Barra Size Projections for 2009 - 2014..and Beyond!

[flatzie]

Well lets dream a bit and put some thoughts down on what I guess many of us talk about in boats, around fires and over a beer from time to time.

Just reading the reports of this warmer season, it seems to me there are increasing percentages of metre plus fish in the reports, any others note that?

How big will these Impoundment Barra grow??!!! say in the next 5-10 years.
Will they peak in length and just get become huge deep lunkers with fat bellies like many Golden Perch do, or will they grow proportionally into streamlined monsters?

I'm certainly no expert on this, but I hear there are Trex sized barra in Tinaroo, Monsters in Monduran, and Awesome Meterys in Awoonga...and elsewhere.
Could they grow to the proportions of their cousins in the Nile?
Questions are being asked...inquiring minds NEED to know!

Be great to hear from some of the scientific, stocking people, and others who have been more closely monitoring growth rates.
What will that mean for tackle requirements?
I mean, will it actually be scary motoring on to one of these lakes in 2014? LOL!

I would love to hear others opinions and thoughts on this

Cheers
Flatzie

[eotbmg]

Hey mate
My thoughts are that the barra will reach a near maximum length all the while fattening up.....We have discussed this several times amongst the regular fishos. I dont think they keep on growing in length because there would be 160 and 170cm fish swimming around and in 4 - 5 years time they will be a reasonably common capture like a 120cm is now days.
Now i have no scientific evidence to support my opinion, its just that...my opinion,
Saltwater barra are a complete kettle of ....Barra
Ben

[mr_yamba]

genetics scientifically support your opinion, however girth is limited according to these rules also. it's like people. nature vs nurture. even under ideal conditions there are limits. in the wild there are too many variables to predict so it's very hard to say what will happen. will be fun to wait and see.

Hey mate
My thoughts are that the barra will reach a near maximum length all the while fattening up.....We have discussed this several times amongst the regular fishos. I dont think they keep on growing in length because there would be 160 and 170cm fish swimming around and in 4 - 5 years time they will be a reasonably common capture like a 120cm is now days.
Now i have no scientific evidence to support my opinion, its just that...my opinion,
Saltwater barra are a complete kettle of ....Barra
Ben

[NAGG]

Just my opinion

But with no breeding (gene pool) & no predation by an apex predator - i doubt we will see really long fish (survival of the fittest evolution)
More likely we will see the mummas grow fatter rather than longer - so we could see 30kg + fish in the high teens low 20s (aka Homer)
The other thing will be local conditions ..... bait , water levels & climate - This could temper the growth that could be achieved.

Chris

[flatzie]

It could be possible that some of the fish could break out of the mould and grow longer, we all seem to think they will get fatter/rounder. Yes I agree too that local conditions may affect the equation. It seems there is a huge amount of bait in Awoonga, Monduran etc, so food shouldnt be an issue.
Flatzie

[BobbyJ123]

In 1964 at Broome, WA I saw a barra caught in the local sea nets near the old jetty. The owner, a professional, came down at the bottom of the tide and asked my mates and I to help him load it on the back of his ute. He measured it at 6 ft.
Incidentally, there was a 9 ft shovel nosed shark in the nets, but the pro was not interested in it.

[mr_yamba]

6ft is 182.88cm. i reckon i would have to see it to beleive it. thats HUGE!!! imagine catching that on a rod.

[Cammy]

The barra up at Underwater world are pretty big, i reckon 130cm + would be the average. All of those were probably tank specimens or are specimens that came from a hatchery. They definatly do have the potential to grow to 6ft+ in the wild or not.

Regs,
Cam

[rhycebullimore]

134cm has been electrofished in fresh weirs locally here

[Tropicaltrout]

Yep I think IMHO it a case of some fish will all pull up 120 to 125cm long, with the exception of a few grown to the magic 130+ mark much like us as humans, some are 5 foot, most average between 5ft 10 and 6 foot, then there are the tall buggers and last but not least a rare few that are huge... and in barra that maybe the 140cm fish....

Either way I am glad to catch any size Barra they are just so special.

[Jeremy87]

The 150cm+ models seen in the wild truely are freaks of nature. From an evolutionary stand point there is probably little selection pressure for them to reach that size and hence they are so infrequently encountered.

