By Thursday arvo I was tied of school for that week so I called Deano and said we’re going to Monduran. Pulled a sicky on Friday and started the journey at 1 am. I was excited to be driving because I had just got my learners the week before so it would be my first big trip driving. I didn’t last long by 2 am I was falling asleep so we switch it up and I had a 1-hour power nap. Now I was fired up and ready to go, so I drove the last couple of hours till we got to the dam.

We ran to the first spot and put the electric in the water, I was down the back fiddling around with the Garmin and tying on a lure when I hear Deano yelling “got him!” I hadn’t even had a cast yet and Deano has got one on, I ran to the front grabbed the camera then started recording. A minute later Barra #1 hit the deck, he wasn’t by any means a big Mondy Barra but what a way to start!

We fished that area for 2 hours for another 2 hook ups but we just could set the hooks. We had only seen 10-15 fish only the sounder the whole time so we decided to move and hit that zone again on sunset.

We fished hard all around the dam for the next 9 and a half hours for a couple of catfish and not seeing many Barra on the sounder so we decided to race back to where Deano got his fish this morning and fish the sunset bite. By the time we got back there, it was 4:30-5:00 pm and we started marking fish straight away and they kept coming through regularly. After 15 minutes of peppering those fish Deano got a bite and the cast after that I hooked up. After several nervous jumps and runs, I lent off the side and grabbed her, and pulled her into the boat. WE HAD BROCKEN THE DROUGHT!

After 10 hours of nothing at all, we finally got another one, we should have stayed here all day. A couple of casts later Deano and I both lost one, 15 minutes after that Deano hooked another one.

He didn’t look too big at the start but he just kept growing by the time we boated him he was just over 90cm. A good day turned into a really good day really quickly, a few quick photos and she was back in the water to live another day.

Soon after that I got another hookup but lost him, 30 minutes went by without getting a bite. We were both starving so we decided to head to the bank that was 20m away set up the swags, ate our dinner (lamb chops and salad). We were planning to go back out for the 8:30 pm moonrise bite but the chops put us into a food coma and we couldn’t move. I rolled 30cm into my swag where I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. It had been a good day catching 3 Barra with 6 other bites that were 100% Barra and we caught some catfish. We had been awake for 18 and a half hours, driving for 4, and in the red hot sun for the rest so it’s fair to say we had a big day.

We woke up at the crack of dawn, packed everything away hopped back on the boat then started fishing, 2 and a half hours went by and we hadn’t got a bite. It goes to prove that fishing can change by the day, we were doing the exact same things at the same time in the same spot. We were still seeing fish but couldn’t get one to bite any Barra fisherman knows the feeling. We decided to pull the pin and head home to start planning the next trip!

Monduran Barra - Skipped a Day of School