Norbs, for the first time, tests his mettle against northern Australia’s premier sports fish, the
mighty barramundi.

The mundane Tuesday afternoon silence in late November was snapped when my phone vibrated suddenly on my work desk. Curiously craning my neck, I grabbed the culprit, which was proudly displaying one new text message.
It had been a big year and I was looking for any excuse to be distracted and this was a pretty good one. It was good friend and importer of Jackall Lures in Australia, Harry “Hank” Watson.
It his typical ‘to the point’ fashion, he wrote,“You interested in a Barra trip?”
Having never chased the species before, but seeing it precariously sit atop my fishing bucket list for a while meant I spent a collective three heartbeats before my fumbling fingers hastily typed, “Yes – when we off?”
Over the past 5 or 10 years I have really honed my fishing exploits on the mighty Murray cod. At a collective guesstimate I would have invested more than 85 per cent of my fishing time during this period chasing green machines, with an unwavering passion.
I have visited nearly every major cod damin Australia, from Copeton, Burrinjuck, Wyangala, Mulwala, Blowering, Eildon and Googong, while also flicking lures in river hot spots including the Murray,Murrumbidgee, Darling, Goulburn, Peel and Lachlan.
But, having split my time between Griffith, Canberra, Melbourne and now Sydney, there has always been one species, barramundi, which escaped my attention – until now.
I’ve heard the stories and seen the pictures. They are the subjects of every freshwater debate where they go toe-to-toe, or tail-to-tail, with the mighty Murray cod to see who will be crowned Australia’s premier freshwater sportfish.
Finally, if luck sat on my side, I would be able to find out for myself as we were heading to the Mecca of big barra, Peter Faust Dam, nestled between Townsville and Mackay in northern Queensland.
HEADING NORTH
With only two weeks from the first text to the trip, I had to cram a whole lot of barra homework into a relatively short space of time. I drove my fishing mates mad, asking every question from braid size to lure choice and colour, while concurrently sending Google and YouTube into meltdown undertaking more research than the CSIRO.
But as with every fishing trip, no matter what the lead-time, the kick off date always comes around quicker than expected and it wasn’t long before I was strapped into Tiger Air flight TT394 bound for the Whitsundays– game on!
After dropping the gear at the accommodation and rigging the rods, it wasn’t long before Harry, myself and Harry’s good mate Leroy were making the short commute from Proserpine up to the dam, some 22km away.
Our game plan was to fish from late afternoon into the night and attack the migrating barramundi that, from what we heard, were moving from the deep water up to the shallows to feed. Our plan was to intercept the schooling fish as they made their way up onto the flats and into the food rich weed beds.
This was the first big difference I noticed when comparing barra to Murray cod. While Murray cod and barra grow to a comparatively similar max size, their feeding tendencies are often varied.
Yes, barra will sit and sulk in the sticks like a Murray cod and smack prey that dares to swim or scurry past, but they are also, unlike goodoo, a schooling fish.
This means just like yellowbelly or bass, they will hunt and feed in big migrating packs. So, if you can find the feeding zone, littered with bait balls and scampering crustaceans and sit just off it, you will find the mighty ’mundi, well, that was the plan anyway.
JUMPING AT SHADOWS
As the sun started to melt over the mountainous backdrop of the dam, we located a big protruding weedbed and scanned the adjacent area with the Lowrance HDS10 Gen-2. The main function of the sounder is the side scan capability that sees the sonar beam spray each side of the boat so you can observe what’s on your left and right rather than just below the boat.
While you would use this tech to single out a big cod arc, you wouldn’t use it to locate moving schools of big Murray cod.
Kicking the Yamaha into gear, we set off on a few test runs along some likely looking areas, but failed to locate any definitive barra, which display as white arcs and ‘shadows’ in the monitor. The bigger the shadow, the bigger the barra.
With the sun now well and truly behind the hills, we relied heavily on the I-Pilot and Spot-Lock function on the Minn Kota to combat the increasing winds and rising moon to shed light on the currently fishless situation.
After several hours of patrolling the edges of the wed beds casting plastics and swimbaits with the diligence of a cop, we deciding to fire up the Yammy and try a rocky drop off.
The change of location didn’t alter our luck, as we again failed to raise any chrome after combing the area. Resilient, we decided to head back to the weed bed where we located a few scattered shadows to again test our luck.
Then it happened. Like someone flicked a switch. Barra, and big barra, started moving from the depths up onto the shallow ridge before disappearing into the weed beds.
This meant the Lowrance lit up like a Christmas tree as barra started to flood either side of the scan.
“Left. About halfway out. Short right, near the boat. Long left, cast now.”
These were the short and sharp commands coming thick and fast from the back of the boat, as we cast our 130mm Squidgy Slick Rigs and swimbaits to the midnight shadows.
As the wind again picked up and shoved us off course Harry was nailed hard near the boat by a metre plus barra that instantly came out of the water and tail danced next to the boat.
Instantly I thought how different they fought from Murray cod. Pent up and full of energy, the fish circled the boat with a number of aquatic athleticism displays on show – these fish can fight.
After more hang time than Michael Jordan, the metre beating barra finally hit the deck for a few quick photos before being released to energise another angler.

