Awoonga / Boynedale Bush Camp - 1st Trip

[NormC]

If SeekingBarradise's stats are correct (150 to 200 Hrs per barra), I'm not sure if I feel better or worse. On the plus side, I only fished for 30 to 35 hours for mine. On the down side, that means a lot more time next trip to even things out!!!

Another often quoted stat is that 90% of fish are caught by 10% of fishermen. Other than beach and rock fishing (where I started many years ago), I'm not close to that 10% in any fishing category. The average time between barra for these guys would be far less. The objective therefore is to get the knowledge and experience to join to top 10%.

Bugger. Lots more fishing trips needed to get there. Life's tough isn't it.

[BR65]

Agree with all of the above Norm, and a damn nice photo to boot.
cheers
Brian

[SeekingBarradise]

I agree NormC - it's hard for those that travel thousands of km's to be in the know on the dam from week to week as it changes all the time - especially with dropping water levels making old good spots out of the question etc.

As for the 10% - yes i agree but again very hard for the non locals to be on the money all the time. And even harder to get the good honest info from them ha. Some stats from the BBB mag on last years Barra comp for the pro's where reputations are at stake.

I'm sure awoonga was the hardest dam for the pro's to catch fish on last year - average was around 14 hours casting per person per fish. Now if pro's take 14hours a fish - what is a non pro or non local's average going to be. 30 hours is looking very good now in my book ha. You can see how 100+hours plus is easily clocked up with non locals only on the dam for a couple of days for a few hours each day = a huge dam at that.

The 14 hours was in summer which is a biggggyyy. I saw a comp there in winter when there were were 80+ boats on the water and over 2 days we only saw 7 fish confirmed. Each boat had atleast 3/4 people on it - around 240 people - even small x 8 hour days x 2 days you get 4000hours total fishing time. You don't want to know the average for this one ha.scary! But this is what happened - no changing that.

Interesting note was that Awoonga was the hardest dam to fish out of all the Barra dams and i think Tineroo was the best. I'll have to track down that article i have it here somewhere ha as i always keep them to see if any stories change over the years and a few have slipped up within 2 years going full circle with opinions.

The competition guys had all the latest info - were all good fisho's - reputations at stake-and had pre fished the dam for the comp then went at it like the clappers as if their life depended on it - with a few locals also included who know the dam very well. Averages in this situation will always be lower. Especially when they are following locals to the gun spots. Many don't have a deadline to get back to work in tip top condition on monday so they can go at it all night casting without getting sacked on monday - all these things come it to consideration. This group is less than .1% of all fishos. If they were on a social fish not going as hard and enjoying the great outdoors even these averages would go up.

For a travelling angler from SEQ or down south we are pretty much forced in to another category -as it's not our local dam. Remember i think many central Queenslanders would do it hard at cressbrook dam against the toowoomba bass pro locals in a comp in the middle of a freezing cold winter - especially if carl jocabson fished the same day!!!

30 hours for a fish - well done i say as i agree with setthehook all reports we have got say it's (honestly) been pretty hard up there on most days with patchy bites in the right conditions - but you have to be local to make the most of them on the day.

Solution: Ausfish members in SEQ need to chip in for a chopper so we can fly up there (1.5hrs maybe ha) and get the best of conditions ha.

All the best up there guys and if you see us on the dam please say hi as it's always great to catchup with like minded people who love the outdoors!!

Cheers SeekingBarradise

ps. Mate i got these 2 fish trolling the same area = it's a nice area and holds fish.

[SeekingBarradise]

Trolling same area at night.

[barradise]

Hi Norm,
I was out their also that weekend and noticed a lot of boat trolling around the deep holes near lambing flats however I believe very little was being acheived.
We ducked up into the small creeks and hand casted shallow divers and got among a few fish in the late afternoon.
Nothing huge but great fun just the same.
Trolling the upper Boyne arm usually fish's best after dark, although that is being more difficult with the shallowing waters on the way back to camp.
Don't worry too much about the boat ramp, we locals move with the tide so to speak and will simply make another one when the the time is right.
John.

[SeekingBarradise]

Hi NormC it turns out you were in the right area as many comp guys pulled fish from the upper arm of the dam and all the tournament pro's were stationed up flutter and the boyne river arm of the dam.

We don't think you were doing anything wrong. Good to know your tactics regarding areas chosen to fish turned out to be right as we followed the tournament guys up there to see where they would fish to se if it was anything different to what we would do etc and maybe learn a bit etc. It looked like 70+% of them were in the top arm of the dam.

There were 2-3 confirmed hottt bites and they were both up that way with 20 fish being caught and many lost in 2 seperate areas up that way. They said " no skill needed you could cast anything at them and they would hit it - even on the drop"

The info we have said that it was only a narrow 10m strike zone and you had to barr the spot so others didn't steal it from you.

An interesting note was that people not far away from the hot spots got little fishing action. You had to be right on that 1 or 2 spots in the dam to have a ball and only 2-3 fishos out of 200 crossed paths with that spot because it's such a big dam.

Good on them they had a ball - wish it was us ha. We managed a 107cm for the trip thank god and dropped a 90ish at the boat with a couple more touches etc

Anyway we thought you would want to know this info. All the best for future trips.

Cheers SeekingBarradise