Reply With Quote
photo's from the trip
Well i'm sure everyone is well aware of the rises that both of these dams have had. Dad and i had booked 4 days at willowgrove from tuesday to friday and as this was out last crack at some barra before i have to head back to uni we decided to brave the forecast. Well i have to say we didn't do that well on the tally board but if we boated a quarter of the number of hits we received we would have had a pretty good trip. Weather this was just plain bad luck or because we weren't doing something right i don't know, however after speaking to the other punters who were there at the time 0's and 1's seemed to be the norm, many not spotting a single fish or getting a single tap which was pretty good for my self esteem. Regardless it was a pretty good learning experience over these few days and i reckon next time i head back i'll be better for going.
Anyway if your up for a long drawn out report read on
Tuesday
I drove through the worst weather i have been unfortunate enough to have to tow a boat through, witnessed heaps of run off on the way up feeding into the Kolan. The pot holes in the highway became a bit of a joke (but they had enough water in them to aquaplane over lol so the suspension is still ok) and at it's heaviest the rain flooded onto the bruce in a few low lying patches. We checked into Benaraby just before 3:00pm, unpacked and since the rain had subsided we decided to pay the dam a visit. We made it to the turn off before we realised the first bridge on the road in before the railway was flooded by a metre deep torrent. We went for a drive to Gladstone to view the river and made our way back at about 5pm when the water had dropped under the level of the bridge. We drove to the dam and decided to have a quick poke around to see what it was like (we had the whole dam to ourselves no one else was crazy enough). We motored straight up the main basin to around dingo having to dodge the weed beds that were now just far enough under the water to choke the props up of unsuspecting visitors. We only got an hour or so of fishing in before it became to dark to navigate and fish for us due to the abundance off weed so we made our way home. Dad managed a solid hit which stripped off a good chunk of line quickly before spitting the hardbody moments later.
Wednesday
We got up bright and early and were at the dam shortly after sunrise. i motored a few hundred metres out from the boat ramp, stopped briefly to rearrange the gear and just before we took off i looked at the sounder. Bloody hell there was alot of fish underneath us but we couldn't get them to take a slick rig, i'm assuming they were not in the mood being in between 13-17metres of water, we sounded around more and continued to find schooled up fish in deep water. We came across another good school which produced 5 or 6 taps on slick rigs but that was it. I have a serious hex on these lures as i just can't get the buggers to connect to anything. Anyway we headed up to were dad got hit on Tuesday arv just up past dingo on the southern bank, we briefly trolled the same area with a few fish showing on the sounder but no hits, on went some shallow runners and we headed up into the increasingly flooded shallows, we worked slowly along a bay and after about half an hour the water next to my stationary boney disappeared but no hook up grr, a few casts later and dad hooked up onto a healthy swap trout which was unhooked and released with the greatest of care.
We were just about to call lunch when and decided to go for a final troll just heading back. We went onto the deep side of a small recently flooded island next to some standing trees and putted along slowly with the electric, i commented to dad how many fish were coming up on the sounder and wack his lure gets slammed but no hook up, we double back around and straight away dads lure gets slammed this time landing a fat little 78. we released the fish and again just before starting to troll again i look at the sounder and we've drifted onto another massive school of fish in the shallower water, out came the slick rigs for another big fat 0 so we trolled for another half an hour for a few more bumps and headed back to the ramp. I saw Johny Mitchell at the ramp and stopped for a quick chat and let him know what i saw, apparently he had better luck at tempting the fish than we did(frankly I’m surprised), I think Jas was on the dam as well at that time.
We headed back onto the dam a bit after 3 despite the rain that had well and truly set in, we didn't feel like running up to dingo again in the poor weather so hit the schooled up fish again with slick rigs near the ramp, again a few taps but no hooks ups, we decided to bash a few snags in the the skinny water around some flooded lily pads (the temp there was a bit better at 28deg), dad got wacked straight away by something that roughed up the first 15cm of his leader, I had a surface strike shortly after. We travelled home just before dark in a boat rapidly filling with water (we've decided to put a bilge pump in) By the sounds of it if we had headed back up the dam we may have had a bit more luck but yeh you get that.
Thursday
We woke up at 5 to heavy rain and wind. Woke up again at 6 and headed off to the ramp, looked out on the dam and headed back home. At about 10 we hit the dam braving the chop and went back to where dad had scored his fish the day before. By this point the runoff hand made its way down pushing a big raft of logs and weed with it, we navigated through this into dirty 25degree water. The schools that had been there the previous day had all broken up, we found another school which give my trolled lure a hit before breading up and moving on. So e were back to square one. We headed back into the main basin and fished the southern side trying to get some sought of shelter from the 25knot wind, Again we backed snags and the shallow submerged weed, i threw on a green popper hoping to fool something into thinking a green tree frog which had been calling all day had got a bit lost. to my surprise 5 minutes later my lure was sucked under and my rod loaded up hard only for the line to go slack again. About half an hour later i had another take which i witnessed in the clear water but again for no hook up. By now the cold wind had knocked the heat out of the water the whole dam including the patches of 28degree water was now 26 or less. We quickly ran back the schooled fish near the ramp to find the schools had all broken up.
The whole time the water level was rising and we were amazed by the speed at which entire structures were becoming submerged.
