Barra - Closes Season Blues!

I know that you know / that I know / that we all know that its "closed season" for the mighty barra. And that its darn hard to avoid them sometimes, BUT that's what the law states and that's what we must try to do.

On the East coast of Far North Queensland, there is an annual closed season for the targeting of barra, which runs from 1st November to 1st February each year. This closed season corresponds to the barra's breeding cycle and is designed to allow the species to propagate without the "interruption" of being harassed by anglers (amateur & pro alike). Most thinking anglers believe that this is a good thing.....to allow "old bucket mouth" the chance to spawn in peace on known aggregation grounds in an effort to enhance the stock of this much sought out, highly prized fish species.

The law literally states that the barra must be returned to the water unharmed, and if we follow the law to the letter, they are really not supposed to be taken from the water at all, but if possible, should be released without being removed.

In practice however, it is darn near impossible sometimes to do this safely....safely for yourself as well as for the fish. A hooked barra, trebles hanging from its jaw and connected to a submerged log for instance may need to be removed ever so gently, the lure removed and then put carefully back into the drink. I see no danger occurring here if a quick pic is taken prior to release.

Yours truly with a better than average jack!

Young Michael with his first ever barra...check out that grin!

Typical juvenile barra from the skinny fresh water.

Most of my fishing these days is occurring way upstream, away from any spawning aggregation and where I am likely to have success on the likes of mangrove jacks, sooty grunter, jungle perch and tarpon. Most barra accidentally caught in this environment are small juveniles with no intention to seek a horny mate for several seasons to come!

I'm opening a can of worms here but maybe, just consider, should Fisheries allow an angler to "catch" a barra in this environment, release it, and suffer no penalty. I know many will scream, but how do we police this practice. Simple............the taking of barra is still a No No. But we are not persecuted because we took a photo!

Food for thought!

PS - there is more harm done to the barra stock by the unsavoury practice of "set lines" hanging from the trees. This practice is absolutely disgusting and fisheries management must take more positive action to stamp out this unsavory practice.

Set line - how sad!

Catch you on the water.
Regards, Les

www.fishingcairns.com.au

Monday Madness

Last Monday was a public holiday, actually the second Queen's Birthday holiday for the year....we are a generous lot here in FNQ!

So after surviving the footy finals.....I was thrilled that both of my "teams of the day" were successful, my mate Mike from Travelscene Smithfield and Debbie decided to head for the hills. Actually we had planned this little walk for a couple of weeks and were quite excited, Mike had done it a couple of times and raved about the final vista.

Right on time Mike pulled up at our house (6:30am) and drove us up the Copperload Dam / Lake Morris road. At approx. 10 kms from the start we pulled over to a grassy verge, parked the car and headed up the gravel roadway towards one of those huge electricity towers. The first part of the track is actually the tower service road and believe me, its as steep as. We had not gone more than 100m before we had to take a deep breath, slow down and realise that this was serious stuff. A 45 degree rise is pretty awesome, but we made it and once near the ridge crest, it was relatively easy but undulating.

Entering the forest!

We entered the magic of the rainforest and commenced out trek to the Whiterock peak...it was just amazing. The track wound around giant rainforest trees, patches of ferns and "wait a while" palms, past fallen timber and fungi encrusted logs. The camera came out and I couldn't stop clicking away. I was spellbound by the beauty of mother nature........and every now and again the canopy would open up and you could see the Cairns flats stretch out below to our left, or the Kuranda range to our right.

 

 

It took us approx. 50 minutes to reach the highest point, just inside the forest canopy, and then it was an even steeper descent down the ridge face to the actual "white rock".

The view was amazing, a 270 degree vista above the entire "Cairns lowlands"....as far south as Gordonvale, the cane fields of East Trinity, Trinity Inlet, the city and northern beaches....we sat mesmerised for over half an hour. We took dozens of photos. Where's this and that..it all became so clear and after a break, drinks and some energy food it was back up the ridge face as we melted back into the rainforest.

The trip back was equally spectacular.....you never tire of such natural beauty. Rainforest trees reaching for the sky, a strangler fig taking over its host, fungi and ferns....click, click, click!

My knees ached, my hips were screaming and my arms and shoulders stretched  to the limit as we first had to pull ourselves hand over fist up the ridge, then brace our bodies as we lunged down the gravel road. I think the descent was even harder on the joints as tired muscles began to wavier. And as we lunged from the forest to the main road it all became clear.........we had done it! We came, we saw and we conquered......an old cliche but oh how true!

Next stop was Copperload Dam, a quick look at the lake, a cup of coffee and then down the mountain and home. Man I knew that I was going to be a bit sore & stiff in the morning. Might as well cut the lawns now that I had "warmed up". It didn't take long and my primeval urges started to take control.

Les.....why don't you go fishing, its been a week!

