The FFF Barramundi Board

Last couple of weekends i've had the pleasure fishing out of other peoples boats with a trip to Bynoe with theodosius and the most recent Darwin Harbour with Chris Hurt

Have been wanting to do a charter for sometime now something i wish id done years ago. Trying to organise a barra charter to somewhere out of darwin can be tricky everyone has busy lives and its hard for mates to commit on a day out with with ALOT of notice so in the end i cracked it put a post up on this forum and was given the name of Chris Hurt at Fishing and Outdoor World a quick call and it was locked it a one on one with an experience guide.

Even though i'd had an awesome day out with theo learning a lot at the same time i was still keen to splash out some cash and learn some more (never stop learning in my book)

A mid morning start when arriving to meet chris at Dinah beach ramp it was blowy hoolly doolly i said is it still worth it
Chris seemed pretty calm compared to weather he said once we over the other side well be fine so in goes the gear and we were off the edge tracker cruised over no worries and we found shelter along side spot 1.

Now the whole idea of doing this trip was to learn the ways of the barramundi knowing where to be as the tide drops and having some sort of understanding of the fishing conditions i couldn't give a rats behind if we caught nothing its a bonus if we did being on the water is just bliss for me. Pretty quickly i learnt Chris is old skool so we had time to talk whilst the water was coming out of the mangroves.

Soon enough i had a whole new leader setup new knots the whole lot which was great, turns out a double isn't required anymore plus quicker stronger knots compared to the ones i had learnt over ten years ago
The side wind played havoc trying to get the soft plastic lure into the right spot just wasn't going to happen the barra were their too

A word i keep hearing is prime time the window of opportunity so to speak but it wasn't to be this time so we moved upstream to spot 2

The tide rushed out quickly showing a dog leg drain we were waiting for the bait a few boofs hear and there not many but it was the sign to change lures to a popper the fish were a bit of a tease but soon chris showed me how its done getting a small barra up to the boat. With not much wanting to keep us here we made another move to fish the tide change

Lunch was had and a few more tips told casting out and getting u few bumps and some hard whacks which we both missed i thought i was going home with a burnt thumb then whack again this time i was on keeping calm and a bit of guidance from chris we landed a good looking thready yessss i was stoked not a barra but i didn't care. Not long after i got another same size that was enough it was time to get going

Money well spent its the knowledge id paid for and i recommended anyone to do the same. I cant wait to get my boat back on the new trailer and do it myself

Thanks Chris Hurt

Yep you're dead right there with the bit about ''you'll never stop learning '' one day you think you've got it sorted then the next youll get nothing. .. props go out to those guides producing fish constantly for their clients GOOD STUFF CHRIS !!!... on a different note with those into the wind casts b.radical. Punch it low and hard only about 2 - 3m off the water for less birds nest action also add more brake blocks or cast weight adjustment to reduce overuns in this situation. You'll immediately definitely notice you can't cast as far but the hassle factors and frustration factor is reduced significantly.. and once back into a better position you can change it back for maximum distance.

Nice thready too well done cheers for the read

Wish I'd done it when I bought a boat instead of fishing/boating blindly

Nice.

I'm with Flickn there, underarm and sideways casting in the wind.

You'll get pretty accurate too with lots of practice.