Christmas Trip to Kununurra

[Doug Gasmier]

Hi guys,

Finally been able to organise a trip to Kununurra over Christmas travelling with my father to see my brother.

Any advice for catching Barra on fly in that region. Or anything else that matter.

Brother has a 4.1m polycraft dinghy and fishes the lower Ord frequently. He keeps sending me photos at work to torture me.

I am after suggestions for flies. Good, bad or indifferent. Including white decievers.


Other club members have already made helpful suggestions...

Gav has already suggested taking the dog (Jack) and if he gets eaten, stop fishing at that spot. (Actually Gav said run away.)

[Tony Ong]

1. Remember that you need to use sunblock when wearing sandals Douggie.
2. You really want to look for areas where there are crocs. Apparently, they follow the barra around.
3. Check your ******* knots and don't tie them at night whilst you're having whiskey!

[Dave Bailey]

Good advice Tony, particularly number one!

[Sam Jones]

Gday Doug,

Pink Things are a good go-to...

Any mullet patterns are good also, as are of course poppers.

Don't be afraid of using a large fly, even for small Barra.

The Pink Things are good as they'll get good depth even with a WFF line (makes a handy combo for fishing snags and in the heat of the day).

With the poppers, get them close to the bank... like really close. Sometimes they'll be sitting right on the edge.

Try plenty of slow retrieves and/or pauses... Also, lots of pauses on the retrieve of the poppers.

I like brown/champagne over white for the deceivers, have also had luck with blue over white mullet patterns.

Good luck and have fun!

Cheers
Sam

[Simon Gilbert]

Hey Dougy
Are you going to be at the next meeting (December)? If so I can spend 15 minutes giving you some good ideas. Remember I used to live up there and have been back several more times during the wet season (even a chance I maybe going again soon).

Otherwise we should talk on the phone...

[DNYE]

I was up there a few months ago and had no luck with the barra on fly, caught just about everything else (sootys, archers, catfish, tarpon) on fly though! We got a few nice big barra (one solid meter fish) on spin gear and a whole bunch of rat barra in the drying pools of the Dunham river. Absolutely stunning part of the country.

Do yourself a favour and take your light gear with you too, the amount of big sootys, archer fish and tarpon in some of these pools in ultra shallow water is staggering and I had so much fun catching them and seeing whole schools of fish chasing a fly

We fished el-questro and only caught small sootys/archers (do yourself a favour and get a private camping spot there, its an awesome spot) we and also fished at home valley station and caught absolutely nothing but saw some awesome sights and a very very large croc near our camp site. I think having a boat will make it much easier for you to catch quality fish though.

Hope you have more success than i did, and i still had a blast

-Dave

[Simon Gilbert]

Christmas is a very different time of the year than the cooler couple of months ago. Barra will be all aver the place - especially considering the amount of rainfall recently. Late December compared to August in Kununurra is like comparing Salmon in Perth (in a 'normal' season) in April to November .

Yes Sooty's can be a ball - but at the time Dougie is going up, I would be targeting the Barra.

You should have a ball - if you can stand the weather!

[Doug Gasmier]

Hi Simon,

Will be at the next meeting but I will PM my phone number to you.

Doug

[Doug Gasmier]

Gilbo,

The PM is playing up. My phone is 0438 937 858.

Doug

[troy]

Around Kununurra I have found chart thing flies to work as well or better than pink things. Having weed guards can be of help depending on what kind of country you are fishing over. Certainly dredging timber or drifting lightly weighted flies over weed beds they are a necessity.

Fishing areas and styles depend upon the weather, water depth and water temp a lot along the ord. My favourite fishing through would have to be drifting flies over shallow weed beds/riffles where you get pocket water which hold surprisingly big fish at times. If there has been some rain in the catchment dredging around the mouth of the Dunham on the colour change works really well. If it hasn't been raining it will be very hot, so early in the morning/late in the arvo is the way to go (for your sake not the fishes).

cheers Troy