For the record the terms "selection pressure" and "evolution" cannot actually be used for impoundment barra. Both processes require a succession of generations subject to the specific environmantal charactristics of their habitat space. ie evolution and selection pressure cannot occur because they cannot reproduce. The so called "evolution" of barra impoundments is actually due to behavioural adaptations and from a process called phenotypic plasticity (where variability of a trait is actually genetically coded for, and the environmental conditions dictate what trait is expressed).

If it does eventuate that impoundment barra do apparently max out in the 130's it may not necissarily be due to the limitations of their habitat, but instead due to a genetic incapacity to do so. When you consider that all the animals have come from hatcheries and therefore from a relatively small gene pool then it is possible that growth is limited. however if it does occur that these impoundment barra do reach truely gargantuan sizes then a high proportion of the wild population also have the capacity to do so. In which case we are having a profound effect on the stocks of wild populations.

[black_sheep]

I agree with jeremy. 150cm fish are freaks of nature but are still encountered every few yrs in the wild - Hinchenbrook, Ross River, Daly etc. The ones I have seen don't have the girth of an impoundment fish.

I have seen a few impoundment fish around the 130-135cms mark. I think anything bigger (even in 5 yrs time) will be a rarity but they will be bloody fat.

There is 'apparentely' a photo in a Sunny Coast tackle shop of a 145cm (not on a brag mat) from Mondy - apparentely it looks every bit of 145cms.

My skinny arse can barely hold a 123!!!! I'm happy with that size for now until I can afford a Tiagra 50!

[Peter4]

If they do get to 140cm+ do we have any chance of landing them, especially in the timber?

Last week Trev (Awoonga) landed a 121 that took him around a 200m or so circle in open water before it tired and was able to be boated. Apparently it was a lengthy fight...

In April I got smashed by an estimated 120+ in the timber and it was all that I could manage just to hold on until she busted me off. No chance of turning her head, let alone stopping her.

Add 20cm more in length, 10kg more in weight and 100% more attitude and it may be impossible to get these fish to the boat.

Didn't Steve B mention hooking up to a high powered submarine in Mondy last year? I think he said something along the lines of there was no stopping that fish...

Interesting topic...

Pete

[NAGG]

If they do get to 140cm+ do we have any chance of landing them, especially in the timber?

Last week Trev (Awoonga) landed a 121 that took him around a 200m or so circle in open water before it tired and was able to be boated. Apparently it was a lengthy fight...

In April I got smashed by an estimated 120+ in the timber and it was all that I could manage just to hold on until she busted me off. No chance of turning her head, let alone stopping her.

Add 20cm more in length, 10kg more in weight and 100% more attitude and it may be impossible to get these fish to the boat.

Didn't Steve B mention hooking up to a high powered submarine in Mondy last year? I think he said something along the lines of there was no stopping that fish...

Interesting topic...

Pete

Funnily Pete ..... my 124 - I regard as one of the easier metery captures ...... chased it down quickly ... one pass of the boat & netted - It was a big /fat fish that lacked any stamina. (I couldn't lift it)
OBI-WANS (April 09) & Whiteys (March 09) were both uncontrolable in open water ...... both dusted the respective anglers.

Over the past 12 months....... I reckon there has been around 15-18 encounters on my boat with fish that would be in that 120+ mark - The score is 5 landed & only 1 from the timber.
so we are seeing plenty of big fish in Mondy & hopefully plenty more to come.

chris

[Steve B]

If they do get to 140cm+ do we have any chance of landing them, especially in the timber?

Last week Trev (Awoonga) landed a 121 that took him around a 200m or so circle in open water before it tired and was able to be boated. Apparently it was a lengthy fight...

In April I got smashed by an estimated 120+ in the timber and it was all that I could manage just to hold on until she busted me off. No chance of turning her head, let alone stopping her.

Add 20cm more in length, 10kg more in weight and 100% more attitude and it may be impossible to get these fish to the boat.

Didn't Steve B mention hooking up to a high powered submarine in Mondy last year? I think he said something along the lines of there was no stopping that fish...

Interesting topic...

Pete

Pete, I cant remember...I know I have never got to a stage where I have began to worry about being spooled (and thats fishing relatively light drag)...I have had fish fight thinking.....yeeeah this is big!! but they punch well above their weight. Bit like Chris's experience, ol Homer really didnt go that hard or dirty....nothing noteworthy compared to some of the 98-110 specimens that I reckon go the hardest....I reckon they are the beefed up teenagers of the barra world

I agree with nath, Like humans there will be exceptions, tall or short...but the general population will be around a average and just get fatter...like us humans!! What that average is?? who knows.

cheers Steve