First Monduran Trip

[Peter4]

My son and I headed to Monduran on Friday for our first barra trip. Neither of us have ever caught a barra before.

On Friday morning my second cast using an RMG Scorpian yielded a baby catfish. At least it was something. For the rest of the day we threw lures around the sticks. Shallow divers, deep divers, poppers and soft plastics for no result. The occasional bump but no hook-ups.

Next day started at 5.00am. Same tactics and same result - a few bumps but no hook-ups. We tried some late morning trolling and I picked up my first ever bass! The fat bugger went 46cm on the bragmat and was caught on a silver RMG Scorpian meant for barra. Pictures will follow.

Just after we caught him a small barra leapt clear of the water not two metres off our port bow! If only I was quicker with the net. He turned out to be the only barra we saw for the entire trip. Might be time to invest in a sounder.

On Sunday morning a cool change saw us try using live shrimp in an attempt to pick up bass or jew as the local barra were still not co-operating. After three hours (and three catfish later) we gave it away and packed up to go home.

The only 'good' news is that no-one seemed to be doing any better. After the comp last week the barra decided to have the weekend off!

Still its a great spot and we had a lot of fun. Have already booked my next trip in early 2007 to try and break our barra 'duck'.

Pete

[Big_Ren]

Best of luck Pete for next time. It is a very addictive form of fishing and once you break your duck, there will be no going back

Cheers
Paul

[bakes]

we headed up sunday for a day trip with same results was very cold and windy. we did end up hooking one though and end up losing it due to the lure snapping in half.

[Big_J]

Best of luck Pete for next time. It is a very addictive form of fishing and once you break your duck, there will be no going back

Cheers
Paul

Thats ok pete I have been to monduran 4 times first time I had to whatch my mate catch 2 metre + barra and me nothing other two trips nothing and the 4th trip my brother was in hes boat following me casting at a point and he had to catch the only barra on the point 93cm.Next time Im going be my self.

[Peter4]

Here's the pic of my first bass (46cm)

Pete

[Peter4]

Me and the bass and RMG Scorpian

[Peter4]

Bloody catfish!

[Peter4]

My rig at the boat ramp

[Big_Ren]

Hi Peter

In that last photo, it looks as though you are holding a terribly long and beefy outfit. What was your combo out of curiosity?

Cheers
Paul

[Peter4]

You're right, Paul. I got scared off by all the posts of metre plus barra and 50lb braid and 80lb leaders so I took my 7 foot ugly stick (that I usually use to pull sharks out of Moreton Bay or the Logan River) loaded with 30lb braid and 60lb leader.

It is surprisingly easy to use for casting lures and trolling but a bit awkward in the boat and around all the timber.

Next time I will stick to a 5'6" baitcaster combo (which I also had with me in the boat).

Regs

Pete

[Hakunamatata]

I'm a bit behind on reading the posts on here Peter but it sounds like your not the only one missing out.
My first trip is going to be just after xmas some time but it looks like I'd better source out some local knowledge and pointers before I go, otherwise with my luck I'll definately catch nothing.

Cheers DARC

[SeekingBarradise]

Hi Peter4 nice work on printing an honest report of how things have been for many up there or on many a barra dam. Especially those of us that are not lucky enough to be locals at a Barra Dam.

We have been up there twice in the last month and caught an 89cm Barra but didn't have time to get it to the judges in the recent comp up there ha and it would have won LOL damn but it makes for a good fishing story now!!!! 12 hours casting to get hit late in the day ggg. It was in 5-7ft of water hot 28" water on dusk with a gar shaped lure.

I caught a 93cm Barra (2 weeks before the comp) the one a couple of posts up=i got right in front of BigJ ha and it was such a nice fish it put a hard fight like a fish over a metre i was really impressed - it was caught in 7ft of water 25" at 9.30am on a barra classic.

gggg thats a swimming garbage bin BigJ is holding in his personal pic isn't it!!! What a great fish.

For advice nearly 2 years ago i called a guy ( Brett Jones) i think he is stillwater on here as he runs stillwater charters at bundy/monduran and he gave the best no bs advice i think i have ever heard in the Barra industry. Even told us when they were and were not biting!!!! We hadn't even met the guy gggg great service thanks Brett.

We called him after we were basically conned into going to Awoonga with false reports (lots of hype) a couple of years back ha where we watched even the pros cast for over 3 days on end and not catch fish ha

Brett Jones gave us some great advice- never met the guy - but plan to over many a trip to Monduran as we are going to make this our number one dam instead of driving past the thousands of barra that live in the dam - and there are some huge ones in there it's just that most people lose them in the timber - so they don't make it to the photos etc.

By the way nice Bass ggg a nice fat one too. And you got the dreaded catfish ha you know the rules there - every time you talk to a fisho who has caught the most catfish on the trip you have to use catfish in front of their name until they catch a barra. eg catfishpete ha. Sure motivates ou to catch that barra LOL.

Best of luck on all your future trips and get on to stillwater he is the guru up there and sounds like a good bloke to boot. We need more like him who provide great service and no bs which keeps people coming back.

All the best - SeekingBarradise.

[SeekingBarradise]

Here is the 89cm Barra.

[Shooter]

Bad luck with the fish Pete but you couldn’t found a better spot to spend a few days. Better luck next time.