Current Flow

Surprisingly, lake water moves like water in a river. Wind creates the momentum and the control that water flow has over where and when barramundi bite is significant to say the least. Currents can gain intensity and create ideal conditions. Too much current can kill good fishing. No current and barra go quiet. I’m going into specific detail on this topic in my future big book with information that will excite many anglers, but it is important at least to know of its very existence before you fish on an inland lake. My DVD on Lake Monduran has a significant chapter on current flow that will be a key that many anglers have been looking for. It is the base line that has been overstepped and never recognised by the rushed trade type; a key point that highlights why many anglers need to come back down to earth and start again.

Consuming Food

Barra will feed best at different times each day, governed by the main generator of weather and its follow on effect into a lake. Some numbers of ‘peaks and troughs’ occur all day- good times and hard times. The next day, feed times may be similar if the weather is similar, but feed times will become altered as soon as the conditions stray. To head out for a dusk session may see you on the tail end of a great day's fishing. The best may be over- this is why it is extremely difficult to say anything simple about impoundments. Complex, yes; cryptic, extremely.

The water is more readable by day, its clarity, the current flows and wind lanes are more vivid. Dawn and Dusk Hot Bite periods happen far less than many hopes for. Quite often the best day time angling doesn't start until dawn is well passed, and the best is often well and truly over before the sun gets too low. Exceptions yes, (less pressured lakes, clear water and virgin fish)-but on a 365 day scale, the hot dawn/dusk bite is far from even being close to true and dependable. In the dead of night, another chapter begins. A whole new world opens and reasons why explode once again.

Feed times and impulse strikes are two different things. This needs close attention if anglers want to separate the bite and strike types and learn what was feed oriented and what was driven by reflex, instinct and curiosity. These types of strikes can occur at any stage of the day. Identifying what is what and applying tactics to suit will help connect more barramundi to angler's lines. Their diet varies, and surprisingly, what type and size of food items they eat will depend on what their metabolic rate can handle at the time. I remember as a child filming a small barramundi in a tank. When it inhaled food, it was lightning fast. When the film was played back at 1/20th of normal speed the jaw movements were still blurred.

Crabs and Crustaceans to Freshwater Crayfish

Saltwater barramundi have a special liking to crustaceans. Crabs often get scoffed and specifically hunted by barra. The Mangrove Lobster is another food item sourced by barramundi that delve deep into mangrove forests on rising tides. Ditto in lakes. Red claw get consumed at alarming rates in particular periods hence why populations of red claw in lakes like Awoonga never accelerated. Barra are part of their demise.

Plastic red claw/yabby replicas are dynamite barra takers and are super effective when pinpointing fish on sounders wide of weed edges and in deeper zones with clear muddy bottoms. Simply drop one down and slow walk/hop it along or just above the bottom for great success at select times. Barra often lie on the bottom in 20-30 ft, and placing a yabby imitation beside a sounded fish is as exciting as deepwater lake fishing gets. I have had clients with 21 hook ups on yabby imitations in one session during a horrid cool weather period in summer where the conditions sent schools of barra deeper into the water column. Imagine the situation- barra hard on the bottom, no baitfish close by except walking food items that wander in- red claw. A simple circumstance just waits for an angler to tune in on, and make the most of the situation. Silent plastic yabby imitations can be spiced up with a single 'knock' aluminium rattle chamber that can be used to replicate a 'tail flick' from an escaping yabby. Thick weed edges require a slow sink approach and longer more patient fishing methods to attract results. If a barra spews red claw, anglers should be there to meet the deal. It is happening for a reason. We shouldn't ignore it. A mass energy gain, for little expenditure.
Catching barra on red claw imitations has been a quiet technique in my boat for a good period. It is super effective and would give competition anglers a new leaf if they branched out, along with many more quiet tales that are yet to be aired.
Barra strikes on plastic red claw/yabbies are 100% committed evil strikes that wake you from the dead.
Deadly in the right circumstance; along with every other lure in your tackle box.
Johnny Mitchell

From Top to Bottom

This day saw 8 awesome surface strikes in the first hour of the trip. A ‘pinnacle’ day weather wise; with hungry fish preceding the weather change. The lead into the afternoon storm which turned into two days of rain saw zero strikes in the final hour.

On a contrast to surface action, deepwater fish added variances to techniques applied to get best results. Fish pulled from 30ft down almost on the bottom gave anglers another perception on lake barra. Some days, sounder readouts will change our initial plans, and adaptation will bring results to willing anglers.

Hunger or Instinct?

