Frank OO’s truck rolled into my driveway at 3.00am, a quick coffee, hooked up the boat and we were away to make the 3.5 hr drive to Lake Monduran. I had fished the Lake the previous week and had scored some reasonably fish up in J bay but we had heard and read some good reports that B was also firing. We arrived at the ramp to find that parking space was at a premium and after unhooking the boat Frank arrived back huffing and puffing after the “long” walk. We were always keen to fish a new area so we headed off to bay B. The wind was pushing all the warmer water into a little cove, and the splashing and commotion of nervous bait had us on the edge. Franks little silver B 52 was soon slammed by a smaller fish as a 80 cm or so became airborne with gills rattling and big head shakes the little lure went left and the barra went right. Bugger. Good start but unfortunately not landed. We worked hard along a weed edge and around some timber structure until Frank muttered “ Gee that was a big Garfish following my lure”. “How big “ I replied. “ Oh about 8 inches”. I quickly cut off my gold B 52 and tied on a greeny Bomber long 16A. About the 10th or so cast in to the bay and it was smashed by a big silver monster well over the meter mark, but again the hooks pulled.. After a few more hits on the bomber and not much more action I decided to leave the bay to heat up a bit and headed up to J. Not one hit where I caught them the week before. So after 3 or so hours back to B we went where the water was about 28-29 on the sounder [not sure if its accurate. I have put a post in Freshwater chat about hot water]. We worked the same weed edge as before, my lure was again eaten . Head shakes and gill rattling jumps a plenty. My new EGrell S 10 H handled this big jumping barra like a dream. This rod has a light tip so you can make 60 m casts along the weed edges without spooking any fish but heaps of low down grunt to show the fish who’s boss. Normally I would use a Shimano Curado on an EGrell B8-6 but the reel has died AGAIN. That story for another time though. This time it all stayed connected and a 103 cm was lead into the net. A few quick photos and it was put back into the water for someone else to catch. An hour later a very feisty 85cm job was also landed after he also impaled the bomber. It was also released. We knew it was time to go as the sun was getting low and we had a long drive ahead of us, so we upped stumps and ended up getting home to Buderim at 9.00pm.
The things I took out of the trip were that bays like the one we were in where the fish were active, after a drift has been done you need to let the fish settle down again, as too much boat noise will send them off fast so we were giving it about 30 minutes before entering again. Also I found the Bomber lures with upgraded trebles to ST 66 is a fantastic shallow water garfish imitation.
Cheers
Ben
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... Nagg
Sorry, Frank, I heard you did wet a line and terrorise some of the resident barra. Next time get em to the net eh rather than admire their acrobatics
Have you got barra fever yet?.....we will convert you ya know.
Originally Posted by Frank OO
