Well late yesterday Jay and i decided it was worth a crack at some barra in one of the local creeks after work today. I had to go to Perth for a course last week so i missed out on the trip, i was super keen for a fish. It was one day after the neaps and 43 degrees , this meant we would have a good chance at some barra. As soon as we got off work the boat was loaded and off the the ramp we went. The flies were bloody bad, almost or probably the worst i have ever seen them. We got up the creek and had a few casts with the cast net to try nab a few livies. Didn't have a great deal of luck so we decided to take what we had and move further down stream to a spot that has been know to produce a good fish in the past.

Bloody flies

More flies

Well,we anchored up and set out a few livies waiting for it all to happen. Not much happened, a small run on my line got the heart rate up a bit but besides that all there was to occupy the time was the flies trying to eat our faces off. The flies were that bad that you would miss a good hit on a dead bait fishing for the jacks in the system because you were not able to keep your hands away from your face. This made flicking soft plastic around on my new raider combo impossible.

We decided to move just so that the wind generated by us being under way gave us some temporary sanctuary from the flies. Anyway only a few little livies left we decided it was time to try for some jacks, wasn't too long before i netted one, about 33cm tagged and released

33cm jack tagged and released

As the sun went down a bit the flies subsided a little. We were consistently getting small jacks and some good fingermark, finally a bit of fun. Jay being the smart ass that he is at the moment rubbed a bit of salt into my wounds with a creek caught Spanish mack. Nice work and very uncommon.

Jay is running hot at the moment BOG again today.

Well what happened next was very unexpected. We had not one livie left. Jay put a mulie on his line and flicked it toward the tree line in the hope of landing another nice jack. As soon as it hit the water, he got a screaming run, left us thinking it was the mother of all jacks for a split second, until a barra launched out of the water. What a prick i thought to myself, hahah, only joking

He did well to keep it out of the snags, although with the amount of fish we have both lost over the last month we were not very confident. After quite a few more jumps the fish was boatside and i netted it for him. Our teamwork is starting to show a little, in a matter of about 1 minute, the fish was netted, measured, tagged, photographed and released. Not at any stage was the fish unsupported, a very good strong fish swam off straight away. I must also mention the the little 4 0 hook had snapped and as soon as there wasn't any weight on it, it fell free from the barras mouth, very lucky indeed.

Releasing the 805mm tagged mulie caught barra

A very happy little smartass with his 805mm mulie caught barra

Well jay hung up his boots understandably after that fish. All i managed to catch was a few more catties and a piss weak little threadie. Well done jay, you really know how to make a man jealous. I am getting sick of taking people on barra trips to see them out fish me. Anyway my turn in a week and a half. Well done again mate

Fish of the trip, cough yeah right

Anyway a chicken sambo and a can of pepsi on the way back to the ramp wrapped up a pretty good and bad three or so hours. Well done jay, look forward to the next one (with a fly net)

Cheers

PB