awoonga broke my heart

[bagdout]

gday all,

so the plan was for me and jim (goodname) to head to mondy from thurs till sunday. but having read the reports that awoonga was fishing well we decided we would drive the 1.5 hours more to awoonga. we had never fished awoonga before. we were keen as hell so we left tues arvo so we could be on the water first thing wed morning. brother in law lives 15 mins from the dam so we shacked up at his place. watched the awoonga round of afc 7 tues night to get us pumped for our first session of fishing at awoonga.

wednesday,
we got to the ramp at first light and met trev (awoonga). he was doing a bit of "market research" and gave us a few tips and a starting point for our first session. water temps were low. no sign of the sun and the basin had an offshore like swell. so we set off and tried one of his spots for half an hour then decided we would go explore the dam. having studied the map the night before we found a nice point in "new zealand" so we drifted past it and the biggest barra arch we had ever seen came along the sounder. the heart jumped a few beats and an hour into our trip the confidence grew. our first point of the trip and we had found barra. no donuts for us this trip... or so i thought. we spent a while casting for no action so we decided to explore some more and we would come back to that point for our arvo session. we drove around, stopped. drove some more. looking for something to take our fancy. every bay we liked was 4-8 foot and full of weed. so my much loved x rap had to go back in the tackle box. both of us had never had any action on a plastic fishing for barra before (this was only my 4th time fishing for impoundment barra) so confidence in fishing with the plastics was not all that high. we spent the rest of the morning trying to find an afternoon spot spending prob half an hour at each spot.

we went in for lunch then set out for our arvo/ night session. the arvo was much the same as the morning. alot of looking around but we just couldnt find that spot that we were confident in. dark was approaching so we took some of trevs advice and fished a bay in the direction he had pointed us in the morning. the water temp was a degree or 2 warmer than anywhere else we had found all day. so we anchored up and started throwing. again we were fishing the weed and lillies so the x rap got limited use. we cast plastics for a while and i had enough so tied the x rap back on. as dark set in the bay came alive. we heard boofs galore and plenty of bait flicking. we stuck with it for a while before the call was made to head in soon. not long after the call was made i throw my x rap over a patch of lillies. dam! so i make a few quick strikes to get it through the lillies but it doesnt come through easily so i pull a bit harder. we both hear a water splash in the direction of my lure so jim looks over and we see a barra turning around and swimming away from my lure! shit! ####! shit! thats the first time i had missed a barra hit. pulled the line in and felt the chaffed leader. i nearly produced a tear. oh what could have been! it must have been waiting there with its mouth open as my lure was in the water for 3 or 4 seconds before i tried pulling it through the lillies to cast out again. dam it. that was nearly a week ago and i still think about it every time i close my eyes... we gave it half an hour then headed home.

thursday,
water temps were still low and it was much the same as thursday for us. a lot of looking around trying to find that spot that ticks all the boxes. all the weed in the bays we fished messed with my sounder so couldnt get a good reading to find any arches (i think im going to have to invest in a side image). we found it to be a lot different to mondy. none of the points we found looked half as good as the points in mondy. and having fished mainly points for our barra at mondy it was like starting from scratch. we covered a lot of ground for just one follow on my x rap in a bay in "new zealand". time came to head back in thurs night and we were shot ducks. should we have just stuck with our guns and gone to mondy. we have caught fish there before in "tough times". many thoughts were running through our heads. none more than the one that got away the night before.

friday,
we woke to sunny weather and got out on the dam nice and early. the spot we had thought about going to was taken so we tried a few more for nothing. on the way back in we ran into trev again at the calliope servo. he told us what they had been catching them on and gave us a spot he had got a couple fish the morning before. unfortunately gladstone was sold out of the plastic he had told us about but gave us some tips on fine tuning the plastics that we did have. we gave his spot a go fri night for no result but with the water temps higher fri and another good day forecast sat we were confident in the spot we were for our final session sat morn. unfortunately we had commitments back home sunday to play a game of cricket so we only had a few hours fishing sat morn before we had to leave for home. just our luck as the weather forecast sat and sunday was the best since we had been there.

