Mackay

Barra are busting up

MACKAY Keith Day

habdays@bigpond.net.au

Yahoo! Barra are busting up everywhere in our three dams and anglers can still fish for them as long as they hold current Stocked Impoundment Permits, which can be purchased locally at Tackleworld or online from Queensland Government Department Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF).

If you want to catch a huge barra I suggest Kinchant or Teemburra dam as both lakes

Guide Paul Dolan got local angler Shane Hultgrwn onto some solid surface fish in Teemburra. This 95cm barra succumbed to a Lively Lures Ziggy SD110. Shane rated the experience as 100% good fun.

are going off! Metre barra are no longer relatively rare, with both of these dams having barra over 1300mm. An extra 300mm doesn’t seem very much, but the difference from a 1000mm fish to a 1300mm fish is huge. At that size they are awesome creatures and will test the angler’s skill levels and luck.

These huge fish can be quite fragile so drawn out fights on light gear are not on and relatively heavy tackle should be used – 15kg braid should be the minimum with a couple of metres of 25kg mono or fluorocarbon leader to stop bust offs. Get the fish in a big landing net and hold it in the water while you remove hooks, get camera/phone ready, work out your camera angles, and have your brag mat laid out and wet. Support, lift the fish, take a quick ‘hero’ shot and get the big fish back in the water. If you need more photos, do the same for each photo. Your huge barra, or any barra, intended for release should spend no more than a minute out of the water.

Now you know how to handle that big fish, here are a few tips/tricks I have picked up from some excellent anglers.

First, get a tide diary and an Anglers Almanac or similar and check peak times and tide changes, and fish them hard. Barra in dams spend a lot of time lazing about and then will have a burst of feeding activity. That’s when you start working a point, lily pads, weed islands, standing timber or areas of laydown logs. Most times you will be fishing in water less than 5-6m deep so ultra deep runners are not needed.

My preference is for surface lures or hardbody minnows that get down around 1-1.5m. Any reputable brand like, Reidy’s, RMG, Zerek, Rapala, Lucky Craft and a host of Aussie hand-made timber lures will work, just make sure the trebles are up to scratch.

Big paddle and curly tails, plastic vibes and stick baits will all score fish in the dams.

The plastic needs plenty of action at super slow speeds and if rigged weedless can be worked through some heavy stuff like old lantana bushes, weed beds and in and under lilies. If you are a visitor or a dam barra novice, this is THE time of the year to get among them, and visiting Tackleworld Mackay you will learn what’s happening in the dams and other waters.

For something different in the dams, shoot up to Eungella Dam and tangle with some of the planet’s biggest, meanest sooty grunter. Bring your bass gear but upgrade your leaders and tighten your drag as sooties absolutely crunch a lure and will wreck all but the strongest trebles. Anglers just love the old sooty and the adrenaline rush when they hit is well worth towing a boat out to the dam. Spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, vibes, small hardbodies, surface poppers and plastics are all treated the same by sooties—if it’s near enough it gets smashed.

Down in the saltwater, most anglers will be looking for flathead, jacks and grunter. Those who think outside the box may take advantage of the calm early mornings and go chase some permit on the extensive sand flats through our area.

The creeks are fishing well but do need a good flush and, as at time of writing, the storm activity hasn’t put a fresh through the systems. Flathead will be the main species to chase in December and they are in all the systems, but prefer those with sand and gravel areas rather than mangrove mud. This means clean open water generally and good lizards can be caught right in the centre of the city in the beautiful blue Pioneer River.

For a challenge, try catching jacks right in the rocks, mangroves or around other structure. Really hot still humid days will get them on the bite but the lure or bait has to get right into the ‘snag’. Weedless plastics are

an obvious choice and the various prawn imitations can be dropped down into snags successfully. Bait anglers target them with live mullet, whiting or prawns and again put their baits right into cover to get the hit.

Grunter or javelin fish are one of the sweetest eating fish around and they are getting more common in the NFZ where they don’t have to run the gauntlet of gill nets. Grunter have a particular liking for gravelly areas and will take strip baits, live baits, live prawns or yabbies, and even pieces of long dead prawn. Soft plastics and vibes are the most commonly used lures, and hardbodies will also get smacked if the grunter happens to run across one. Trolling small hardbodies for lizards will often turn up a grunter or two and they are always welcome in the esky.

Get some pots in early for Christmas muddies before those big raging tides happen and watch out for the pot robbers. Fortunately of late there has been a good run of big muddies, but make sure of the legal size and remember if you have an undersize crab, ignorance will not save you from a substantial fine.

Close offshore, I expect plenty of pelagic action up to the end of the year provided the bait schools hang around.

The key is to have E, NE or N winds, which will have the bait right on the harbour walls, around the islands and into the river mouth. Anglers can expect to tangle with various mackerel species, long tail and mac tunas, various trevally species, queenfish and an occasional cobia. Get on the water early, look for the bait schools and/or birds and get ready for some top fun. Mackay Harbour is a good start off point and trolling barra hardbodies and shinies will get you started.

Around the islands, there will be action on trout, blueys, cod and grass lippers, but stealth will be needed because the fish are easily spooked in the shallow water. Fresh live baits like herring, belly strip baits of mackerel, strips of gar and prawns will all score fish. Barra style hardbodies, vibes and jigs will also work on these grounds. Similar species will be found out at the reef proper to where the big boats run with the extra incentive of red throat, red emperor and pinkies in the deep water.

To all our readers have a very happy, safe Christmas

and a prosperous 2022, and may all your fishing days be good ones.

FINAL FAREWELL

Finally a huge thank you to our readers and everyone at Fishing Monthly Group over the years as this will be my last Mackay report. What started back in 1994 as a 3-year project to raise some money to get MAFSA established has turned into a marathon. Through the magazine I have met and made good friends with many interesting people who have given advice, support and photos to go with my reports. Without them it would not have lasted so long. Thanks to you all it has been a great enjoyable journey!

See you at the ramp.

Jono Clarke is a top angler and his 10yo daughter Lucy is catching up fast. She slow rolled a Zerek Tango Shad off a lily pad edge and had it hammered by this 65cm Teemburra barra. Well done, Lucy!

Young William Swann shows off a nice jack caught by his dad Tim around the bridge pylons in the heart of Mackay. Tim reports William did a superb job netting the fish, which was caught on live herring.