Following on from my effort last year of landing a 80cm barra on 4lb line on a 65mm bubble pop, I snuck out this afternoon solo for a land based quick session. Aim was to land one on the fly rod, but took the light bass gear along as well, just in case it was too windy. Well is was windy, but I did get the long wand whirling a bit, but most was on the spin gear. The main line was 4lb, but I did take the easy option this time and upgraded the leader from 6lb to 12lb.
30mins in, I landed a 74cm barra with a tiny shallow diving HB, whilst working a lilly edge. Moved on and the wind dropped, so I brought out the fly rod. Had several missed hits and two where i failed to set the hook, then I hooked onto a small barra, that took to the air and on the 5th attempt threw the hook. Damn. Kept working away at weed beds and lilly edges then hooked up to a monster. Certainly buckled the 8w fly rod over and I thought i had it beat, then it took to the air about 4m away and it was well over the metre mark. Fly pulled and I was a tad disappointed
. Wind came back up, so changed back to the spin gear, but as it was starting to get later, I changed over to the bubble pop again. 4-5 casts later, the little rod buckles over again and I back the drag off after setting the hook. Barra about 95cm-100cm starts jumping but straightens the treble and spits it back at me. Tied on a little surecatch popper and back into the fray. Had about 6 boofs at the popper before finally hitting the mark. Again to the air she went and the battle began, I backed off the drag a bit more and fought it out. Finally got it to the shore edge, but there was a fair amount of weed and lilly there making landing difficult. Ended up wading in and comfort lifting the barra out. Went 88cm on the mat and I was pretty damn happy
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Now wet and being eaten by mossies, I called it a night and headed home.
Obvious next challenges are a barra on fly and a metre barra on 4lb bass gear. You can see on the photo of the 74, the little HB on the mat that did the damage.
Steve
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Originally Posted by NAGG
. I can't see why I can't reach my metre plus target though on 4lb. Just need to improve skills and thinking
. Some one has to push the limits. Just think that only a year ago, it was thought 50lb line and 80lb leader was essential to land a barra. I have done it on less than 10% of that and you good guys are landing monsters on 20-30lb line.
. Learnt a lot watching that.
