However, one does not have to travel to these remote destinations to have a chance at targeting one of these legendary fish. In fact, these fish are more readily accessible than most would have us believe.

Queensland has some great places to target this species with Townsville being just one of them. Situated approximately a 14 hour journey by car to the north of Brisbane, you have just as much chance of catching a Barra here as the Gulf country.

I have personally found travelling through the night can cut hours from your journey. During the day, the Bruce Highway can become slow at times due to slow vehicles, caravans, Kombi vans and the like. When you travel at night, you avoid these awfully annoying vehicles.

If by chance you just happen to prefer flying, both Qantas and Virgin regularly offer the flying public great deals over the internet. These deals are worth checking out.

Once in Townsville, the city offers accommodation to suit all tastes and budgets.

When it comes to fishing, it sometimes pays to spend a couple of days on the water with an experienced fishing guide. That way you can quickly learn the techniques that produce the results as well as learning where to fish. If you try doing it yourself, it can sometimes take weeks before you begin to get a feel for the area and its fish.

I fished Townsville early in the year with my husband Robert during the tropically humid month of February. Instead of towing our boat from Brisbane, we decided to hook up with Luke Fallon Sportfishing Charters. Luke is based in Townsville and fishes from Barratta Creek in the south through to Hinchinbrook Island in the North.

More time spent on the water than your average angler means that Luke knows where the fish are biting and will vary the destination of the charter to increase the fish catching chances for his clientele.

Most of our Barra were released

Luke will also utilise the angling technique that will improve his clients' probabilities of catching that fish of a lifetime, a barramundi over the metre mark..

During our time in Townsville, we covered a substantial amount of ground fishing the Bohle River, the Haughton River and Cleveland Bay. Lures, fly and live baits were all used with both live baits and lures proving more productive than fly techniques.

Bait Fishing

By far the most popular means of catching the fish in the Townsville area and the tropical north is by using baits, preferably the live variety. Every angler we came across was anchored in position over a rock bar or snag with live baits (usually mullet or whiting) being used on several rods.

If in Rome, you do as the Romans do and firstly we had to collect the baits for our fishing sessions. Luke is no slouch when it comes to using the cast net and we invariably allowed him the honours of collecting the bait.

Over the summer period, live mullet are the gun bait with whiting also making a much sort after bait. Of course, fish used as baits must be of legal size, otherwise, you can be booked by fisheries. In winter, prawns are by far the superior bait and the most deadly to use on barra.

Keeping baits alive is a must during the fishing session. In Townsville's hot climate, the water has to be changed regularly otherwise they will die. Luke has two live bait wells situated at the transom of his 4.7m Sea Jay. As holes have been cut into the transom, fresh water is allowed to be circulated through the bait, keeping them alive.

As water temperatures can soar, a few anglers will place a small bottle of frozen water in with their live baits. This keeps the water temperatures cooler which enhances the lifespan of the fish.

Anchoring

When livebaiting it is necessary to anchor the boat just upriver from the structure you wish to fish (if fishing a falling tide). This structure can be a rockbar, fallen trees or a drop off. The use of a sounder is mandatory in finding the right place to anchor.

Leeann with Luke and just one of the many Barra that were caught in Townsville. This one was at the Haughton River.

When the structure is found, motor upriver and towards the bank and drop the anchor from the transom. Then motor to the opposite side of the river (whilst letting out anchor rope) and use a second anchor from the bow of the boat. Then, motor back to the position up river from the structure and tie off both anchor ropes.

Using this anchoring technique, you will find that you have positioned yourself in a way that a large number of rods can be used from the vessel. Luke generally uses about five or six successfully, and casts the baits out at varying lengths from the boat. This way if a fish is hooked, it will be unlikely that it will foul the other lines during the fight.

In waterways that are not overly busy, this anchoring system is great though the pitfalls would be enormous in busy boating areas such as the Broadwater on the Gold Coast.

 

Continued...