saturday,
trev gave us the heads up that we had to get to the spot he told us about early as it is a popular spot so we were on the water at 4.30am and anchored up just on first light. a few hours went by and we still hadnt had a touch. what were we doing wrong? we fished all different plastics and tried all different types of retrieves. surface lures were used. still nothing. having had enough i tied old faithful back on. the x rap. i found one spot and one spot only that i could cast it without getting tangled in weed or snagged on sticks. half an hour went by and it was about 8 am. nearly time for us to call it home time. the talk in the boat was talk of 2 depressed blokes, being brought back down to earth, and the reality that we were eating donuts on the way home. until... i throw my x rap in sheer anger as far as i can through some sticks hanging out of the water. almost so i could get it snagged just so i could load the loomis up 1 time this trip. and yes, its getting snagged up and caught in weed so i pull it over the snags only to have a barra boil up right behind my lure but not hit it. jim looks over as it swims away and quickly gets an x rap on. the heart races again. how good is barra fishin! confidence grows as we concentrate on the area and intencify our retrieve. not 5 mins later i feel weight on my line and just about throw myself out the boat striking. i still feel weight so i start the pump and wind with my heart literaly beating out of my chest and then my line goes limp... you have got to be kidding. another chaffed leader and missed fish. after a lot of cursing the reality sets in. words cant describe the feeling. its kind of like having everything in your life put in front of you and set alight. heartbreaking heartbreaking stuff.. we only had half an hour left there then we had to leave for home. the hands still get twitchy just writing about it. what made it worse was we got back to the ramp and the first person we talked to hooked up to 8 fish and landed 4. that just made our day. she was a long drive back to the sunny coast.

so all up i got 2 hits, a boil , a follow and a few bumps all on the x rap. jimmy only got 1 bump the whole time. he fished plastics most of the time. big thanks to trev for all the info he gave us. certainly put us in the right direction i just couldnt convert my chances. gave us some good tips on thinking outside the box when it comes to modifying our plastics. wasnt a good trip for us but you get that! ill definately be goin back. learnt alot from the trip. and having talked to someone who knows alot about impoundment barra it showed us just how little we know. looks like ill have to be back on one of the dams before the end of the year to finish on a high... hopefully.

oh and i forgot to mention that we lost the esky lid on the first day down the highway, it got run over. i literaly covered my hand in superglue. tried piercing the foil and was squeezing too hard the other end and it exploded all over me. and managed to break my spotlight the first day in the 3 foot swell in the basin. great trip hey?

cheers, aaran.
stupid barra.

[flatzie]

Smart Barra Aaran!
Wow that was one hard yarn to read, loaded with disappointment, but hey thats fishing...as much as we hate the donut thing.
Funny I did my first trip to Mondy this month and couldnt wait to get to Awoonga LOL...
My mate Shane has missed out 5 times on Mondy but is still goin back, he is surprisingly confident as he has caught well before.
Fishing is a confidence thing, some may say not, but I believe when our attitude gets bent thru disappointment it translates into everything we do as we fish. Robs us of little things that make or break.
I work really hard at keeping my focus and being confident, even if I have missed out in a six hour slug.
I would do as you say, get back on the horse and get up north again, Mondy or Awoonga and keep at it, persistence pays off!
best of luck in the future
Flatzie

[plastix4me]

Nice report Aaran. Although a little disheartening as I'm heading there in about 6 weeks. Oh well, could have been worse, you could have been at work

[leelee]

Thats a shame but you encountered barra which was probably a bit more action then you might have seen at Mondy.

Nice work from Trev as well. He is always happy to help out and is really in contact with what is goin gon in the dam.

