Hi Guys
Headed up north of Samson on the weekend for my first serious crack at some Pilbara Barras. Had a good run up the coast early on the high tide with the only hiccup being marking the wrong system on the plotter. After pushing the boat back into the deeper water and checking the plotter the error was found and we were quickly heading back to where we came from having travelled over 5NM more than we had to. We only just snuck up the creek with bugger all water to spare. The decision was made early in the trip to be exploratory and test some soft plastics on the local barra population. After a few casts a legal Flattie was landed and quickly returned back where it came from. As the tide was dropping and the water getting skinnier the decision was made to punch up the river a bit. The signs were promising but the only fish showing any interest were Northern Power Tails. We eventually found some deeper water and interest was picking up. It wasn't too long and the first barra made it to the esky at 67cm long, the boys back in camp were keen for a feed. Another 50 casts and my mate was on again this time landing a 87cm Barra which is shown above. This perked up our interest and we kept on casting and working the water column over all day resulting with myself landing a 75cm Barra. We continued casting all day until the runout was well and truly finished with a few shows of interest and about four more Barra's spitting hooks. As the tide had turned and the run in tide being unfishable we headed for the mouth to be confronted with white water every where and blowing twenty knots. All I can say it was a very wet and slow trip home travelling at between 12 to 15 knots with the chop coming at beam onside the myself the driver. Thank god I have a glass boat with self draining decks or the ride home would have been a lot worse. Landing this barra has now allowed me to obtain my own personal goal of landing them in all three state; WA, NT, and QLD.
cheers
Rob Dickson