By Luke Galea
The legendary Barramundi would have to be one of the iconic poster fish of Northern Queensland and I am sure that there would not be too many die-hard anglers out there who could honestly, hand on heart, say that these brutes are not on their ‘fish I want to catch’ lists. These things fight out of their skin and their sheer muscle, weight and dirty tactics will ensure they will brick you in the closest structure before you could even blink.
A fortnight ago, my mate Abba and I steamed 125km north of Mackay to the legendary Peter Faust Dam to give my boat a bit of a run and have a pre-fish for my next MTA tournament up there in a fortnights time.
The initial plan was to poke around the shallow, weedy bays with the electric motor and we stuck with this as success was almost instantaneous upon arrival. 15 minutes into the session and I had my first barra of 77cm in the boat. 45 minutes later and I had another good hit from a solid fish around the 80-85cm mark but it unfortunately buried me in the weed.
From here it was another 5 hours before the next inquiry, but what an inquiry it was. I finally landed my first metery. She went 108cm, smashing my existing PB of 95cm. This fish went within millimetres of bricking me in the weed, not to mention the spindly trees some 30m away from where the initial hook up took place. Thumbing the spool of my little curado was a little risky with the 20lb braid but it was the only way I could slow this big girl down. It took to the air 3 times in an acrobatic display and I simply could not believe the size of this thing. Abba gracefully netted this big girl and I recon the boats on the other side of the dam would have heard my elation.
All fish were caught on 7 inch Atomic Plazo Jerk Minnows hooked weedless on 7/0 Gamakatsu Worm Hooks. I rig them without weight also so that they naturally drift down amongst the weed. 2 firm twitches ensures the plastic zigs and zags erratically from side to side. I usually follow this up with a long pause of around 6-7 seconds so that it drifts back down to the required depth once again. I found this to be a lethal method, especially around the submerged weed beds.
Also and interesting point… The first 2 fish (77cm and bustoff in weed) were right on cue at low tide at 8am on arrival and the big girl (108cm) was caught at 2pm which coincided with high tide. We did not receive another bite nor fish at any other time of the day.
I know we were not in a tidal estuary but I have read a few articles and now starting to become a firm believer that tides really still do dominate peak barra bite times, even way up in the impoundments. I really do think there is something in it and I am sure many other impoundment anglers will have made similar observations.