Cheers

Lee

[Jarrah Jack]

Thanks for the report Aaron. I've just been fishing up a dam for the last week with similiar results so I know the feeling. Lots of hard work for little reward ( thats relative) but in paradise so best not too fussed.

Time to patch up the heart and continue the learning curve..Thats fishing.

Cheers

[NAGG]

Bad luck Aaran ........ barra fishing can certainly go that way. One part of the dam can be firing while other areas can seem to be dead and devoid of fish ....... then those same areas can just fire up -
Fingers crossed for your next attempt

Chris

[Scott Mitchell]

I also feel your pain Aaron - hang in there & keep at it

It will all be forgotten when you crack it - Scotto

[matt fraser]

Bad luck mate, I feel your pain and have been there before.

Quite often there is a very fine line between donuting and getting fish. We were up there thurs - Monday, and it took me 2&1/2 days before I got one, yet I know other boats found good numbers.

There are lots and lots of things you have to do right to get the results, and it can take time to work them all out.

Thanks for sharing, I know a lot of blokes up there were in the same boat. They are a bloody frustrating fish, but when you get that hit, those donuts will be forgotten.

Cheers,

Matt

[bagdout]

cheers to all for the replies,
flatzie, 100% agree with ya mate. confidence does play a big part i reckon. i know there are many times i find myself casting just for the sake of casting and not really paying attention to what the lure is doing. then kinda snap out of it like you are day dreaming and get back into the swing of things. and yea mate, definately smart barra!

lee, its hard to know how we would have gone at mondy. and thats the thing, we will never know. like i said in my post, we have done well there in tough conditions before and heard of a few bein caught there but it was good to see awoonga and gain some knowledge of the dam for future trips.

matt, i read your report and couldnt believe how many hits you boys had. how 1 of the 6 points on an x rap dont dig into the mouth of a barra still haunts me. especially when your leader is chaffed 5 or 6 inches above the lure. i kept the leaders and hung them up on our barra brag board in the garage just to remind me of the 2 that could have been...

[warrior]

not a great result arron bad luck ,hope all those little things yopu learnt are put into practice for a big session your next trip up there ,when they turn on in that dam it is awsome fishin cheers AL

[NAGG]

cheers to all for the replies,
flatzie, 100% agree with ya mate. confidence does play a big part i reckon. i know there are many times i find myself casting just for the sake of casting and not really paying attention to what the lure is doing. then kinda snap out of it like you are day dreaming and get back into the swing of things. and yea mate, definately smart barra!

lee, its hard to know how we would have gone at mondy. and thats the thing, we will never know. like i said in my post, we have done well there in tough conditions before and heard of a few bein caught there but it was good to see awoonga and gain some knowledge of the dam for future trips.

matt, i read your report and couldnt believe how many hits you boys had. how 1 of the 6 points on an x rap dont dig into the mouth of a barra still haunts me. especially when your leader is chaffed 5 or 6 inches above the lure. i kept the leaders and hung them up on our barra brag board in the garage just to remind me of the 2 that could have been...

dont you just love how barra have the ability to dodge those points

Chris

[Genesis]

Thanks for sharing the experience and I can pretty much relate to the pain and disappointment. Have been out in the past on charters with nothing to show and I can rememeber getting all excited and hyped the nights before each trip

Heading off to Mondy early next week for 4 days and hopefully the pace has picked up a little over there.

cheers

[bagdout]

chris, nah mate i really dont like how they have the ability to dodge them. not at all. but hey... what can ya do.

genesis, good luck at mondy mate. lookin forward to hearing the reports from those who are heading up there in the next few weeks.

cheers, aaran.

[angler1]

sounds like a trip to remember for all the wrong reasons, hope you get on to them on the next trip. im heading there in a week and last time i was there the dam level was 34%, lets hope there jumping in the boat so that the five first timers pick up the "barra bug".

[Boomi Boy]

You might get two thumpers in consecutive casts next time. Dam (impoundment) barra are the fish of a thousand casts, so do the numbers.