moondarra winter barra

[lenthals_barra]

Hey everyone,

This is from one arvo through winter. A late post I know but I only just got the pics from my mate. The barra in lake moondarra at mount isa school up in winter. It really is an amazing sight to see barra in schools of 20+ fish and all over a meter. One stage they went cruising past breaching out of the water like dolphins and some were even free jumping. We just couldn't do a thing wrong once we found they liked the brighter smaller lures. It was a hit or a fish a cast for awhile and even double hook ups with me and my mate. I landed two fish over a meter in two casts aswell. For the 2-3 hours we fished we only landed 6 fish out of about 30 fish we hooked. Lost them mainly due to jump offs and a few were half hearted hits. Here's a few pics.

Cheers Doug.

[lenthals_barra]

Oh yeah biggest went 113cm and smallest 105cm

[rc@hinze]

Doug, sounds like a amazing session and place. I think you have just put it as a bigger dot on the radar. It must have been amazing seeing the fish as you described. When were you up there?

[lenthals_barra]

Hey rc, I live in Mt Isa mate so Im fishing the lake every days off. Going for an early morning mish out there tomorrow so if I get some fish worth posting I'll put them on here. Them fish were caught in 14-15 degree water and the wind was howling into the bays we were fishing, good old wind is an impoundment barra fisho's best friend.

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

.....................or worst enemy on many other days.
Thanks for the post on Moondarra.
Cheers,
Johnny

[TonyM]

Great session Doug - Must have been impressive to see so many fish cruising, funnily enough the last time I saw anything like that was at Lenthalls! (they weren't as big, but impressive to watch and catch nonetheless)

.....................or worst enemy on many other days.
Thanks for the post on Moondarra.
Cheers,
Johnny

Johnny, hope you don't mind me asking... Would that be on days when the water temp is right up?

[goddy100]

good to see the old dam still producing! Flew over it the other week and man is it low, so not much water between the fish. Them schooling up like that in the past has been a problem when dropping water levels see them trapped in shallow parts of the dam, and a really cold winter will see them die in their thousands. Have been out there trying to find fish and have just cruised around until you saw them jumping, then get stuck into them. This time of year they are normally starting to school up in transport bay, which has no boating so you just catch them off the bank.

Goddy

[Big_Ren]

Sounds like loads of fun Doug. Who needs a boat eh?

Cheers
Paul

[Whitto]

Good to see Moondarra on the way back....considering the Winter trauma a few winters back....Well done

[lenthals_barra]

yeh last winter it was a shocker hey, thousands of dead barra on just about every bank. this winter wasnt so bad i only seen about a dozen dead fish. yeah where the bouys are at transport bay they aren't far from the bank now so the no boating rule doesnt really apply there anymore. i have to launch the boat off the bank now because all the boatramps are too shallow in front of them. one would think the council or waterboard would do something about it while the dam is low? maybe they dont want many boats in there while its low? who knows, i can still get my boat in thats all that matters!

[Barraboss]

Some nice fish there Doug. Sounds like a fun session. Keep the reports coming

Cheers
Matt

[setthehook]

great stuff mate!! looking forward to a metery land based myself! Great effort.

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

The wind can be a pain in the butt. It can get too strong and make hard fishing circumstances, and unfavourable times for barra; just ask the 500000000000 boats who fished on Awoonga today what they tought of the wind. The wind plays many parts on impoundments, it does many different jobs. Variable wind direction alterations can unsettle the system and destroy/divert the surface and sub surface current flows. Cold winds will eat temperature out of the system and the horrid chilling SW winds in winter reverse favourable conditions for barra. It does lots of things really, the list goes on.
Yea, it is your friend, but also your mortal enemy.
JM

[lenthals_barra]

hey just thought ide let yas know how i went this morning, got on the water by 5.30 for 1st light around 6ish. fished with surface till about 7 only got the one hit. then changed to the ever reliable b52 and once it really started to get hot and i found the fish were hanging under weed clumps out in the open i started getting into the fish. biggest was 77cm and smallest around 70. ended up with 4 fish in the boat and lost a few to jump offs. caught the fish till 1.30 and would of kept catching them but i had to get home. fished a few colour changes caused by the wind in about 2-3 foot of water and the water temp was a crazy 26.7 degrees. got 1 fish there and had a few more hits. got one day off left before i start night shifts so ill give em a hammering tomorrow morning again. i have pics but they are only mobile phone shots, and besides the barra aren't over a meter so nothing special haha