Author: barra

Teemburra Dam produced a contrasting bite to last year’s 231 fish feast with a meare 28 barra hitting anglers’ brag mats at the opening round of the 2010 Daiwa BARRA Tour, the Strike Pro Teemburra BARRA Evening Event, 12/13th November.

A measure of a tough bite courtesy of torrential rain and cool temperatures rather than angling ability, it was 38 year old Rolleston mine worker Craig Griffiths (4/10, 289cm) who cracked the pattern the best to break through for his maiden BARRA Tour win.

Picking up where he left off last year was 2009 Awoonga Night Championship winner Daniel Grech (3/10, 259cm) who started the new season in great style, claiming the runner-up title and a boost of confidence heading into the remainder of the tour.
Victory though belonged to Griffiths with the Teemburra victor fishing one point within eye sight of the launching ramp to catch his fish.  

“It was the same point and clump of trees I fished in last year’s tournament, so I thought why not head back to the spot that produced before”, explained Griffiths.  

The simple, yet rationale decision paid off with Griffiths boating a barra on his third cast.  

The location in question featured a weedline and a clump of five trees sitting on a gentle sloping point in about 16 feet of water.  

“The trees where the hot spots with the barra sitting tight to the timber and only hitting the lure when it was right on their nose”, explained Griffiths.  

His choice of lures were a combination of options, with black and gold and drop bear coloured Squidgy Slick Rig 110s and a ghost coloured Rapala X Rap 10 all getting a run. The retrieve for the Slick Rigs was text book lift n’ drop plastics fishing with Griffiths casting the lure up onto the weed, ripping it across then letting it sink near the trees then give it a quick hop.  

“All the hits came as the lure was sinking next to the tree”, explained Griffiths.  

The retrieve for the X Rap was equally barra fishing 101, with a twitch-pause retrieve the undoing of one of the fish in tournament winning limit.  

It was perhaps the lure itself, namely the Squidgy Slick Rig and the modifications that he made to it that is most noteworthy.  

“I trimmed the tail to make it swim better, added some rattles and coated it repeatedly with garlic spray to make it as appealing as possible”, explained Griffiths.  

The balance of Griffiths’ tackle included a 6’8″ Pro Green rod, Daiwa Sol 3000 spin reel, 20lb Fins braid, and 60lb Black Magic leader.  

Receiving only four bites for the tournament, and landing all four, a rare thing in barra fishing, Griffith was ecstatic with the win and how it all fell into place.  

“It’s not to often you land all the bites that you get and I can pretty much thank the stinger hooks on my Slick Rigs for making it happen”, explained Griffiths.  

Running a treble stinger on the underbelly of the lure, Griffiths pinned all fish with and kept them connected courtesy of his trusty stinger.  

With the next round at Peter Faust only two days away Griffiths is keen to get back on the water and experience the hot fishing that Faust has been producing of late.  

“Let’s hope the weather improves over what we’ve had at Teemburra. If it does then there’s good chance we’ll get stuck in and catch a few”, concluded Griffiths.  

Notes- All fish caught came on a wind change, and none were caught after dark.  

For event runner-up Daniel Grech is was another quality result, with the Mackay angler adding another podium finish to his growing list of tournament achievements.  

Fishing the mouth of Teemburra Creek Grech keyed in on a specific location, a 20 feet deep flat punctuated by small shrubs and trees that sat adjacent to an 80 feet deep drop off and tree line.  

“The timber on the flat and the deep water near by were the main attractions for the barra I’m sure, they could hold up in the trees then retreat back to the deep water when they were less active”, explained Grech.  

With the shrubs his cast targets, Grech would cast a Jackall Tranzam through the timber then work it back with a two hop-pause retrieve.  

“You’d get hung up on the shrubs occasionally, so you’d have to ping the lure of the timber to get it back. It was when I did this and the lure came free that a fish (92cm) hit it”, explained Grech.  

While the Jackall produced his kicker fish, it was his money bait from Awoonga last year, the Rapala X Rap 10 that delivered the majority of fish in his bag.  

“One of the fish fell to a standard twitch and pause but the other nailed the lure as I burned it back to the boat”, explained Grech.  

His go-to X Rap was the glass ghost colour retrofitted with size 4 VMC trebles. The remainder of his tackle included a 6’2″ ACM Jack Extractor rod, a Daiwa Sol baitcaster beefed up with Carbontex drag washers courtesy of JT Reel Repairs, 20lb Bionic braid, and 40lb Black Magic fluorocarbon leader.  

