First Time at Prossy Dam
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 9:08 am
G'Day Guys,
After leaving Darwin at the end of last year, I thought that my Barra fishing days were all but over. I knew that they would still be around Townsville, but my favourite type of fishing in the NT was sneaking around the freshwater billabongs with my electric. From what info I could find, the only way to fish lagoons and billabong around here is land based.
I had gone on a handful of trips to the local rivers with a couple of mates and we had caught a few fish but all rats, the biggest so far going a just legal 58. So, with a week off over Easter, we hatched a plan to head south to Proserpine and spend a couple of days fishing the dam.
Armed with beefed up barra outfits, a little bit of info found on a couple of web sites and very high expectations of multiple monster barra, we put the boat in just after dark on Easter Monday. We knew that the best place to troll was near the dam wall. We also knew that recently there had been a float line put up about 300m out from the dam wall to prevent boats trolling it. Being dark and not knowing the dam at all, our first night involved trolling deep divers one of the edges trying to keep them just off the bottom. We didn’t get any hits doing this, but being just after a full moon; we got a bit of a look around and ended up in some snaggy areas for a flick. There were some boofs around, but no hits or fish by the time we pulled stumps at around 1am.
On the water again just before dawn on Tuesday, and the plan was to head to some weed beds and try some surface lures. Dan had a hit from a big fish early on, then a couple of casts later, another hit from a smaller barra. Neither hooked up though.
By this time I had switched from a fizzer, to a weedless soft plastic and finally to something that had always worked in Hardies, Corrobberee etc.. A little lucifer. The other boys were questioning my lure choice but no one had a fish yet so I figured I might as well try something different. The area we were fishing was very similar to that of a NT billabong, with sporadic lily pads above scattered weed beds, so I was just casting out and trying to work the lure between the weeds and lilies.
When I hooked up, the other guys thought I was full of poop. I knew that it wasn't going to get me over my PB (which was one of the reasons I wanted to go in the first place), but it still felt decent as it dragged me through the weeds. I had it in after a few minutes and it went a decent 78cm. I was happy to have a fish in the boat but I still wanted a big one. It went back after a couple of photos
The next fish in was a 54cm Sooty Grunter, pulled out of a snaggy little bay off the side of the dam. Dan, the guy who caught it, was stoked as he was actually keener to target sooties than barra anyway. Ha had talked about knocking a slab off the side of a sooty for lunch if he caught one, but given this one’s size, it also went back in the dam.
And that was it for fish. We kept fishing until after lunch, then decided to go back for a rest prior to the nights effort, but when we launched again at 4:30pm, the wind was up and it stayed windy all night and right through until we left at 9am on Wednesday. Over that time we might have got a further 2 or 3 hits, but not even a hook up.
If I went back, it would have to be either with someone who has fished it successfully before, or I'd shell out for a guide. I know that the fish are in there, but without being able to spend enough time there to really suss it out, I don't know how many trip you would have to do before it started paying off. It was a pretty big mission for only two fish in the boat, especially since we didn't score a big barra that places like these are known for. The trip definitely made me miss Darwin fishing though.
Cheers
Ando
After leaving Darwin at the end of last year, I thought that my Barra fishing days were all but over. I knew that they would still be around Townsville, but my favourite type of fishing in the NT was sneaking around the freshwater billabongs with my electric. From what info I could find, the only way to fish lagoons and billabong around here is land based.
I had gone on a handful of trips to the local rivers with a couple of mates and we had caught a few fish but all rats, the biggest so far going a just legal 58. So, with a week off over Easter, we hatched a plan to head south to Proserpine and spend a couple of days fishing the dam.
Armed with beefed up barra outfits, a little bit of info found on a couple of web sites and very high expectations of multiple monster barra, we put the boat in just after dark on Easter Monday. We knew that the best place to troll was near the dam wall. We also knew that recently there had been a float line put up about 300m out from the dam wall to prevent boats trolling it. Being dark and not knowing the dam at all, our first night involved trolling deep divers one of the edges trying to keep them just off the bottom. We didn’t get any hits doing this, but being just after a full moon; we got a bit of a look around and ended up in some snaggy areas for a flick. There were some boofs around, but no hits or fish by the time we pulled stumps at around 1am.
On the water again just before dawn on Tuesday, and the plan was to head to some weed beds and try some surface lures. Dan had a hit from a big fish early on, then a couple of casts later, another hit from a smaller barra. Neither hooked up though.
By this time I had switched from a fizzer, to a weedless soft plastic and finally to something that had always worked in Hardies, Corrobberee etc.. A little lucifer. The other boys were questioning my lure choice but no one had a fish yet so I figured I might as well try something different. The area we were fishing was very similar to that of a NT billabong, with sporadic lily pads above scattered weed beds, so I was just casting out and trying to work the lure between the weeds and lilies.
When I hooked up, the other guys thought I was full of poop. I knew that it wasn't going to get me over my PB (which was one of the reasons I wanted to go in the first place), but it still felt decent as it dragged me through the weeds. I had it in after a few minutes and it went a decent 78cm. I was happy to have a fish in the boat but I still wanted a big one. It went back after a couple of photos
The next fish in was a 54cm Sooty Grunter, pulled out of a snaggy little bay off the side of the dam. Dan, the guy who caught it, was stoked as he was actually keener to target sooties than barra anyway. Ha had talked about knocking a slab off the side of a sooty for lunch if he caught one, but given this one’s size, it also went back in the dam.
And that was it for fish. We kept fishing until after lunch, then decided to go back for a rest prior to the nights effort, but when we launched again at 4:30pm, the wind was up and it stayed windy all night and right through until we left at 9am on Wednesday. Over that time we might have got a further 2 or 3 hits, but not even a hook up.
If I went back, it would have to be either with someone who has fished it successfully before, or I'd shell out for a guide. I know that the fish are in there, but without being able to spend enough time there to really suss it out, I don't know how many trip you would have to do before it started paying off. It was a pretty big mission for only two fish in the boat, especially since we didn't score a big barra that places like these are known for. The trip definitely made me miss Darwin fishing though.
Cheers
Ando