Tommycut proves tops when trolling for barra

I WAS back at Shady Camp on the last set of neaps with my mate Tam and was surprised to see notably fewer boats than last time I fished there.

Tam Little with a 92cm barra caught on a recent trip to Shady Camp

I  WAS back at Shady Camp on the last set of neaps with my mate Tam and was surprised to see notably fewer boats than last time I fished there.

As we approached the mouth of Sampan in the morning we only counted about a dozen boats trolling.

We, too, trolled for a short time before heading over to try our luck at Tommycut.

This is where we found considerably more boats with about 20 trolling the mouth.

We threw a few Bombers on and commenced trolling.

Almost immediately Tam hooked up and landed a very nice 92cm barra to open our account.

We continued trolling and it was not long before my Bomber was smashed and I quickly landed a healthy looking 89cm barra.

It was at this time we looked around and noticed plenty of other boats hooked up also as the tide pushed in.

The barra continued to feed as the tide pushed in and it was not long before most boats started to move up the creek following the fish on their sounders.

We also moved up the river and stopped on a bend about 3km up where I noticed plenty of big fish marking on my Humminbird 1198 sounder.

However, these fish were sitting much deeper and so we decided to tie on Classic Manta Rays to target them more effectively.

After some 10 minutes working this area my lure was smashed and I landed ­another healthy barra that measured 88cm.

I released this fish and began trolling only to have my lure smashed again straight away. This was a bigger fish and it fought accordingly, peeling me out into the middle of the creek. After a few jumps the fish succumbed and measured in at 95cm.

We continued trolling for another 30 minutes but the fish would not bite even though they were still showing on the sounder.

The fish had stopped feeding which we noticed among the other boats as well.

There was probably only one landed every 30 minutes in the area we were fishing with the other boats and so we called it a day and headed home early.

It was a good morning session and one where not only did we land a few good quality barra, but plenty of other ­anglers did as well.