With a solid start to the tour Grech will be one to watch in the battle for AOY.  

Notes- Relied heavily on his Humminbird 997 sounder to spot not only fish moving through, but also their rate of movement. His best result to date at Teemburra, his previous best was a 21st.  

The Big Barra for the tournament went to Jarrod Dalton with the Dysart based angler picking up the 96cm prize winning fish on day one. Caught at 8.30pm in the pouring rain it delivered Dalton a booty of Rapala lures and anchored his 5th place finish at the event.  

The next round of 2010 Daiwa BARRA tour sees the series travel north to Proserpine for the Sunline Peter Faust 3×3 Championship, 16/17th November. The first of the new 3×3 events, the Sunline presented round is sure to present anglers with a host of new challenges and hopefully a redhot barra bite. Visit www.australianbarra.com.au for all the results and photos.    

Place	Angler	Team	Status	F1	L1	F2	L2	TF	TL	Cash	Prizes
1	Craig Griffiths	Rapala Street Team	Standard	2	149	2	140	4	289	$1,200	Daiwa Heartland rod & Daiwa Luna reel & Prize Pack
2	Daniel Grech	Rapala/ JT Reel Repairs	Standard	1	94	2	165	3	259	$600	Millerod Camofish Salty Barra rod, Shimano Coriolis reel & Prize Pack
3	Issac Toivanen	DC	Standard	3	231			3	231	$500	G.Loomis Force Lite rod & Prize Pack
4	Donovan Power	Power	Standard			3	226	3	226	$300	Spotters Prize Pack & Prize Pack
5	Jarrod Dalton	Sebile	Standard	1	96	1	75	2	171	$200	Jackall Prize Pack & Prize Pack + Big Barra (96cm) Rapala Pack
6	Rob Wood	Gin Gin Hotel	Standard	1	72	1	72	2	144	$200	Shimano Catana rod & Prize Pack
7	Alan McNamara	Shimano/ E-Tec	Standard			1	92	1	92		Halco Prize Pack
8	Jason Wilhelm	Shimano/ E-Tec	Standard	1	91			1	91		Halco Prize Pack
9	Matt Martin	Team Predator	Standard	1	88			1	88		Berkley Prize Pack
10	Leon Parmenter	ETEC Evinrude HO	Standard			1	88	1	88		Berkley Prize Pack
11	Matt Hazell	Team Predator	Standard	1	87			1	87
12	Dean Silvester	Megabass/Mako	Standard			1	85	1	85
13	Nicholas Moore	Ulua Boys	Standard			1	75	1	75
14	Frank Ohl	Reidy’s Lures	Standard			1	73	1	73
15	Geoff Newby	The Likely Lads	Standard	1	69			1	69
16	Peter Price	Reidy’s Lures	Standard			1	69	1	69
17	Brook Ebzery	Teaser	Standard			1	68	1	68
18	Arthur Grace	Amzing Grace Two Crew	Standard					0	0
19	Ben Durkin	Gin Gin Hotel	Standard					0	0
20	Cameron Pratt	DC	Standard					0	0
21	Craig Birkett	INDT	Standard					0	0
22	Daniel Roth	Rapala Street Team	Standard					0	0
23	Daryl Pead	Dingos	Standard					0	0
24	David Purdy	Sebile	Standard					0	0
25	Elaine Sanderson	Tackle Warehouse Ladies	Standard					0	0
26	Geoff Busbridge	Megabass/Mako	Standard					0	0
27	Glen Smith	Neranga Tangs	Standard					0	0
28	Glyn Barkhuizen	Samurai Reaction Rods	Standard					0	0
29	Greg Birkett	INDT	Standard					0	0
30	Jake Schwerin	Fish Catching Machines	Standard					0	0
31	Jeff Eales	Team of Two	Standard					0	0
32	John Schwerin	Fish Catching Machines	Standard					0	0
33	Jon Millard	Rapala/ JT Reel Repairs	Standard					0	0
34	Katie Sanderson	Tackle Warehouse Ladies	Standard					0	0
35	Matt Black	I’m On Lures	Standard					0	0
36	Matt Coleman	Team of Two	Standard					0	0
37	Matt McArthur	McArthur Customs	Standard					0	0
38	Michael Weick	Neranga Tangs	Standard					0	0
39	Mike Connolly	ETEC Evinrude HO	Standard					0	0
40	Nathan Chapman	Dingos	Standard					0	0
41	Neville Parmenter	Team Maverick	Standard					0	0
42	Paul McFarlane	Amzing Grace Two Crew	Standard					0	0
43	Peter Behrens	Ulua Boys	Standard					0	0
44	Phil Lyons	The Likely Lads	Standard					0	0
45	Robert Ebzery	Teaser	Standard					0	0
46	Rodney Milkins	Team Maverick	Standard					0	0
47	Simon Barkhuizen	Samurai Reaction Rods	Standard					0	0
48	Simon Black	I’m On Lures	Standard					0	0
49	Spencer Troxell	McArthur Customs	Standard					0	0
50	Steven Wright	Team Reef Suzuki Marine	Standard					0	0
51	Trent Power	Power	Standard					0	0
52	Wayne Cox	Team Reef Suzuki Marine	Standard					0	0
53	Kerrin Taylor	Millerods/Shimano/Evinrude	Pro					DQ	DQ
54	Cy Taylor	Millerods/Shimano/Evinrude	Pro					DQ	DQ
				12	977	16	1228	28	2205
					81.42		76.75		78.75

