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  1. #21
    Legendary Angler
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    Apr 2007
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    Central Coast, NSW
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    70lb. 30kg. Less than 4lb difference. You woudn't give someone benefit of the doubt over 5% variation on a fish they saw in person and you didn't?

  2. #22
    Blue Marlin
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    Jun 2009
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    Hervey Bay
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    1,379
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    Why does it have to be a former Awoonga resident? Pretty sure they grow big in other locations too
    Fishing Fishing Fishing. I like Fishing

  3. #23
    Legendary Angler
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    Apr 2011
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    Inverell NSW
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    He's back!!!!!

  4. #24
    Blue Marlin
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    Jan 2013
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    Toowoomba
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    Haha. Barra have been around a lot longer than they have been stocked in awoonga.
    As with real estate, Fishing is all about Location Location Location

  5. #25
    Legendary Angler
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    Feb 2011
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    wide bay
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    Barra grow bloody big around here it's not an Awoonga escapee imo talk to all the guides and pros and they have been smashed for years by monster Barra they are big local breeding fish
    the world is a lot better place if you just smile

  6. #26
    Administrator
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    Sep 2006
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    Maryborough
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    There's a pic floating around in maryborough of a Barra caught in a net at beaver rock that's 1.6 metres give or take, caught by one of the greenhalghs back in the early 70's. looking at the photo I'd say it's longer than that, he's a pretty tall fella. It was actually my uncle Mel Simpson from Burrum Heads that put me onto the photo.
    Chewy....
    http://www.activeangler.com.au/forum/signaturepics/sigpic3_2.gif
    Its the quest,not the conquest...

  7. #27
    Giant Trevally
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
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    Toowoomba
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    I saw 2 fish at St Lawrence in the early 90's. The biggest was at least 1.6m, the smallest would have been 1.4m. Pro practically begged me not to tell authorities about it. He caught it in a net and they were dead when he found them so what was he to do I spose.
    Finally got one

  8. #28
    Yellowfin Tuna
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Qld
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    590
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    Attachment 34208

    30 kg maybe is lot different to 70 - 80 lbs.

    Historical stories get bigger with the telling.

    There were approx. 15000 escapees from Awoonga in a couple of overflows starting in 2011 (source Gladstone Area Water Board who stock Awoonga).

    Some got killed in the slide down the overflow (concrete blocks at the bottom to break overflow) and some injured and died later. Dead barra floating everywhere in Boyne river.

    A lot got caught in Gladstone pro nets. Sufficient numbers to drive down the price of barra to lowest level in years. Many tonnes were dumped in Gladstone when the price was driven so low.

    Of those that survived all that, about 90% went south. The few that went north populated Gladstone and Calliope rivers. A couple actually made it north towards Townsville.

    90% of barra of the east coast most southerly strain go south out of the main breeding river (Fitzroy). The Fitzroy strain barramundi is what was put into Awoonga

    Rivers like Kolan, Burnett, Elliott, Burrum, Mary etc down as far as the Brisbane river benefitted from the overflow.

    I've only ever seen 1 barra which went 100 lbs and that was caught in a fish trap at Yeppoon in the 1960s. I transported it from Yeppoon to the Park Avenue hotel in Rockhampton still alive. It went 102 lbs on the PA scales. I had to bend it to fit it on the back seat of my Volkswagen beetle but I didn't measure it. In earlier times, barra size (like any fish in those times) went by weight not length.

    I have a photo of a 1.3m barra from Fairbairn Dam near Emerald that went 34 kg (attached). Its a big fish like AL's. But a wild barra would not go anywhere near that weight.

    Anglers from Emerald complained that they were being busted up by big murray cod which abound there. Their description of what happened to them didn't add up to murray cod so a couple of us went out there from Rocky. They were big barra not cod. Big barra in Fairbairn are a well kept local secret apparently. You don't hear much about Fairbairn Dam in barramundi stories.

    The barra that used to populate the Mary, Elliot and Burnett rivers were netted nearly to extinction particularly the breeding females.

    I lived in Bundaberg for 19 years from 1976 to 1995 and went barra fishing in those river estuaries at every opportunity. I caught a lot of smaller ones but nothing of 1 metre or more in 19 years. The biggest I heard about in all that time was 95cm out of the Elliott. So its fair comment about any bigger fish being available now as coming from Awoonga.

    If you want to catch big wild barra the place is the Fitzroy estuary including Port Alma, Raglan, Inkerman, Casaurina and Connors creeks.

    Its a good sized fish, Al and nobody's knocking it. Anything over 1.2 is a big barra.

    My view is that it wouldn't make 70 - 80 lbs and that it came from Awoonga.

    I'm a bit of a barra tragic since my uncle introduced me to them many years ago in the Fitzroy so I've followed up on stories. Caught my share of them but don't eat many. Mainly tag stuff.

  9. #29
    Yellowfin Tuna
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    Apr 2015
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    Qld
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    Quote Originally Posted by Snodger View Post
    I saw 2 fish at St Lawrence in the early 90's. The biggest was at least 1.6m, the smallest would have been 1.4m. Pro practically begged me not to tell authorities about it. He caught it in a net and they were dead when he found them so what was he to do I spose.
    What he could have done (and was supposed to do) was stay with the net. Finding big dead barra like that was the very reason that the law about staying close to the net was introduced. That pro was more worried about getting pinched for not staying close to his net. He should have been hammered by Fisheries.

    You would find quite a few big dead fish floating in the Port Alma area with ligature marks around the neck. Got themselves enmeshed towards top of tide and ended up on mud in the net when tide receded. As tide gets lower, returning pro can't get to them up on mud so waits until tide comes back in to get them. Too late by that stage so they're just thrown out.

    Here's a large king that ended up like that.

    That esky was 1.4m long.

    Attachment 34209

    Wont happen here anymore.

  10. #30
    Administrator
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    Maryborough
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    I dunno. I'd rate the Mary river here the best place I know to catch big Barra. It's just not advertised. These aren't stories. There are lots of old photos of pros with massive Barra and king on sticks in the 70's but for good reason they aren't for public viewing. Gary Whitaker has some photos that would open a lot of eyes, but not many will ever see them for fear of recrimination. Likewise netting of Barra at the Howard power station hot water outlet was a weekly event until it closed in 1980.

    We got plenty of metre plus Barra in the burrum in the late 80's and 90's, but as long as I have lived in lived here there have been big Barra being speared along the inside of Fraser. They are long lean fish, not impoundment escapees. Pretty sure it was 1990 that the Dpi had wild Barra in pools at Wayne Shaw's at burrum heads to milk them for the stockingng of lenthalls.
    It's a bit the same as jacks. For whatever reason the sandy straights hold populations of big jacks, not many get line caught, but plenty get speared. It's just a big fish habitat. No doubt there are some big awoongs Barra out there in the ocean, but there has always been big Barra from the burrum south. This has only been enhanced by the stock from Lenthalls getting flushed out every couple of years.

    if you fished for 19 years in bundy and didn't catch one over a metre then the system either doesn't support them or you didn't know where to target them. As mentioned above, the burrum and Mary river/ssndy straights have supported big Barra for as long as I have lived. Als fish could be an Awoonga escapee, but in my opinion it's drawing a pretty long bow saying it is. If it's an escapee it could just as easily be a Lenthalls fish, though in my opinion it lacks the square look of an impoundment fish. That's only my opinion mind you.
    Chewy....
    http://www.activeangler.com.au/forum/signaturepics/sigpic3_2.gif
    Its the quest,not the conquest...

 

 
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