Looking for Threadfin, found Barra

[flairj]

I hit the city reaches in Rocky yesterday looking for the Salmon I had heard were about and ran into large scools of bait being chopped up offshore style. So I started casting some HB's into the fray and landed a 600mm Barra dropped one that would have been 800 and hooked up to something even bigger that rubbed me off quick smart (that'll teach me to keep going with the Bass gear when there are big fish around.

So I went back today looking for "Salmon" again today with an old work mate and sat in the boat looking like a dick for three hours saying "I swear they were here yesterday going off" a just as we were getting ready to pull the plug they started up again.

It was very cool to witness Barra in a very switched on mood. They were in open water and making regular charges at the bait. Jenno the tin arse ended up getting three to my zero. A 750mm, a 770 and an 830 in about twenty minutes before the tide rose too high and spread the bait. Each one of the fish exacted it's revenge on Jenno. He got a gill plate to each hand from two fish and a big gouge from the last on with a hook.

All fish released to fight another day (or be netted tommorow by the bloody indiginous netters who can do whatever they please)

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i118/flairj/DSC01184.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i118/flairj/DSC01182.jpg

[Gladdy]

Nice fish mate hope you get a thready or 2 soon.

Cheers Gladdy

[lenthals_barra]

hey mate exact same thing happened to me at normanton bout 2 weeks ago, although we did manage 2 salmon to about 20 barra. biggest barra went 1.26mtrs and 19kg. nice fish ay.

[Fisher4life]

Excellent fish.... They always seem to be more on the chew when the season is closed....

I headed out in search for some fresh jack for tea this afternoon, and ended up with Barra....

Congrats on the great fish
Cheers
Josh

[Kev_McC]

nice going. I fish the same sorts of tides there, the night sessions can be unbelievable with poppers and shallow runners getting smashed. You don't get bumps and taps at night, especially if you're on top of that rock bar in your pics (underwater) at the start of a big run-in. There are some really big fish in there

[yamiemerk]

G-day mate, i go down to the fitzroy pretty often in the little tinny but have never even hooked a barra. I dont go past the first bridge because i have no idea where the rock bars are. Having a tinny made out of extremely thin aluminium, i dont want to hit one and slice a nice hole in my boat. Mainly because i dont like the though of swimming in that river with all the crocs haha.

You wouldn't happen to have a map or anything of where the rocks are as i really want to start catching some nice barra like yours.
Cheers

[flairj]

The best suggestion I can give you is do like I did..... go out on a really low tide when all the rocks are exposed.

Basically, there is a channel along the south side of the two road bridges to get up there and I've never fished anything other than the last of the runout and first of of the run in. So you'll be able to see them.

As long as you are slowly moving along you should be OK.

Josh

[freefish]

Another thing with that stretch of the river is to stay 400 mts below the barrage.

[yamiemerk]

Okay, thanks mate. Will give it a try. Only problem is i will have to launch from the boat ramp in the city because it would probably take over an hour to get there from nerimbera, and that is mud at low tide as i found out the hard way:-[

[Kev_McC]

I also only really fish it either side of low tide. if you maintain a straight course from the second pylon (south bank) of the old road bridge through to the 1st pylon (again south bank) of the new road bridge you'll be ok on nearly any tide.
The river in town has silted up badly over the last 2 years, when I started fishing it about 5yrs ago you could easily launch in town at low tide. Now it means staying on the water for 5-6hrs or a longer trip from Nerimbera. I fish by myself at night a bit and standing on the ramp at Nerimbera by yourself in the dark is a bit scary as a 4m croc is resident not far away. The silted up town ramp has meant I fish a lot less as it's harder to do the quick 2-3 hr trip before or after work.