HOME » Saltwater » Barramundi » Barra Fever

---

Barra Fever

By Sean Bekkers

Barra fever... a common issue among anglers keen to land a barramundi and I suspect anglers that have caught plenty suffer as well. So what's the remedy... go catch barra! After a recent trip, let's just say I'm hooked. A few years back I paddled out with Tackle Tactics legend Paul Chew and mate Justin, with the goal of getting my first ever barramundi. On that trip I managed a rat barra, coming in around the 35cm mark and I have to admit that I was completely out done by the others on this occasion, with both of them landing some quality fish of 70cm plus. Although I had achieved my goal of catching a barramundi, I was left wanting more.

Since then I have spent a lot of time watching YouTube, reading articles and planning the odd trip to try and catch a bigger model. It wasn't until I received an invite from a mate of mine Foggy though, that I got amped to land another barra and planned my next adventure. The plan was simple, a few lads would head up to an impoundment, have a few beverages, a laugh and basically hit the water every other minute to try and hook a barramundi.

Whilst running this past the family, to lock in a few days away, Kaitlin my daughter and fishing buddy gave me the dirtiest of looks as she was going to miss out on an opportunity to potentially land her first barramundi. Some quick thinking and I managed to defuse a rather volatile situation by suggesting we do a recon trip the weekend before. You know... in order to keep the peace. Lol.

Our plan was to do a day trip with the punt loaded onto the truck. We'd throw all the gear in and set off at some silly time of the day... like 2:30am, with the goal of each trying to land a fish. It's worth mentioning that for this trip we didn't have a sounder fitted and we would be targeting all the visible structure we could find, including weed edges, pockets of lily pads, logs and pretty much anything that resembled fish holding structure.

Gear wise we tried to limit it to proven barra catching presentations, including ZMan 4" and 5" plastics, 1/2oz TT Lures Snakelockz 6/0 and 8/0 jigheads, 20 and 30lb Platypus Pulse X4 and X8 Braid and 40 and 50lb Platypus Hard Armour Supple Leader. Combos for the day were an Okuma Cerros 5-12kg rod matched up with an Okuma Epixor EPXT-50 reel for Kaitlin and for me a TT Rods Black Mamba 4-8kg also matched up with an Okuma Epixor EPXT-50 spinning reel.

The morning drive seemed to go really quickly, with the building anticipation I guess and the day itself turned out to be a stunner, with a light breeze, sunny and not too hot. The water temperature felt good and the water clarity was nice also. Once we reached the water there was a definite requirement for more coffee. Whilst unloading and getting the punt sorted I was watching the water for any signs of bait and birds working an area. Looking straight into the water, at the edge of the boat ramp, small bait fish seemed to litter the area. This was a good indication that the dam was thriving and the fish should be in good condition.

Once locked and loaded, we launched and headed across to the first little bay and weed edge. Our approach here was simple, to cast the plastic to the edge, give it a second or three and then slow wind it back out, while letting the big paddle tail on the ZMan DieZel MinnowZ do its job. As there was two of us using similar plastics, Kaitlin opted for a Gold Rush colour, while I was cycling between Ayu colour in the 5" DieZel MinnowZ and Pearl in a 4" DieZel MinnowZ. This strategy is a good one to keep in mind as you can usually figure out what presentation is going to work on the day without too much wasted time.

After twenty minutes or so we had the feeling that this bay wasn't going to fire up and decided to rip around to another spot. On the way I noticed a bank of weed that had a couple of nice looking points and to make it even more appealing it had the wind just blowing across the front of it, creating a nice push of water. Locked away in the memory bank from an article, I remembered that this made for a good recipe for producing barramundi. After a quick chat with Kaitlin, we decided to stop and throw some plastics around.

I remember being an impatient kid when fishing with my dad. Dad had all of the patience in the world and I would often get bored within the first five minutes if I wasn't catching something. Now, to be fair Kaitlin is patient and probably one of the most patient fishos that I know, however I was worried that she would get bored if we didn't start seeing some action soon.

