Lake Awoonga Rig

[rollsy]

Heading up to Turkey Beach in January and will include at least a couple of trip to Awoonga chasing the Barra.
Just wondering what sort of rig is best.

Have a Daiwa Heartland X baitcaster with 14lb Fireline on it.

Is this heavy enough, do you suggest leaders, lure clips etc or is it best to tie the lure striaght onto the main line.

any suggestions appreciated.

thanks

rollsy

[Muzzy]

Cant reply regard the location but only the fish, I live in the N.T...

Leaders are a must esspecially if using braid as a main line due to its thickness and lack of strech.

14lb would do okay but in braid and fishing for barra I tend to take advantage of using heavier lines on small reels. I tend to stick about the 30lb 35lb mark sounds like over kill but I get busted off still. But like I said 14lb line would do they do use 14lb mono but it is alot thicker. With braid line to gain the maximum strength at the conection between the mono leader and braid main line you should form a double in the braid due to the extreme difference in line thickness. I use a plait knot as I'm confiedent in it, you could use a bimmini twist or even a spidershitch so long as your comfy I use a plait. I usually form my doubles to be about 5ft longish.

Now about the leaders I said are a must and why.
First of all barra have gill rakes that are pretty effective at cutting fishing line. Braid in nature is very strong for its thickness but cant hack abrasion as well as mono can. Also braid has very little strech this will make hook ups on striking barra just about imposible as you tend to snatch the hooks rather than set them. So we need mono to reduce the tendancy of cut offs both from fish and fish holding structure, and to improve hook up rates buy becomming a shock type adsorber.

Now leaders namly barra leaders have taken bit of an about face due to this one corker of an idea from the man harro. But first things first, the norm used to be attaching a mono leader of about 6ft there abouts (some like shorter some like longer I let location dictate it to me). You would use a mono of say 35lb and up to in some cases 100lb I tend to stick from 40lb to 50lb. Now some monos are hard and some soft so certin lines make better leaders I use schnieder (sp?) and have yet to be let down not saying its the best, its just what I use and why. To attach the mono to the braid use an albright not or even a slim beauty. Reflecting back to the double it makes a stronger connection by increasing the amount of surface aera contact within the connection/knot minamising the one stress paiont most connections suffer from. It also allows for a bit more load to be applied when the fish is near the boat and the fight heats up a tad.

Now about what harro did, he made this thing called a knotted dog, spliced mono leader that has several advantages to a standard strait shot as below.
A K.D has more of a re-coil to it rather than a lazy strech, this improves hookset by alot from my fishing experience. A K.D also has a natural twisting action while under load, this increases the amount of mono that gets put near sharp things, greater surface aera contact equals more even load distribution and less scuffing of the leader. They will outlast a standard strait shot, less leader changes means more time fishing less knots to tie means ya chop in to the expencive braid alot less. With a cats paw connection it improves the way we attach mono to braid with a taggless splice being achived (has easy instruction on how to do this knot). Again stronger connection means a greater success rate on those freak hook ups. They are strong as like strong as, they really are the goods but like I said you dont need them, they just take it to the next level and maximises a few important factors that give me more confiedence that means I fish better. I average about 30 barra prior to a change of leader normal mono needs to be done over every second third fish or ever good one (like 70 and up).

I use clips, as I have faith. It doesnt worry me the "the fish see the clip" story cause if the fish has then thats half the mission won cause its looking at the lure aint it? Clips also put me in a mind set where lure changes come freely rather than being lazy and not wanting to cut in to the leader again etc. At night they reduce stress that means longer fishing sessions.

One thing if your new to barra fishing and I cant put to heavy a piont on it is...

dont be afraid to pause the lure durring retrieves and on the troll, the term no wobble no gobble never rang so true with these fish. To pause for up to 5 sec aint a bad idea some times durring hard times and the slower ya drag it away from the snag the longer it sits in the strike zone. Barra can be pissed off in to the strike so work them there lures. No rod holder trolling unless ya want to bird watch, hold your rod and work it some times quite agressive some times passive work it out and let the fish tell you what they like.

Again I have never fished that lake, only for the fish them self and I dont know all that much I try to just fish and keep it simple...

Most knots decribed can be found on alot of the fishing sites if ya get stuck drop me a note and I will piont ya sort of on the way. Hope this ramble helped more than likly didn't *G*

Shake a tail dont cut a throat

Muz

[rollsy]

Thanks Muz

You can never have too much info, was trying to talk myself out of changing to 30lb braid as someone had suggested but would hate to get on the water only to be constanly busted up ( who am i kidding busted up is better than no hits ! ). Will definately go down the leader and clip road now, may even grab some KD's to take up.

Cheers and thanks for the info.

Rollsy

[Muzzy]

Cuz just put a top shot of 30/35lb stuff overthe top.

Kmart and Big W here sell spider wire or fire line in top shot type reels for about 30bucks or so.

When ya think that line will last 1year at least mono dont stack up.

K.D's are the goods mate, put that little edge in our favour, great aussie idea, brett finger should be able to help with the supply of K.D's QLD way there.

Muz

P.S springwood marine I think!