Ross river Barra

[Fisher4life]

Hi all

Being located so to the upper ross river, i have decided to begin sussing out the ilusive barra in fresh water. speaking to a couple of locals, they are giving me mixed advice (head up river, head down river, fish midday, fish night, sunrise/sunset, any lure, only gold lures....)

Is there anyone who has had success fishing the ross river for barra, who can give me a little advice, if so i'd greatly appreciate, i'd even be willing to take my boat down and let you guide me and show me how to catch them.. (be your deckie, in my boat) If you don't want to post, please feel free to pm me.

Cheers Josh

[Aeon]

Weed in ross river is a huge problem.

I prefer hard bodied lures, but there is usually too much weed for them. I only fish there after it's been flushed out and there wasn't enough rain this year for that to happen. You may have better luck with soft plastics, but I'm not the best person to ask about that.

You will find fish everywhere. And I believe an electric is a must for ross river.

Bombers will work, terminators are good. Stick with gold, or anything over chrome.

And make sure to take care of and release your catch. I've never even tried to eat a barra from the Ross and I'm told that's a wise move.

Good luck mate.

[BGH05]

Hey mate,

As the months start to get a bit warmer the barra fishing in the ross will pick up. I'v found drifting along the lillys casting hard bodies such as gold bombers, rmg skin deeps black body red head, tilsan barras in green have worked ok. the retrieve has to be extremely SLOW with lots of twitches. Surface lures like tango dancers and fizzers are also very good. Soft plastics such as squidgy slick rigs and fliick baits arnt to bad riged up weedless. All colours seem to work it just depends on the day.

Hope that helps you out a bit mate, goodluck.

[Fisher4life]

Cheers BGH05

Any hints on the area's on where i should begin (ie, in the 6knot zone... up the river, or should i head down the river towards the black wier past the water skiiers??)

i have been just floating down the river's edge casting into the banks, and weed beds at any sort of structure with the bomber lures... i haven't tried any others yet cause of how much i favor the action that they have...

[Fitzy]

I was at Alpins Weir yesterday morning & watched intently as a guy paddled a kayak on the top side casting bloopers at the margins. While I hoped he hooked up he didnt while I was there.
Not being a local I cannot comment with any advice, however if this guy knew what he was doing, there might me something there in what he was doing. Then again, maybe he was on the wrong track..............

Fishing is like that. If you go, you might be something.... if you dont go you will never catch anything.

Good luck.

Fitzy..

[Bad_Bubby]

Hey mate,

The other guys have given some good advice on lure choice. Having fished Aplins quite a bit when I lived in Townsville I reckon surface lures are hard to beat. 75mm Bills torpedo bugs and Rapala Skitter-props in dark colours were definite performers. Use a slow retrieve with alot of pauses. After dark and fished on or around the full moon the barra would be very responsive. During daylight they hold deeper so diving or sinking lures such as plastics will be better. Normally the weir experiences little action during the cold months from about late May to early September so it stands to reason that results are going to be a bit thin until things warm up. When the water level is up minnows can be used more effectively. As someone already said the weed problem is the main obstacle and having some height in the water level sure helps. Another option is live baiting. If you find a patch of fish setting a live banded grunter under a float isn't a bad idea. There's plenty of barra in there, hope this advice helps you get onto them.

Cheers,
-Dan

[Fisher4life]

Thanks for all the input guys, i really appreciate it. I just guess it means i have to go fishing a little more often to practice a few different techniques a little more