HOME »
Saltwater »
Barramundi
» Kayak Barra Comp Adventure
Kayak Barra Comp Adventure
By Sean Bekkers
A few months ago, good friend of mine Foggy sent me an invitation on behalf of The Sunshine Coast Kayaking Cartel (SCKC) to join them for a friendly fishing competition against The Redcliff Kayaking Cartel (RKC). In short, the plan was to hit the impoundments over a weekend in November and target barramundi. The main aim of competition over the weekend was to have a great time, catch fish and generally just pull the micky out of each other along the way.
Leading up to the weekend there were a few things that I needed to sort out. First up was getting a feel for fishing from a kayak for an extended period. Foggy hooked me up with his dad’s older style Hobie Outback, for which I am extremely grateful as previously I had only ever fished from my paddle type yak. With approximately two days of fishing time, having pedals to make my way around was going to be an excellent improvement. So, leading up to the weekend I had a few sneaky sessions to get the hang of pedalling, steering and ultimately fishing from the kayak all at once. To my surprise combining these elements came naturally and almost intuitively, so it wasn’t long before I was confident to set up a drift and use the rudder and pedals to keep me positioned perfectly to cover an edge.
Another addition that I was keen to add before the trip was a sounder, namely my Lowrance FS9 unit. As you can imagine, like most impoundment fishing, chasing barramundi can be quite difficult and having a sounder will definitely assist when identifying structure like edges, weed banks and timber. Ultimately it should better my chances of finding and landing a fish or two. On the lead up to the weekend I fitted my trusty Lowrance FS 9 sounder to the Hobie, which for the most part is an easy process and if you’re interested on how I did it you can check it out on my Outcast Angler YouTube Channel.
Leading up to the weekend, the sledging between the kayaking cartels was rife and it was building into a great weekend. Bet upon bet may have been made between anglers and of course bragging rights for the winning cartel. Who would it be, the RKC or the SCKC? We would need to let the fishing do the talking. As the weekend drew closer, the fishing reports were awesome, with plenty of fish being caught and the majority of the barra around the mid-70cm mark. Let’s face it, even at this size they could be quite a handful when fishing from a kayak.
To keep things interesting the weather ended up being quite horrible leading up to the weekend, with heaps of storms (rain, lightning, and wind) turning the rather stable lead up weather on its head? My plan was to head up on the Friday and hopefully scope out some fish or areas holding fish, prior to the 5am start Saturday morning. I woke up early to pouring rain and BOM radar was indicating that it was going to be a wet and rainy trip up the coast. Nevertheless, there had to be a barramundi with my name on it.
Fast forward to a few hours later and I was rolling into the campsite, greeted by some familiar faces and some new faces, all getting ready to hit the water in search of a barramundi or two. Tony and Al were heading out as I was getting myself set up and it wasn’t long before messages were coming in saying they were onto some fish. Reports included Tony landing a fish and Al jumping one off yakside, along with plenty of hook ups.
As you can imagine, it wasn’t long before I was throwing fishing gear into the yak and pushing off in search of my own fish. Previously I had caught the majority of my barramundi rolling ZMan 4” DieZel MinnowZ and 5” DeiZel MinnowZ, in both Pearl and Gold Rush colours, rigged weedless on 6/0 and 8/0 TT SnakelockZ jigheads respectively. With the release of the new TT Snake EyeZ painted range, I was keen to throw some of these around as well. I also had a few random presentations in the mix, including the recently released ZMan Goat family of plastics, just to change it up.
As I was paddling out, I had the full intention of heading around to where Tony and Al were, however, on the way out, I could see the wind pushing into a patch of lilies on a good-looking edge. At this point I decided to change tact and pedal over toward this bank. On my way around I could see someone had caught themselves a fish. I pushed up to the end of bank and decided to set the yak on a drift, so that I could work the edge, placing casts all the way along.
Keen to see how the TT Snake EyeZ would go, I started rolling a ZMan 5” DieZel MinnowZ, rigged on a 3/8oz 8/0. As I was positioned the kayak where I could have a wind assisted cast, I sent my presentation hard into the lilies and weed, then slow rolled it back out. As I moved down the bank, I hadn’t had a hit for my efforts and with another storm rolling from the north, I decided it was time for me to put my GoPro away and start heading in (I wish I hadn’t).
