DAVID GREEN
56 | fishingworld.com.au | February 2015
OVER the past decade there’s been
increasing numbers of barramundi turning
up on the Gold Coast and in the Brisbane
River. What were initially thought to be
strange and incidental captures are now
turning up on a regular basis. In fact, a few
anglers are now starting to actually target
barra in these locations. The barra being
caught on the Gold Coast have varied
between 45-50cm dark coloured fish that
look like they have spent a lot of time in
freshwater to big silver fish over a metre that
have mostly been caught in the Coomera
River at night on both bait and lures. More
recently, magazine editor Steve Morgan
caught a great barra in the Brisbane River
that would have been well over 10 kilos.While captures are still erratic, it’s clear from
the increasing frequency of reports that the
barramundi population in the SE corner of
Queensland is growing. It’s also apparent that
these catches aren’t due to changes in technique
or fishing method. Over the past three years
I’ve heard of barra captures from August
through to April in a variety of locations
including the Logan River, Coomera River,
Nerang River, Clear Island Waters and the
seaward entrance of Jumpinpin.
Judging from the increasing frequency of
barra catches turning up on Facebook (type
“Gold Coast Barramundi” into Google and
you’ll see plenty of big barra!), there’s a growing
population of wild fish in this region.
Hopefully this will increase in coming years.The commonest southern barra scenario
involves casting hard-bodied lures around
structure or eddies while targeting mangrove
jack at night in the Nerang or Coomera rivers.
Fish have been caught on Reidy’s B52s, poppers
and Bombers. Plenty of anglers have reported
hooking big barra only to be sawn off due to
the light leader usually used in these
waterways. Most of the actual spots that have
produced “repeats” on barramundi are closely
guarded secrets. One local angler has claimed
eight barra, all individually documented on his
phone camera.
Most anglers chasing jacks target the
hundreds of f loating pontoons in the Gold
Coast canals. It seems the barra prefer to work
along rock walls and back eddies on the
run-out tide. Narrow canal or drain entrances
that hold bait and structure with a back eddy
seem to be the key spots. A few really big
barra have been hooked and lost in the
Jumpinpin Bar while fishing for jew.
I remember hearing about barra being speared
in this area under the coffee rock overhanging
ledges in February a few years ago. They were
big silver fish stacked up in the eddy under
the ledge.
The southern barra fishery is in its infancy
but each year it gets better, with more and
more barra being caught. I’ve never caught or
hooked a barra in Gold Coast waters but a few
friends have been luckier. As patterns start to
emerge, I’m going to put in an increasing
effort. A lot of the fish on the various Facebook
pages have been caught from the bank in the
upper reaches of the Nerang and Coomera
rivers or in Robina Lakes.
There are plenty of theories about why
barramundi are turning up with increasing
frequency in southern Queensland waters.
So far, however, there’s more speculation than
science. While it’s simplistic to put it down to
“global warming”, water temperatures are
definitely increasing. As a result, fish from
more northern climates such as red emperor
are being caught more regularly out on the
reefs. Conversely, the winter water
temperatures off the Gold Coast were mostly
over 21 degrees throughout the months of
June and July – this has seen extremely poor
snapper fishing over the past few seasons. For
the closely observant angler tuned into water
temperatures and strange catches, things are
definitely changing. There seems to be far less
seasonal variation in water temperature.Are Barra Moving South?
More and more barramundi are being caught
much further south than you’d expect this tropical species
to venture. Greeny explores a few theories as to why we
are seeing more southern barra.
A LONG-TIME FISHO CORRESPONDENT, DAVID GREEN ENJOYS CATCHING
E VERY THING FROM FL ATHE AD TO MARLIN.Iven Ohvanainen
caught this bright
silver 93cm barra in
a small Gold Coast
creek on a Z-Man
plastic. Who needs to
go to FNQ or the NT
with fish this like this
on the Goldie?