And so it was that I hurriedly packed the tinny, filled the esky with food and drink and kissed my Debbie goodbye. That real estate thing again getting in the way of a life Ha Ha!

Only one place to go with such a late start, the Mulgrave River. With a low at approx. 4:00pm I could zip down there and be upstream just in time to catch the last of the run out...might be a few barras on the logs and with the waters flowing more sedately, I might just have some luck amongst the snags. Readers will know that I'm into these new "Super Shads" at the moment, so I was keen to give them a run at another location. I clipped on a bright pink model and started to cast away.

As I drifted downstream, I cast to fallen timber and drowned palm tree trunks...it was a bit slow at first but by 3:00 pm it started to happen. A flash, a bump and then a hit. I was on to a healthy 60+cm fish and she jumped all over the place. Now I was all alone on this trip, that's OK and I do it often. But when an excited barra is gyrating all over the place, amongst some serious timber, with the boat drifting downstream...it can get a bit tricky. Trying to stay connected, controlling the boat on the electric and keep it out of danger.........well she was gone and I was disappointed.

Oh well, get back on your bike and do it all again I mused. But this time just stay calm and think it through. Don't worry so much about staying connected, or avoiding  crashing into the timber, or remembering about that 3.5mtr croc that was sunning itself just around the corner....she'll be right!

I did manage to keep it all together and next time I quietly threw my forward tethered "lead blob" into the shallow waters, stopped my drift and enjoyed the fight from another 60cm beauty. And I did it again and again.

In all I landed three magnificent barra from 62 - 75cm. For just on a couple of hours fishing it had been magic. I had lost two legal barra by being too impatient, refer above, but the rewards were more than enough. It was one very satisfied angler that pulled the pin and headed home....I couldn't wait to show Debbie my catch.

There are a couple of draw backs when fishing alone, one of them is when you hook up a nice fish, play it expertly to the boat and finally land her. You just don't feel like giving that yell of success, there's nobody to share your excitement with!

The second, there's no one to take that brag shot while you hold up the fish.......darn....can I put up with it?

Catch you on the water,
Regards, Les
www.fishingcairns.com.au

The New "Super Shad"

Well, have we done it again!

Only time will tell I guess, but early indications are that this brand new lure will be another fantastic addition to the lure range available at Bransfords Tackle Shop, Clifton Beach.

Readers will be fully aware that Keith & I have brought a few new lures to the local “barra scene” and we are rightly proud of our efforts to date. The very latest offering is a new deep diving shad type lure that, in its current configuration, offers almost neutral buoyancy – a lure that casts like a bullet, lands well without hooking up, and dives right down in a very enticing tight wiggling action.

Pause, and it will virtually stop dead in its tracks…….this is an ideal presentation to “old bucket mouth”

By changing the trebles to a heavier gauge / larger hook size, it will become a slow sinker…….also something to be savored under the right conditions i.e. still deep water / cottonwood trees / mangrove drop offs etc…..the possibilities are only limited by  your imagination.

 

What a beautiful day!

Keith and I headed north to the Daintree River on Sunday to give these new lures a work out. Conditions were fantastic …….a beautiful sunny day with a gentle breeze……a low tide at approx. 10am of just under a metre and we thought we had it made! We could fish the mangrove edges / overhangs on the falling tide and then capitalize on the making tide for the afternoon run.

keith is on....first cast!

 

Nice river trevally!

 Launching at the Daintree ferry crossing I was drifting downstream on the ebbing tide. “Why don’t you cast your popper out over the sand flat” I asked….there might be a few GT’s around. I was still rigging my rod when Keith shot his “Chugging spit” popper out over the shallow flats and started to crank it back in short sharp jerks. Boof……boof………boof, and he was on to a lovely river trevally. Dead set, first cast!

How cool is this...just purfect!

Man, what sort of day were we in for, I mused!

At this stage I was in a little dilemma as to exactly where to fish. It was only an hour before low tide….too low for the “prickles”…..not quite ready for the backwaters and do we go downstream to the gutters or upstream to the weeds? Well, we were half way to the mouth so decided to continue downstream.

 

Good looking bream....on a shad!

 

Yea I know...Its the wrong kind of barra!

We fished a few of our old favorite barra snags and well, it was actually a little disappointing.  The barra were not playing ball, but to our surprise, some other species were showing a keen interest in out shads. After all, this was supposed to be a field testing trip and not just a barra catching exercise per se! We were pleasantly surprised by the shad’s effectiveness……….lets just see how it performs under varying conditions.

Nice "pair" Keith - they like pink too!

 

We did find a nice little pod of actively feeding barra under a mangrove overhang and managed to extract 4 little juveniles. A double hook up, a quick photo and a release, that’s not so bad! We also managed a barracuda and an estuary cod before the tide started to push back in and we headed for new waters. It was about a 1.6m run in and it was pushing quite hard.

Keith's on to a better one!

Beautiful silver salt water barra!

