Sweetwater Fishing Forums
General Category => Fishing Reports => Topic started by: Johnny Mitchell on March 11, 2011, 09:48:06 AM
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Here's a photo of the colour transition that's occuring in some of the barra from the upper Boyne River as they migrate down river into the salt. Some fish are taking longer to change colours, but some of them are metalic, with vibrant yellow tails. The river opens up to commercial netting on the 1st of May so between now and then some great fishing will be remain available. Our charters have been successful with quality fish around that metre length being taken. A Heron Island Manager, Jason Killen, shows off one of seven he hooked ( photo below) in a small time frame earlier this week.
Fishing the river is another barra experience for keen anglers and clients have enjoyed the change- and the comparison to the lake formats and styles. These freshwater fish, now in the salt will eventually change their habits- they tend to strike harder and fight stronger. As time moves on, they will develop more saltwater characteristics, acquiring skills and a prowess that they maybe never realised they could attain.
Commercial netters are scoring big once the fish leave the Boyne river- some large pay cheques have entered fisho hands in the last month or so. On Tuesday night, 2600 kilos were pulled from the inner Boyne, an area close by allowed to be netted. The next two months will be interesting for anglers.
Johnny Mitchell
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The big fat belly is gone, but the big tail remains. Maybe I'll have to have a swim in the salty Boyne.
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It might be like Holy Water hey?!?!?
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Johnny,
There's a story going around that the pro's netted a heap of dam Barra before they changed colour and couldn't sell them because the agents knew they were freshies. The story goes that they were dumped. Heard anything like that? There's bound to be all sorts of yarns about.
JD
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I haven't heard the 'dumped' part. Everything is saleable these days, so even at $1 a kg, a load of fish that ended up being rejected by a buyer would still be saleable. There'd be a market, so I doubt they'd get dumped. Crab bait costs a packet, there's even a market for scraps too. They even buy sting rays for human consumption, believe it or not. I've watched the transition and the arrival of the lake fish into the sea, the time it took for them to rest and then become active, and at the 2 month mark they were tasting great; it'll be the late arrivals from below the wall that'll mix with the yummy ones which may cause an issue with buyers, but fillets mixed, can easily be masked among cartons of others. It's the way it is- even reef fillets get mixed with all sorts of wierd and wonderful species from the deep blue. I think when the wet actually stops and the river stops running, it'll be open slather. At $8.50 per kg, the average fish would be worth around $100 to a commercial netter, so it doesn't take a number cruncher to work out that there is money to be made. Considering individual anglers have landed 20 to 30+ fish in a session using a single line, the writing on the wall shows that record catches are imminent by the commercial sector. This year or next, pressure will be applied. The only saving grace for some of those fish is their nomadic ways. Keep your eyes and ears out for Great Sandy Straight barra schools this winter! A spearos dream come true.
J
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Great to see Jason getting amongst a few and thanks Johnny for keeping us all up to speed in regards to those escapees.
It's awesome to see nature evolve. :youbeauty
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Keep your eyes and ears out for Great Sandy Straight barra schools this winter! A spearos dream come true.
J
Lenthall's Dam has been feeding the Sandy Straight with barra for years now. ;)
fitz..
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fish are looking better by the day, with the odd exception of a banged up one. good to see there is another option for the local guides and visiting anglers. must admit there is a bit of a problem with recreational anglers mis-handling their captures (holding them up by the lip). witnessed a couple of boats the other day do this with every fish caught, and 3 or 4 dead fish down stream of the boat shortly afterwards. hope this dam starts firing for the guides sake, i understand their frustration.
cheers
kh
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must admit there is a bit of a problem with recreational anglers mis-handling their captures (holding them up by the lip). witnessed a couple of boats the other day do this with every fish caught, and 3 or 4 dead fish down stream of the boat shortly afterwards. cheers
kh
Blame the bass boys for that...wanting to look like Uncle Sam in their fotos. :camera May as well cut thier throats & eat them.
A shame to see fish wasted like that.... :walkplank
fitz..
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Kurt,
I did notice a few dozen dead fish above Pike's earlier this week. ( my only visit) I suppose it's a weeny teeny % of the number that have been captured, but caring for fish is still a priority. There may be thousands, but it is great practice to learn and adopt good skills in relation to C and R.
