Webby and family made the drive from K-town in search of what had been a pretty elusive species for webby this summer, the mighty barramundi. We set off very early Saturday morning in pretty average conditions. The wind was pretty much pumping from true north (the worst wind for what we were doing). We were wet and tired but we pushed on, both of us with our goals for the trip willing us on. I only had one more baz to crack my target of 50 for the season, and well webby just wanted to catch one, he hadn’t really had much of an opportunity so far and when he did he had a case of the dropsies (know that feeling my self)

Anyway we made it and set the anchor for a couple of hours sleep before we would have our first crack. As the sun rose so did our hopes, the wind was gone and the water temp was all ready well over 31 degrees, not bad for march.

We opted for a troll initially as the tide was still running a bit hard for casting the sp’s. We had made the plan to only target barra with artificials this trip. First pass and I think I managed a nice little blue nose salmon, there were heaps around. We found an area showing some large arches and although I did manage two substantial hits I didn’t manage a hook up. We decided to beach the boat and flick some SP’s around. Jay and I had a reasonable amount of success last week so I was hopeful.

Things were quiet at the first part, it would have been easy just to lob out a livie and wait but we persisted. It must have been around cast number 100 when we finally saw some action. Hits started to come mid water on retrieve. We were using a variety of jerk bait style SP’s with ½ oz jig heads. The barra seemed to be holding up in the middle of the creek on the edge of the rutts. I was the first to hook up, an 81cm baz jumped and I stayed connected. It was good to get the monkey off the back and crack my goal of 50 bazzas for the season. I had a beer to celebrate, it was only 0745 but it tasted bloody good. Once again the SP’s were really starting to prove their worth.

It wasn’t long after that and I was on again, this time it was a 71cm variety, again the baz put on a good ariel display and again I landed it, very happy. Webby was starting to get a bad dose of “barra envy” it didn’t help that I hooked up another two times right in front of him to some pretty solid fish, luckily I had dropped both of them or things would have been interesting in deed.

Anyway after a change from a shad style to a gulp 5” there was an instant change in success for webby, he was on to a solid fish and he managed to stay connected right until the end. There were a few high fives and chest pumps after he landed that fish, congrats mate, time to RELAXXXXX!!!

Webby’s first Bazza taking to the sky………..

A happy chappy!

With the pressure off we settled in to the rest of the session we both landed another fish each mine was only a pup but webby’s was a bit better. From memory we dropped another couple each as well. There was quite a bit of by catch with many blue nose salmon, finger mark, jacks and grunter finding their way to the shore. The session ended with a tally of 5 barra landed and the same number dropped. I had a baz slam my sp n the surface and jump at least 6 foot out of the water, the highest I have ever seen any barra jump, it was amazing.

Anyway we did a bit of exploring in a new system after the morning session. Had a bit of a jacks fish and rounded out the day with a few beers. We had planned to fish the evening low but gave up pretty early in lieu of a good nights sleep.

Bait gathering

Webbster man chu getting Jacked

We woke Sunday morning to some pretty awesome conditions, not a breath of wind…

The session started off slow but again persistence paid off. I started off with the first fish again it was only about 60cm. I then caught a baz that would luck to be 40cm, smallest Pilbara baz I have ever caught but a great sign of a healthy system. We both dropped a few fish in the morning of really good size, one of webbys would have been around mid 80’s when the plastic slipped out of its mouth right on the bank, I literally jumped on top of it to try grab it but all I managed to do was cop a spike in the arm pit before it swam off.

A small Pilbara baz

Another Very small Pilbara Bazza, sign of a healthy system

I managed a nice baz of around 84cm (biggest of the trip) on the last of my gulp 5” SP’s on a 5/8 oz jig head. The fish put on a pretty good show with quite a few jumps, that took my tally to 6 for the trip to web’s 2 at that stage. Luckily just after that webby hooked on to another nice fish to wind up the session it went pretty close to 80 from memory. By this stage the tide was coming in fast and we were on our way home. Total tally was 9 landed bazzas all on SP’s and 7 dropped.

Biggest of the trip, 84cm

Webb man chu with a nice hedland sp bazzamundoli

Like I said, Hedland bazzas just love SP’s

It took my personal tally to 55 for the season with a boat tally of 87. The water is still pretty warm with the lack of cyclone activity so I may go out again yet, but I think I have had enough for now. We will see how long that lasts ……