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| This small barra nailed this soft plastic shad in a rolling strike, which saw the fish hooked upside down. Note the clip holding the lure is only just holding on. Loop knots are generally a better option. |
DARWIN HARBOUR BARRA
If you want to consistently catch barra in Darwin Harbour, the first thing you need to realise is that it is predominantly a shallow water fishery. That is, the most productive places to chase barra are up in the shallows on the harbour mudflats and in the smaller creeks which run into the harbour arms.
The reason these places are so productive is simple. The shallows are where the small fish and prawns which make up the bulk of the barra¹s diet are found. And obviously, an active predator like barra is never going to be too far away from their primary food supply.
That doesn't mean that you won¹t find barra in deep water at times, because you obviously will. However, if you hunt the shallows you are concentrating on the sorts of places where barra spend a lot of their time. The other bonus is that when they are up in the shallows they are there for one purpose only and that is to feed. From an angling point of view it makes good sense to spend your time tossing lures or soaking baits in the sorts of places where barra not only hang out, but do most of their feeding.
Of course, it¹s one thing to know that the shallows are a good place to look for barra, and it is another to find the right shallows, and to be there at the right time.
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| It¹s only a typical harbour barra, but it has completely swallowed the lure. Note the loop knot, which allows the lure to swim correctly and is far more reliable than most clips or snaps. |
How shallow is shallow?
This is a good question as it really depends on where you are and what you are doing at the time. For a start, I catch a lot of barra in less than a metre of water. Two metres is ample and two to three metres is an absolute luxury.
Basically if you have enough water to float the boat (and sometimes even if you don't) you are in business. On the first of the incoming tide when barra can really be feeding hard, we often deliberately run our tinny aground up in the shallows and wait for the incoming tide to get to us so that we can move further up the creek.
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| This 80 cm barra is bigger than average for Darwin Harbour. It was taken trolling a small creek on the incoming tide. |
Don't worry about the water appearing to be too shallow for fish to swim in. Barra are masters at using channels and depressions which hold slightly more water than the surrounding area to sneak right up into the shallows. On top of that, they are not adverse to swimming on their sides to reach concentrations of bait fish stalled at a creekmouth while they wait for the rising water to carry them into the safety of the mangroves.
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