oz

Pretty much whatever will stop them up in the timber and I'm not trying to be vague. We started using our saltwater barra lurecasting gear, heavy graphite baitcasters, ABU 6500C and 30lb braid but couldn't stop them. Kept busting the line so we spooled up with 50lb braid and wrecked a couple of reels. Also the rods while good for lurecasting, just weren't enough for fighting heavy fish, they would just bend like spaggetti. Next we tried our saltwater barra trolling outfits, stiffer rods and ABU 7000LD and spooled em up with 50lb braid and kept wrecking reels. We tried the smallest Shimano TLD's but no good. I'm brand loyal to ABU but they couldn't handle lockup duty with 50lb braid, the shafts flex and the gearing gets damaged, 30lb is their limit. We ended up over engineering and grabbed a couple of cheap penn stroker rods rated 30-50lb, 5'6" long, a bit like a pool cue with a light tip and Shimano tekota reels loaded with 50lb braid. We fully expected these to get broken as well but they have stood the test of time so far. This outfit is too heavy to comfortably lure with but it's what we ended up with to stop them once hooked. It's a dedicated dam outfit that I wouldn't use anywhere else. I know guy's that persevere with the small shimano culcutta's loaded with 50lb and heavy baitcasters but I don't know how they do it. We still hook fish we can't stop. Imagine a submerged tree, the fish are deep in the branches. Lures, pretty much anything that you can cast that will crash dive as deep as you can get them, use your imagination here, but you have to upgrade split rings and hooks to the strongest you can find. And have a tackle back or a long pole handy as you will hook a lot of branches.

Trolling is a bit easier out in the open water and I just use my saltwater barra trolling outfit. I like a fairly stiff rod for trolling deep divers as anything with a light tip will bend too much and it's a chore to hang onto. ABU 7000 and 30lb braid. Although a regular baitcasting outfit would do the job as barra are clean fighters in the open. Good standby lures are 6 inch scorpions and barra baits in a range of depths down to 20+ and 25+ ft. Lots of lures work it's more about finding at what depth the fish are holding and getting down to them.

We don't troll for them much, preferring to get amongst them in the timber. It's the difference between walking up to an elephant in the open and braining him with a 275 or grabbing your heavy double and stalking him in the thick stuff. One minute you're standing there shooting the breeze with your mate, working your lures through some structure, the next minute you're bent double with an express train peeling 50lb braid against a locked drag and both thumbs clamped on the spool like it's not even there and your mate is bent double laughing at you.

One more tip. Get some pigskin leather riggers gloves. Cut the four fingers off (keep these) but leave the thumb on. Wear this on your right hand, it stops the smell of burning flesh. When you wear the thumb out throw the glove away. Take one of the leather fingers you cut off and kept, slip this over your thumb and tape it on with electrical tape and you're good to go again.

Pretty much all the dam's are stocked with barra's now days. It's just a matter of finding where the fish are holding in the dam and at what depth as they move around with the seasons and changing water level. Working out their feeding cycle and then getting something down to them that they will eat on the day.

Cheers
Rhodes