Hinchinbrook report from last week

[gammo42]

I managed to get some time away from work to try and catch a Barra before the season end. I invited my Dad along to once again see if he could break his lean run of luck and finally catch a legal Barra. The plan was to fish the Hinchinbrook area at the Herbert River end for 2.5 days.

Due to our late start the wind was already well up and the channel itself was fairly rough. We lost several good baits and Dad dropped a very nice Barra right beside the boat as it swam back at him with a big head shake. It was very disappointing because that would have been the perfect celebration on his birthday.

Thursday morning saw us on the water a lot earlier. We went over to the rocks on the island side to throw some lures for the turn of the high tide. While drifting along throwing lures at the shallows I noticed some good arches on the sounder out deeper. We made a quick change and tried dragging a couple of deeper lures through where the fish appeared to be holding. We made several passes, changing lure colors every couple of times. The first pass with an Elton John lure got slammed and I was onto a nice fish. After an initial jump it fought down deep and I wasn’t totally sure of what I had hooked. When I finally got color it turned out to be a big Barra. Dad did a good job with a net and we had our first fish in the boat. She measured 102cm and was my first 1m+ saltwater Barra. Felt bl..dy good!! We made a few more passes and I managed another 65cm Barra before they vanished from the rock bar. We headed off to get some bait. Once again it was scarce and we didn’t get a lot. We headed off to fish one of my locations out of the wind. I caught an 80cm Barra and Dad broke the drought with a 73cm specimen. All in all a very successful day, I broke the 1m barrier and Dad broke his run of ducks! We headed home early with Barra on ice, called into the pub to celebrate with a couple of coldies.

The next day we tried to repeat the same thing. Unfortunately the fish were not holding at the same spot and the wind came up a lot earlier. We tried bait fishing again for a while but there was nothing happening. It was a complete change to the previous day. I think the lack of tide flow on Friday was the reason. There were no color changes at all and the water was crystal clear.

All in all it was a great trip thanks to the action on Thursday. Dad and I will plan to go back again next year.

[rooboy98]

Nice fish......Talk about ending the season on a high!

Cheers,
Roo.

[jackextracter]

Nice one mate i head up there next week, i should be up there now weathers flat up there atm hope it holds until im up,cheers.

[RAT-KING]

Well Done
Thats a great feat the 1m salty is a great effort!
Cheers Simon

[Creek Vermin]

Cracker salty mate. Gotta love hinch.

[STUIE63]

The smiles say it all great fish in a great location
Stuie

[DexyBoy]

There's nothing better than seeing that large silver object appear out of the depths. Nice fish! Still chasing the 1m mark....