Casting to just submerged timber produced quite a few lookers, but no hook ups, so we decided to zoom further upstream. And it happened again!

Hmmm....too good for me!

Keith, cast your popper along the mangroves mate, there’s a GT working there – and sure enough, very first cast….boof…..boof…. and he was on AGAIN! These river trevally are very honest fighters and on the light spin gear, are so much fun.

Les & flathead...ask and you shall receive!

We haven’t landed a flathead yet I mused (an IN joke!)…..and the very next cast I was into one from a sandy bankside amongst the mangrove roots.

Gold spot estuary cod....they like em too!

And so do the jacks!

More proof right!

SPECIES………..were we after barra or species! Oh well, the shad was working so who cares.

Our next stop was way above the ferry, a deeper cotton wood tree lined bank where I could really test this lure on the pause. Cast as far back under the trees as I dared, crank, crank, pause…….there was a flash and I was on again to a little rat! We caught a couple here before deciding to call it quits fairly early.

Little juvenile from the cotton wood trees!

Heading back to the ramp we looked at the days tally:

• 8 barra
• 1 bream
• 3 mangrove jacks
• 1 barracuda
• 1 archer fish (good one Keith)
• 1 estuary cod
• 1 flathead
• 2 GT’s
• And wait for it………1 grunter. Yes a grunter on the Super Shad (lost at the boat by Keith)

Now, I know that its not a brilliant day by some standards, but for a field testing trip of a brand new lure it was very satisfying indeed. There’s not many lures that can boast that sort of catch spectrum and I’m sure you will agree. So, get to Bransfords……check em out……a great colour range…….buy a few at the very realistic price of $12.99 and go catch a few fish yourself. I sincerely hope you have success too!

PS – we ran into an old friend while fishing and he was using the F111 lures that I wrote about a few weeks ago. I was pleased to hear that he had had success too, landing 4 barra and 4 jacks…...good one Brett!

PPS – so you want to try these new “Super Shad’s”…….drop into Bransfords and purchase these beauties for a special introductory price of 3 for only $35!

 

Catch you on the water, regards Les

www.fishingcairns.com.au

Mulgrave Mayhem!

And why do you say that you ask!

Picture this.......not a cloud in the sky. A perfect sunny day, hardly any wind......and Debbie & I have a late start to our afternoon on the Mulgrave.

Readers will know that Debbie is a real Estate agent - trust me! Oh year right! She was feeling so bloody crook with the flu, and the fact that she had almost lost her voice, we decided that the best thing to do would be to go fishing for a couple of hours late on Sunday afternoon.

As we headed down the Bruce Highway, past Gordonvale and the highway bridge - what the hell is that big mass of black sky doing hanging over the "gap" at Russell heads? Its pissing down I exclaimed.......man this is not fair! Oh well, were here now so might as well go fishing - knowing that Debbie was feeling 'rat shit' I did offer to turn around and go home to the sunshine back in Cairns, but being a real trooper and all round nice girl, Debbie said it would be OK to proceed.

Unfortunately, Deb had left her wet weather gear at home.........guess what? Being the very nice bloke that I am, I actually gave Deb my beloved and treasured Goretex jacket.......she was a warm as a 'bun in the rug'! I even let her sit in the car while I prep the boat, backed down the ramp and launched my tinny......I did make her hold on to the rope while I parked the car though and we were soon on our way upstream.

It did not stop raining for several hours and was absolutely bucketing down.....we even sought shelter under some rain forest trees overhanging the lagoon but had to stand up while drinking my coffee. Not a good look and totally unexpected I can assure you.



Deb's first barra on the new RED deep diving shad!

Anyway, Deb, of "she who must continually change lures" fame, found a new, bright red, deep diving shad. This is a prototype of another new lure that Keith (Bransfords Tackle Shop) and I are testing, with stocks expected any week now........so check them out at Bransfords......well worth the drive!

 

As you can see by the pics hereabouts, Deb was very impressed with this shiny new offering and I was actually in very real danger of being out fished!

Even in the rain she is a beautiful river!

No Deb.....the River is beautiful!

 The river was very shallow indeed and being at the bottom of the tide also left us with some very skinny water to navigate up to our next spot. I usually have Deb sit way up the bow of the boat and zoom along at full throttle; thankfully this works a treat for us and we are able to fish way above where usual anglers would get to at this time of year.

Juvenile barra from upstream snag

 

Debbie's new favourite lure!

We found a nice big bank side snag that was holding a few fish and managed to land half a dozen rats before having to head home to put on the pork roast......yes, its Sunday!

We left them biting!

Tilapia even liked this new lure!

And on the way back downstream, the clouds had lifted, the wind abated and the sun was shining - check out this beautiful river will you.

I had to shield my eves from the sun!

How cool is this!

Another happy angler couple!

Catch you on the water,
Regards Les

www.fishingcairns.com.au

 NOTE - click on images to enlarge!