Awoonga 22 -23 Dec

[SeekingBarradise]

Hi Purcho we hope you had a great Xmas and New Year.
Matty is an experienced angler and has made dvd's etc. He worked on his plastics every spare minute he was in the camp site - even when buggered - the guy has passion for fishing thats for sure & the plastics look great.

We (old coote robbie) and i saw Jason & Craig catch and lose fish on the surface in the Abt tournament.
We were anchored up as the electric was not working. We saw fish in the area in the pre fish but were not good enough to get them in the boat-with the exception of one unlucky bugger ha. However Jas and Craig were good enough to land many and it was interesting watching them catch fish around us the buggers ha good on em.

Yes it's true they did fish in the shallows as they electriced past us lots of times casting to the bank & in a shitload of weed.

Yes they did use use weedless plastics & they did hook and land Barra in Daytime under blowing - hard fished tournament conditions. We saw a few fish hooked and lost which had to hurt but atleast they got the strikes & landed plenty of fish.

Major differences we spotted in the days we saw them fish were subtle but important. First Day Jas & Craig fished closer to the weed and caught fish - we fished a couple of metres out and were off the mark. Jas was good enough to share this info with us.

Another difference we spotted was retrieve pace. I moved my presentations a little slow in the weedy shallows on day 2 for no fish & my partner was doing faster retrieves for more hits. Jas & Craig looked to be moving things faster for more strikes and fish landed. They had cracked a good pattern - great work under comp conditions.

Hope this helps you out Purcho.
All the best - Lyndon & Kel

[Mak579]

Hey Matt,

Great Report, picking the mood of the barra in the shallows is tricky at the best of times, congratulations on a great trip.

Ian,
I also have a Stacer Pro Tournament Elite, Matt would've seen it at the ABT comp. I'm thinking of doing some mods, I'll send you a PM and see what you think.

Cheers
Matt C

[two fold]

Seeking Barradise
I like the name.
Thank you for helping with more info. I just wondered if there was a connection ther because up until then the surface frog thing was not heard of and from what i read jason spends a lot of time on the dam.
I read his articles and some times it takes more than one read to understand exactly what he is telling you. When the coin drops it all makes sense.I thought maybe he and mat may have fished together in the comp or something.
Thank you for explaining you took some time do that.
Best wishes for new year and heaps of fish
purcho

[Mak579]

Hey Purcho,

Try not to get caught up in the frog thing, the bite was a surface reaction bite which can be created using lightly weighted wrigglers and shads/fish as well as the above mention frogs. Anything that sends out surface vibrations.

Sometimes you need to mix it up to find out what the fish will eat on the day, it's a credit to Jas and Simmo for crackin that pattern during the comp.

Tight lines
Matt C

[two fold]

Mak579
Thank you also for your advice its why I joined this site seems like some good info floating about. I have been reading for some time now and decided to join in the forum. Id like to find out more about surface fishing during the daytime it must be awesome to watch surface strikes in the day not just early morning and late arvo.
I wonder why jas and simmo? did use frogs and not shads or fish as he is in the squidgee team and surely he would have used something from that brand?also matt used frogs too or is working on them so there must be something there?
Maybe there is more to it than we know comp anglers are cunning buggers haha.
Thank you for your advice
Purcho

[Whispering Jack]

what a great report matt! Hopefully the imformation i got from this report will get me on to some nice barra at awoonga in a couple of weeks when i'm there.

cheers mate

[Flattie Assassin]

Top class report. Thank you.

[matt fraser]

Sorry about the late reply, but about the surface frogs I think one of the reasons that they work well is because of the surface area on the water. They have a large flat belly, in comparison to other soft plastics, which allows them to get up on the surface and then be worked at slower speed.

The hooks we used, which I believe are similar to what Jas Wilhelm and Simmo used, are 6/0 worm hooks with weight in the bend of the hook. They actually sink, so at the start of the retrieve, you need to take up any slack quickly, and get them up and swimming. The weight is crucial in getting them to swim head up, as an unweighted hook wont do the job.

Once up and swimming, you can back off the speed just enought to keep them on top.

BTW, Jason was up there fishing the same area with what looked like the same techniques on the first session we were there. I think his boat got one fish in the session.

I'm sure other shaped surface lures will work in these heavily weeded areas, but I don't know anything else available yet - the lure needs to be totally weedless, heavy enough to cast on barra tackle, yet light enough to work across the surface.

