queensland Bli Bli Barra Farm

[mdcotton]

I have provided as much detail as possible but if there is any other info anyone is after let me know.

It was a good friend of mines Birthday and I had been promising to take her fishing for too long without delivering and decided it was time. After getting a successful pattern down pact I knew I could guarantee her and the two other girls coming some decent fish at the Bli Bli Barra Farm. I must say I was a little concerned with taking 3 girls by myself and other than a couple of instances where rods and reels were dropped on the rocks it all went really well and ended up being a great day and hopefully the info below will be helpful for anyone else planning to head up.

The Barra in the farm are extremely different to anything you would find both in the wild and impoundments, they have been raised on pellets and as such I have found them to be the most successful bait when fished properly. It requires a lot of concentration and vigilance but the results can well be worth it. The Barra after being caught what is quite possibly hundreds of times have become extremely well adapted and cautious and fooling them into taking your pellet isn't all that easy.

To start with I wouldn't recommend using anything much over 6lb for your leader (10lb max) otherwise it will be a little too thick not because it will be seen but because it will grip the water more and make your pellet move unrealistically which is what will stop the fish from hitting. I would recommend a really good flurocarbon such as Megabass Dragoncall or Sunline V Hard. Sometimes I have had Barra sit under my pellet for upto 30 seconds watching it drift to see if at anytime it moves like it shouldn't and then turning away if it does, you will even see Barra touch the pellets with their noses or turn away from pellets that don't have hooks in them just because they are so cautious.

Ideally if you run a light braid around 6lb as your main line and them a short leader this will also help as your will line wont grip the wind or the water anywhere near as much and it will give your pellet more time in the water before you need to recast. Also keeping you rod tip as close to the waters surface as possible will help reduce the amount of wind that grabs your line in turn stopping the tension on your line dragging your pellet. If you pellet moves in a little bit when it shouldn't be moving it is best to recast and start again as it is highly unlikely anything will then hit your pellet at least for a little while.

The Barra are also used to hearing the pellets hit the water and listening for the splash so quite often your pellet will be hit in the first few minutes, after this time I would recast as it will increase your chances of hooking up. No lead or swivel is needed and a tiny hook is necessary in order to keep it hidden in the pellet and keep the weight low so the pellet still floats. I purchase my hooks from my local tackle store as the ones given to you at the farm aren't great quality and aren't a suitable colour where as the Mustad 540 in size 10 is strong (I have only ever had one bend out) and is a good colour match for the pellets. The only problem you face with burrying your hook in the pellet and using light line is it can be hard to set the hook as the Barra have hard mouths and the hooks have to be ripped through the pellet and then into their mouths using just the 6lb line. To help with this I have been making pellet flies out of rubber, sticking lead dots on the bottom and positioning the hook exposed on the top resulting in the hook being above the pellet out of the water so the fish can't see it while being fully exposed allowing for an easier hookup.

Getting the Barra into a feeding frenzy (when possible) will greatly increase your chances so throwing out 5-10 pellets and then casting your amongst them (so yours is the last splash they hear and position they know) will really help and take away some of the caution and hesitation they would normally show as they are will now be completing with other fish to grab your pellet. The sun bearing down on the water means the Barra aren't all that eager to come to the surface and expose themselves so when some cloud cover rolls over and hits the water where your pellet is, be ready because they will more than often fire up in the shade and likewise when it starts to get darker at the 4:30-6:00pm period and this is when you should get most of your fish.

Another method that is a lot easier but I have found won't yield quite as many fish is fishing with the good old fashioned Pilly and with this method I Snell one hook to go through the eye of the Pilly and a stringer to run through the tail. I generally use at least a 1/0 sized hook and use owner SSW suicide hooks, often the Barra will pick up the Pilly run and drop it so a slightly larger hook will help as they should be nicely exposed to hook into the Barra's mouth. You can just throw your rod in one of the slightly dodgy pipe rods holders positioned through out the farm but I would recommend setting your drag light if you do this as they are pretty unstable and you can missing fish that you would otherwise hook if you had the rod in your hand. When using Pilchards you can also upgrade your line class without any problems I personally use 20lb Absorber Fluro. Livies will also work but in all honesty unless you are fishing the really big mixed species pond I would not bother they really don't offer any advantage in this situation. Lures will also work well if you put the effort in but again the baits will produce more fish.

Using the 6lb you will certainly get breakoffs but it is what it takes to get the hits and you just need to fight the fish properly making sure to use your rod to position your line away from the gill rakers and the one good thing about fishing the farm at the moment is you can keep your rod up and line away from the gill rakers and not risk the fish jumping too much as the cold keeps them a little more dosile than they would be around Christmas and the other warmer months.

The farm also has resident Jacks, Jew, Mullet, Ripper Bream, Snapper, Trevalley, Cod, Flathead, Whiting and I am sure there is something else in there I am yet to catch.

Below are some sample pics of what we caught that day, we ended up with just over 40 fish in total.

[Angus]

Mate great bday present!

Well done to you both.

Angus

[jutt]

Well done mate . Everyone looks like they had fun and thanks for the thorough report. The tips will come in handy as i have wanted to take my wife and kids there to catch a few fish......

[Scope]

Great effort there mate - I had a picture of a barra farm being all boring but that sounded awesome!

Cheers for the advice too - Jono

[novrain]

looks like you guys had heaps of fun

great in-depth info on the fish and bait too..

well done

[rosstralia46]

nice work i agree with novrain

[Do$tylz]

Mate thats some great info for anyone that is thinking about fishing there. Looks like a great day all round.