Damn those Big Barra!

[Rev]

They just won't leave us alone.

This year we only had one feed of Barra whilst we were away and we didn't even get a couple of fillets to bring home for the family to try.

You see, the problem was we didn't catch enough Barra that were small enough to keep.

Damn the 90cm upper limit, sorry family and friends, alike, no Barra for tea!

Once again I took along some first timers with me, these guys had never been Barramundi Fishing before this trip.

On the first day within two hours of getting the boat into the water, Josh hooked and landed his first ever Barramundi.

This nice little fish of 122cm/50lb set Josh on a path of Barramundi Fishing joy.

This is Josh's first ever Barramundi, hooked and landed. He never even had a bump before this Barramundi took a liking to his lure!

[Rev]

After the struggle to get her into the net and then the obligatory photos, we put this Barramundi, as for many others to follow, back to fight another day.

We then turned and congratulated Josh on his efforts over a text book example of playing big fish.

Josh's response? ???

"So this is Barra fishin' huh?"

[Rev]

From here it was all downhill for Josh!

Not really!

Over the next 4 days, Josh managed Barramundi of 43lb, 41lb, 37lb and a couple of others over the 1 metre or 30lb mark to go with his 50lb'er from the first day. 8)

He was even using novelty lures!

This 114cm/37lb Barramundi was caught on a J.P's Deep Driver straight out of the box. He even left the crappy Bronze hooks on and still got the fish.

For the photo, we've taken the lure out of the mouth of this fine lady and hung it on her lip cause it was too far down her throat to see for a photo otherwise.

Josh just couldn't do a thing wrong!

[Rev]

Not to be outdone, George, who had to learn how to use a baitcaster outfit also got into the act with a couple of Barramundi over the 1 metre/30lb mark.

I had my chances too and dropped a couple of fish around the 40lb mark and when I finally got a few to stay pinned, I thought my luck was taking a turn for the better.

Then it happened, I hooked a monster and as she cleared the water just 5 metres or so from the boat, we could easily see she was noticebly bigger than the 50lb'er from the first day, this baby was gonna pull the scales down to 55lb or even more.

Yeah well, that luck thing? ???

It ran out big time and she started heading for the mangroves and there wasn't a thing I could do about it!

She got me around a tree and before we could get the boat untied, as I held her in position, she came to the surface to give us a last look at a slab side and then powered off and broke the line on the tree!

Some words were said, a rod ended up in the drink and I sat down for a few minutes. .

They got my rod back by virtue of some floating line, so after counting to, at least 1,000 or so, I rerigged and started fishing again.

Guess I'll have to go back next year!.

This is the fourth year in a row we've got into these X.O.S. Barramundi and we're gonna do it again next year.

Who's coming?

The only one of our crew who didn't get a chance to mix it with one of the X.O.S. Barramundi was Mugga. He sure made up for it though out on the Goldie Reef.

See the photos in the Saltwater Photos Forum! Mega Queenfish

This is one of George's 1 metre+ Barramundi.

All of these Barramundi were caught casting to structure, none of them were trolled up, in fact we only spent about one or two hours, in total, trolling for the whole week!

Josh, George and Mugga are all from Goulburn, where Josh owns the Goulburn Fish 'n' Shoot.

Pop in and say G'day, I'm sure he has a story or two about the trip.

[sooty]

Mate,
Well I guesss thet proves that all big barra are female if they will suck down a lure like that or ????????
see ya, Sooty

[Tally]

Just Tops mate,

Where were those rippa barra caught and what sort of lures were youse using.

Cheers,
Jay.

[Rev]

Jay,

They were caught in the creeks around the Mary River System in the Northern Territory, no need to go to Bensbach for Big Barra.

The 50lb'er was caught up the top of Tommy Cut Creek.

We were using big Bombers (B16A) and Gaden's 160's (Deep and Shallow), Mann's Stretch 20+ as well as the J.P.'s Deep Driver!