Taylor Boys take out the Awoonga Barra Trophy in a tough bite

On the 20th and 21st August 2020 the second round of the new ‘Barra Trophy’ tournaments was held on the renowned home of big barra, Lake Awoonga. 19 teams entered, all with the desire to land a massive slice of chrome and muscle, also known as destroyers of tackle and dreams.

With Lake Awoonga at 89% capacity, a far cry from the 32% the lake was in last year’s ABT Barra tour, it presented a new arena for the majority of anglers. The condition of the lake could only be described as pristine, with new weed beds forming, lots of newly submerged timber and shrubs, and a massive increase in shoreline and fishable territory. Baitfish were prolific, but water temps were lower than hoped, hovering around the 20 – 21 degree mark, and steady. Recent captures by guides and locals on the lake indicated the fish were there to be caught by anglers who persevered.
Session One

After a lakeside briefing, the teams set out at 4pm Friday in great conditions, with five hours to try and put a barra or three on the brag mat. The first team able to achieve that was Team Serrengetti, with Karl Rembacher on the rod, and Richard Price on the net. The 106cm fish was taken on a 110 Slick rig at 6.25am, and earnt Karl a Foxies tackle pack for first barra taken in the tournament.

Back at the tag board, as teams returned, several tales of lost fish were told, and just seven teams handed in their folders, complete with their digital memory cards to record their captures. Six of the seven teams had landed just one fish with just one team landing two barra – Team Evinrude/Minn Kota consisting of AFC & ABT Barra champs Cy and Kerrin Taylor. They stuck to a proven tactic fishing modified slick rig lures across shallow weedbeds to take the Session One cash prize of $50 with two fish for 198cm.

Session Two

An early morning barometric spike, and warming conditions, gave anglers renewed enthusiasm to tackle the five-hour morning session. But again Lake Awoonga lived up to its reputation as place where dreams are made and sometimes shattered, with only one team registering a barramundi for the session.

Team Narangatangs consisting of Glen Smith and Michael Weick took the honours and $50 cash for the session. With a feisty 86cm barra that inhaled Micheal’s Saruna, that become wedged inside its mouth, eliminating the chances of it throwing the hooks. Earlier in the session, Glen dropped a huge barra late in the fight, leaving him shattered as he’d also dropped a big one in the previous session.

There was very little encouragement for most teams in the morning session, although Dan Grech managed to lose a fish at the boat, when the hooks came free on its final surge…

Session Three

The final session again kicked off at 4pm Saturday, and was extended by an hour to 10pm due to overwhelming angler demand. This evening session proved just as productive as the Friday evening session, with eight barra gracing the brag mat, and several more proving elusive.

Team Scaleforce and the Nerangatangs both made late charges for victory with two fish each, but the Taylor boys held out all-comers by securing session 3 with two fish for 199cm.

Stats

19 Teams/38 Anglers
Session 1 – 8 Barra
Session 2 – 1 Barra
Session 3 – 8 Barra
Total – 17 Barra
Total Length – 16.09m
Average Length – 94.6cm

Big Barra Ladies – Elaine Sanderson – 92cm. Only two ladies took part in the Awoonga Barra Trophy, leaving Elaine and Katie Sanderson to fight it out for the Big Barra Ladies Title from the same boat. Elaine got her 92cm fish in the first session, and Katie was unable to land a fish to challenge her for the title and the prize of a Pflueger Arbor Spin reel.

