The First weeks of June @ Awoonga

[Steve B]

Whitto,
Thanks mate, its wicked alright. Just got back from Monduran where I have been doing similar things today........crikey if I continue Im going need Steve B's hotline for a defib for clients and myself.
All I can say about Monduran is #$%^!!!!!!! Hows the size of these kegs, how many is there in there!!!!!
Some of the most insane visual action today and last week I have seen since filming the toad segment.
Cheers
Jas

Ooy, bugger off back to Awoonga!! We dont want our barra getting toad poisoning!!!

Great work mate. I am sure the clients were stoked!!

Steve

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

And you probably had the place to yourself Jas. Quiet times on lakes with hungry fish of keg proportions really are memorable times. Monduran really has dark secrets hey!!!?!! Pops ya eyes out ya head! That place brings new meaning to the word 'heavy'! The next couple of years will be big down there. Enjoy the homework.
Johnny

[Whitto]

Hang on I think Jas is on to something here.......I reckon management would be up for supplying u with a Helo to attend to Chest pains in the watery field...wizz them off to Bundy do your handover and back ready to go inside 25 minutes....They would do that wouldn't they Steve Actually in the toad segment your offsider starts rubbing his chest...Oh No but he came good.....Barra will do that to you.......Gee's I didn't think about Toad poisoning Steve...do u think this is a plan hatched by Jas to poison our watery wonderland so we don't surpass the Mighty Awoonga maybe I shouldn't have said that Jas/Steve...someone will think Im serious.......Whitto

[the_matrix]

Ooy, bugger off back to Awoonga!! We dont want our barra getting toad poisoning!!!
Steve

Steve, you better go and have a chat to Foxie, that place needs fumigating its got that many toads in it, no place for a Blues supporter like myself!
He even has a filthy big mouse err toad trap on the highway!!!

Whitto, thats a cunning plan!!

Surpass Awoonga? Every dam has its day, I love Awoonga as much today as I did the very first time I fished it. It presesnts different challenges, as does each dam.
Monduran is high in its cycle, no doubt, but that alone can be its downfall. Its just different thought and headspace for me at present, as well as some crazy stuff thats occuring down there.

Fishing, Fishing, Fishing. Im not breaking any records for numbers of charters just yet (which was expected for this time of year and a new operation), so when I am not guiding, bloody hell Im fishing!
Steve, your in the box seat living down there mate, valuable lessons to be learned, stuff you cant read about or watch on DVD, or get told about.

Gosh sorry Trev, I just looked up and saw what this post was originally about, and yep we have gone waaaaay off track, sorry bout that.
Cheers
Jas

[TinarooTriumph]

As usual, another thread that makes for good viewing. Don't think Trev would care what his reading, as long as its on Barra!

Going back to what Chris was saying earlier... how fortunate I am to live so close to the home of IBD. Im sure all the others on here that live near Mondy, Awoonga etc will feel exactly the same about living next to a pool of water very close to their backdoor, so close that all you have to do is push the trailer out of your driveway and your there. How good is that!?!?!?!?!?! Time on the water is unlimited for someone like me, and Im pretty proud about it. I have spent 21hrs on the Lake this week alone... thats a good week on the water. First day was spent looking around (hadn't been on the water for 2weeks... real sad sob story that one!), Tuesday got fishing and had a Barra 'fence' me and we came out yesterday in the most cold and ugly conditions and my fishig mate got a 116 (had to comfort lift the fat girl into the Boat!) and dropped 2 others whilst I had much the same success! If it wasn't for that time I had to locate and crack a pattern on the Monday, we would still be out there now cracking warm Rum's trying to find fish. Even if your not catching fish, there's craploads to learn... you all know that by now!

NAGG (Chris) - I could see you loved your time up here when you were up... I reckon you'd be as mad and as Barra hooked as I am if you moved up to any of these awesome Barra dams!!! Think about late, hot steaming summer nights sitting in a boat with Barra gorging themselves all around the Boat. Bet your smiling right now! Well, every summer night last summer was like that for me... Im not bragging, showing off etc... just once again pointing out how the number of opportunites of 'Big Fish' increase when you put in the hours. All helps when you live near these Dams.

Cheers. From a very fortunate young fella living near the home of Barra!

Theo.

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

*Cutting off a lure and tying on another takes about thirty seconds.
*Having ten casts with a new lure or style takes about 4 -6 minutes.
In any given day regardless of lake or mindset in doesn't take much to do this.
What comes from doing this is huge connections that take anglers miles from the original mindset. Imagine an average two day weekend for a travelling keen angler. If they trial just one lure a day each time it will mount up to valuable experience. Each clue picked up or each missed strike will give a burning confidence and a new chapter to think about on the way home. One step at a time. Taking the initial first step may be the tough one. Expand your bubble with different side tracks.
Johnny

[vet]

Thanks to Johnny and Jason for prodding us to try new things. I'm like Steve B and find it too easy to use the same methods that worked last time and have resisted change for a long time. Just a couple of years ago I wouldn't have considered soft plastics but now I have a whole tackle box devoted to them.

