Fishing the NEW Lively Lures Arafura Barra Shallow runner in amongst the newly submerged lantana and grass I managed to land 2 good Barra.
The first fish was 94cm,this fish made a slight swirl behind the lure on the first cast and if I hadn't of been paying attention and watching the retrieve closely I may not have caught this fish or the following 2.
After seeing the slight boil I kept casting in the same area and on about the 8th cast I hooked up and it ran me throught the trees but fortunately stayed connected.
In the process of chasing it down I hit a tree causing the top meter to come crashing down on the deck of the boat narrowly missing me then bouncing out!! it all happend so quick so be carefull when in tight timber, I was lucky!!!
in 2 ways!! landing the fish! and not getting hit!.
The offending floater in the fork of the tree in the foreground and the shallow bank the fish came off.
The second fish @ 1m came about 20 meters away from the first and really nailed the lure and again tried with all it's might to wrap me around every available tree without sucess.
The third fish a healthy 96cm came about 50m further along the bank but this time on the standard 130 Arafura which I had changed to because the water depth increased and I wanted to go a bit deeper.
I used my favorate outfits for chasing barra, consisting of Innovator Nitro EXTREME BARRA with Shimano Chronarch and Curado reels spooled with 50 and 30 lb Bionic Braid and 80lb Penn 10x leader and of course the Arafura's.
Whenever I do impoundment barra and saltwater charters I advise clients to be aware of what's happening around them and to pay attention to every retrieve as the slightest bump or swirl behind a lure can lead to a run of fish.
I had two other dropped fish for the trip, one that exploded on my surface popper which was only briefly hooked and lost and the other a really big fish that threw the 130 Arafura back at me shortly after hookup,a pretty good result for the windy conditions and cool temperatures.
The NEW Arafura Shallow was designed for fishing the Northern run off and over the weed beds and shalllow banks in our impoundments, it only dives to about 400-500mm on a slow roll retrieve and will be available soon in all good tackle shops that sell the Lively range.
I upgraded the standard hooks to Owner ST 66 which I do to all my lures for Impoundment Barra and it only slowed the rise of the lure slightly on a pause during the retrieve.
With the rod tip held high it can be worked across the surface with an enticing bow wave motion[a very Gar and poddy mullet like action] which will be great for fishing over weed beds at night as well.
Good mate John Schofield was up there the day before I arrived and had great conditions with no wind and he landed this 96cm fish on fly using a DK Dancer in his favorite colour Jaffa of orange head and black body and his new Lampson/Waterworks ULA Force 3.5 reel.
John like myself likes to use the Scientific Angler Striper 4 with the Dancer even in shallow water to about 6-8ft due to the way the DK Dancer darts towards the surface lifting the line with it on the short sharp retrieve we use then slowly sinks on the pause keeping the fly in their face longer.
This also gives you the opportunity to sink the fly deeper if needed on a drop off or if the chosen bank drops away a bit quicker as the retrieve comes away from the bank.
There has only been a few trips to the Barra dams in the past few years that this fly hasn't landed or been hooked up to barra when used both during the day and night.
Paul
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