queensland Monduran Fish Photos And Report.November 2009

[rayke1938]

Just a few photos story to come later.

[rayke1938]

[marlin magic]

well done Ray there are some good pics there i carnt wait to go there

Brett :fishing:

[rayke1938]

More sorry if I have duplicated some.

[bootyinblue]

Who cares if some are duplicated... I will never get sick of looking at those barra!

I will be back for more!

[Malcolm]

If your on a fishing forum and you don't think that is awsome then you may as well go and get stuffed :woohoo:

[ellicat]

That boney bream is almost as big as the little barra in the 2nd lot :ohmy: :woohoo: You'll have to show me how to tail hook them like that...great skill Ray :laugh:

Where's the pic of Brian's modified hand ? :dry:

[rayke1938]

Had a great time with lots of firsts and laughs.

How about a 45cm boney bream on a soft plastic?

Or the story how I washed my twinpower 600 and nitro rod.

We were trolling with my rod in the rod holder and the securing ring on the rod holder wasnt turned around and a barra absolutely smashed the lure and I saw the rod rod holder turned around and the rod launched up through the air before I could grab it. The barra jumped twice with the rod being towed around 50m behind it.

I marked the spot in my gps and spent around an hour trolling in the vicinity with no luck.

Went home with the sulks despite nailing a couple of barra on my other rod.

We went back to the same area and whilst trolling about 1/4 mile in the opposite direction to which we last saw the barra travelling I got a snag in around 20 feet of water . I thought thats strange as I am only unsing a 10 foot diving lure.I gave the rod to Feral ( I think) to wind in as I backed up and I saw my lure come up attached to some yellow braid.

Bugger me it was my rod complete with the lure.

The barra must have done a 180 degree turn and managed to throw the lure.

I cant remember how many times the barra smashed the lures and managed to twist the rod holders completely around. You are just sitting there half asleep and suddenly all hell breaks loose.

I will neve forget the sight of some of these barra launching themselves vertically with their tauls at least 3 feet above the water and all this in only 10 feet of water depth.

I cannot understand how anyone can call these magnificant fish lazy their power and stamina is amazing.

Most of these fish would leave threadys for dead.

Another awsome incident was when Brian and Myself had a double hookup on 2 metre plus barra right in front of another boat that was trying to horn in on our trolling line.

We were quite busy as we also had a shotgun line straight out the back which Brian was able to quickly bring in.

We were able to keep the fish seperated whilst Brian as usuall put plenty of hurt on his fish with his black sheep and got his in to the boat quickly as I played mine out at a distance.

The highlight of the trip was actually a small around 50cm barra that I caught this morning. Terrific colouring and glad to see that some of the fingerlings are escaping the predators to eventually become another Mondy Metery.

Cheers

Ray

[Eug]

some nice fish, sounds like you all had a blast!

i reckon ray is his happiest with barra! check out those pearly whites.

[nadders]

lots of big silver things in those pics, would have given the gear and muscles a workout

how do they taste from the fresh? never eaten a dam fish before. any special treatment required or cook as normal?

[Bommie]

Winners Are Grinners, well done guys (what's with the big w trout Brian :whistle: )

[Feral]

I do believe the best moment for me was when I was deckying for Ray, I think it was Brian and Loz trolling the same area as us, but we had 2 barra for the session, they had not even had a touch. Then we retrieved Rays Nitro Rod and Twin power back from Davey Jones and they were all sitting a few metres away giving Ray heaps, telling him it was all arse and no class - to show them how it was done, - and on queue he did, hooked a barra right there in front of them!

The howls of anguish echoed off the hills! I told em it just what having a quality Deckie does for ya

[Brian D]

Yeah I remember that and always will (I hope). That was the most single hottest single in the zone day I have ever witnessed. Ray was the king that day as he was on many other days. But to catch so many barra in the one day, loose a rod in the process, then go home and come back hours later only to snag the rod and catch more barra was nothing short of being touched by powers not seen.

Another day, I was deckie, Ray caught 6 barra and I got 1. We were using the same lure only a boat length apart and he was getting all the hits. I made him stay on the water until I got my fish but we were close to going home 6 – 0.

Have a look at the lures. They were both new at the same time but as you can see one did most the work. I changed his hooks 3 times, like a good deckie should.