As luck would have it and with a classic angler’s ‘one last cast’ attitude, I kept casting at the bank as I started pedalling in. As you would expect, I ended up locked onto a barra. It’s amazing how you think that you remember how hard these fish fight and then ultimately get reminded every time that you’re locked onto one. After a quick blast and peeling of drag, this barra decided to get airborne, eventually cartwheeling itself around the front of the yak three to four times, before settling down and eventually swimming into the net.
Man, I was glad to have this fish sitting in the net. In the time that it took me to fight the fish, the storm had made its way overhead, which made trying to get a photo before release rather tricky. The barramundi itself was quite calm as he swam off, following its photo shoot. As the impoundment water level was quite low, the surrounding banks and particularly the one that I had beached the yak on, were pretty much dirt with no cover. I was feeling rather uncomfortable, with the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning heading in my direction… and practically overhead!
I was now questioning whether I should make a dash paddle for camp or not. I looked over toward a single stump at the water’s edge with a pelican sitting on it. The pelican looked at me, stared straight into the storm and then dipped its head nice and low. Now I’m not sure but this seemed to be one of those moments when you should just take a tip from nature. As the water temp and air temp were well and truly in the mid 20’s, I decided to lay down and let the storm pass by. For the next twenty odd minutes, with lightning strikes fairly close and rain coming down hard enough to be annoying, I sat the storm out. To be honest this was probably not a situation that I would have thought too much about in the lead up to the weekend, however from now on I’ll have a good back up plan for this sort of situation.
Once the storm had passed, I decided it was time to get back on the yak and try to tempt another barra. I don’t know whether barramundi love storms or not, however they were definitely on the chew. I ended up getting five or six good hits and grabs, before I finally hooked up again. Once again, this barra played up, pulling heaps of drag and cartwheeling out of the water, before finally tail walking next to the yak and throwing my ZMan 5” DieZel MinnowZ back at me.
This was one of those moments when you are disappointed and stoked all at once. From here, I decided it was time to get back and continue setting up the camp for the next few days. With all the action that I had seen and heard about, I thought, “Gee, we are in for a good weekend of fishing”.
As luck would have it, a weather change pushed through overnight and changed the fishing up. Over the next few days, for all my efforts, I ended up landing a 42cm bass, that smashed my ZMan 5” DieZel MinnowZ (Pearl), rigged on a 3/8oz 8/0 TT Snake EyeZ jighead. This fish definitely bit off more than it could chew.
Some stand out performances though came from these next two lads. Ethan worked hard and managed to land two barramundi for the competition, with each measuring 75cm. I can tell you that Ethan definitely did the miles to get the smiles, spending a good 12-13 hours on the water to get the first fish and then backing it up on the following day, using the same presentation. For Ethan it was the ZMan 4” DieZel MinnowZ in Slam Shady colour that worked a treat. Nice work buddy, stoked to see you on them and stirring RKC up for the win.
My other mate Foggy, I have to say, was well deserving of this next fish. No-one can dispute that he has put in plenty of trips searching for a barramundi, only to be rewarded with a donut and the odd bass. To hear he not only scored a barra, but one landed off the top on light gear, made it that much better.
In the closing hours of the comp Foggy found himself a good weed edge and started working the recently released ZMan 4.25” Billy GOAT, rigged weedless. Once again, casting tight into the edge, he slowly twitched and worked the GOAT out until he watched a huge bucket mouth come up from underneath and inhale it off the top. As most anglers who fish topwater will tell you, these types of hook ups are worth ten normal takes and from all accounts Foggy’s fight lasted more than fifteen minutes on 15lb. Speaking with the man himself, it was a nail-biting experience, with the barra doing its best to shake the hook. Awesome work mate, I’m super stoked for you!
Overall, for the 40 odd anglers that fished the weekend, approximately 15 barra were caught and for some anglers this was their first barramundi ever. As I mentioned earlier, the RKC got the win this time around and now hold bragging rights for the next twelve months. Good work lads. I would like to thank everyone for a good weekend and the invite. If the opportunity is there next year, I’ll be back for sure. I’m already looking at a new kayak.
Screaming Dragz, hope you’re finding some fish.
Sean, Outcast Angler
Gearing Up:
ZMan 4" DieZel MinnowZ
ZMan 5" DieZel MinnowZ
ZMan 4.25" Billy GOAT
TT Lures ChinlockZ Jigheads
TT Lures ChinlockZ SWS Jigheads
TT Lures SnakelockZ Jigheads
TT Lures Snake EyeZ Jigheads
Pro-Cure Super Gel Scent