I would take Johnnies advice one step further and take out 4-5 outfits all fitted with different lures as I find that it is easier to try a new concept if all you have to do is pick up a rod already rigged with it rather than tie on a new lure. This mightn't be an option for everyone but for people with a few outfits it definitely makes experimentation easier. I would also suggest anchoring in an area and then trying all of the rigged rods in that area to see if one lure works better. I have been doing this lately as the barra have been feasting so it is a good time to experiment. Another good point is that you can learn what does work but more importantly what doesn't work in that particular situation.

It is also helpful to work in pairs as well when experimenting, with one person casting a regular producing lure as a control and the other person casting everything they can think of. This can be hard to do when the control person is getting a fish every cast and you're getting bugger all, but you'll be better off in the long run as new things will be discovered. Every now and then you'll discover something that works better than the control and then it's you're turn to be smiling. We did this on thursday afternoon, I had 5 rods rigged with new lures,1 hardbody, one frog, one prawn, scented swim shad and a modified slick rig. The control rig was doing very well with 5 fish landed to my none, but by the end of the session 4 of the 5 test s had caught at least 2 fish each and one didn't even get a strike. So we had 4 new effective methods and proven that 1 wasn't right for that situation and one of the methods was so good that control couldn't resist and was using it in the end.

So thanks again Johnny and Jason for continued prodding of us to experiment and hopefully make us all better fishermen. cheers scott.

[Awoonga]

Yes damm control Couldn,t Resist.... Today on Awoonga was different.... very Where that new lure that worked a treat during the week... The Barras just didnt want it... But the lure that caught the 112mm tonight is a lure that l no longer use.. l would rather use the bigger version of it...Once again a lesson is learned oh just for the record the 112 was caught by a lady that has never caught a barra before...What did l get ? Donut...

[NAGG]

As usual, another thread that makes for good viewing. Don't think Trev would care what his reading, as long as its on Barra!

Going back to what Chris was saying earlier... how fortunate I am to live so close to the home of IBD. Im sure all the others on here that live near Mondy, Awoonga etc will feel exactly the same about living next to a pool of water very close to their backdoor, so close that all you have to do is push the trailer out of your driveway and your there. How good is that!?!?!?!?!?! Time on the water is unlimited for someone like me, and Im pretty proud about it. I have spent 21hrs on the Lake this week alone... thats a good week on the water. First day was spent looking around (hadn't been on the water for 2weeks... real sad sob story that one!), Tuesday got fishing and had a Barra 'fence' me and we came out yesterday in the most cold and ugly conditions and my fishig mate got a 116 (had to comfort lift the fat girl into the Boat!) and dropped 2 others whilst I had much the same success! If it wasn't for that time I had to locate and crack a pattern on the Monday, we would still be out there now cracking warm Rum's trying to find fish. Even if your not catching fish, there's craploads to learn... you all know that by now!

NAGG (Chris) - I could see you loved your time up here when you were up... I reckon you'd be as mad and as Barra hooked as I am if you moved up to any of these awesome Barra dams!!! Think about late, hot steaming summer nights sitting in a boat with Barra gorging themselves all around the Boat. Bet your smiling right now! Well, every summer night last summer was like that for me... Im not bragging, showing off etc... just once again pointing out how the number of opportunites of 'Big Fish' increase when you put in the hours. All helps when you live near these Dams.

Cheers. From a very fortunate young fella living near the home of Barra!

Theo.

Theo ..... You bet I loved my time up Tinaroo ....... Whats there not to love Its a picturesque waterway that has barra in it ........ & big barra to boot! ............. I'll be back for sure!
If I had the opportunities that some have ...... I'd get the sack! ...... As I'd be fishing rather than working!

Cheers

Nagg

[the_matrix]

Scotty, no harm in utilising what has worked for you in the past.
I too take many rods rigged with different presentations, some subtle, some
lights years different.
It needs to be a level playing field, and as you stated working as a pair most cetrainly has big advantages. You have to compare apples with apples, so to speak.
I try extremely hard not to pick lures I think are going to work on the day (off charter), sometimes my first choice is wrong however I am such an impatient bastard that if things are not happening I change. This mostly leads to a change in the session too, in other words if nothing changes, nothing changes.
I am certainly not too proud to admit that at times I cant explain whats happening, although this happens much less now.
I have a heap of good tactics, often those slight or even huge changes lead to hook ups, but there are no 100 percenters for me.
The golden egg is elusive, but looking for it is all part of the fun.
Cheers
Jas
Its what keeps me going back, a driver for the missing links.