Fitz,
I should have said to keep an eye out for "more" barra schools down the straights this year in winter. There seems to be more and more barra reports each year from southern centres well below Hervey Bay that are possibly escapees from private waterways. This winter, divers will pop not only their ears but their eye balls when they see some of the schools that'll top 100 odd metre plus fish! Those sightings happen already in some places along the coast, so imagine the gatherings or possibilities this season. Ooh la la!
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Schools like this on the left hand side of the Side Imaging on the Humminbird were found hugging the bottom on a recent trip to the Boyne and the TT and Little Max blades were doing the job on them.
Declan Williams from TT Lures and Jason Preece a long time mate gave myself good mate John Scofield the mail on them and a few of the new 1 oz TT Switch blades to use and we had a ball.
Declans biggest went 121 and my biggest went 118cm for the trip.
They are thinner and much more colourful fish than just a few weeks back when I first fished the salty Boyne amazing what a bit of current and salt water can do and I think it's a shame that people are mishandling them :thumbdown I wont go into the bass tourny handling for pics issue as most that know me know my thoughts on that subject :o I made that quite clear many years ago and it fell on deaf ears.
The tourism generated to the Tanum area of Gladstone would be substantial from the loss of fish from the dam!!the old saying runs true "when one door closes another opens" I'll be having another trip or 2 before the nets start that's for sure.
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Nice one Paul. The fish look really good, considering they were in a lake not so long back. There's some good lures out there that work in the right scenarios hey. The blades hold their depth and are easily fished close to the bottom if needed. I remember the old blade runner, if shaved of lead, became a deadly all round lure. Even the wonder wobbler works a treat at times, for barra.
Did the fish seem hungry or did you have to 'catch' them?
121 and 118, they are good fish for a couple of days fishing hey?!?!?! There is some great fishing in that river at the moment.
It's still raining here today.
Cheers,
J
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Yeh Johnny,the fish look great and have lost a lot of weight but that wont hurt them probably help them if anything.
Yeh the Blade runner the original blade lure here in oz I think, Leigh Bioloue[sp] created it and I still have a few of them I also tried one of his flashback spoons but no luck on it.
The blades were fished to tightly packed fish on the bottom and were talked into eating them and it was great fun doing it and between the 2 boats there were a lot of fish caught and released with a few others over the meter mark all on blades.
I tried a heap of other lures but the blades were doing it so well we stuck to them.
I hooked 3 fish on the Ima jigs I was shown while I had clients on a charter down here a week or so back they brained the fish on them in the deeper water here so I thought shut down barra might eat them and they did but I didn't manage to land any of them for a pic,love finding new ways to talk fish into eating.
Here's a pic of another one of the bigger fish taken on the TT blades using the side imaging on the Humminbird 798 in conjunction with the anchor lock feature on the I-Pilot Minn Kota made things a lot easier to hold in the right position to target the bottom hugging barra
Yeh plenty of rain down here to this morning.
Paul
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Nice work, cool looking fish. Even guides enjoy these majestic fish- how could one ever get spoilt by barra? We have these freshwater critters starting a new life as a saltwater fish, so there's yet another chapter to play with.
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Couldn't help myself I had a few spare days after a charter was postponed so just had to go back and catch some more Barra on Blades in the Boyne,this week the Evergreen Little Max was the stand out lure.
Finding fish sitting on the bottom on the Humminbird 798 then moving off them and holding position with the Minn Kota I-Pilot and casting to them was great fun and very effective.
If your in the market for a new Electric motor these NEW Minn Kota motors are just fantastic for holding off or on fish or structure and have been very effective for me in both guiding and personal fishing over the last few months of having one on each boat .
Best fish for the trip went 117, 110 cm and 1 metre but plenty under a metre between 85 and a metre all on a 3/4 oz Little Max blades,I did have 2 hookups on the TT 1 oz proto type but unfortunately didn't stay connected.
But getting so many hits on the smaller lighter lure I just had to stick with it,having confidence in a lure you have on is a big part of success I believe.
Also got a solid hookup on a metre fish by jigging a Ima Jig above it after finding it on the sounder in 11 ft of water!this was the 4th hookup on Barra sitting on the bottom these jigs so it was great to finally land one on it,these little jigs are going to catch a lot of fish in a lot of situations.
Jones's tackle at Lutwych in Brisbane has both of these lures in stock so if your heading up there do your self a favour and grab a couple.
Paul
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Addiction plus hey Paul!!??
