G-day 2024

barrabait reply :

G-day everyone, stumbled across your site a while back and decided to have a bit of a look around. very interesting site. I fish for Australian bass here in Queensland on much the same lures to the gear you use. Im just getting in to Berkly and Atomic soft plastics and Im haveing a fair amount of success so far. I have a 7 hour drive to the closest bass impoundment so we only fish it a couple of times a year. My local dams hold stocked Barramundi and Sooty Grunter so we chase them year round. The Barra grow in excess of 1 metre,,, 25kg's plus and the Sootys up to half a metre maybe 2 to 4 kg's. . Typical Barra gear is a 4 to 8kg rod coupled with a good quality overhead spoolled with 30 to 50lb braid running a metre of 60lb mono leader. sounds like over kill on the line class but if you seen the areas we have to bully the fish out of you would see why we need the extra line strength. A metre barra heading in the opposite direstion through sunked timber is one heck of a lot of fun. My 16 year old son landed his first mtr barra last weekend and I managed my best so far of 1.12mtrs. Most common size caught around here would fall between 60cm to 85cm. Any way just thought I'd drop you's a line to say g-day and I will keep comming back to see what you's have been catching. Tight lines everyone.

Darren.

New Bass Man reply :

Welcome to the site. We look forward to learning from you.

Rebbasser reply :

Howdy and welcome to the forum!

Stick around-We'd enjoy learning how y'all fish Down Under. Jump right in and make yourself at home.

Raul reply :

Welcome to the forum !

Hey Reb you n 'me need to go Down Under and ketch some of them big barramundis, seen them in a show called "Fishing Australia" and all I can say is the everytime I see that show my blood begins to boil. ;D

Low_Budget_Hooker reply :

welcome aboard, do you have any pics of the local species you speak of?

DDbasser reply :

Welcome to the site!!!

I agree with LBH I'd like to see some pictures of the species of fish that you sports catch downunder.

Rebbasser reply :

Quote
Welcome to the forum !
Hey Reb you n 'me need to go Down Under and ketch some of them big barramundis, seen them in a show called "Fishing Australia" and all I can say is the everytime I see that show my blood begins to boil. ;D

Works for me!

Marty reply :

G-day to you too! You're making me consult a metric conversion chart! Hope you enjoy the forum.

Here are links to info about the two fish, sooty grunter and barramundi:

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/1948.html

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/2136.html

Bass Hammer reply :

Welcome to the forum.

Just curious. Are these fished primarily for sport or for food.

Thanks

Hammer

barrabait reply :

G-day everyone, thanks for the welcome.

If you check out the web site www.ausfish.com.au you will find plenty of photos of Barra and Sooty grunter. The site is much the same as this one here. Go to the fresh water photo section and look for Teemburra, Peter Faust, Monduran, Awonga and Eungella. They are all stocked impoundments ausfish members fish and post shots of the fish they catch. I go buy the name of Staggy. The fish are for both food and sport. They are stocked to help take the pressure of our wild stocks as the Barra are a much sort after eating fish. Barramundi in my opinion are a much better sports fish then a table fish. Not sure on the sooty as a food but they are heaps of fun to catch. On a good day my son and I can catch up to 30 sootys on lures for around 3 hours on the water. then again we could spend 3 hours and catch nothing the next trip round. Stocking the dams also brings tourists in to the area improving the local economy. Southen anglers in the cooler parts of Australia spend all there time dreaming about catching Barramundi in the tropics and once they had to travel to Cairns just to be in with a chance of nailing a nice fish. Now with the stocked impoundments they only have to travel around 5 hours north of Briabane to experience some unbeleivable fishing. We have a closed season on our wild stock of barramundi from the 1st of November to the 1st of February, but you can still chase them in our dams all year round. They do slow down in winter and most fishos dont bother targeting them untill spring. Sootys go hard cold or hot weather.

Well Im just home from a 12 hour night shift at work so I should get some sleep. It's 4.45am here at the moment.

catch you all later.

