slyman
15-12-2008, 04:00 PM
Made a third trip to Monduran with Chris on the weekend, and again we got onto some fish. Well, Chris got onto some fish, I just got lots of casting practice and 1 catfish. This was my second donut in a row, but at least last time I had a barra on the end of the line for a few seconds, I didn't even get a touch up this time. :-/
Saturday saw us working an area that we have caught our other fish from and within 1 hour of being on the water Chris has hooked up to the first fish. We think it was probably the same fish that had a go at his hollowbelly only 15 minutes earlier from the exact same spot, we gave it a rest and came back around for another crack. This fish went a fraction short of 98cms, bumping up his pb by nearly 10cms from the previous trip. That was it for the rest of the day though, apart from one good hit right behind the boat while he wasn't paying attention.
Sunday we went back to the same area but around 730am, but no fish wanted to play this time. By 11am we'd covered a lot of ground and were baking in the sun, so we moved further up the dam and had a swim on the way. We chose a similar kind of area to work, casting to the edges of weeded bays around 4mts of depth. After a good hour, chris's hollowbelly gets monstered and within a few seconds had him around half a dozen trees. I wasn't quick enough on the electric to chase while Chris was freespooling and the fish was subsequently lost after it dropped the lure.
We let the wind push us out and away from this spot and let it rest while Chris cut off his worn line and retied. We cruised back to the same spot under electric, but this time we hung back outside the trees. Chris's first cast back into it and all hell breaks loose again. Within seconds a big barra is going nuts, gills flaring as it clears the water on 3 occasions, Theres your metery i said! A cranked drag only lets it take small amounts of line and had him chasing it around the front of the boat. A heartstopping moment after it swims a little to close to the electric for comfort, prompting it to be lifted out of the water. It then found something on the bottom to snare his line, and while we were getting the electric back in the water to manouvre, the barra clears the water ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BOAT, and dives close to the Merc on the back, prompting it to be lifted too. We moved forward a few meters and his line comes free, by now the barra has tired and it is easily led towards the net.
There was enough weight in this fish to bend our net frame, it went 104cms on the lie detector and bumped up his pb by another 6cms. What we thought was interesting was that both fish were caught practically 24hrs apart during the "moon below" time frame, not long after midday. Gear used was a Daiwa Tierra rod and reel spooled with 30lb Nitlon and a 60lb fluoro leader. I'll add the pics in the following posts.
Saturday saw us working an area that we have caught our other fish from and within 1 hour of being on the water Chris has hooked up to the first fish. We think it was probably the same fish that had a go at his hollowbelly only 15 minutes earlier from the exact same spot, we gave it a rest and came back around for another crack. This fish went a fraction short of 98cms, bumping up his pb by nearly 10cms from the previous trip. That was it for the rest of the day though, apart from one good hit right behind the boat while he wasn't paying attention.
Sunday we went back to the same area but around 730am, but no fish wanted to play this time. By 11am we'd covered a lot of ground and were baking in the sun, so we moved further up the dam and had a swim on the way. We chose a similar kind of area to work, casting to the edges of weeded bays around 4mts of depth. After a good hour, chris's hollowbelly gets monstered and within a few seconds had him around half a dozen trees. I wasn't quick enough on the electric to chase while Chris was freespooling and the fish was subsequently lost after it dropped the lure.
We let the wind push us out and away from this spot and let it rest while Chris cut off his worn line and retied. We cruised back to the same spot under electric, but this time we hung back outside the trees. Chris's first cast back into it and all hell breaks loose again. Within seconds a big barra is going nuts, gills flaring as it clears the water on 3 occasions, Theres your metery i said! A cranked drag only lets it take small amounts of line and had him chasing it around the front of the boat. A heartstopping moment after it swims a little to close to the electric for comfort, prompting it to be lifted out of the water. It then found something on the bottom to snare his line, and while we were getting the electric back in the water to manouvre, the barra clears the water ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BOAT, and dives close to the Merc on the back, prompting it to be lifted too. We moved forward a few meters and his line comes free, by now the barra has tired and it is easily led towards the net.
There was enough weight in this fish to bend our net frame, it went 104cms on the lie detector and bumped up his pb by another 6cms. What we thought was interesting was that both fish were caught practically 24hrs apart during the "moon below" time frame, not long after midday. Gear used was a Daiwa Tierra rod and reel spooled with 30lb Nitlon and a 60lb fluoro leader. I'll add the pics in the following posts.