North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Whats the trick to barra this time of the year gutters, deep water, shallows, fast water?? its very hard to get bazzas this time of the year. we have tried live and dead bait, lures soft plastics tried to find out and got a result of fast retreived lures and flashy soft plastics tips please

Stake out an area for a few sets of tides, if you haven't already done so, pay attention all the time, watch the water for bait or predator activity. They are there and they have to eat, even if the feeding windows are shorter and not as intense. Most importantly what Abu yabba doo said.

If you are running livies, keep them out there when you are luring. You will catch them. You can have the "why barra" discussion whilst you are waiting and then quickly be reminded when you get one.

I prefer the shallower areas, unless there is a thermocline, but difficult to get in the harbours up here. Shallow Rocky shallow areas are my pick as I believe that the rocks will hold the heat better than mud/mangroves. A theory and probably but it works for me.

Good luck.

Doors Off

Thats it, they like the shallows in the middle of the day, warms up a bit more in the shallows,
sitting in the snake drains waiting for something to come by.

What Doors Off said, particularly with regard to feeding windows. Barra being cold blooded like most fish have a lower metabolic rate when the water is cooler. Therefore their intake of food will be less than when it is higher. They will feed then go off and digest. The feeding time will be dependant on a lot of things and whilst water temp is one consideration so to are other factors such as tidal movement, bait movement, light, or lack of etc etc. Observation of your environment will give you the clues to what the trigger/s are.

My diary from the full to new moon in May last year shows a run of fish been caught between 2.30 and 3.15am. This year may well be different due to higher water levels.

I think stable water temps, the warmer the better are a key to finding the fish, that could be deeper pockets of the river particularly when the weather top side is not real good or areas where warm water moves off shallow sections of the river by either current or wind particularly mid late afternoon.

Remember a barra caught in the cooler months is worth 10 easy captures when they are running hot

All top info here. I like to slow the retrieve down with really small rubbers, try different things that you've not tried, maybe gulps if you haven't used them, downgrade leader a bit. I like gulp banana prawns retrieved slow over drains or flats but as stated above rock is good. I like areas where rock meets mangroves on a receding tide. Persistence...

Electric motor. That and alot of patience. We hit the Harbour yesterday and got 9 barra so they are eating and fighting well. Would have to say they were the best fighting and tasting barra I have caught.

paying attention and hitting the same spots regulary.
cant just go to a river a couple of times and expect things to happen.
when all else fails. drag a elton squidgie slick rig (80mm) as slow as possible across the bottom with minimal twitching.
seems to mimic a cheripan / yabby. this technique is hands down the easiest way to catch a bazza.
not as boring as live baiting either.

practice and fishing the same area often so that you can observe what is going on and work out
what turns the fish on.

Keep a record of what is working, water temp, match the hatch,winter in the pilbara is the same but we still pick up winter bara but even if you think you gotem pegged they stuff you around .....but just think how you figure out how you got one in the summer then fine tune it for winter...(smaller window)

Good luck

3 weekends down the Lyne = Barra every weekend.
Temp was about 20-22 and the Barra were all over the sounder.
Just swapped around till we found what they would stike at, mostly lures.
We also scored fish just outside the mouth on the north side in the mangrove shallows.

Make sure your outcoming tide to start with. The barra feed at all the little mullet and herring that are forced deeper into the estuary. Also when fishing estuarys I prefer little live prawn lures (Im pretty sure I got mine from tackle world you might want to take a look). If not I just run a little squidgie(the ones without the automatic tail) along dropoffs. You might also hook up some nice flatties too, but of course what we want is barra

Cheers mate and good luck with the fishing.

When you get the Three "T"s you will catch barra consistently, "Territory", "Timing", and "Technique", helps to understand how bait moves with the tide.