Darren.

barrabait reply :

how bout this

barrabait reply :

Ok the Barra worked now I'll find some Sooty's and Bass and post them later.

Darren

bowjunkie35 reply :

Wow! That is an inpressive looking fish!!

Welcome to the forum mate!

Bass Hammer reply :

Wow!

Very nice. You said they get big. How do your fish compare? Are these average or bigger?

Thanks

Hammer

bassackwards reply :

what brilliant color... thats an amazing fish.

Matt Fly reply :

Welcome to the site.

Nice fish.

They didn't teach metrics when I went to school. Are those species for supper or just fun to catch. Are they good to eat, we all saw Crockidile Dundee offer a few things that didn't appear to appealing.

Good day mate!

barrabait reply :

Back again, Im glad you like the barra shots. The one in daylight is actually a bigger fish in length by 2 inches. I think the angle Im holding the barra at night makes it look larger. Night fishing with no moon light is a lot of fun. blind casting into the darkness retreiving the lure dead slow keeping it just under the surface. And when these fish hit they usually clear the water trying to throw the lure. Orsm sight in the daylight, just have to follow the splashing in the dark. Yee Harrr.

Both these fish are on the larger size Bass-Hammer but still not as big as they are catching at the moment.

Average size is from 18inches to 24inches. Bit hard for me to work in imperial measurments. One thing I noticed on your sight you all talk weight with the fish you catch. We tend to talk length.

Even fish of this size are ok to eat Matt-Fly but I reckon they are better to catch then to eat.

barrabait reply :

I didnt take these pics but it gives you and Idear of why we love these fish. The fish is around the size of the two in my pics

catch ya later.

darren.

barrabait reply :

A bit closer to an average size barra

Darren.

barrabait reply :

Ok ,something different. This is a pic of Sooty grunter. they are a super agressive fish and will attack almost any lure you throw near them. Smaller then a barra but they pull like a freight train. Surface lures work well untill the sun hits the water and then I switch to soft plastics so I can sink the lure down to the depth the fish are holding at. Spinnerbaits work well but I dont use them a often. Wild sootys in our local rivers can be caught through out the day on small hard bodied lures but the impoundment fish seem to shut down around 8am. Our trick to finding the sootys is to look for trees that have the local water birds roosting in them all night. The birds crap in the water all night and the bait fish rise to the surface to feed on the crap, then the sootys come up and smash the bait fish. So when one of the birds does its business into the water usually a few seconds later we see a swerl on the surface of the water. Chuck ya lure close to the swirl and a millisecond later your on to a sooty. Sort of cheating using the birds as a sign post but hey the goal is to catch fish so I use any means I can to increase my chanses. Catfish are also in the rivers so we catch a few of them as well.

The ouch in this pic is a 4/0 hook impailed in my finger. The fish spun around as I was removing it from the landing net and I got hooked up to the lure. Took a fair bit of effort to push it all the way through my finger to get it out. The hook went in beside my fingernail and the poind just broke the shin in the middle of the finger. Getting it out the way it went in was not going to happen so I pushed it all the way through. Good thing Iv got a good supply of blood as I let a fair bit of it out when the hook came out :'(.

Darren

barrabait reply :

Crikey my spellin aint to good

barrabait reply :

Must be a lucky Jacket. One of my mates with his first impoundment sooty wearing my jacket. Eungella dam is around 550 meters above sea level so the temp is a little cooler in the mornings compaired to where I live on the coast 2 hours drive away. I live by the ocean but never fish the salt as the fresh water fishing around here is too good.

Darren

Raul reply :

Darren, my man, you 're serioulsy making my blood boil. ;D

Dang ! I could move to Australia. :

Rebbasser reply :

It does get your fever up, doesn't it?

Raul reply :

Yup ! ;D

If Australian beer is only half as good as Mexican beer I can survive living there.

Rattlinrogue reply :

Welcome,mate!Looks like you could get your line seriously stretched down under.

12896

G-day 2024

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