RETURNING to one of my favourite barra dams, Kinchant, last week I was greeted by high water levels and plenty of boats, including jet skis and loud V8 powered ski boats towing water skiers.
The boat traffic kind of ruled out fishing the main basin of the dam, which is where I usually pull the biggest barra from. Time to chase the fish in the weedy, lily pad lined edges of the dam and the best way to do that is with soft plastic frogs.
I was fishing with a mate who’d driven down from Weipa on Cape York, which sounds strange considering Weipa is “barra heaven”. Tim was chasing a metre long barra, which is commonplace in impoundments but rare as hen’s teeth in Weipa. He was also quite excited about chasing barramundi on surface frogs.
Wardy’s mate Tim working a Boof Frog through lily pads at Kinchant Dam.
Hookup!
The lures that we chose were Squidgy Boof Frogs and we rigged them on Owner weedless 5/0 jig heads. Even though we were working these on the surface, we found that a little bit of weight on the hook worked as a keel and kept the frog upright. That was vital because we were working them in thick lillies, so needed them upright so we could wind them straight over the top of the pads. (See video below)
Casting these things out and cranking them back in at speed is not what two wild-river barra anglers are used to doing when it comes to chasing these great sportfish. It just seems so weird barra fishing this way, but the reaction strike we wait for makes it all worthwhile. Seeing a barramundi coming up behind your frog, and even better, “boofing” it straight off the surface is the most fun that I’ve had with my pants on!
Catching big barra at night on surface lures is about as good as it gets!
At one time I had a fish following the frog and creating a bow wave that resembled a submarine coming for the lure. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit the frog but my heart was in my throat watching this monster follow my lure!
After our short stay at Kinchant Dam I wouldn’t say that the barra were really firing. Most anglers there were just landing one or two fish during long night time sessions and the day fishing was all but shut down. Tim and I did though manage to get a good bite going on the frogs during the day but apart from that, we had found it tough.
Importantly though, Tim did land his first metre long barra as well as his first on a frog, so it was mission accomplished!
