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February 16, 2010

TRY A DIFFERENT APPROACH THIS BARRA SEASON

Keith Graham

It can’t be February again???? Who knows what happened to 2009…. but here’s to another great fishing year in and around Cairns!

I guess we all get a little bit bored using the same old methods to catch barra! Using live baits under floats or on the bottom….casting hard body lures off the rocky headlands…...flicking fizzers in the dams, sound familiar? Well here’s a few new / revamped ideas to chase old silver sides and if you don’t think they work just give ‘em a try…..you’ll be surprised.

FLOATING HOLLOWBELLY SOFT PLASTICS INTO SNAGS AND OFF ROCKY HEADLANDS.

Berkeley have over the past six months developed a new breed of soft plastics called ‘Hollow Bellies’. As the name implies these critters sink slower than conventional shads due to the extra buoyancy. Team them up with the new ‘half weight’ heads and allow them to flutter down to tempt a strike, ( dynamite in Tinaroo), or just rig them with a lighter head and attach them to a 60 lbs. mono leader under a float and drift them into all manner of likely barra hideouts.

Vary the depth according to the structure but aim to ensure the HB’s end up close to the bottom. If the action is slow lean back on the rig and let the HB slowly drift down again. A few of our keen local lads have been tempting some mega sized barra with this method late last season…..and other species like Jacks, Cod, Trevally and Fingermark can’t resist it either. Remember predators like to see an easy mark, which means that a bait presented in a slower / tempting manner is more likely to attract a strike than too quick a retrieve. The HB’s help you to achieve this irresistible presentation….and boy do they ‘WOOF” then down!

PLASTIC PRAWNS WORKED THROUGH SNAGS.

How many soft plastic prawn patterns are there on the market? Heaps! The most popular food for most predators in our river systems, (especially barra), has been copied in just about every material known to man in all sizes, colours and even scents. Many of them work very well including Prawnstar, DOA, Rios hard body prawn and my favourite the Squidgy Stealth Prawn! The Stealth comes in 3 sizes 50, 70 and 90 mm with one had per packet. This head is made from resin with a lead filler. This makes it sink slower and ‘tease’ fish better. A typical cast would be lobbed alongside or in the middle of a snag then let sink for a few seconds to the desired depth.

Then just ‘TWITCH’ it like a real prawn using the rod tip. When you see the action you can impart on this irresistible morsel you’ll see why they work so well and the more you use them the better you will become…especially at tempting those fussy feeders.

The best we did in one day on the Daintree recently was 7 species using the Stealth Prawn.

SUSPENDING HARBODIES…TWITCHED AND TWEEKED.

Rapala have certainly revitalised the suspending lure market with their X-Rap series…..they are absoloutly brilliant! Available in a variety of shapes / weights and sizes these lures can perform miracles in the right hands. As previously mentioned lures that can be ‘KEPT IN THE STRIKE ZONE LONGER’ will attract more strikes….the X-Rap will help you to achieve this by bringing ‘neutral buoyancy’ into the equation. So…..if you work your lure down to the desired depth then ‘TWITCH”….then ‘WAIT”….”TWITCH>>TWITCH”…..the ‘WAIT’ you will provoke more hits. It works…believe me we used it recently on our trip to the Kimberleys and when the bite had stopped we clipped on Suspending lures and by delaying the retrieve and keeping the lure suspended, ( as opposed to letting a high buoyancy lure quickly jump back to the surface), we extended the bite time by at least half.

Other lures that suspend really well are the BOMBER range of suspenders….especially the metallic blue 3” model. Then there is the Leads Suspending Shad….wow…..what a lure! You must try to master the art of using Suspenders…sorry I mean Suspending lures….again this will increase your strike / catch rate heaps!

RATTLING HARDBODIES.

Again these long forgotten lures have been reinvented in a number of forms….the most trendy being the Kokoda G-Vibe Titanium lipped rattler….( like a Cordel Rattlin Spot on steroids). They are perfect for dropping on the nose of semi comatose predators that have refused most other offerings. Sometimes they are taken as they ‘flutter’ down but my experience with them has seen cricket score captures if barra taken after dark….ON A FULL MOON. The moon has to be ‘up’ and shining down from a relatively clear sky…thus illuminating the water. BARRA ARE NIGHT FEEDERS AND FEED LIKE CRAZY ON A FULL MOON. I tie up to the biggest snag pile on the stretch of river I’m working and lower the spot to the bottom….then…..I lift it up rapidly and make the RATTLES work hard and make one hell of a racket……then….let it free fall back to the bottom. Most of the strikes are on the ‘DOWN’….and do they hit it hard! The sequence could be RATTLE RATTLE…..SINK…SINK……B O O F ! Sometimes when they his it they swim upwards at a great rate of knots and clear the surface….saturating you in the process.

Not for the feint hearted this FULL MOON RATTLING is great fun…some of my best barra memories are from using this method.( My all time favourite lure for this is the Cordell Rattlin Spot in the 11cm. version…but…sadly this is no longer made, so the same lure in metallic gold in the 8 cm. version is a close second).

I hope you enjoy trying these ‘different’ barra techniques…perhaps if you catch a good fish trying one you could send the photo in to Fish & Boat with the details.

Keith Graham