I took another film crew today and they managed 6 fish to 125cm in an hour- in favour of tourism promotion for Qld. Fishing like that does wonders for viewers.
Three commercial operators pulled about 4500 kg from the area in the last 24 hours.
J
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Addiction plus hey Pau!!??
I took another film crew today and they managed 6 fish to 125cm in an hour- in favour of tourism promotion for Qld. Fishing like that does wonders for viewers.
Three commercial operators pulled about 4500 kg from the area in the last 24 hours.
J
Yeh Johnny it sure is an addiction they are so much fun on the blades,good work on the fish you got them!!strange QLD govt promoting tourism and 4500 kg netted now that makes sense!! they should film the netting and see if that helps tourism :o the govt could buy out the net licences in the river and promote tourism as I'm sure all the local businesses are loving all the business in Tanum and surrounding areas generated from the Barra,I hope to get 1 or 2 more trips before they are all netted.
I thought they couldn't net the river until may 1st?
Paul
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I wouldn't be surprised if the injection of barra into the Boyne pulls more tourist/travelling anglers than Awoonga does at its best. Alot of folks heading there or planning to head there soon (me included)
fitz..
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Paul, the netting is taking place outside the system. One 8m boat could hardly drive onto the trailer and another dinghy couldn't plane. I've seen 3 loads of fish in 30 hours. The netting will hit hard, but the writing was on the wall since the initial stocking- in one way, the stockings and floods were always going to equal a bonanza for commercial barra netters. They are singing that song now. Fish in the river are safe for next 40 days, so now's the time to enjoy the concentration- and many are. Enough fish will, and have scattered far and wide that will be missed by the C sector and they will breed and improve the systems overall. The other way to look at it is that the flood event will increase commercial pressure and put EXTRA pressure on true wild stocks- so at times these 'events' do more damage than the dream it creates! I'm not in full favour of the 'over the wall movement' because of the latter comment about EXTRA concentrated pressure.
Johnny
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...and back to you,,,,it was pretty cool to see you in the river with the Go Pro camera on your hat, your ipod thingy stereo system on the deck beside you while catching barra. It was like you were in your own world, enjoying the moment while boats zipped all around you. Have you any cool footage to share?
J
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Hi Johnny yeh mate I understand about the presure on the wild fish but it would sort it's self out in the long run without the nets do it for them and I don't see why they should get all that free money for no contribution they will be enjoying it that's for sure.
Mate I love getting out on my own with some music and now with the Go Pro Camera Randall Bryett gave me,I've still got a lot to learn with it,like rain drops on a fish eye lens stuff footage of jumping barra :( but I have put a small vid on my Facebook page if ya want to have a look and will eventually get it on youtube.
Good chatting to ya the other day if only breifly,I'll be back real soon that's too much fun not to.
Paul
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Here's some updated info on how far the fish are wandering.
This lake barra was recaptured in the Rodd's Harbour, a big system to the south of the Boyne at another typical ground where we target wild fish. It seems that a 50/50 mix of wild versus lake fish is evident.
Barramundi (Lates calcarifer)
Tagged Length 940mm 20/2/2008
Tagged Location -Lake Awoonga
Tagger- Kris McCulloch
Recaptured length 935mm 18/3/2011
Recaptured- Rodds Harbour
Recaptured- Johnny Mitchell
Days Out 1122 (3.1 years)
Growth -5mm (0mm/year)
Movement 56km over dam wall down river and
south along coast
Released, Yes
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Barramundi (Lates calcarifer)
Tagged Length 940mm 20/2/2008
Tagged Location -Lake Awoonga
Tagger- Kris McCulloch
Recaptured length 935mm 18/3/2011
Recaptured- Rodds Harbour
Recaptured- Johnny Mitchell
Days Out 1122 (3.1 years)
Growth -5mm (0mm/year)
Movement 56km over dam wall down river and
south along coast
Released, Yes
Thats interesting that the fish shrunk 5mm in length Johnny, do you think it's because its working harder in the salt? :thumbsup
Cheers.
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I reckon it just landed hard on it's nose when it went over the wall. ::)
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yeah john
amazing to see the number of tags that have been issued into awoonga, and the very minute number that have been returned in the post spill event. i even looked at the mortalities along the boyne, and found none myself. interesting to see fish are shrinking, maybe not so good for guiding businesses. gatcombe fishing ok at the moment by the sounds of it.
cheers
kh
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Recaptured- Johnny Mitchell
Kimberley barra repellant wearing off????? ;)
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Thats interesting that the fish shrunk 5mm in length Johnny, do you think it's because its working harder in the salt? :thumbsup
Cheers.
