Took the family up to try our hand at catching a barra at Aussie fishing park on the sunshine coast today. We used the pellets that were supplied by the park, some live poddy mullet that I netted before we got there and I had some plastics and my bream gear with me.
It was a stinking hot day so we found a spot under a shelter and stopped there to fish with the pellets, intending to get the kids a barra before using the livies in the big boys pond or at the least the mixed species pond. We worked bloody hard for a good 2 hours to no avail and the kids soon lost interest, you could see the fish come and hit other pellets floating in the water but when they came to one with a hook in it they would just give it a nudge and move on to the next >
Anyways after the boys had lost the plot I took a walk around flicking plastics in various places and finally had a hook up after several serious bumps and numerous follows right up to my feet. I was a bit dissapointed with the fight, but I expect that a wild caught barra would give a better account of itself than one landlocked in pond with no real water flow.
Still my first barra though, didn't put the tape on him so not exactly sure of length or weight but would guess that it was around the 500-550mm. Very happy to finally catch something after spending a good three hours in the sun. We completed the day with a trip maroochydore beach to cool off before heading home.
Cheers Kev