[Steve B]

Steve, you better go and have a chat to Foxie, that place needs fumigating its got that many toads in it, no place for a Blues supporter like myself!
He even has a filthy big mouse err toad trap on the highway!!!

Whitto, thats a cunning plan!!

Surpass Awoonga? Every dam has its day, I love Awoonga as much today as I did the very first time I fished it. It presesnts different challenges, as does each dam.
Monduran is high in its cycle, no doubt, but that alone can be its downfall. Its just different thought and headspace for me at present, as well as some crazy stuff thats occuring down there.

Fishing, Fishing, Fishing. Im not breaking any records for numbers of charters just yet (which was expected for this time of year and a new operation), so when I am not guiding, bloody hell Im fishing!
Steve, your in the box seat living down there mate, valuable lessons to be learned, stuff you cant read about or watch on DVD, or get told about.

Gosh sorry Trev, I just looked up and saw what this post was originally about, and yep we have gone waaaaay off track, sorry bout that.
Cheers
Jas

Jas, Yeah its hard when you are 20 min away sitting at work, knowing you cant get out for a fish!!!. Later this week I AM going. I have to agree about lessons from the dam. I only look back 6 months or so and notice so many changes in my fishing and more importantly tactical approach. I think everyone is gaining the details and adjusting thought processes just from reading all the advice and info that we are blessed with on this forum.....getting the chance to get out and DO IT will show results for all Ausfishers who venture to any barra impoundment this year I reckon...wait and see!!

Cheers Steve

I tried to invent a cockroach surface lure, It was to weak and flimsy, scored 0 last time it was in action...........Just like the cockroach footy team!

[NAGG]

Jas, Yeah its hard when you are 20 min away sitting at work, knowing you cant get out for a fish!!!. Later this week I AM going. I have to agree about lessons from the dam. I only look back 6 months or so and notice so many changes in my fishing and more importantly tactical approach. I think everyone is gaining the details and adjusting thought processes just from reading all the advice and info that we are blessed with on this forum.....getting the chance to get out and DO IT will show results for all Ausfishers who venture to any barra impoundment this year I reckon...wait and see!!

Cheers Steve

I tried to invent a cockroach surface lure, It was to weak and flimsy, scored 0 last time it was in action...........Just like the cockroach footy team!

Steve ....... Have I got a lure for you ( not a bad cockroach imitation) ..... Check it out Attachment 29884 - - I've sent a couple up to Tinaroo for field testing

by the way ....... just a little reminder that the toads have only had 1 win at Homebush ....... & that record will remain

Cheers

Chris

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

Tips for Monduran anglers.
In time the place will beome a changed fishery which in turn will mean you will also become changed anglers. In a few years time you will probably look back and say "WOW",, I wish I knew about that technique or this idea years ago when the fish were easier.
If they (the barra) change first and you follow you will always be behind the progression of the fishery. If you spread your wings now and stay two steps ahead you will always be in the right place to deliver. Arm yourself with a wide array of catch techniques. If this means catching a few less for a few trips to learn a few more ideas or gain a few new options, then you will thank only yourself for the small but gainfull sacrifice in time to come. To think of all those 115-125cm fish in that lake begging to be hooked ticks away at me like a time bomb.
For Monduran anglers the clock ticks away until you start.
Johnny

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

Another good point is that you can learn what does work but more importantly what doesn't work in that particular situation.
Scott,
Great words!

To carry it beyond for other readers-
This is some of the nitty gritty of impoundments. A prefered lure or prefered style may only work if the water is a certain clarity or running at a certain intensity. You can cast until your arms fall off but some lures just won't grab interest in certain/particular situations even if it worked well yesterday. If a lake has high levels of weed, lure X may not work as well as it did in when weed was non existent. Cleaner lakes versus dirty lakes will see different lure styles working best at the time.
When we know what works on the day that helps us then find out what works better at that given time, but only if you keep trying! For every lure that catches well, there will always be others that do the same or better still.
A friend caught a barra on a soft plastic while I caught two barra on an x walk last August in about twenty casts. I put the rod down! My mate said, "why did I do that?" I said, "we know that works today." He looked puzzled. I tried a fizzer and caught three in three casts. I then tried a suspending hard body,,,,,,,and caught nothing! Simple trials that bring bags of information.
Cheers,
Johnny

[the_matrix]

I tried to invent a cockroach surface lure, It was to weak and flimsy, scored 0 last time it was in action...........Just like the cockroach footy team!

Stevey boy,
I am glad your a bloody good paramedic and fisherman, cause you aint going to make it in comedy. (although I have to admit anything other than the blues being beaten on Wednesday night will be a total surprise, too much momentum and a settled side will win as much as I hate to say it)
Talk soon
Jas