Friday
We made the official decision the night before to pack up early and give monduran a poke on the way back home. We launched the boat just before 6 and ran up to a spot in the middle of the dam that had previously produced. The cattle yards were completely under and dirty 25degree water filled the top all the arms. we decided to give the stick a bash non the less. Dad got hit by a barra within the first 5 minutes and even though moving into the clearer 26 degree water we failed to get another hit in the sticks. A cooling wind was also blowing across the dam at this point. we headed back into the basin to join the que of trollers, we ducked into a bay with not so many people in. There were some promising shows on the sounder but dads lure was fouling lots on the weed I told him to swap rods as my lure was a shallower runner than his and i was running out the deeper side. 70 metres later after travelling over a good show dads rod (which i was holding) loads up with a good fish popping up to the surface, it then tried to run me into some sticks but the weren't solid enough to rub the leader. i gave it the old thumb and dad hit the leccy and we pulled the fish into the open were a long drawn out fight on a firm but slightly backed out drag commenced (after giving the fish a solid rip i didn't want to risk the chance of pulling possibly loosened hooks) This fish fought to the end and by the time it was boated was completely exhausted, it did not kick once after being boated, so at the end of a very unlucky few days i boated a pb 95cm fish. It did not want to revive straight away so i swam it behind the boat for nearly 5 minutes before it started to show some enough life to be let go and it kicked back to the depths. Naturally dad wanted his rod back and i tied up the same lure onto my rod. We commenced trolling again and after a few more minutes my rod loaded up again on a similar sized fish that spat the hooks about 30seconds in. We left the punters to it and got a really shit run home through some ordinary traffic around Mooloolaba and the gateway.
Last edited by Jeremy87; 15-02-2008 at 09:20 PM.
photo's from the trip
Thanks for all the info Jeremy, it was a good read especially how it was up there with all the wet weather happening. Your report made me feel like I was up there also sharing your frustration. Sorry you didnt get more fish but thats the story for alot of us when we go to these famous barra impoundments. It all sounds great on some of the post but the reality is it can be hard frustrating work at times. The ones you do get though, certainly stay in your mind and its not just about the ones you land but about the experience as well.
cheers - Richard-
what a great read that what trips are all about persitance till the end no matter had bad ya luck is even if you catch one fish its all worth it in the end and they both swam away to fight another well done i had a trip at january which start off really bad had a problem with my car on the way to the ramp brakes failed and cause me to have a little bump but after all that i still hooked four barra and landed 3 so still worth ( car has gone to car heaven now insurance company wrote it off a week ago due to the value of the car) so now i have a new one
lets hope it is alot better then the last
great report mate. good to see persistance pays off sometimes.
Thanks for posting that report Jeremy ...... Tough conditions to say the least!
Well done on your PB
Nagg
Mechanical problems are always a pain, i had a trip to mackay last year were my leccy outright shat itself closely followed by really shocking weather so i had to call that one off early (3 days driving 1 and a bit fishing for one dropped sootyOriginally Posted by nipsta
)
The highlight for me were the surface strikes and seeing the volumes of large fish on the sounder. If i can get those fish to connect in the future i'll be a happy fisho.
i agree i would like to see a good showing on my sound what type of sounders is your i have a fishmark 480 and have only seen a few scattered showingsMechanical problems are always a pain, i had a trip to mackay last year were my leccy outright shat itself closely followed by really shocking weather so i had to call that one off early (3 days driving 1 and a bit fishing for one dropped sooty
The highlight for me were the surface strikes and seeing the volumes of large fish on the sounder. If i can get those fish to connect in the future i'll be a happy fisho.
It's an old humminbird fishfinder 565 it's about 3-4 years old now. greyscale with a pretty decent pixel count which makes it good enough for picking up fish in most of your fresh water applications, we were picking up schools of between 10-20 fish and could distinctively tell the difference between what was a barra and the scattering of smaller bait like boneys. Dad and i are playing with the idea of up grading in the near future to something like a 787 c2.
Jeremy,
Yeh I was on the water that day (Wednesday) with my little sister. Rained like mad!
We found a very hot bite using topwater plastics and slick rigs.
In a bit over 2 hrs of fishing my sister landed 4 fish (2 x mid 90's 1x 85 and a 70) and I landed a 96.
Super fast retrieves spiced up the bite.
My little sister missed 5 other fish, one was around 110cm the others mixed sizes, she is still learning the art of striking.
Sounds like you learned a bit on your trip, and had fun despite not getting heaps of action.
All part of the fun.
Cheers
Jas
Last edited by the_matrix; 17-02-2008 at 05:43 PM.
Yeh mate learnt heaps from this trip. The shows of fish we saw had so much potential but we just couldn't convert. Did you spot similar shows? we found heaps of fish hanging just back off the old weed line and out deep in the creek beds. I'm figuring that these were probably the shut down fish and we wasted too much time chasing them and should have focused on the shallows as well. Thats hind sight for you. That was a good bit of rain we had on wednesday arv just kept coming down didn't it. it put over 200litres into our tinny and with the new decking we couldn't bail it properly and we were too heavy in the ass to plane and had to putt back home at 10 k's and hour.
Going back to my trout days, any recent flood had fish in the grass.
Barra's no different. Bait flicking everywhere, it was obvious, and the only thing missing was a neon sign.
Yep had shows all over the place, all our fish were caught in different corners of the dam, from 16 feet down, to the surface.
Those fish that you sounded are catchable, but different methods are required to entice them. Remember that for next time.
Dont give up on slick rigs, they are weapons on this dam.
Cheers
Jas
great reoprt jeremy we fished awonga on 14th feb to 17th feb talk was water level had rose 3m plus also talking about closing dam water very discoloured we put in the hard yards for 4 barra 750-920 what atop place
Posting Permissions