[Brian D]

Here's the first day before the guys started arriving

[Brian D]

When they say timber they realy mean it goes on for ever

[Brian D]

THese were the winning lures. Just proves that every year is different. Last year it was the main basin and big B52's that were the killer lure. This year the fish were smaller as were the lures. Year befor eit was deep divers.

There's a lot to learn from this photo. The flash down the side is not just to attract fishos, it's to replicate teh flash of a fleeing bait fish.

Note also that we upsized the hooks on the top lure, which caught all the fish. I ended up using the hooks from 8m+ deep divers. The bigger hookes looked oversized for the lure but they sure stuck the fish.

[Brian D]

Why upgrade rings and hooks? This set lasted one fish. No we didn't run with 2 hooks, the 3rd came off during the fight.

[Brian D]

We went to Lake Moduran, then headed past the basin to a place and the end off bass straight called Kennedy Waters were Ray managed to get about 17-18 barra (lost count).

You'll know how to find it, turn left at the tree.

Look how low the water is, normaly there is only about a metre of the tree above the water line. This created a shallow basin and point for teh fish to attack from deep water.

[Brian D]

It wasn't all hard work, Ray and I did our bit for charity, this is about 4 days worth, give or take a carton or two.

Feral, this is how a good deckie behaves.

[Brian D]

THe catties are a good size,note the viper in 150 long

[Brian D]

One of my favorite quite times alone was wind drifting accross weed beds sight casting for catfish with hollow bodies and plastics. When I say sight casting I mean I saw the fish and threw the lure at it, watched the attack and then play the fight in less the 300mm of water and weed. Great fun.

[Angus]

Nice!

Barra are ok I guess. But any Bass? Hahahaha jokes.

Looks like an awesome time was had on the dam and around the BBQ.

Angus

[Brian D]

Hey Greenies and pureists - get nicked, we kept some. this is a 90cm esky

[Feral]

see see - evil predatek lure!

[Brian D]

I spent some time in the basin working a point with different lures. Results were OK and we could have caught more fish working the main body of water but there were better fish elsewhere...oh to have the choice and to pick the right one is very hard. That's a 150mm lure to give a idea of the size of the fish. Too big for me to handle on my own so I kept him in the water.

[Brian D]

Booty deckied for me for a session, we only scored one but it was a good one. Congrates on your first Barra Greg.

[Brian D]

I got hooked too, next time Ray cut the shaft a bit longer so the doctor doesn't have to dig to Tasmania to get the hook out.

[Brian D]

All patched up after 5 neddles in the finger and one in the arm. It took about 10 mins for the doc to actualy dig the bugger out. But like any good fisho we were back on the water within a couple of hours. Yes it did hurt and yes it hurt even more when I hooked up to a metre plus barra that pulled 13kg of drag.

And yes I was wearing cloves otherwise I would have had a hook in the other finger and a hook in the thumb.

BTW I was taking the hook from the net not the fish when the fish jumped inside the net and stuck me. Yes I was using plyers, it stuck me in the hand holding the net.

[Brian D]

It's hard to get action shots with my camera but I tried. I took this with rod in one hand and camera in the other.

[Brian D]

Missed the jump with the camera but I saw it with my eyes, that's what counts to me.

[Brian D]

I love getting wet by a tail splash. Get ready to wipe teh glasses

[Brian D]

THey come up and go back down with power and authority. Not much you can do but hang on and burn your thumb on the drag.

[Brian D]

Before we left Ray and I went to all the those people in boats that followed our leed and weren't getting fish. On approach if they were decent and friendly we gave them our lures and explained how to do things, if they were not they didn't get a lure. We gave away 2 lures and swapped another two plus explained to others how to go about catcing fish in Kennedy Waters.

[Brian D]

This was our best Barra trip so far, between Ray and I, over 10 days, we caught over 30 Barra around the meter plus a 50cm one to top it off. When we count the casuals and the short timers the total comes close to 40 fish.

[Brian D]

The fish were hitting the lures head on

[Brian D]

THey area beautiful looking fish, nearly as good as the aussie women

[Brian D]

Sometimes a different colour worked, but not often, find the key and find the fish

[Brian D]

Classic F18 / Blue Dazzlers product CLF1820 with yellow belly and silver daz flash worked the best

[Brian D]

I have replayed the hook up process in my mind to try and figure out the attack of the fish. Why - cause so many fish were caught the same way. I think the fish hits head on and turns it head up and away when it feels the leader. what do you think?

[faulked]

in one word 'jelous 'great fish guys wish i was there with luck next year ill cya there again.

jason