Anglers experience hot and cold angling conditions at Teemburra Dam with competitors catching 28 fish in session one then struggling in a cold, wet and windy conditions in session two to land only 7 fish.

Making hay while the sun shines to claim victory was 39-year-old Townsville angler Daryl Pead who caught a full bag in the first session to compiled a 5/10, 330cm limit for the tournament to secure the win over a talented field, including Jon Millard in second and Daniel Grech in third.

Victory for Pead was a result of a redhot session one with the Teemburra champion getting seven bites and landing five fish on the first afternoon of competition.

“They bit consistently for the first 3 1/2 hours of the session then they shut down,” said Pead.

His approach to catch fish during the window of activity involved anchoring the boat a cast length out from a weed and lily-lined point on the western side of the lake and working the shallows with slow rolled hardbodies.

“The bites were very tentative so we down sized to a Reidy’s Baby B52. Then it was a matter of slow rolling the lure back out from the edge and adding in the occasional pause. The takes were so tentative that many of the fish were just lip hooked on the rear treble,” said Pead.

Most bites as expected came on the pause.

Day two proved a lot tougher and with their hot weed-point of day one failing to produce, they looked further afield in search of warmer water and hopefully active fish.

“We found warmer water up the back of a couple of bays, and while we got a hit we couldn’t put any fish in the boat,” said Pead.

His 5/5, 330cm limit on day one proved enough and delivered Pead his maiden BARRA Tour event win.

Pead’s tackle was 5’6” Live Fibre baitcaster rod, Rovex baitcaster reel, 30lb Platil line, and 60lb Jinkai Plus flurocarbon leader.

He down-sized to smaller lures and fished slower due to the tentative bite. He saw fish on the sounders on day one but none on day two.

2011 BARRA Tour AOY champion Jon Millard continued his BARRA Tour early season form with another top three placing at the Killalure presented Teemburra event.

Fishing with team mate Daniel Grech, the Rapala/ACM pair fished a gully punctuated by a flooded point to catch their fish.

“We had the boat in about 12ft of water and cast up on to 8ft deep point and worked our lures back,” said Millard.

The lure he used was a 6” Berkley HollowBelly rigged on a 3/8oz, 8/0 jighead and worked with a constant slow rolling retrieve.

“The fish weren’t active so you needed to keep the retrieve really slow to get a bite,” said Millard.

The approach worked with the pair getting 17 bites for the session, including six landed fish. Four of which belonged to Millard.

“It was definitely a day time bite with the majority of hits coming before dark,” said Millard.

Millard’s third place once again confirmed his reputation as one of the most consistent anglers on the BARRA Tour, and it also delivered him the Northern BARRA Tour AOY title. A title he lost last year on a count back, but won this year, ironically, also on a count back.

“It’s great to win the northern crown, especially after coming so close to winning it last year,” said Millard.

With the southern tour only two months away and Millard on track to defend his overall BARRA Tour AOY Title Millard will be hard to beat in 2012.

Millard’s Tackle was 6’6” ACM Slash Bait Special rod, Shimano Calais reel, 30lb Sufix 832 PE line, and 30lb YGK flurocarbon leader.

He fished a flooded point that had plenty of cover including weed, lilies and trees, and had wind blowing onto it.

Craig Griffths claimed the Big Barra Prize at Teemburra with the Rolleston barra angler picking up the winning fish (95cm) on a FLT Transam just after the start of the session one.

Attention now turns to the southern leg of the 2012 JM Gilles BARRA Tour slated for the end of the November and early December. Visit www.australianbarra.com.au for all tour information and entry forms.

Results