Well the barra season in Queensland has ended for another year, but not before I had a father son barra competition with my son Col.
Running a business and travelling a lot means I don’t get to spend as much time with my kids as I’d like.
Seems only yesterday we took this pic. Now they are all old enough to drive!
And this time last year the end of season barra competition was to get young Mason his first ever barra. Tick!
Barra Duel – barra competition with son Colbee.
Kick started the day with four school size barra going head to head with two fish each.
None had any size about them and we kept one for dinner and released the rest.
But as the tide turned it was time to get serious!
Using a combination of lures and bait we were throwing everything at them.
The one that got away!
Col lost an absolute monster. I’d say in the $1.20’s nudging $1.30.
It was reminiscent of the last second (20 seconds to go until the barra closure) huge lost fish at the end of the 2018 season.
At least we got that one on film.
Col lost his after a 10 minute fight and the hook pulled.
Father son Barra Competition heats up!
Once the tide turned I decided to head to a location where more ocenaic fish travel.
These larger specimens are wandering fish and don’t tend to aggregate as much, hence less tuned to the hazards of hooks!
Targeting them at a time of year when oceanic fish come closer inshore can be quite productive.
This is obviously the reason for the barra closure – to protect these fish.
But we do get one crack at them so it’s perfect conditions for a barra competition with my son.
First metre plus barramundi landed!
After going to the new area, Col hooked up to a gorgeous 110 streaking from the water with it’s gills flared.
I thought the barra competition was over right then!
But the hooks giving me a second chance. I’m gonna come home like Biden haha.
Then my rod went off!
And this time we finally got one to stick.
The first metery for the day was landed by me going 105.
I caught her quickly and she released well.
The barra competition scoreboard was all of a sudden in my favour!
Watch our barra comp video to see the live action.
This video was shot and edited by Kane Chenoweth, a fishing documentarian who has come on board to take our vids to the next level. I think that’s been achieved in this vid and we welcome Kane to RMF.
So who won the barra competition?
Pipped at the post by this beautiful fish that measured 115 cm was my son Col!.
What a wonderful experience to spend the day with my youngest son Col and couldn’t be happier that he won the day.
But who won the guessing comp?
For those of you that don’t know, we posted some pics on Facebook and Instagram (follow us if you haven’t already) and asked our followers to guess the winner (Col or me) and the size. 115cm
After thousands of guesses, three people that we could find guessed correctly.
- Martin Beaumont.
- Bryan Aquilina
- Grant Taiters
Please contact us and we will post out your collectors edition signed shirt and lure combo!
We quite often hold fun comps for our fans with the biggest one yet to come!
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