Hope no one minds my questions.
Barramundi are totally new to me. I live in Central Florida, USA and found out today that Barramundi are being raised in farm ponds about an hour from my home (for fishing and food).
I called and made an appointment to fish this coming Saturday.
All fishing is with artificials/barbless hooks ONLY.
My questions are:
what are the top artificials for Barramundi in Australia?
what techniques are most successful with artificials?

The fish are 1-2 years old and 5-9lbs (2-4kg ??)
The ponds are about 1.5 metre deep and fresh water (maybe 18-20 deg C)
air temperature is mid 20's C with 5-10km wind
prtly cloudy with occasional light rain
Saturday is 2 days before a full moon. We will fish 1-5pm with a rising moon at 3:30pm (sunset at 5:30pm)

G'day blacksnake, any of them bass lures they use over there would do the trick. Just make sure the hooks are up to the job.
i wouldnt worry about technique to much as there pond fish.Just vary it.
soft plastics would be the way to go. cheers

What sort of fish do you normally catch in Florida blacksnake? Do you get those monster alligator gar? Largemouth bass? Always wanted to know exactly what a "crappie" is and how it got that name ...

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Don't quite know where the name "crappie" came from. Its a name used more in the Northern US states. Here in Florida the more common name for these fish is "Speckled Perch". They are fun to catch but small. Also very good to eat when fried in Corn meal.
I ussualy catch Largemouth and black bass up to about 5kg along with Pickeral and bowfin in lakes and inland rivers. There are 3-4 types of large gar but they are difficult to catch on hook&line. If bait fish are schooling I can catch smaller gar on Zara spooks or lipped minnow lures. They have a mouth full of razor sharp teeth
Amazon Peacock bass are plentiful in South Florida and love topwater lures. My grandson loves to catch peacocks on baby torpedo prop baits.
We fish the coastal estuaries mostly for red drum (your jewfish I think), black drum, speckeled sea trout (great topwater fish), jack crevalle, snook, etc.
The area around the Kennedy Space Center where the shuttle launches is particularly great for inshore species like these and is a wildlife preserve.
Nearshore waters on both coasts are good for Tarpon, Shark, Cobia, Dolphin, Tuna, Wahoo, King mackeral, spanich mackeral, baracuda, grouper, (many saltwater species are found here).

Again, thanks for the info on the Barramundi.

Sounds like you have some excellent fishing - are the peacock bass artificially stocked fish?

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Matt,

http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zeromain

the above web address is our fishing forum (like yours) with photos and loads of info. I ussually fish the East Central, all Gulf Coast areas and the Keys along with most freshwater areas.
The peacock bass were stocked into South Florida inshore waters in Miami about 20 years ago.
The People of Miami were emptying their aquarium fish into their massive backyard canal system and those tropical aquarium fish were thriving in the warm (all year) Miami brackish canal and lake waters along with Largemouth bass, snook, tarpon, red drum, black drum, etc
The exotics were actually thinning out the largemouth bass population severely so The State Fisheries Commision went looking for a method to stop the growing exotic population in those Miami canals and lakes.
The Peacocks were the answer. since they are MUCH more aggressive than largemouth bass they quickly brought the exotic fish population under control and they also live in perfect harmony with the local sport fish (largemouth, snook, tarpon, etc)........ perfect combo it seems
We fish for them with topwaters (spooks and props) and rapala floating minnows exclusively and catch roughly 30-50 per day from 1-4 kg.
They can only survive in Miami's waters which never drop below 16 deg C thru the year. So as the peacock might try to migrate Northward they never get farther than West Palm Beach, just North of Miami so they are not a threat to fish populations in the remainder of the state or USA.
BUT,
Last month a local angler posted a photo of a Pacu (red breasted Amazon Piranha) that he caught in the East central part of the state. (Bad news I think). The feeling is that these piranha must be able to withstand lower water temps than the peacock and thats not good for local swimmers or fish.
Fishing here is very good but fishing pressure is equally severe.

Just got this email from blacksnake. He writes: I spoke to Byron (owner of the ponds). He is planning a new pond to open next summer. He plans to put brush piles and debris in various spots to create a more natural and realistic environment for the fish. He said that he will have jonboats with trolling motors for rent so that anglers can move about in the pond and fish for 20+lb fish in a more natural manner (catch release of course).
He has been told by his Australian supplier that the fish will ultimately reach 40lb-50 (18-23kg) in these ponds. thru the next few years (10kg by next summer).
This might work out well.
I believe that we may see more of this in the near future as fishing is becoming tremendously popular in the States and the opportunity to make money is great. Construction is booming in Florida at an unbelievable rate. I read that 4000 familys are moving to our state each month.
With that in mind, it is a standard practice here to create undisturbed ponds near any area of earth that is covered by construction or paved parking or streets so that water has a place to soak back into the earth naturally and maintain the below ground water tables where we get our drinking water.
There are huge new shopping malls popping up everywhere with monstrous parking lots and 10-20 acre ponds such as I mentioned (called "retention ponds") (probably the same in Australia)
If someone were to add fish and supply tackle then I'd guess that most of the men would fish while their wives shop!
This could be a $$$$$$$$$ business.
I'll continue to post photos as we catch more fish.

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Now i would definantly be more inclined to say yes to those request to go shopping from she who must be obeyed. just imagine she goes off and spends money but your still on a high from the last two hours of barra bliss.

Pagey

Would have been better to stock with Nile Perch as they would breed in the fresh water impoundments. Imagine landing a 130lb Nile perch from the bank on the barra gear Now I reckon even my missus would skip the shopping to see that.

The fact that they would breed in freshwater probably makes them less desirable from a ecological point of view. Niles can be a disaster coz they are big and greedy.

I am curious how Florida people can stock fish like barramundi and peacock bass - the fisheries managers here in Australia would have a fit if someone tried stocking PNG bass in a local dam.

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dont mean to sound like a cynic but since when have the americans (govt) ever given too much of a damn about the environment??

The USA is starting to make a lot of progressive moves to restore damaged waterways. Although the amount of money being spent is probably small compared with their defence spending.

But they are definitely fixing (or attempting to fix) damaged places like the Everglades, and some of the salmon rivers that have been dammed.

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.............pretty soon by the sounds of it we will be able to go to the good old U.S.A. and get a guided barra trip*** ............I wonder what effect that would have on our tourism???????????....


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Pretty much, eh? You are curious about what effect that would have on our tourism.

.............well what do you think???????????????..........and how did you do that??????????