woolybugger
23-10-2006, 01:18 PM
Well, all that anticipation had finally evolved and we headed off to the elusive Lake Awoonga.
Firstly a big thanks to all who voluntary departed with their valued knowledge and experiences of the Lake to make it a very memorable trip.
We got there on Sunday last week and was confronted to about a million boat trailers, “What the?”, but because it was around 2pm there were people leaving, so we got a parking spot right next to the ramp. Most boats were from weekend pesky skiers and they mainly congregated near the boat ramp. Anyway, we headed over to Dingo Island and trolled (yes, you heard right, trolled!!!! I hate trolling…) but we sticked to our game plan and that was to have an early fish to around 11pm, have a huge lunch and then back on the water at around 2pm until we ran out of fuel or we physically could not go any longer, usually until our stomachs registered food time around 9pm, and within the first 5 minutes warren hooked up to a solid fish. After a 15 minute fight came on board a healthy 110cm Barra, with big cheesy grins of whats to come, we gentle put her back into the water for another Ausfish catch. The water temp was 24oC and we saw plenty of big fish on the sounder but they were very hard to entice. We managed a few more for the day, which kept us in great spirits.
The next two days the weather cooled dramatically and the temp went around the 21oC mark and they shut down big time, but still managed a few for the days HARD slog. Then the water rose again on the last day and the action did also with numerous strikes, misses, hook ups and loses, and hook ups and landing of BIG Barra. The smallest went 94cms but most within the metre mark, with the largest being from yours truly which was longer than the brag matt which is 126cm long, so estimated length of around the 134cm, as it was four closed fingers longer (plus 8cm). She was taken just on dark, trolling close to inshore trees and she grabbed my lure as I was free spooling the lure back behind the boat preparing for the troll. As it was free spooling back, the line just started to scream off so I locked my thumbs on the spool and locked the reel into gear (very lucky!) and settled in for about a 15-20 minute battle. She tried every trick in the book by heading for the trees, going into deep water and went under the boat on numerous occasions, but the woolybugger prevailed. At the end of the battle the fish and I were very tired, so quickly got a photo or two and slipped her back into the water.
Warren lost his favourite pink and purple lure to another HUGE fish that headed 30metres straight for the sticks even on a locked up drag with upgraded washers etc.
The highlight of the trip, apart from the obvious big barra, was casting into the sticks when it was pitch black (only head torches) as the night was dead calm and you could hear Barra on the surface chasing Garfish etc and also when the old man caught his first Barra.
Overall, I don’t know whether this is a true statement, but I was definitely ‘all fished out!’ from the 12 hrs per day of constant casting etc.
Firstly a big thanks to all who voluntary departed with their valued knowledge and experiences of the Lake to make it a very memorable trip.
We got there on Sunday last week and was confronted to about a million boat trailers, “What the?”, but because it was around 2pm there were people leaving, so we got a parking spot right next to the ramp. Most boats were from weekend pesky skiers and they mainly congregated near the boat ramp. Anyway, we headed over to Dingo Island and trolled (yes, you heard right, trolled!!!! I hate trolling…) but we sticked to our game plan and that was to have an early fish to around 11pm, have a huge lunch and then back on the water at around 2pm until we ran out of fuel or we physically could not go any longer, usually until our stomachs registered food time around 9pm, and within the first 5 minutes warren hooked up to a solid fish. After a 15 minute fight came on board a healthy 110cm Barra, with big cheesy grins of whats to come, we gentle put her back into the water for another Ausfish catch. The water temp was 24oC and we saw plenty of big fish on the sounder but they were very hard to entice. We managed a few more for the day, which kept us in great spirits.
The next two days the weather cooled dramatically and the temp went around the 21oC mark and they shut down big time, but still managed a few for the days HARD slog. Then the water rose again on the last day and the action did also with numerous strikes, misses, hook ups and loses, and hook ups and landing of BIG Barra. The smallest went 94cms but most within the metre mark, with the largest being from yours truly which was longer than the brag matt which is 126cm long, so estimated length of around the 134cm, as it was four closed fingers longer (plus 8cm). She was taken just on dark, trolling close to inshore trees and she grabbed my lure as I was free spooling the lure back behind the boat preparing for the troll. As it was free spooling back, the line just started to scream off so I locked my thumbs on the spool and locked the reel into gear (very lucky!) and settled in for about a 15-20 minute battle. She tried every trick in the book by heading for the trees, going into deep water and went under the boat on numerous occasions, but the woolybugger prevailed. At the end of the battle the fish and I were very tired, so quickly got a photo or two and slipped her back into the water.
Warren lost his favourite pink and purple lure to another HUGE fish that headed 30metres straight for the sticks even on a locked up drag with upgraded washers etc.
The highlight of the trip, apart from the obvious big barra, was casting into the sticks when it was pitch black (only head torches) as the night was dead calm and you could hear Barra on the surface chasing Garfish etc and also when the old man caught his first Barra.
Overall, I don’t know whether this is a true statement, but I was definitely ‘all fished out!’ from the 12 hrs per day of constant casting etc.