Storm season Barra .
Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 8:36 pm
So the day was upon us the boat had been dusted off I was off chasing one of the redtag barra in season 3 ...... tell the truth any barra would be fine I wasn't going to be fussy.
running a bit late by 11am I was backing down the ramp at channel island to find the end of the ramp exposed.
Mmm... great this is a top start I thought . 
Too late now, its not going to get any better I reasoned. So I backed up and dropped the tinny into the ankle deep water and parked the car.
With a short walk away from the land to find water about knee deep i fired up the motor and was away. 
The spray was a welcome relief to the hot October afternoon heat and within a few minutes I was casting to a set of rocks usually well offshore but today the running out towards a 0.8m tide had it as a headland in a muddy bay. No bites we taken here today and a bit of a drift with the electric revealed it to be about 600 mm deep
. This area went out for about 500m like this so before getting stranded on the flats I powered off towards west arm stopping by the large area of reef protruding out from the corner. A few small queenies around 60 cm broke the ice for the trip then a few trevors were in on the action too once again they weren't massive but still fun on the barra gear. With a total lack of bait and barra in the area I left despite the appearance of it being a prime spot it unfortunately just wasn't firing today. 
It began to rain so that settled it. I opened the throttle and punched through the short chop whipped up by the small storm and soon was miles away from the isolated front. A quick dozen or so casts with the plastics enroute to a exposed reef edge had no interest from the residents and soon I was casting out into one of the hundreds of gutters that make up pioneer creeks barra haunts.
The usual areas I have got fish at before were dry and the ares around them proved to be pretty difficult to navigate with many larger rocks in about a metre of water with waves breaking over the exposed tips of some real nasty stuff. I fished the lee edges of this area for a while but soon enough the wind had picked up even more than earlier so heading further up the creek seemed to be in order. Just making it over the sandbar spanning the entire creek i headed for a small rockbar we had pulled the odd goldie and soild jack off in the past.
It looked prime as I pulled up an a few big barra could be heard boofing the mullet swimming nervously around the gutter nearby . Despite an hour of effort only a couple of 50cm undesized barra could be landed as the tide began to push back in. Once again I was about to get hammered by another storm this time coming in from the other direction. With one last spot up my sleeve and theoretically out of the wind I moved spots completely for the final time.
I arrived and the tide was just creating a bit of current along the edges of the oysters and a decent barra boofed into a school of mullet sending them skipping across the surface in all directions. I eased the boat into position and began casting the gold bomber along the rocks. Anticipation was at redline on each cast.
Finally the strike came just as I was thinking about moving along the edge a little bit further .
BOOF !!!!
thats more like it !!!! I though as i came up tight and the afternoon peace was shattered as a nice sized barra went nuts along the shallow edge
Spray erupted from the small bay as its silver sides glinted in the sunlight while it immediately began jumping in the shallows trying to rid itself of my lure before screaming out towards the middle of the river. The sweet sound of braid hissing through the eyelets reminded me of how good it was to be hooked up solid on a nice baz. A couple of solid runs and it was boatside and with a few nervous moments around the motor soon it was onboard. Always good fun trying to net them solo but not that difficult really.
I was stoked the persistence had paid off and I had a feed for my efforts.
I headed back to the island avoiding getting soaked by the spray off the hull by sheer arse in the unplanned moves all over the show as I passed across the bay a few of th larger rocks and sandbars could be seen creating a few wild currents as the 7m plus tide raced in past them but the ramp was no drama with only waves around 20cm to deal with. I headed home and rinsed the gear tinny and traler filleted my baz and am looking forward to it with a few bevvies...
running a bit late by 11am I was backing down the ramp at channel island to find the end of the ramp exposed.
Mmm... great this is a top start I thought . Too late now, its not going to get any better I reasoned. So I backed up and dropped the tinny into the ankle deep water and parked the car.
With a short walk away from the land to find water about knee deep i fired up the motor and was away. The spray was a welcome relief to the hot October afternoon heat and within a few minutes I was casting to a set of rocks usually well offshore but today the running out towards a 0.8m tide had it as a headland in a muddy bay. No bites we taken here today and a bit of a drift with the electric revealed it to be about 600 mm deep
. This area went out for about 500m like this so before getting stranded on the flats I powered off towards west arm stopping by the large area of reef protruding out from the corner. A few small queenies around 60 cm broke the ice for the trip then a few trevors were in on the action too once again they weren't massive but still fun on the barra gear. With a total lack of bait and barra in the area I left despite the appearance of it being a prime spot it unfortunately just wasn't firing today. It began to rain so that settled it. I opened the throttle and punched through the short chop whipped up by the small storm and soon was miles away from the isolated front. A quick dozen or so casts with the plastics enroute to a exposed reef edge had no interest from the residents and soon I was casting out into one of the hundreds of gutters that make up pioneer creeks barra haunts.
The usual areas I have got fish at before were dry and the ares around them proved to be pretty difficult to navigate with many larger rocks in about a metre of water with waves breaking over the exposed tips of some real nasty stuff. I fished the lee edges of this area for a while but soon enough the wind had picked up even more than earlier so heading further up the creek seemed to be in order. Just making it over the sandbar spanning the entire creek i headed for a small rockbar we had pulled the odd goldie and soild jack off in the past.
It looked prime as I pulled up an a few big barra could be heard boofing the mullet swimming nervously around the gutter nearby . Despite an hour of effort only a couple of 50cm undesized barra could be landed as the tide began to push back in. Once again I was about to get hammered by another storm this time coming in from the other direction. With one last spot up my sleeve and theoretically out of the wind I moved spots completely for the final time.
I arrived and the tide was just creating a bit of current along the edges of the oysters and a decent barra boofed into a school of mullet sending them skipping across the surface in all directions. I eased the boat into position and began casting the gold bomber along the rocks. Anticipation was at redline on each cast.
Finally the strike came just as I was thinking about moving along the edge a little bit further .
BOOF !!!!
thats more like it !!!! I though as i came up tight and the afternoon peace was shattered as a nice sized barra went nuts along the shallow edge
Spray erupted from the small bay as its silver sides glinted in the sunlight while it immediately began jumping in the shallows trying to rid itself of my lure before screaming out towards the middle of the river. The sweet sound of braid hissing through the eyelets reminded me of how good it was to be hooked up solid on a nice baz. A couple of solid runs and it was boatside and with a few nervous moments around the motor soon it was onboard. Always good fun trying to net them solo but not that difficult really.
I was stoked the persistence had paid off and I had a feed for my efforts.
I headed back to the island avoiding getting soaked by the spray off the hull by sheer arse in the unplanned moves all over the show as I passed across the bay a few of th larger rocks and sandbars could be seen creating a few wild currents as the 7m plus tide raced in past them but the ramp was no drama with only waves around 20cm to deal with. I headed home and rinsed the gear tinny and traler filleted my baz and am looking forward to it with a few bevvies...