Big Barra Senior – Cy Taylor – 111cm. Cy was again on fire, and actually landed the two biggest Barra for the tournament at 111 and 110cm. He fished proven big fish areas in the main basin. Other anglers hooked fish that may well have challenged Cy, but he was able to put his on the mat when it counted. Cy’s efforts yielded him the Big Barra Senior title and a Pflueger Patriach Baitcast Reel.

Champion Team Catfish – JT Reel Repairs/Rapala – 2 Catfish.

The highly sought after title of Catfish Kings…………went to Daniel Grech and Jon Millard. They landed one each, with Dan taking out the largest at 42cm to the fork. Several other teams registered one catfish each for the event. But these boys took home the Foxies prize packs for their fine efforts…. well done Dan and Jon!

Top Five Teams Results

5th – Rapala Street Team – Craig Griffiths and Daniel Roth Consistant performers, Craig and Dan took out 4th in the Mondy Barra Trophy earlier in the year. In this event, Rapala Street Team fished a bank up the back of the main basin, and had a very frustrating first session losing a string of fish, and managing to boat just one at 103cm that managed to put them into 5th position. They were kicking themselves for dropping so many fish in the first session, as subsequent sessions didn’t produce the same action, and in a tough bite, they could have easily found themselves higher up the leaderboard.

4th Team Serrengetti – Karl Rembacher and Richard Price

Camped out at the Canvas Cabin at Awoonga Caravan Park was the inspiration for the team name Serrengetti. These boys caught a couple of fish in the prefish and were feeling confident going into the event. As it turned out, Karl’s session one – 106cm barra was enough to put these guys into 5th and take home an extra $300. The barra slammed Karl’s Slick Rig right at the boat, causing temporary heart failure for Karl, before he came to terms with a fired up barra on a short leash and tight drag. You’ll have to ask him the story as it is a beauty, that I’m sure he won’t mind retelling. Fortunately everything held up, and the fish somehow made it into the net, and proved to be enough to secure Serrengetti 4th place.

3rd The Nerangatangs – Glen Smith and Michael Weick As the name suggests, Glen and Michael hail from Nerang and like eating bananas……Actually I’m not sure about the bananas, but they have taken a while to overcome some bad luck in barra trophy tournaments. In the Mondy event, Glen somehow managed to drop 11 barra and land none. Following on with his poor tournament form, Glen dropped another two good fish in the first two sessions of this event, before Michael boated the solo barra from session two. In the final session Glen finally got his act together and landed his first, then second Barra Trophy barra, elevating the Nerangatangs into third on the scoreboard. The lure of choice for Glen and Michael was the Saruna , a shallow diving hardbodied lure rigged to suspend. The boys were working them on a prominent point, using some very long pauses to entice the bites. The barra trophy tournaments are the first barra tournaments these guys have entered, but they have been having a ball and are looking forward to coming back for the ABT Barra Tour in November.

2nd Scaleforce – Justin Nye and Peter Cherrit These Hervey Bay based anglers are normally more at home chasing Golden Trevally and longtail Tuna on fly, but love getting away to Monduran and Awoonga to test their skills on mighty impoundment barra. Fishing out of Justin’s new Galeforce boat, that shares the same name as the team, Justin and Peter fished consistently well to secure a second place result and $600 cash.

Their chosen location was a weedy bay up the back of New Zealand gully. They tried fishing the shallows during the prefish, but continued to spook fish, so their tactic was to sit in the deeper water at the entrance to the bay, targeting barra that were moving in and out of the weed beds.

They positioned the boat in around 16feet of water and targeted fish from the edge of the weedbeds in around 8 feet of water, right out to the deeper areas of over 20 feet. Using the new Minn Kota I-Pilot, Justin raved about the ability of the Spot lock feature, which uses GPS technology to hold location.

“The Spot Lock was awesome, no need to stuff around with the anchor, and it just held us in the exact position we wanted to fish.”

The pair fished Slick Rig 130s in Drop Bear colour, straight out of the pack, with no mods. Their outfits consisted of Loomis and Egrell rods mated to Shimano Chronarchs spooled with 30lb Bionic Braid. Black Magic 60lb fluorocarbon was the leader of choice. Justin and Peter were stoked with their result, but also disappointed to have a lost a big fish in session three, that might have made a difference to the results.

