Bigger barra biting in the build-up at Shoal Bay

I FISHED Shoal Bay with my father Tony on the last set of neaps in search of some nice barra.

Chris Errity fishin column. Tony Errity with 100cm barra

I FISHED Shoal Bay with my father Tony on the last set of neaps in search of some nice barra.

Conditions were great in the morning and the feeling of in trepidation high as we launched at Buffalo Creek ramp on daybreak.

October signals the start of the build-up and usually the spawning cycle of the barramundi begins in estuaries around the Top End coast.

Shoal Bay is an extremely popular area for spawning barra and it is not uncommon to land large spawning females at this time of year. Also present in numbers are the smaller and usually slimmer male barra.

We approached our first troll run and noticed the water clarity was unusually poor for this set of tides. Undeterred we trolled our classic barra lures over a submerged rock bar and noticed some good fish hugging the bottom on my Humminbird 3D sounder. On the second troll my classic lure was crunched by a good fish. Dad immediately wound his lure in to clear his line from my fish when it too was smashed by an even larger fish.

Both barra crashed around all over the place, but luckily our lines never crossed. I landed mine first before netting Dad’s impressive fish. It was much larger than my fish and measured 100cm.

My fish measured 86cm and was most probably still a male barramundi. We both thought the fishing would continue to be awesome that day, but unfortunately it was not to be. As the tide dropped the fish disappeared and only briefly reappeared on the first of the incoming, but we could not entice them to strike.

We returned to the ramp just after lunch and were still impressed with our morning.