Double barrel

STICKS AND STONES
The rest of the trip seemed to follow a similar theme, as we went hunting shadows on the side scan and casting a variety of plastic and harbody lures at them.
Having never fished for this species before, it was one of the most enjoyable and entertaining ways to chase a freshwater foe. Drumming up the primitive hunter gatherer instincts, we stalked all over the lake, concentrating on shallow, protruding weed points and sprawling flats while stalking the fish on the sounder.
After filling the camera over the first three days with a bounty of barrapics from the flats, we decided to turn our attention to the strangle of sticks at the southern end of the dam.
Littered with bay after bay of standing timber, I felt like I had teleported to Mulwala and was back in a goodoo jungle. Resisting the urge to tie on a Mudeye Snake, I carefully clipped on a Hank Tuned Squirrel hardbody, while the other boys clipped on an assortment of soft plastics.
Similar to chasing a greenback, under fading light, we carefully traversed through the sticks, casting past our targets and bringing the lures back past the base of the trees.
After nailing a smaller barra, we gave the Minn Kota a rest and decided to tie up to a tree a healthy cast from the tip of a shallow weed bed. The specific spot had ample casting space with only a spattering of trees in the general vicinity.
This environment meant there were only a couple of trees to be bust off from if we did happen to stick the hooks into a raging barra – and stick the hooks we did. As Harry’s Jackall Dunkle 7 inch soft plastic touched the water it was incinerated by a pent up flash of chrome.
What happened next was something I’ll never forget as long as my heart beats. That ’mundi tore off under the boat faster than a Learjet, sending a searing bow wake behind the 30lb braid as it sliced through the water like a laser though sheet metal.
After coming up for air 20m on the ‘other’ side of the boat, Harry was forced to feed his strand of Loomis graphite under the boat, as it awkwardly contoured around the hull. The next few seconds were a blur, as the chrome bullet surged hard at a lone tree some 30m off in the distance, before pulling the hooks. Shocked, I didn’t know whether to call 000 and report an assault, or support a mate who had just been dusted by a mammoth ’mundi – I did neither, opting to laugh instead.
HEADING BACK
I didn’t know what to expect going into my first barramundi trip and the action and intensity far outstripped my wildest expectations. Not only did my first barra stretch the tape to over a metre, but I also got violently pulled to pieces by a fish that exhibited the strength of the Qantas flight from Proserpine to Brisbane.
If you ever have the opportunity, or are flirting with the idea to head to Queensland and fish one of the premier barramundi dams, I strongly encourage you to follow that urge and do it as you wont be disappointed.
THE TALE OF THE TAPE
The two undisputed heavyweights of the freshwater fishing kingdom in Australia are the barramundi and the Murray cod. These two species have been the root of more tell-tales than all other freshwater species combined.
Built on legend and anchored in Aboriginal folklore, these two fish are as part of our national culture and identify as Captain Cook and kangaroos. But to crown a unanimous champion is thwart with danger, as each species has a legitimate right to sit atop the freshwater throne.
To illustrate how a fight would be a split points decisions, I have detailed a number of comparisons when pitting these prize-fighters in the ring.

Dean has been chasing freshwater natives for over 20-years, honing his craft in the various rivers and dams that are littered across southeastern Australia. He has been a freelance fishing and photojournalist for over 5-years, with his images and angler insight being the feature of a number of popular freshwater DVD’s and publications. He is addicted to lure fishing for Murray cod and golden perch, with a passion for finding new and novel methods and lures to target these iconic Australian sports fish. Dean is currently an advocate for Spotters Sunglasses, Bassman Spinnerbaits, Jackall lures and Wilson Fishing