Awoonga Barra Trophy Champions

Team Evinrude/Minn Kota, Cy and Kerrin Taylor The talented Taylor Brothers took home top honours and the perpetual barra trophy, in their first Barra Trophy Event. Fishing out of their now-famous, little yellow tinny with a 40 hp Etec, Cy and Kerrin fished two distinct spots for the tournament, a shallow weeded bay and a deeper bank up the back of the main basin. Alternating between modified 110 Squidgy Slick Rigs and Stiffy Twitch baits rigged with Owner trebles to suspend, Cy and Kerrin fished the majority of their sessions on anchor, using the prevailing winds at their back to make long casts to the weed edges.  Their outfits consisted of Millerods Camofish Salty barra rods, matched to Shimano Curado reels, spooled with 20lb fins braid and rigged with 80lb Jinkai  plus mono leaders.

The pair got just five bites for the 16 hours of competition fishing, and managed to convert four of those, once again showing everyone the depth of their talent. The key was fishing their lures close to the weed and jiggling them along to entice the bites. If the lures fouled in weed, they were ripped hard to pop them out of the weed, then they continued the retrieve.

Cy recalls that they were very lucky to land one of their big fish as it jumped into the side of the boat at the end of the fight, smashing the bib off the Stiffy bait, but somehow the hooks held and the fish was landed. Indeed it was Cy who had all the luck this tournament, relegating Kerrin to net boy for all four fish. I’m sure Kerrin will be looking to reverse the stats in the barra tour.

The boys enjoyed the Barra Trophy tournament, and a happy to see more barra events being held throughout the year.

Thank you to the competitors Thank you to all the teams that came and had a go. It was great to see teams put the effort in a tough bite. There was a great sociable atmosphere at the comp, and some great sportsmanship shown by all teams, particularly Team Rovex who went back to camp, from the briefing, to retrieve a battery operated white light, for a team who was having trouble getting theirs to function correctly.

 Our hosts at Lake Awoonga Caravan Park, Ryan and Kylie were terrific in organising things on the ground, prior to and during the event. Including, cooking up a mighty breakfast, on the Sunday morning, which was very well received. They also donated two prizes of 2 nights accommodation at Lake Awoonga Caravan park which were well received by the lucky winners.

A Big thank-you to the following sponsors, Pflueger, Shakespeare, Berkley, Foxies, Storm, The Tackle Warehouse, Barra Madness, Halco, Plano, Lake Awoonga Caravan Park, and Labmaps.
                 

Team		Placing	Fish S 1	Length S 1	Fish S 2	Length S 2	Fish S 3	Length S 3	Total Fish	Total Length
Evinrude/Minn Kota	Cy and Kerrin Taylor	1	2	198			2	199	4	397	$1,000
Scaleforce	Justin Nye and Peter Cherrit	2	1	94			2	191	3	285	$600
Nerangatangs	Glen Smith and Michael Weick	3			1	86	2	185	3	271	$400
Serringetti	Carl Rembacher and Richard Price	4	1	106					1	106	$300
Rapala Street Team	Daniel Ross and Craig Griffiths	5	1	103					1	103	$175
We Fish	Grant Murray and Wayne Jones	6	1	99					1	99
Team Berkley	Trevor Burgess and Nathan Reid	7					1	96	1	96
Tackle Warehouse Ladies	Elaine and Katie Sanderson	8	1	92					1	92
Teaser	Brooke Ebzery and Isaac Fenech	9	1	80					1	80
Team Predator	Matt Martin and Glen Sweeny	10					1	80	1	80
Team Fish Head	Patrick Morgan and Jarred Dalton	11							0	0
Hammaz Hardbodiez	Kyle Hammer and Brad Hurdy	12							0	0
Top Tackle	Darcy James and Arthur Willmott	13							0	0
I’m on Lures	Simon Black and Andrew Black	14							0	0
Team Rovex	Gary Leather and Shane Anderson	15							0	0
JT Reel Repairs / Rapala	Dan Grech and Jon Millard	16							0	0
Gin Gin Hotel 1	Rob Wood and Ben Durkin	17							0	0
Gin Gin Hotel 2	Tommy Wood and Jari Sannholm	18							0	0
Rum Pigs	Trevor Cassidy and Cameron Golighty	19							0	0
									0	0
Barra Snr		Cy Taylor	111cm	Pflueger Patriach
Barra Ladies		Elaine Sanderson	92cm	Pflueger Arbor
Catfish		Dan Grech	42cm fl	Foxies Pack
Barra on Storm		Grant Murray	99cm	$300 Storm/Rapala Pack
Barra on Hollow Belly		Trevor Burgess	96cm	$250 Berkley Pack
Session 1		Evinrude/Minn Kota	198cm	$50
Session 2		Nerangatangs	86cm	$50
Session 3		Evinrude/Minn Kota	199cm	$50