The Tackle

When fishing for fish as powerful as the Barramundi, quality gear should be used to avoid being "busted off" by a bruiser.

Luke prefers fishing with monofilament line, choosing 25lb Schneider on his Mitchell threadline reels. 55lb Schneider line was used as trace material.

Both Robert and I fished with baitcasting outfits choosing a Strudwick TPS 6' 6-8kg baitcaster coupled with a Calcutta 400 and spooled with 30lb Bionic Braid. Two other rods we used were one piece Strudwick TPS 5'6" 6-8kg baitcasters with 30lb Bionic loaded onto Chronarch 100's.

As sometimes hooked can be pulled more easily using braid, Luke's preference when livebaiting is to use mono line (though quickly changes to braid if trolling with lures).

The sinker choice will be dependent on the current but choose one that will hold bottom.

How's this for a triple hookup. A moment of memorable mayhem

When it comes to placing the livebait on the hook, Luke relies on the bridle rig. With his expertise in skippering large vessels for the likes of billfish, he has found this rig more than satisfactory and has successfully bought it across to his estuarine fishing.
The bridle rig is often used on slimey mackerel and yakkas offshore but is just as effective on a mullet or whiting which is destined to catch a barra or mangrove jack.

The advantage of using this rig is that the bait swims straighter and appears to stay alive longer than when hooked through the mouth or under the dorsal fin.
Gamakatsu 5/0 Shiners are used, hooks that are ultra sharp straight from the box and strong enough to handle big fish.

Once rigged the baits are cast out at varying distances from the boat to fully cover the structure being fished. Once the rods are in their respective rodholders, the waiting game begins.

From his own personal experience, Luke has found the fish caught using baits are on average bigger than those caught lure casting the snags and during our fishing, we found him to be correct.

Plenty of enquiries were noted on the rods. Those fish which often played around with the baits were sharks. Barra have the tendency to hit baits hard and fast with a 90 degree bend in the rod usually a dead-set giveway that a barra has taken the bait.

Once a bait is taken or an enquiry is registered, it is important to wind the handle of the reel as quickly as possible whilst leaving the rod in the holder.

With great regularity fish swim towards the boat so it's important to keep winding until a solid hookup is registered or there is no doubt that the fish has been missed. Once hooked up, the angler can then take the rod from the holder and proceed to play the fish to the boat.

The highlight of our trip was the capture of Robert's first barra over that magical metre mark. On that particular day, the temperatures were soaring and we were glad of the rain that cooled our bodies.

The fishing at the rockbar at the mouth of the Bohle River was slow for northern standards. A couple of queenfish had been caught and released and we had our fair share of sharks hit the livies.

We were soon beginning to think that we would go home barra-less when Robert's two piece baitcasting outfit bent unexpectedly. Robert wound the handle on the Calcutta and was pleased when the line came up tight.

Even more pleasing was that the fish made its way to the surface and showed itself as being of a respectable size. At that point, I believe we all crossed our fingers and toes in the hope that the fish stayed connected. Robert's a great angler and we all held faith in his ability to land the big barra.

This is what Barra fishing is all about - Robert and guide Luke Fallon display Rob's metre fish

The fish descended and swam alongside the rock bar. Robert felt his leader touch the rocks on several occasions but still remained hooked up. Using the leverage of the rod, Robert changed the direction the fish was swimming in, momentarily dis-orientating the fish. After several changes in direction, the fish was ready to be boated and was lifted inside the boat by Luke.

The fish measured spot on one metre , indeed a very good sized fish.

Using Luke's anchoring system and bait fishing techniquess, we returned to the Bohle River the following day though fished further up river.

Instead of anchoring over a rockbar, Luke found a series of mud ledges on the sounder, with the odd fallen tree in amongst the ledges.

Although a large fish did not make an appearance for us, we were more than pleased with the consistent double and triple hookups on barra and mangrove jacks.

Continued...

Lure Fishing Townsville

Observations made by Luke over years of fishing in the Townsville region has pointed towards the use of bait as the method to use if looking at catching quality fish. It certainly was the most prevalent method used by keen local anglers.

