Reply With QuoteGood read Dave,,, pitty some of them couldn't have hooked up better but that's Barra fishing....
But you are right mate the thing's we learn on here help heap's..
Cheers Baz
The young fella(Mike) and I arrived at the camp ground on Thursday night to high humidity and a sprinkle of rain to start our first trip for the year. A couple of quiet drinks were needed to settle the IBD until the morning and off to bed.
The plan was to fish "B" on Friday before the crowds turned up on Saturday, when we would head for quieter water up the back and also to mainly use plastics.
Gentleman’s start on Friday morning (luckily Mike likes a sleep in as much as I do). We started fishing weed beds up the back of south B. Probably only fishing for an hour or so when a 66 hits my Evergreen jointed minnow while doing a slow roll. Dave 1, Mike 0, Barra 0. All quiet for a couple of hours so we decided to try some wind blown points, back towards the main river but still in south B. Since I had 4 rods on board, I selected 4 different plastics to use, 130mm Slick rig, 110mm Slick rig, 5” Hollowbelly and a 5” Storm swim shad rotating through each one using different retrieves. The hollowbelly was the only one without an owner stinger. Mike was doing a similar thing but also using a few HB’s as well. Soon after tying off, Mike’s 130mm Slick rig gets hammered . The initial run was a good 50 meters with us giving chase on the leccy through the timber. The fight ended quickly with the Barra doing a 360 around a tree 10 ft down. By the time we realised how she had stitched Mike up, it was all over.
Dave 1, Mike 0, Barra 1. Having never had a look in North B before, we tried a couple of weedy points for no result. By now it is 4.30 pm so we decided to fish the point where Mike lost the fish earlier for the rest of the day until dark. 30 minutes after trying off, my Storm gets air-born with a Barra attached. On the 2nd jump, she spits the plastic back at me. Dave 1, Mike 0, Barra 2.
The plan for Saturday was to fish up the back of the dam but after Friday’s results we decided to have another look in south B and then up to the back after lunch. South B was very quiet. Very few boats were seen and not even a bump. So off to H and F we go. We tried a few different bays and threw to the timber with no luck and finally tried up within casting range of a good looking laydown. ½ hour in and my Storm is nailed by another flying Barra. 1 more jump and she stitches me up in the snags under the boat and wears through the 80lb leader in no time. Dave 1, Mike 0, Barra 3.
Sunday morning comes around and an early start of 5am is needed to get in a few more fishing hours before the trip back home. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the fish before heading back to camp to pack up.
Water temps were high 29’s to 32 by the end of the day. Although we did find 33.2 in H around 4pm on Saturday.
Wind from the southeast for the week or so before.
Friday southeast at my guess of 10kts and new moon.
Saturday southeast again at 10kts in the morning but reducing with calm times in the later afternoon.
Sunday morning calm.
3 of the 4 hookups were to 5” Storm Wildeye Swim Shads using a slow roll and high stick to keep it out of the weed.
4th hookup was to a 130mm Slick rig.
Stingers on all plastics.
In 3 years of fishing Mondy this was our first serious effort to put into practice some of the great info shared by the Ausfish community. Things like
1. fishing wind blown points
2. trying to find currents
3. tying up rather than using the leccy
4. spending more than ½ hour at a location
5. plastics
6. stingers
7. different retrieves.
In the past we have been lucky enough to fluke a fish casting with many donuts in between. Never before have we had such success at locating fish. Hopefully our next trip will be as good so we can improve the next bit. Getting the buggers to the boat. I think the mistake we made was our fighting technique was inflexible. Basically we used middle of the road drag pressure and hung on and prayed. That approach should work OK in open water but in the confines of the timber appears to be inadequate. So our next trick is to learn when to lock up the drag and when to freespool.
I’ll put up the pics tonight.
Dave
Not to get technical...... but according to Chemistry, ALCOHOL IS A SOLUTION
Good read Dave,,, pitty some of them couldn't have hooked up better but that's Barra fishing....
But you are right mate the thing's we learn on here help heap's..
Cheers Baz
on ya mr callop and son, staying connected is always challenge ...good work putting freindly advice into practice......and hookin some fish....
cheers, catch up soon.....deano..
God put me on earth to accomplisha certain number of things,right now i am so far behindi will never die.
Good read there Dave & it sounds like you're putting a few of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzel together ......... finding and hooking fish is a great place to be .
Chris
Give a man a fish & he will eat for a day !
Teach him how to fish
& he will sit in a boat - & drink beer all day!
TEAM MOJIKO
Good read dave and mike it's a mongrel when they get you on the timber down below a fish to the boat so not a nut trip well done hope we can d at least the same this weekend
shane
Nice report Dave and a good result for your trip, well done mate.
Now all you have to do is post the picture with a Mondy Cup sticker visible so i can put your score up on the Mondy Cup Scoreboard.
Cheers,
John.
Informative report Dave and well done on finding the fish. Finding them and hooking them consistantly is certainly a big part of the equation that I struggle with. One in the boat avoids that dreaded donut trip.-Richard
Your score has been posted in The Mondy Cup Progressive Score Sheet Dave.
Cheers,
John.
Nice work boys, good informative report Dave, thanks.
Hope you can make it up for a visit next month.
Pete.
Great report Dave,
good to see putting the theories to practice worked for you,
as others said one in the boat is great, i would be happy with that,
i bet it made the drive home all worth while,
hopefully the others will stick next time
keep the reports coming mate,
Cheers,
Ben
Well done Dave & Mike,
Isn't great when your put learnings and theories into practice....and they work!
Next time you'll have a boatfull of barra!
Regs
Pete & Kyle
Top Report Dave, great to hear about fellow Ausfishers learning from here, and applying their knowledge on the water, with results!
There is definitely a lot of skill required to fight those fish in timber, I'm only very new to it, but found spin easier than baitcast in the timber, because once they take off against the drag its impossible to get the freespool to disengage on a baitcaster. Tips from Jason Wilhelm and Scotty McCauley suggested backing drags right off after hookup and chasing, using thumbs/fingers on spools when you get the chance. Lots of fun and adrenaline, it works well around standing timber, but once they go around something on the bottom, then you're pretty much stuffed.
Well done.
Matt
Nice work Dave,
Good work Dave and thanks for the report !!
It was also great to catch up again..thanks for the CD too!!
Cheers Steve
Great report Dave and Mike!
Finding fish and converting into strikes is the hardest part I reckon, from there its in the hands of the Gods whether you mat the fish or not in tiger country!
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