Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Saltwater-Estuary » SEQ Barra Tactics
SEQ Barra Tactics
By Paul Chew
Paul gives us some tips and tactics for targeting south east Queensland barramundi, that could also be applied to barra in many other systems. Fish on!
Here in south east Queensland we are lucky enough to have a healthy population of saltwater barramundi, augmented by stocking programs in the local waterways, with the fish finding their way into the salt whenever we get a significant rainfall. Chasing these guys is one of my favourite pastimes, particularly trying new lures and techniques, and trying to work out how to fish different systems.
This past season, through winter and then coming in to spring, we managed a stellar season, with the standout "theory" being "elephants do eat peanuts". To elaborate, the penny dropped a few years ago during winter in the sandy straights when I hooked numerous sizeable barra on small 50 and 60mm soft plastics while targeting grunter. It was a pattern repeated in all the systems we fish, from Tin Can Bay to Baffle Creek.
This year, after some advice from a knowledgeable barra mate, we started throwing small profile hard bodies at drains and shallow current lines as the first of the northerlies triggered some action out of the sluggish fish. In all the trips before the 2018 season closed I think the warmest water we fished was 23.8 degrees celcius, with a lot of the water hovering around 21 degrees. Initially we did a couple of trips looking at what country might hold fish and the fishability of the water, without actually fishing a whole lot.
Fishability of the water is something rarely talked about, but for us at least it's very important. I fish a lot of shallow water and staring at a sounder isn't something that I do a lot, probably to my detriment, but once in a while we still manage to get lucky. Anyway, what constitutes "good" water to us is water between 30cm and two metres in depth, with the most important thing to look for a balance between water that is gin clear and water that resembles chocolate milk. If the water is too clear, like at Baffle Creek recently, or too dirty, like in the Mary River most of the time, fishing will be tough. We look for a balance and push up the river until the clearer water from the ocean is mixed with the dirtier river water. This mixture is prime prawn location and with that so the barra follow.
We also did quite well this season on lightly weighted prawn imitations like the ZMan 3.5" EZ ShrimpZ. Fishing lures like this on the last hour of the run out tide, at likely drain mouths, resulted in some great finesse bites. We lightened the leader down to around 35lb during the colder period, in the hope of picking up a few more bites.
There are few things better than getting bit by a barra on a paused hard body lure. The hit as the lure is engulfed is next level. This season most of my bigger fish came on smaller lures, predominantly out of the Bagley stable. The Bagley Rumble B 09 accounted for two fish over 115cm, while the Bagley Deep Diving Shad 07 twitched and paused racked up the numbers.
Colour didn't matter too much, but the Silver Chartreuse accounted for both the biggest fish. I worked both the lures in the same fashion, with a hard double twitch, then pause. The Rumble B 09 fishes a bit shallower and for any water over about two metres, the Deep Diving Shad was swung into action.
So now a little on specifics and what I use to tweak these lures. In the pictures hereabouts I'll show a Bagley Rumble B, Deep Diving Shad with different hook / weight setups, and you can use this as a starting point to suit whatever lures you use. Initially I set up the angle, or attitude of the lure, and then do final tweaking on the water, depending on if I am fishing the fresh or salt, with the use of an extra split ring or some solder twisted around a treble.
Generally I start with four different treble hooks, Decoy w-y77 wide gape in size #2 and #4 and more recently combinations have included the BKK Fangs and Raptor Z's. On the smaller lures like the shads #4 hooks are about as big as you can go without affecting the action, though you can get away with a #2 on the front. For a horizontal suspend, generally I start with Decoy, being a #2 on the forward hook attachment point and a #4 on the rear and see how it looks. If it needs more weight forward, I'll change the front Decoy to a Raptor to level it up. If I'm looking for a nose up slow rise, I'll pop a Decoy on the front and a Fang or Raptor on the back, depending on the desired float rate.
A small fish tank is ideal for setting these up, or even the bath or pool. Similarly, for the Rattlin' Finger Mullet, though generally I will stick with the wide gape Decoy hooks on surface lures, as I seem to have a bit better hook up rate. Two #4 Decoy hooks if chasing a horizontal walk the dog, and a #4 on the forward hook and a #2 on the rear if I'm chasing a tail down presentation.
It is all just trial and error, sometimes with the same brand of lure requiring different weight setups. The most important thing, when trying to tempt these barra on hard bodies, is to let the lure pause. The "twitch twitch" will attract their attention, the pause will heighten their hunger / attack response and the next twitch you should get the bite.
There has been plenty written about using soft plastic paddle tails for barra, and vibes, but I have more success using a simple TT Lures SnakelockZ jighead rigged with a 3 or 4 inch ZMan Scented ShrimpZ, generally starting with a darker colour early in the morning and as soon as the sun is up switching to something like the Holographic colour. It is probably the easiest way to catch barra, particularly when I have someone inexperienced in the boat. It's just a simple matter of casting slightly up-current and waiting until it hits the bottom, then use slow hops back to the boat with the current, as shown in the video attached.
The bite will normally come as the lure is falling back to the bottom and with the SnakelockZ you rarely lose a fish once the worm hook has hold in the corner of the jaw. If you are confident there are barra where you are fishing, be patient, fish slowly and the bites will come. Key bite periods are at the tide change, along with moon rise and moon set, so focus on these as a starting point and hopefully you will get onto a few of these chrome rockets.