To take her mind off the lack of bites we talked about the weed edges, types of retrieves, casting and so forth. I was just saying "I think today will be a day of casting", when she cut me off with the sound of a screaming drag and "Dad I've got one. Dad it might be a bass". Nope, this fish had the Cerros rod bent over double and was pulling drag like a freight train. "No, you've got a barra!". Her eyes lit up and she had her game face on. With nothing more than me reminding her to maintain tension, she played it perfectly, managing all of the runs toward different parts of the bank as well as it trying to lose her under the boat. After a few tense minutes we had it in the net and the boat.

At this point I don't know who was more excited, me or her. With a few quick photos and a check on the measure Kaitlin had landed herself a 68cm barramundi that was in really good condition. Kaitlin also got to swim the fish for release, before being getting soaked with the classic barra shower. Now, to put this into a timeline... Kaitlin had landed her first ever barra within 30 minutes of chasing them and from this point onward the sledging started and continued for the whole trip. This is one aspect of our fishing adventures that I probably enjoy the most and it keeps us pumped when the fishing is a little slow.

For the next few hours we targeted the same types of areas, concentrating our effort on the windblown edges, lily pads and the odd log and stump that we came across. There was not much happening. In fact, three and a half hours had gone past with not even a hit. I was honestly starting to think that this was not going to be my day.

We kept pushing up what appeared to be a blind gutter that didn't seem particularly deep, maybe three metres in the middle. Despite being shallow it was lined nicely with patches of lilies and weed banks, so again this was the right recipe for a fish. After what seemed to be a thousand casts... but was probably more like thirty, we reached the end and found the smallest of gutters heading off to the right. It was literally just wide enough to get the punt through, navigating our way around the snags and stumps.

This gutter had the wind blowing right into the back of it and I had my fingers crossed for a hit. As we approached the very back I opted to change over to the 4" DieZel MinnowZ in Pearl colour, lobbing it as far as I could and literally casting over the top of the snags and lily pads. The TT Lures SnakelockZ weedless jighead is perfect for picking apart these snaggy areas.

With the rod tip nice and high, I rolled the plastic out and received what I thought to be a hit, so struck. It was definitely a fish, however it didn't feel big. What I hadn't realised at this point was that the fish was actually swimming directly toward me. Once I caught up the slack, the rod loaded up and there was no mistaking that I had hooked a decent size barra!

Once it realised it was hooked things got real interesting. This fish was not a fan of the boat and I'm sure it knew every single snag in the area, tearing off in every direction it could. With some fancy footwork and a run or two around the punt, Kaitlin soon landed it for me. It was safe to say we were both stoked that the plan had fallen into place.

So, now for the measure. Did Kaitlin or I earn the bragging rights for the biggest fish? After all that... both of us ended up with a 68cm barramundi each! Following a few more flicks, on the way back to the ramp, we opted to tap out and head home... knowing full well that a rematch was now in order. Lol. So, for all of our effort we had both achieved our goal of getting a barramundi each. One bite each had equalled one fish each and sometimes that's enough to chalk up an epic day.

Screaming Dragz, thanks for reading and I hope you're finding a few fish.
Cheers, Sean

Sean's Tackle Box:
Okuma Cerros Spinning Rods - CER-S-701H 7' 5012kg
TT Rods Black Mamba Spinning Rods - BMS701MH 7' 4-8kg
Okuma Epixor XT Spinning Reels -  EPXT-50
Platypus Pulse X4 Braid - 20lb
Platypus Pulse X8 Braid - 30lb
Platypus Hard Armour Supple Leader - 40lb and 50lb
ZMan 4" DieZel MinnowZ
ZMan 5" DieZel MinnowZ
TT Lures SnakelockZ Jighead - 1/2oz 6/0 and 1/2oz 8/0
Pro-Cure Super Gel Scent