Fish just can't shrink. 99% of the time it is incorrect measuring by operator, measuring apparatus, method or parallex error, either at first capture or at recapture.
A major flaw in having a public input system is inconsistencies due to little or no training, incorrect equipment etc.
Cheers,
fitz..
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A guy fishing near me on Saturday landed a 120cm fish that had a tag in it but he didn't get the details,he said it had too much growth on the tag to see it,I told him he should have pulled it out and sent it in to gain a history on the fish,hopefully someone else will catch it before the nets do and send it in.
Interesting to note there was a 120cm a 117cm and a 110cm fish landed and 2 other big fish lost within 1/2 hour to hour of each other at approx 4 to 5pm.
Then Back to the smaller 80-90 cm fish as it was prior that time, moon rise 4.23 pm and hour and a half into the start of the run in!! low tide was just after 3.
Their adapting well I'd say
Paul
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Recaptured- Johnny Mitchell
Kimberley barra repellant wearing off??
Ha Ha, yes it must be. I got that nick name in WA last month from scaring away barra anywhere we fished- or so the story goes. I reckon the unpaid guide was dodgey and led me astray!!
The scent or which ever it was has gone now and we're back on track thanks Mr Pasfield.
Check out some of the fish from the Boyne.
http://fishawoonga.com.au/blog/?p=573
Fitzy, yea, measuring mats, open mouths, guess work and the like leads to fumbled info and a not so perfect accuracy in data. One the side plate- once fish hit ice, they do shrink, suprisingly- parrot fish is the first one that comes to mind.
I like Dale's comment- "I reckon it just landed hard on it's nose when it went over the wall."
Kurt, I was surprised that only a couple of tags have been handed in from recaptures. The unknown number of escapees is on the guess list. Fish that move, have moved, and the rest will go when the time is right. Some are ending up in Sydney and Melbourne, via truck, mind you! I watched a commercial guy pluck barra from a net in view of the public a few mornings back. That would have raised a few eye brows. His dinghy was lop sided, and 1200-1500kg of fish were taken in one net. That's only about 100 to 110 fish- not many really.
It'll be interesting to see where tagged fish turn up in the coming year.
There are all sorts of hoo ha's in our local paper today about commercial fishing,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and who's fish they really are!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!????
J
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A short You tube I've done on the Boyne Barra on blades,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4kfO5JJu4Q
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I had heard a whisper that some fish from the flathead classics in years gone by had miraculously shrunk.Its probably not a new thing.
Toddy
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Toddy, that's funny. Comp fish shrinking---hmmm?!?!?!?!
Paul,
Thanks for the clip, its nice to see anglers getting a broader look at barra, lures and techniques. I still see so many anglers just ' chukkinn' lures and hoping.
Johnny
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Dunno bout these ones but i tell you what! im loving these photos that u guys have attached! proud catches i cant wait to get out there again!!
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A short You tube I've done on the Boyne Barra on blades,
Nicely done Paul, some weird and interesting angles coming from that fish-eye lens
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I had heard a whisper that some fish from the flathead classics in years gone by had miraculously shrunk.Its probably not a new thing.
Toddy
Can't believe that Toddy. Someone not being entirely honest at the Flathead Classic? Never! It was only a rumour that someone found a big bag of tags that were supposedly stuck in fish by the winner one year.
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Thanks for the clip, its nice to see anglers getting a broader look at barra, lures and techniques. I still see so many anglers just ' chukkinn' lures and hoping.
Johnny
Good fun trying new stuff Johnny,got into some nice fish again last week on jigs and blades will do some more footage up this week.I'm loving the jigging stuff it's good fun,but I think the river will be a bit scarce of fish after what I saw on Thursday morning :'(.
Nicely done Paul, some weird and interesting angles coming from that fish-eye lens
YesDick the Fish eye lens bends everything but it come out ok, it's better underwater there's some saltwater stuff on my youtube page.
Someone not being entirely honest at the Flathead Classic? Never!
Ha Ha I like that.
The Ima Jig and a couple of the fish caught on them from the schools located close to the bottom,these should work a treat on schooled up fish in lakes,amazing action to these jigs.