Yesterday I wrote the barra were all small, well just to prove me wrong the bigger fish turned up on yesterdays twilight tour. After catching some cracking 15inch mullet for bait we tempted some good fish. Gary Schipanski boated his first barra and at a metre you could say it was a good one. Dave landed a 80cm fish and several other good fish were lost in the trees including one big girl that smashed a popper
While the fishing hasnt been at its best there are still fish to be caught. We have been averaging three to four fish a trip. The disapointing part has been the size of the fish. Most are between 60 & 65cm with the biggest coming in at the high seventies. Still good fish but no sign of any big girls. Live baiting has been by far the best option but poppers at dusk have been getting hit by the bigger fish.
Crabs have dropped off over the neaps but should pick up over the spring tides. Just returned from a twilight high tide tour with Kiwi anglers Wayne, Vince John. Having fished last night as well the boy had enough mud crabs and just wanted to concentrate on the barra. After gathering the live bait we headed up the Little Howard and the action begun. We boated eleven fish, even catching them on dead baits after most of our liveys died. We finished up two hours early so the boys could catch there flight home.
The fishing this week has been steady and should really go off over the Easter weekend with the big tides. High tide fishing will be the order of the day Plenty of crabs to had but still a few empty ones among them Fished the neap tide yesterday with local girls Lida & Suzzie. I set the girls up with a couple of live baits while I was catching more bait and Suzzie landed the first fish of the day almost immediately. After catching the bait we pulled the pots we had set earlier and bagged six nice buck crabs and headed up the Little Howard. Fishing tight in the snags we boated another six barra up to the high tide when they went of the bite. we moved over to King Creek for the outgoing tide and Suzzie landed the biggest fish of the day a nice 76cm barra. Eight barra in all for the day a good effort.
Had a bust month doing plenty of tours. Started back in mid March and have done high and low tide tours as well as a couple of trips to the Vernon Islands. The Vernon Island trips have both been good with plenty of solid Mangroves Jacks and other assorted species to be had, although the trevaly and queenies have been a little quiet.
The barra fishing started a little slow with the exception of the 21st of March which was the day of the equinox, We bagged 13 fish on a low tide tour in Hope Inlet. Other trips have only been producing a few fish until this week. With the run down off the springs the mullet and scats finally turned up in numbers and the barra a there to take advantage of it. The last three days have produced eight, eight and ten fish. The fish have not been huge but they are in really good condition. The big fish are there as you can see them boofing the bait schools but we have not hooked onto them yet but I am working on a plan. mud crabs have been at there awesome best with some of the best size crabs I have seen in Shoal Bay but there are still a few empty ones among them but his will improve over the next month. |
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June 2021
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