Although we were more than happy with Rob's metre Barra, we were keen to try other techniques - lure casting and trolling.

The Halco Ultra Deep dives to 8m and was a great producer of fish

Using these methods we were able to chase the fish and not wait for the fish to come to us. Using this more active approach certainly relieves any form of boredom which may set in when anchored up ready for a bite.

I was keen to try out the relatively new barra lures from the Halco stable, the Ultra Deeps, a 150 Scorpion with the capability of diving to depths of 8m. The Ultra Deeps are believed to be the deepest swimming lure for its size. Another option while trolling is the use of the 5m Scorpion 150 if you want depth.

Although many don't believe colour makes a difference on lures, Luke has found that the gold lures and the Qantas colours (red head, white body) seem to produce better results.

Although the terminal tackle on the Scorpions is more than adequate for Australia's fish, Luke prefers to upgrade the hooks to VMC 9626PS. It is important to use the same size hook that comes on the lure otherwise swimming action can diminish with a larger hook size.

Once again we chose to use the baitcaster we had used whilst baitfishing. Strudwicks in the 6-8kg range have the backbone to bring in big fish while still having the capability of casting lures with little effort.

While trolling over fallen trees towards the mouth of the Haughton River, we found the Ultra Deeps gave consistent results but unfortunately not the big fish we were looking for.

For the purposes of retrieving snagged lures, Luke will place a split ring on the tow point and insert a size 2 black crane swivel onto the split ring. The 55lb leader is then tied to this swivel.

A spread of lures was run at varying distances behind the boat while Luke trolled at a slow pace of around 3 knots. He concentrates on the sounder and watches for fish in amongst structure. The lures should bump across the bottom regularly and if you do hook up to a hidden snag, throw the rod tip back which should give enough slack line to allow the lure to back up.

The Scorpion range are a very buoyant lure and work particularly well in snaggy country. If all else fails, send the lure retriever down to recover the lure.

Sometimes a fish will "bump" a lure and not connect. If this happens, drop the rod tip back towards the fish, they may return for a second and even third attempt at the lure.

Lure casting

On average, fish caught while lure casting are smaller than those caught on trolled lures or baits. Most of the fish we caught were in the 40-60cm range while casting. Notably, the size of the fish did increase while trolling lures.

Lure casting the mangroves and extracting fish like of this calibre makes a trip to Townsville all worthwhile

Most of our lure casting took place around rocky areas/headlands, casting to the rocks (and often mangrove roots in shallow waters) before steadily retrieving them.

In the majority of areas in which we cast, deep diving lures would come to grief on oyster encrusted rocks or mangrove roots.

Shallow diving Leads lures, Scorpion 125 (-1M), Laser Pro 120 (-1m) or Long A Bomber are ideal for this country and have the buoyancy required to back up when the retrieval is halted.
Each lure has a different action and therefore the retrieval has to be altered to suit each one.

The Laser Pro and Bomber lures need a controlled jerking action using the rod tip to bring the lure to life. The Leads and Scorpion require less effort with only a small amount of rod tip to be used to alluringly swim the lure.

When casting for barra around the rocks, it is important to concentrate your lure close to the rocks. If the rocks are on the edge of a sandy beach, cast your lure so that it hits close to the edge of the water before working the lure back..

It is amazing how many fish you can catch in less than 50cm of water.

Once out of the strike zone, continue to work the lure to the boat occasionally stopping the retrieve to suspend the lure momentarily before recommencing the retrieve. Fish will continue to follow the lure all the way to the boat.

When to fish Townsville

If fishing Townsville, barra can be caught on a year round basis though a closed season comes into effect from midday 1st November through to midday 1st February.
The best time to fish is April/May otherwise October/November aren't bad months either.

Barra Guide:
Luke Fallon Sportfishing Charters
Mobile: 0428 789 840
Email: Scadwalker@hotmail.com