I have not posted any reports for some time due to work, life (or is that wife???) and saving funds for the ABT (can’t wait to fish for three weeks straight). So I thought it was about time to amend my ways.
I received a call from Roger (Panger) asking if he flew up from Sydney during the NSW long weekend, would I take him for a couple of days fishing at Tinaroo to help ease his IBD a little. Do you think I need my arm twisted???
Panger arrived late Friday night, so we left early Saturday morning for the dam.
We were on the water at about 4.30am (a fraction to late) to be greeted by boney bream getting smashed everywhere by barra. Roger managed first hook-up on a 100mm slick rig and the barra went about 50cm. I managed the next few hook-ups to two boney breams on a silver Stiffy Boney Bream. I think they were trying to mate with my lure....No, they were foul hooked, but goes to show how heavy the bait was.
We did not manage to raise any fish of any size (nothing over 50) so we moved on and tried a few random spots, looking for somewhere to hit the following morning. We also did not want to venture too far as we were to pick up Quoc at about 9am.
After picking up Quoc we took off to a windblown bay and drifted into the bay, then positioned the boat to be anchored with the Minn Kota. We started to get a couple of solid hits almost immediately, and it wasn’t long before Panger grunted out at 9.50am “Yep I’m on”. He did not need to tell us though as the really fat feisty 107cm barra took to the air like it was a dolphin on steroids. Who said these things don’t fight. It gave Panger a run for his money, and after several high flying displays and a little bit of coaching along the way, the fish was boated much to our delight. The Storm Suspender was hooked after slow rolling from the bank back to the boat. Phew, the monkey was off my back for this trip. Panger was as happy as..... well as happy as you could be after flying to Cairns from Sydney to catch a barra on a weekend!!!!!
Due to my guiding (as such) was now complete and Panger had his fish, I wanted to get into the action, so at 10am on the dot I hooked up to a 112cm barra on a 130mm Squidgy fish on a 21 gram head. This fish christened my Shimano Spin reel and gave it a thorough test, which is what I was aiming for before the upcoming ABT. The fish were certainly fighting hard, with some very powerful long runs being the fish’s main weapon of choice for this location. After some heavy bend work in the St Croix spin rod (don’t try this at home) the barra came in for a happy snap and was released pronto.
Not wanting to let anyone else have the lime light, I decided (?????) to hook-up again at 10.40am to an aerobatic astronaut wannabe. This fish absolutely slammed the Squidgy fish as I slow rolled it over a weed patch. This was a real good fish and did not want to say hello to soon. I love it when a big fish tears line of a heavy drag on my Morethan, it sounds awesome!!!! Gives me warm fuzzies!!!! This fish was also a high flyer and a strong runner that would put Matt Shirmington to shame. I guided the fish after some time to an awaiting net, and found the Squidgy neatly pinned, like the previous fish, in the corner of the jaw hinge. I was happy as I felt (IMO) this meant I was getting the strike right, IMMEDIATELY!!! I hate deep hooked fish. Lifting her via Enviro net, we lay her on a wet brag mat reading a 116cm fish. Yeehah, I was on a hat trick
We didn’t have to wait long for the next hook-up.
At 11.11 Roger and Quoc were at the back of the boat fishing towards a bank (anchored from the front) and I was up the front casting all around them. I stated as I cast my line right down between them over the motor, that I was going to hook-up this cast to show them what my line looks like close up when a barra hits, and it wasn’t till about half way in, a solid hit sounded through the line to my rod and I struck, nearly taking off Quoc’s head in the mean time. I could not stop laughing as my vision came true. See, it’s all about confidence (and a lot of cockiness). After a few minutes of fighting and some nice jumps, a fish in its high 90’s was self released, with me still chuckling
For the technical side (sort off) the water was 23.5 degrees with water depth under the boat 15 foot and gradually sloping into 5 foot with weed, timber and snags present but submerged. Lures of choice were soft plastics slow rolled in various manners, pauses etc. Weather was roughly a 15 knot SW wind and raining on and off in between sun periods. A mixed bag really.
Shortly after, and a few hits later, the wind changed and the bite stopped. We made a move for a few other spots that produced no more big fish for the rest of the day. Ah well, that’s fishing for you.
Day 2 was a repeat of the second day, with baitfish present for the early morning (on time this time) “barra happy hour” but no decent fish caught, nor any boney’s.
At around 9am I need to have sleep for half an hour due to being far too tired to concentrate on the job at hand. When I woke up as fresh as a daisy, we moved to a bank with some timber clumps along a section. Roger hooked up on the third cast into the heaviest timber to what can only be described as an elephant (bigger than a horse). It had him in trouble right from word go. Every tree and snag was now attached to the line and fish was doing its best impersonation of a killer whale crossed with a mako shark. Big, and I mean very big strong high jumps that I was in awe off. We managed to unstitch the line from all but one snag, so in jumped Panger and dove down 10 foot to release the line. It was about this point that the fish won its freedom
About 10 minutes after recooperating, I threw my plastic into the same timber and was rewarded with strong 80 odd. I had almost full locked drag and high sticked the rod to get the fish out, but it took off and got to the same snag Roger lost his fish on. I could see the fish flash 10 foot below me, so I too dove down and grabbed the fish and gave an underwater release. The only thing was I forgot to take my camera.
After drying off and reliving the fights over some lunch we moved on and had a look at some other spots to receive a few hits, but again no bigger fish. We then ventured back to the ramp and drove back down the hill so Roger could get his gear and head sorted for his flight back home. It was a fun weekend, and I am sure that it only going to improve as the weather gets some sort of stability about it. Hopefully by the time Navi and Vin arrive for their onslaught this weekend.
Till next report, hope this helps and not hinders all you IBD sufferers[/font]
Cheers
Matt
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Originally Posted by black_sheep
