The author hooked a 97cm beast during the competition.
Blue salmon were everywhere this year.
The author caught a small barramundi while pre-fishing for the Barra Bash.
TURKEY BEACH 2 Bedroom Villa Holiday Rental • Outdoor BBQ and pergola For • Fish cleaning facilities enquiries • Large yard with room and for the boat bookings • Undercover carport phone • Close to boat ramp 0458 742 153 • Linen available www.turkeybeachfishingvilla.com Page 40 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, December 2024
Barra Bash battle T HE Frenchville Sports Club Barra Bash was held during October this year. So, Benny and I travelled to Rockhampton to see if we could find a barramundi or two. We have fished this competition a few times now and agree that it’s the best-run event we’ve taken part in. Even when the fishing’s tough, everyone involved has a good time regardless. We hadn’t been to Rocky for a couple of years, so we headed off early to have a good look around. We stopped in at Turkey Beach on the way through to see if we could catch a few reef fish. Fellow Bush ‘n Beach scribe Gary Churchward met us bright and early at the boat ramp there. Gary lives in Gladstone, so it was a nice quick trip down for him. We punched out in less-than-ideal conditions and travelled to some good ground found on previous trips. We got stuck into a few cobia, however a
Event Report
by KEITH STRATFORD
combination of pulled hooks, bust-offs and a dirty shark resulted in only one fish landed. We finished the morning catching a range of small reefies before heading to Rockhampton. The river had only recently recovered from a flood, yet while still a little brown, it was salty. Over the following days, we fished from the city out to the middle reaches of the river and found fish in most locations. We had a good look
around the city reaches the day before the competition started and found huge numbers of big and small fish. Getting them to bite was the hardest part. We landed one small barramundi but couldn’t get a bite from the bigger fish. On the first day of the competition, we started out at Port Alma and found plenty of fish early. We lost five before one decided to play nice. After a short but intense battle, a nice barra * continued P41
Ben Monro landed a juvenile black jewfish in Coorooman Creek.
www.bnbfishing.com. au
