SEASON TO PUT BARRA ON HIT LIST
FOR most Gold Coast fishermen a barramundi is right up the top of the must-catch fish on the bucket list.
Even though our fishing grounds here are up there with the best in the world – particularly this time of the year with our marlin, mahi mahi and mackerel – there is one fish we don’t have in great numbers and that is the mighty barra.
We do get the odd one here and we are starting to see them caught more regularly but for the most part if you want to catch a barra you have to head a long way north.
Next week marks the open season for barramundi fishing in Queensland.
Since November it has been illegal to target barramundi and if you have accidentally caught one while targeting a different species it has been illegal to keep it.
That all changes on February 1, that’s Thursday next week, when the season opens.
Here on the Gold Coast it was thought when the odd barramundi was caught in areas like the Nerang River that the fish was most likely a pet that was let loose after it grew too big for someone’s tank ... but that thinking is now changing.
The Brisbane River is home to a massive threadfin population and now more than ever we are seeing big barramundi landed in amongst the bycatch.
Such has the barra fishing improved here on the Gold Coast that a small population of fisherman are now specifically targeting them in our waters ... and with some success.
The thinking now is that the barra on the Gold Coast are not pets let loose but wild fish that are slowly pushing further south.
There was a story doing the rounds a few years ago that a local released thousands of fingerlings into Hinze Dam with the hope of having fun in years to come with some big barra.
Even if the rumour was true, chances are the fingerlings wouldn’t have survived the first winter and that may be the case for the wild barra in our rivers too.
Barra need warm water, and once they arrive here the question now is can they stay?
The answer to that is probably not, our winters get far too cold and unless the barra find the very shallow water to help keep them warm their survival chances are slim.
In the meantime if you want to try your luck head to the northern rivers like Coomera and the Logan and make sure you take your camera, as you’ll have a hard time convincing your mates without photographic evidence