The barra were committed to feeding (deep hooked).... Deep hooked doesn't mean they were feeding. Instinctive strikes still make them inhale hard as per the norm, it is just that their mind has been tricked to bite at it or inhale it; because predators are supposed to eat stuff that comes passed. They think they should be doing it- until they learn that it is a trap.....years later. It is pretty hard to assume what is feeding and what is forced, especially when a fish that strikes can stir up its mates to have more interest, in turn, the next consecutive casts can produce fish, even after the first twenty minutes drew no response. Lures have hooks that pin fish immediately. In the wild, barra can inhale food, hold it for extended periods and then reject it if they are not keen. Anglers strike early and make the connection without realising what was occurring. Like a barra in a tank with its stomach full, and its' mouth full- you drop in another small fish and it still tries to grab it- hunger?, or instinct?
A mate from down south, Roderick Walmsley was jew fishing in South Africa with live bait. The story goes something like this- Each cast off the beach saw the jew crunch the live bait and kill them in one fast bite. Time after time this happened for no result. This smart angler swapped bait for a lure and each cast produced a large jew fish because each time they crunched the lure, they got hooked. He could have easily mistaken those fish as feeding fish, but they weren't, this time smart angling made the connection via a lure.
It is fun analyzing what takes place each trip, drawing conclusions, and then proving or disproving our very own thoughts on future trips.
Something to think about anyway.
Thanks

Our results were not replicated around the dam .......... So why ???
It is highly possible that all the variables required to connect fish to lines in that scenario were all in alignment at that spot, at whatever time period, or periods you fished it. That is common in salty stuff, or lake environments. The best fishing I have seen in a lake at a spot has never produced more two fish in that spot since, and that was quite a few years ago. Conditions have never aligned since- to my knowledge.
One missing link can mean nothing happens. It is like saltwater fishing in a river, if one key variable does not present itself you may not even raise a scale.
 You will discover this all your life when chasing barra. You will rock up when you think all should be sweet, but when you analzye what is going on, you will find that it ain't the same as last time. It never is.

Weather Conditions versus Water Conditions

 In there lies two very different descriptions.
1. Weather conditions.
2. Water conditions.
Crappy weather conditions doesn't always mean crappy water conditions.
Crappy weather conditions can still leave ideal water conditions, and crappy , cloudy, miserable weather can mean ideal circumstances for fish in ideal water conditions!
Two far opposed meanings. The crappier the weather, the worse the water conditions will become in time , until they stabilise to the weather conditions at play. So, we really have to look at the weather, and its follow on effects into the water.
JM

Magic Little Books

Steve B, if it was winter, night time, and blowing 47 knots from the south west, raining, and the almanac said it was a good time to fish, do you reckon you would do well??
The almanac and any of those bibles do not take into consideration weather conditions at the time, and barra in lakes work in harmony with weather changes. Windows of opportunity arise when nature says so, not when a book says it will, but you are right, I doubt I would be at the lake trying, in the conditions described. We'd be at the pub beside the vertical heater, like last July, with Mr Fox.

I just believe myself that moon phases do play a part in impoundment fishing......along with so many other factors. Yea, you are spot on, but yell out when a prediction type book, or a spinning wheel type thingy is released that incorporates all factors as one and can foresee the future and predict the weather and seasons. Those almanac books make good wedges under table legs when it comes to barra feed times. It's like trying to make an assumption without half of the facts.

You caught fish in the worst part of last winter (when you filmed the DVD...pretty much the worst time in the year)... yes, an ugly time of the year, but as the DVD describes, those fish bit during the best parts of the worst bits, not the worst parts of the worst bits. A big difference. The fish used the best windows to feed. As Scott Mc says, the weather is the base driving tool of the fisheries, and the variables and triggers can help or hinder you at the time.

Midnight Winter Barra

If you have stability in temperature, among other things, yea, a midnight winter session can put fish on deck. (salt or fresh) Cool winds often kick in after midnight, and prior to dawn, so there is a window of opportunity in the dark. Weather variances, or a moon position can be an activator.
Johnny

Stomach Contents in Barra

I really think it depends on what stage of digestion you actually hook/catch/ land a barra as to whether or not you are likely to find stomach contents. If a fish hasn't fed for a few days or more and you happen to intersect that fish on a feeding ground at the same time she intends to eat it is highly possible that your lure will be the number one first easy meal. The result- A barra with no food in its stomach. Considering we fine tune our learning over the years to be in the right spot at the right time in salt and fresh, this scenario is often the case.
 On the other side of the swing is rocking up late on a tide, or after one or two days of awesome weather and water conditions that have allowed opportunity for barra to feed freely and willingly. We will find our lure being just another meal, and in this case a hooked fish often discards prior stomach contents during the fight. In this instance it can still be likely for a fish to keep the contents in place depending on the hook placement in the fish's mouth and how the angler applies force, soft or harsh.
I have found plenty of varied food items in salties from snapping shrimps, mangrove lobsters, prawns, crabs, flathead, bream, among the usual mullet, whiting, herring, silver biddies etc. Lake barra often cough up anything from boney bream, gar, redclaw, shrimp, fly specked hardyheads etc etc etc. Depending on the weather cycles and water quality/chemistry it is also noteworthy that barra,,,,and other species will regurgitate on their own, hence why the oily 'spews' can be noted on a lake or river surface. You cannot mistake the pungent oily fish smell of 'spewed' dinner.
Johnny