way to them catching good barra. In my books that's just as good, maybe better. Thanks to both Fisher4life's and Mozza's generosity, I've also had the pleasure of sampling the culinary delight that is Ross River barra. In recent months, I've caught plenty of little fellas, and learnt a lot about the river, the fish and the sp's. I'm really not disappointed at all. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I'm pretty happy with that.
Thanks for reading another of my long-winded posts.
Cheers,
Brian.
Half an hour later, with nothing to show for our efforts, Mozza headed off to gather some live bait for a last ditch attempt to snare a barra. As he climbed up the bank, I swapped lures and next cast, I'm on!!! A 36cm jack was swiftly subdued, photographed, and returned to maraud a passing school of mullet.
A quick change of location and change of rig and we're tensely anticipating our live herring getting comprehensively smashed. The herring were nervous too. We didn't have to wait long. Two more little jacks and a couple of missed shots at barra. Just as our 3pm deadline loomed, my livey was monstered. "This feels different" I grunted as the sound of braid zinging through the runners filled the air. It wasn't fighting like a jack or a barra. This thing was on a whole other level of powerful. It went hard and it went fast. GT. And it showed great endurance too, until eventually the little 4kg outfit prevailed and the fish was slid up onto the bank. He weighed two and a half pounds cleaned, and would have dragged a barra the same size backwards all day.
So the barra season closes without me having caught a legal specimen on a lure. I think the last legal barra I caught on bait was back in my teens. Nevertheless, I've met a couple of great blokes and contributed in some small way to them catching good barra. In my books that's just as good, maybe better. Thanks to both Fisher4life's and Mozza's generosity, I've also had the pleasure of sampling the culinary delight that is Ross River barra. In recent months, I've caught plenty of little fellas, and learnt a lot about the river, the fish and the sp's. I'm really not disappointed at all. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I'm pretty happy with that.
Thanks for reading another of my long-winded posts.
Cheers,
Brian.