Chasing The Burdekin Barra In Ayr

JC’s Fishing Charters provide you with a pick up and drop off service to/from your accommodation, snacks, water, soft drinks, lunch as well as all the equipment necessary (rods, reels, lures,etc) to have you catching dinner. John has 2 boats in his arsenal and both are comfortable and well set up for hours of fishing fun.

How to catch a Barra

With live bait being the apparent best chance of catching a Barra, we set off with the cast at our ready. It only takes a few throws along the banks a short distance from the boat ramp to find the prawns that we’re to be our bait. 10 minutes later we have the bait tank full and we are flying upstream looking for good structure in the water that would give the Barra shelter and safety from pretators.

A spot is found and John idles slowly along. He manoeuvres the boat so that his fish finder can pick up the sonar bounce of the fish hiding amongst the fallen trees. Bingo, we see the shapes on the fish finder’s screen that we were hoping for. We anchor the boat perpendicular to the direction of the creek, bait the lines and cast our prawns into a position that we hope will see them being sucked into the mouth of a resident monster Barra.

There is a minimum size limit of Barramundi at 58cm long. For me this is a pretty massive fish and John tells me that 100cm+ Barra are caught in the warmer summer months. John is big on catch and release, yet has no problem if you are looking at eating your catch without wantingly wasting it.

As my line sits in the water, John explains to me how I should react if a Barra decides to injest my  prawn and hook. No yanking on the rod! It’s a simple matter of a couple of quick turns on the reel to lodge the hook in its mouth and then enjoy the (hopefully) “fight of your life”. It didn’t take long for the rod to bend and me to forget in all of the excitement, what I had just been told. Again, no yanking on the rod!

With another prawn poised and ready, I cast out amongst the branches. We sit back, have a bite to eat, a drink and wait.  Fishing is a patient man’s/woman’s sport, but as if I needed to tell you that.  But wait! What’s that? My rod is bending like a Giraffe’s head bending down to drink from a pond. Remember what your were told! I reach for the reel and give it a turn. This fish is on, so I pull the rod from the holder and start the fight. Excitement fills the boat as the fish breaks the surface and we can see that’s its a lovely Barramundi.

We land the lovely and quickly measure it. 57cm long.

Whoever said size doesn’t matter is kidding themselves and I was 1 cm too short.

Back into the water she went as we headed off to explore more of the area’s plentiful fishing grounds. We went on to catch several other species of fish during the day, including Cod, Bream and Fingermark. I personally pulled in my first and second Barra, which ticks off one of my bucket list items.

John from JC’s Fishing Charters was a great host and he has the knowledge that will have you catching fish in no time at all. To arrange a charter call John on 0438 753 383 or email him via  [email protected]