Mid-week Barra

Lately it seems all the good weather has been during the week. Luckily I can actually take advantage of this at the moment. Thursday was forecast to be good, and dropping, while Friday looked like the pick of the days for a run wide. So I decided to put the family on hold for the Friday run, and grabbed Mark from work for a run Thursday. I though we would again go for a run around the creek mouthes with the Threadybusters.

We headed off nice and early, but were greeted by a Northerly breeze and hefty swell. With confidence the weather would only improve, we persisted and pushed comfortably across to our location. By the time we got to where we wanted to fish conditions had really improved. And it wasn't long and it totally glassed out.


We fished the remainder of the incoming tide out the front, but only managed small fish. There were numerous, but nothing big.



As the tide topped out we pushed onto the flats and tried to get to the mangroves. At 2.8m there was only just enough water. The lecky was churning up the mud, but we could hear Barra boofing up the back of the groves, and bait was pouring out the front. We gave it a good shot for about half an hour, but falling water had us retreating fairly quickly.

We then headed into the creek to work the Mangrove edges as the water feel out of the roots. We tried a few different Hard Bodied lures and some DOA's. But despite great looking water, we managed nothing more than a nudge from a baby Barra.

Back out the front the wind had really gotten up. But I suspected the Barra may now be in the deeper holes as the water fell off the flats. So we positioned the boat in the chop and got to work with the lures. It didn't take too long and a solid fish hit my Threadybuster and took off. He bloke the surface quickly and gave us a good view, Barra! A solid looking fish, he worked me back and forward around the boat. With only one hook lightly in the mouth, it was a couple of anxious jumps before he was lead into the net. High 5's, a few photos and at 65cm a nice fish in the eski.


It wasn't long and a second fish smashed my Thready. This only hit hard and immediately launched in the air. My line went slack and I thought I had lost the fish. But I wound quickly and soon found I was still attached to the wildly jumping fish. This time the lure was firmly embedded into the fishes mouth with both trebles. This one wasn't getting away easily and was soon in the net. At 61cm it wasn't as big as the first, but dinner all the same.


Soon it was Marks turn with a yell of 'yeah, I'm on'. Well, he was on alright! A massive bucket mouthed big girl soon got her head and shoulders out of the water wildly shaking her head. I haven't see many big fish, but this had to me over 1m. She made my 65cm fish look like a guppy! It was incredibly tense as the massive fish had Mark back and forward around the motor. But unfortunately a couple of jumps later and the head shakes wore thought the leader and she won her freedom. Still, a spectacular sight and we were happy as pigs in mud.

We keeps going a little longer with no more hits. The wind was only building and we bailed for home. What an amazing day. Funny how a quiet morning can become a great day with only a couple of nice fish.

The Threadybuster lures have really been doing the job for me. They are definitely my goto lure for this style of fishing. I have been fishing them on a Stella 4000FI and 15lb Slick-8 PowerPro. The reel is on a GLoomis SJR-843 IMX. This an incredibly light and capable outfit for working soft plastics.