Don't Forget the Dawn Session

[Member]

Yes, this is an advertisement!
Harro and I both enjoy the dawn sessions on Awoonga every season, as well as the midday shift.
With spring in full swing, and it feels like the spring/summer build up at the moment, the morning sessions have been providing nice fish on surface lures.  Harro also specialises in some deepwater trolling tactics that are pretty crafty.  Between us, there is opportunity for anglers of all types to have a crack at this special time of day. Dawn sessions are shorter trips, but the whole experience of catching a fish or two as the early morning begins is a spectacle all on its own.
If anyone is keen, don't hesitate to call. Being on a lake pre-sunrise is pretty thrilling. Listening to a surface strike from a 100cm fish still makes ya shudder!
For anglers with their own boats, find a quiet corner and give it a go. The experience alone, is sometimes enough.
Johnny Mitchell

[Member]

Puts a new meaning into a dawn buster...
Quite beside the greater strike potential of a changing light situation,
there's the opportunity to learn more effective retrieve patterns and put some yards on a cast.
This is where blokes with good hands on the water fulltime have an edge on fishing
writers and blokes with day jobs.

[Member]

Puts a new meaning into a dawn buster...
Quite beside the greater strike potential of a changing light situation,
there's the opportunity to learn more effective retrieve patterns and put some yards on a cast.
This is where blokes with good hands on the water fulltime have an edge on fishing
writers and blokes with day jobs.

Rod, I remember back 10 or a dozen years when the fish in Faust were just starting to be caught. We slugged it out listening to the locals advise of "no point hitting the water until 4pm" & then the advice was to go troll the wall. Doing the arvo thing for close to a week for a few rats n mice, we changed tack, hit the water as the sun did & had one of the best barra sessions I've ever had. Think I boated about 25 barra for the morning & lost every bomber I owned. That arvo saw me clean out Lindsay's shelves of every bomber in every color he had; credit card groaning as it slid through the machine.... & that was before the 2 x #15 chooks on the lunchtime menu.   

The topic here is a valuable lesson learned that day for lake barra.

fitz..

[Member]

As I've often said, if I'd decided to charter a guide when I first started chasing Barra I'd be a few thousand $ better off.  My first trip we got lucky at Faust and I caught the bug.  I made a fair number of trips to Awoonga after that before I finally cracked a decent fish.  Harro and Johnny put people on to great fish every day.  If you're a beginner, or travelling a long way to get to Awoonga, I honestly believe it's worth paying for a charter with Johnny or Rod on your first day.  The lessons you learn will be invaluable.  Chances are you'll get your fish and learn more than you could imagine by reading forums.  You'll also spend some time with a bloody nice bloke.

[Member]

You'll also spend some time with a bloody nice bloke.

Do I get to go fishing too?? 

[Member]

Do I get to go fishing too?? 

Get over yourself mate, I was talking about Johnny and Rod.

[Member]

Get over yourself mate, I was talking about Johnny and Rod.

Doh!

[Member]

Funny!! 

[Member]

Funny!! 

It might be for you JM............... 

[Member]

It might be for you JM............... 

It might be for you JM............... 

  Sorry, did someone step on your ego....

[Member]

I could buy a Fitz mascot for the bow, so everyone has the opportunity to fish with him. It could be a top seller. Glow in the dark perhaps, so during pre-dawn it's still visible.

Fitz, on another note - breaking the trend like you did a decade ago will do just the same in the modern times where fish have evolved further. Going your own way is sometimes wise hey.
With any fish, ( as you know) there is a pattern for every hour, a pattern for every day, month, season, year- and this can change for the next year also. We have to sometimes push solid ideas aside a little bit and find small clues as to what is really happening on the water at the time. Last September and this September aren't a direct copy of each other on Awoonga. Splitting the mould and re-moulding to this season's water has been the trade trick. It has taken a few weeks to get the feel for it, and its a bigger chunk to feel now. Anyone who has the balls to step outside basic lines, and then the nous to work it, will come up with the goods.
Johnny

[Member]

Fishing open expanses of shallow (2-3ft) water was an awesome experience on our recent Awoonga trip   -  fizzers pre dawn & poppers / stick baits in the middle of the day made for a pleasant change ...... certainly a thrilling experience dealing with hard running fish through weed and drowned bushes.

Chris