My brother and his fiance had just arrived from freezing Melbourne and into the Pilbara Summer.  My brother shane had never caught a barra before so i took him for a day trip to one of the local creeks to see if we could break that drought.  Was a pretty good trip up and we had no problems getting mullet in a spot that always produces.  The wind came up so fishing the high tide in our favourite jack spot was near on impossible, it was wind against tide and very annoying.

On the way in to the creek

Still managed to get a few good threadies and a nice 42cm jack which was released.  We decided after that to go and have a bit of a tourist'y as my bro had never really been in any pilbara estuary's before.  We had a box of pizza shapes and waited for the tide to move out a bit.

42cm Jack released

biggest for the trip (although only a short trip this time)

Well the tide was almost low and there were a few other boats around being Christmas time so we got into the spot a little early and waited for the tide before anyone else got there.  We bumped into Jay and his old man, they are spending a couple of days up there so they should do alright.  A half hour before the low it happened, i had my brother in the spot, i rigged his rod (he works in IT) tied his knots, and told him what to do.  BANG! he was on to his first ever barra.  I coached him through it and the fish carried on in typical barra style.  He did really well and it wasn't long before i netted his first ever, stoked!  I was really happy for him, it was after that that he told me how he now knows why we are so addicted to barra fishing.  Good stuff Shane!

Shanes first ever 81cm and released

A very happy chappy with girly sunglasses (he works in IT)

Well after that we got a little bit more serious, got the baits in again after perfecting the position of the boat.  It wasn't too long and again Shane was on to another fish, this one went a lot harder and got into the current. Lots of jumps and some coaching along the way made a funny and exciting battle. Again, another barra boat side and Shane had is second

Shane's second for the session 89cm and released

Shane with an 89cm caught already tagged barra (we found out jay burgess tagged it in the same spot about two months ago) It grew 1cm in that time.

Well now Shane was just getting cheeky, i got a livie out and decided to throw a lure into the hole as well, about 4th or 5th cast i got a massive hit on the lure but no hook up.  Next cast i got another small hit but it was only a small flatty, it looked funny though the lure was almost as big as the fish.  I also managed a muddy on my live bait.

Flatty on a gaiden

Mud crab stole my livie while my brother was catching barra!

Anyway after that i finally got a small run on my livie, a barra jumped soon after.  It wasn't a big fish but still good fun and certainly good to get the monkey off the back.  It was just over 61cm and it was released

My 615mm barra released

Little karratha barra 615mm released

Ok so my smart ass brother who works in IT got another hook up soon after and was on to his third for the session and third ever in his life, not bad i know.  He played the fish like a pro and actually had the nerve to start giving me tips, prick!  He landed a nice 77cm barra which was released.

Shane's third and the 4th for the session, was released

Shane's 3rd 77cm released (smart ass!)

Well after that session the wind was really blowing, we went back to the camp to relax before dark.  Jay and i decided to throw a few poppers around, he got smoked by a monster barra that was pulling a lot of string off a very tight set drag, it got off, spewing!

My brother and i went out for one more fish on the high, the wind was blowing really hard, i did manage a reasonable threadie which i kept.

Nice little threadie

Went back to camp around 10pm and i decided to throw a new fizzer around.  Second cast and i got blitzed by a  barra that would have easily gone over a meter, i had it on for a few minutes but i was on the bank and it went swimming way upstream in the current, it jumped a few times so i got a good look at it, it straightened the hooks on my lure and i lost it.  I cant stop thinking about how i lost my first meter plus barra, oh well there wil Be another time i hope.  We went to bed and got up on first light to have some breaky, had to wait for the tide a bit so that we could get out, once we did we had beautiful conditions on the way home - for a change!

Waiting for the water this morning (mine and jay's boats)

Good conditions this morning

Had to flick a few lures around the islands on thew way home, we got stuck into some small school mackies, was good fun on the creek gear and there teeth made a bloody mess of the paint job on my barra lures. Oh well good fun anyway.  We did pretty good on our one day trip anyway, cant wait for the next one.

good fun on the way home

Another school mack on the barra gear