Tim and I tackled Donkey Crossing yesterday on the quest of catching a barra on a kayak. And we were successful! Three altogether, with Tim finally breaking his duck and landing two, along with my one. Mine was pretty small, around 40cm, with Tim’s first around the same size. It was probably good that they were this small – we were fishing different sides of the river, and landed them within five minutes of each other. I had my landing net and Tim had his Fish Grapple. Because mine was small, it wasn’t too difficult to play the fish close enough to the kayak and net it. Tim’s second one was more interesting.
I was about 50 metres away when he hooked up, and it was dragging his kayak straight into the snag. I began powering over, and by the time I got there, Tim had played it around most of the snags (or the fish had played his kayak through the snags anyway!).
It came out of the water, and looked a good size. I tried to get as close as I could to the fish in my kayak, and after three attempts, managed to net it. Great size! At 68cm it was an absolute rush for both of us. After a quick photo, Tim released it back to the snag to fight another day. One thing we realised though – it will be pretty hard to land one of these things alone! We may have to hunt in packs from now on.
By the way, it’s now 5 barra from 7 fishing trips this year, and the competition is starting to heat up, with Tim on 2. It’s a shame we will probably only get a couple more weeks of fishing before it gets too cold.