Barra bonanza begins

ON the last set of neap tides, the big barra started to stir and several big fish have been caught

Chris Errity with a healthy looking 92cm barra.

ON the last set of neap tides, the big barra started to stir and several big fish have been caught.

October is a great time of year to target big barra in estuaries and at the mouths of rivers and creeks.

Some of the best places to target big barra include the mouth of the South Alligator, Adelaide, Mary and Wildman Rivers along with Leaders Creek and Shoal Bay.

I fished Shoal Bay for the first time this Build-Up with my mate Lincoln Kirby and was not disappointed.

There were a number of barra showing up on the Garmin sounder — especially towards the low tide, but they were not feeding.

At one stage I picked up a large school of around 40 barra just lying around on the bottom together totally disinterested in any lure that we presented to them.

We trolled through them several times and then anchored up and cast soft plastics and vibes into the school for some time before I finally received a strike.

The big barra took to the air on the strike and peeled off plenty of line before finally succumbing and coming to the boat.

Linc netted the big fish for me and it measured 92cm. This is a common size of fish experienced at this time of year and is one of the main reasons why I fish Shoal Bay during the Build-Up.

We received no more strikes until the tide started to come back in. I tied on my favourite gold Killalure and started to troll.

Once again, plenty of good fish started to turn up on the sounder again and it was not long before my lure was scoffed by another good fish. This fish leapt extremely high on the strike and was at least a full metre out of the water.

It tore off towards the rocks, but luckily for me I applied plenty of drag pressure and turned it before it busted me off. This was another fit and healthy-looking silver fish and it too measured 92cm before release.
By this stage the tide was ripping and the water clarity was ordinary and so we decided to call it a day and head home.