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bored again, back for a sesh at the base


tiotony

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04092010003_AFO.jpg As an offshore worker, I'm fortunate to have a lot of time off, but boredom can set in pretty quickly during my 'off' time. This drives me out of the house and down onto the water at least 5 times a week, rain hail or shine. If not that I spend way too much time drinking beer and surfing this site! This was the case yesterday and after getting fired up from reading some of the posts on here (without drinking any coldies I might add), I hit the Navy base in the evening with my mate for the second day running. Armed with my latest fave plastics, the 2" berkley gulp shrimp, I proceeded to flick up hard against the wharf pylons and the moored vessel hulls. It was dusk and just on high tide, a combination which has given us a lot of success on the barra over the years. within 10 minutes we had sighted 2 barra pushing a metre and I had suffered a monumental bustup on the 8lb fireline. time to change tactics as there was no way we were going to hang onto any of these fish on the light gear. We went and cast netted some live prawns on the tide covered mudflat and also scored a 40cm jack which was probably doing the same as us- chasing prawns! As you can see in the photo he got pretty banged up in the net so we decided to keep him for the table, which is pretty rare for us as we rarely don't release. Prawns were drifted out from the wharf unweighted on 20lb fireline and we noted the tide had turned and the ebb current was picking up rapidly, so we knew we had a very tight window to get a fish before they switched off. My prawn lasted about 30 seconds before being hit by the usual GT which are extremely common in cairns inlet, but its not what we were after. After releasing and recasting we missed half a dozen takes in a row, which is pretty common as we have found the barra take the prawns very tentatively and half the time you just wind in a crushed prawn. I then hooked onto something very solid which was staying very deep, so I called it for a big fingermark. After many close calls dancing around the pylons up popped about a metre of barra. It looked like the big girl was in the net but at the last moment she turned with a big tail slap and my 30lb leader parted on the gill raker. Oh well nothing new to us as we run at about a 50% loss rate at this spot and at least this one didn't do some macrame around the pylons! By then the tide was really pushing and we couldnt get another bite, however I did get flashed by about an 80cm fish while having a laugh teasing a longtom with a plastic!

We didnt consider the session unsuccessful as it has reinvigorated our passion for big barra. We havent been chasing them for a couple of years as its a frustrating way to fish due to the heavy losses around the pylons. Next session we plan to fall back on a faithful method that we have developed over the years which we affectionately call 'stump pulling'. It entails drifting a live prawn right under the wharf in a specific section we call 'barra corner' or 'heartbreak corner' depending on how many times we get busted up! We use 50lb braid and nearly locked drags, now the 50lb might seem excessive to a lot of people but I challenge you to try extracting anything out from under the wharf on less! We still run at a greater than 50% loss rate with this method, but at the right stage of the tide hits are instant and we have caught some monumental fish this way. We once got a beautifully marked around 40kg QLD groper with this technique which was kind enough to swim out into the channel instead of further under the wharf. Prawn artificials also work with this method but the lure loss is horrendous.

I'm from Bris originally and moving back next year, hence joining this site. I'm wondering if some of our methods we use up here will work on the monster estuary jacks you guys get down there? Plenty of man made structure down there!?

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cant wait to see a pic of the barra.

in answer to your question, 50LB line wont get a touch down here (other then by sharks) brisbane is to heavily fished and you pretty much need to fish light. there arnt alot of jacks around either. your 2" gulps will be loved by the bream flathead and the occasional trev though.

in short dont come down by the looks of it you have the best fishing spot there :P

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Response to daveylad,

We've found these suburban barra to be a finicky bunch mate, sometimes you find them fired up and they'll charge out and smash a noisy hardbody, but 95% of the time you have to fish under or immediately next to the structure.We see free swimming fish out in the open all the time but they usually just nose a lure and rarely strike. 15 years fishing there and still trying to get the buggers sussed!

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response to Joel Eadie,

Just got out of defence 18 months ago mate to go to the offshore industry, and moving to Bris to take up a job offer with a bloke I used to serve with. No choice, gotta go where the work is! Will break my heart to leave believe me- got posted here 15 years ago and fell in love with the place. Great people and hot fishing 5 minutes from home, I catch fish here every trip I only dreamt about when I was a lad in Brisbane. although the Brisbane scene seems a lot better now than when I was a young bloke there- back then the Brisbane river was a cesspit, so good to see they stopped that ridiculous dredging and let the old girl come back to life.

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another nice session there mate. I would not call that setup excessive. A lot people down here use pretty heavy line and leader to catch the big Barra in the Impoundments. It looks like a great place to fish at night time plenty of light from the flood lights and dark under the wharfs for the fish to hide. With these reports you are starting to make me home sick.

I am not sure about monster Jacks down here, however I think your method of using live prawns under the wharfs should get you some good Threadfin Salmon over a meter.

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