G'day Lyndon, great to meet you in November, and catch up with Rob. The fishing was definitely easier in December, and it was nice to have a pick of the spots, rather than jockeying for a spot. Hope to catch up on the water sometime,

Matt

Oh yeah, I believe Berkley has the Batwing frogs in stock, so the tackle stores can get them in.

[the_matrix]

BTW, Jason was up there fishing the same area with what looked like the same techniques on the first session we were there. I think his boat got one fish in the session.



Matt

Umm yeh using the same tecnique as we used through the whole ABT Barra rounds at Awoonga.By the way Purcho, I didnt win mate, I got 2nd using this tecnique which Simmo and I nutted out leading up to the night event.

Yeh we were fishing the same area we did for the events too, and were doing some trials on squidgy surface plastics that are in the pipeline.
Pretty much get crowded out down there now, funnily enough no-one had been going near it for 4 months leading up to the event, I have been fishing that area mid week for months, didnt see anyone there through the whole pre-fish, and we deliberatly stayed away.
Matty Coleman knew there was fish in there but he and Al Mac chose to fish another part of the dam.
2nd day of the two day event Lyndon came down on anchor and fished for a few hours but tecnique and trigger were out a little, which is all it takes.

I remember the day you came down, Bushy and Slick both got amongst good surface action, and before you arrived we nailed 5 fish in the first hour, total 6 in that session.
Slicks best went 102 and Bushys was 90, but they blew some big fish on the strike.

Yes everything you are using is the same as what we are using except the Berkley frogs. Im guessing you fished the ABT Awoonga events?
We are using TT 6/0 jig heads which are awesome hooks.
Jason Erlich gave me a packet of the batwings at Monduran, seemed to work ok but no match for the zoom horney toad.
They (zoom toads)are indeed a very clever plastic and its hard to see where improvments can be made on such a well thought out plastic.
We have come up with an excellent squidgy frog, but its still in the development stages so Im betting it can only get better.

In regards to other plastics working, well its not the frog that is the trigger, its just the vehicle. A good vehicle because it can get through the heavy stuff as Matt said.
It also incorporates two key triggers for Barramundi.
I have not seen anything on the market, both here and the US that is as good for the given application.

Barra are not eating it because they think its a frog.
The rod and your hands have far more to do with Barra eating it it than the frog, a frog in the hands of a novice is useless without tuition or experience.
You will know what I mean if you understand Barra feeding habits and key triggers that almost force barra into striking, particuarily in that environment.
The area fished itself holds many secrets as to why there are fish there, and there is only one other area in the dam that it similar and can be fished the same with the same results.

The water level is dropping fast at Awoonga, bit of a shame that that bank will be high and dry soon, but there are other area's already shaping up.

Fishing DVD number 11 due out end of March will have all the tactics and info on surface fishing during the day, as well as some cracker surface strikes for anyone who wants to learn more about it.
Two fish over 60lbs, a 119 and a 116 as well as half a dozen other metreys to 112cm all caught in an arvo session on Awoonga on surface frogs will make awesome viewing.
Keep an eye out for it.
Cheers
Jas

[matt fraser]

G'day Jas,

Well done on cracking the pattern in that shallow water, sounds like you've had some awesome sessions!!! I'll be getting a hold of the DVD when it comes out - heard 2nd hand from Shannon how it went off!

I did fish the Awoonga comps with little success, but learnt a heap while I was there. Love the place and can't wait to get back up there.

cheers,

Matt

[the_matrix]

I did fish the Awoonga comps with little success, but learnt a heap while I was there. Love the place and can't wait to get back up there.

cheers,

Matt

Matt,
Depends on how you measure success mate.
Sounds to me like you had a lot of success over the comp series and later trips.
Learning is the best measure in my book, who cares how you go in events, or even trips, its what you take away with you that is the key.
The trip home and a tonne of unprocessed info stimulates thoughts and possible tactics to try out next time like no other!

I'd personally rather catch bugger all but go away with lessons learned then catch a heap using the same method and not learning a thing.
Wont help you next time when things are tuff.

Definantly a thinking mans game!
Cheers
Jas

[matt fraser]

Cheers Jas, I know what you mean!

Matt

[1337]

Jas,

Sounds like consistently catching meter plus barra is getting a tad boring for you Such is life aye.

Regards
Caleb

[the_matrix]

Jas,

Sounds like consistently catching meter plus barra is getting a tad boring for you Such is life aye.

Regards
Caleb

Nah mate, quite the opposite.
To consistently catch metre plus Barra, you have to change what you are doing.
The fish evolve, if you dont, you get left behind.
Cheers
Jas