Qld Late Barra Report

[Member]

Sorry for the late post, but I have had problems posting anything in here, and had given up for a long time. It is finally working for me, so here is our very late post. I hope you think it's still worth reading.
In the first half of October last year, Ana and I did the 1,000 klm trip north from Ipswich to Kinchant Dam. It’s approx 30 k’s west of Mackay.
We took our trusty little motorhome and set off with trailer and kayaks in tow, to see if we could bag ourselves a barra. We had previously visited Monduran, Waruma, Cania and Awoonga dams without success, and we had our hopes set on finally cracking the 'magic metre' barra at Kinchant.

Kinchant is a very enjoyable dam to fish. It has an average depth of around 6 – 8 metres, with some 13 metre spots closer to the wall. We used a couple of different methods of fishing the dam. We trolled the deeper water with shallow diving lures to avoid the weeds, and I also fished the edges of the weeds with plastics, hoping to entice something to come out and take the lure.

I was told Kinchant has no natural waterways flowing into it, and the water is pumped in from other dams and is held there for irrigation. Because of this, the height doesn’t fluctuate much, and you will see a tree near my van in one of the pics, that has below it the electricity connection and water tap. I don’t know how many other places you’d find with power so close to the water, but it made it very convenient for us. We pulled the yaks out on to the bank at night, threw the tarp over them and were all set for a quick launch before sunrise next day.

Another benefit of having no natural inflows is that during the 2011 floods, it didn’t lose a heap of fish over the walls, as other dams did. There are plenty of barra left in there, and they are not all that hard to find. With the right lures and the right strategy , anyone can do it. Lets face it, we did. That should tell you how easy it is. I had some handy lures, and was given a few by a very generous guy who wanted us to do well. A pic below shows some samples . The gold bomber is not included in the pic, but it should have been. I used a Shimano Symetre 3000 with 15 lb braid and 60 lb mono leader. Ana used a Shimano Symetre 4000 with 30 lb braid and a wire trace. ( that was overkill in my opinion, but she did better than me, so you be the judge )

We found the October sun had quite a bite, so mostly we lounged around in the shade and waited for late afternoon when it became cooler, and the wind would drop then too, giving us cool, calm conditions to fish. It was very pleasant, but a little spooky after dark when you get a bite, and a barra leaps out of the water close by. You can’t see it, you just feel the rod go crazy and hear all the commotion. The longer we stayed, the more I talked to others and got a few tips, and next time I am sure we will be landing plenty. On this trip, I failed to catch my ‘magic metre’, but at 94cm, I was pretty stoked.

Ana did better than me, ( nothing new about that ) with a 110cm monster but when you don’t have pics, it ‘didn’t happen’. Poor bugger got so excited, that after making some measurement marks on the side of the yak, she let it go without the pics. We were both spewing when she realised what she had done, but never mind .... she may not be able to prove it, but she knows she did it and it was one hell of a ride. We will be back. I still want to crack the metre, and Ana intends to do an encore performance, only this time, she won’t forget to wait for me to take the pics. Then she can rub it in that she outfished me yet again.
We saw a fire on the other side of the wall, and it looked so much like the water was on fire, that I took a pic. Another pic shows the early morning low cloud. It was a very interesting trip, with some unusual sights and wonderful experiences. The park could do with a facelift, but there is everything you need there, including bar and restaurant. Bring your own drinking water ( or buy it there )

We have sold the van and trailer that you see in the pics and bought a 100 series  Landcruiser and a new Jayco Outback Expanda caravan, so next time we will be going in a little bit more style.
We'll be heading to Kinchant again in Oct and will give ourselves more time, and start off with more knowledge and in more comfort. Can’t wait !!!  Hopefully we'll have some great pics and new stories to tell.
Cheers