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Free Stuff!!
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For a limited time, you will receive a free Stealth or
F111 lure with every order over $50-00.
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Lakefield Trip A Great Success!
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| A beauty caught by Keith on his recent trip to Lakefield National Park |
Our recent trip to Lakefield National Park was a real education in how to tempt winter barra!
As the temperature drops these ‘silver thrills’ decide to go ‘doggo’ and unless you can cast / troll
your lure right past their nose there’s little chance of success.
Camping at Seven Mile water hole on the Kennedy River the conditions seemed nye on perfect,
except for the lower winter temps. Our initial strategy was to slow troll deep diving lures such as RMG Scorpions,
Barra Classics and my old favourite the Tropical Rogue...and to some degree it worked as we tempted a couple of fish
in the 65 to 70cms. size bracket. But it was a slow affair with our catch rate about one fish every four hours...
with a swag of unwanted catfish in-between.
Deciding to try the new 12’ Classic Barra Pro we began ‘tripping the bottom’ and rattling the rock bars at a speed
less than 2 knots. It worked and we soon had fish up to 76 cms. in the net.
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| Matthew's best Barra of the trip to Lakefield |
A change of strategy saw us find some bigger fish in the shallows! Using Reidy’s B52’s, Leads metallic Hijackers
and the old faithfull Gold Bombers we began our campaign in these shallower waters later in the mornings,
when the sun had the chance to warm things up a little. The going was slow but when we did get a strike it was
awesome and long fights followed as we manouvred leaping barra through weeds and water lilies.
Barra fishing at Lakefield can be tough during the winter months but with perseverance and a few changes in
strategy there’s some big bruisers willing to chew, but for my money it has to be one of the most scenic camping
spots relatively close to Cairns and the bird and wildlife is second to none.
Fishing For Red Emperor!
On our most recent trip to the reef we were accompanied by Mr.Bumpa Bar himself, Tim Staudinger. And what a great day we had!
Fishing out wide from Cairns near Linden Bank we drifted, then anchored in 60+ metres of water in search of these red terrors.
The current was belting through so Tim decided to rig 3 x large Bumpa Bars together using larger split rings so we could reach
bottom. Looking on the sounder we found gutters and the occasional rock with fish showing so we commenced our drift.
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| A fantasy haul of Reds from our most reecent trip out to the reef with Tim Staudinger (R) |
Jigging Bumpa Bars in an erratic retrieve produced several good fish including a Maori Sea Bream, long nosed emperor and one
5 kilo red emperor but the current was proving to be too strong so we decided to anchor up and bait fish.
We hit the jackpot at our second drop with school sized emperor to 7 kilos coming on board, and boy do these mothers pull hard.
I was using a Saltiga 6000 spin outfit loaded with 30 lbs. Penn Power Braid and an 80 lbs. mono leader and must admit to
struggling with a couple of these beauties, still I’m not getting any younger and when you have to haul fish up for 60 metres it’s
a bit tough. Tim and my son Matthew had a top time taming these prime conditioned demersals until the sharks moved in.
We had a dozen fish or so and decided to call it a day, more than enough to feed our families and there was no point
catching & releasing as most fish are bloated when they reach the surface from such deep waters.
I learned heaps from Tim who is a talented and versatile angler...and hope we can venture out again to try his Bumpa Bars
on sone pelagic species.
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Fishing News
