Peter Price showed he was the man to beat on the 2012 JM Gillies Barra tour taking his second win of the season at the Warlock Lures Monduran morning event with a prefect 10/10 fish for 528cm. In the process he also secured the 2012 overall BARRA tour Angler of the Year title.

Price used a ‘run and gun’ approach to catch his limit over the two sessions. Fishing up river from Insane Bay, Price had a set of key locations that all featured flooded wattle trees with weed growing out from the bank. With five fish-producing locations found in the prefish, Price would cycle through the spots in each session picking the area that was holding the better numbers and quality fish.

“As the fish moved through the bay, it was all about finding the pocket that held the better quality fish,” said Price.

Price would cast tight into the structure before imparting a twitch and pause retrieve keeping the lure in the strike zone for as long as possible; his lure of choice for this work was a Reidy’s Junior B52 in gnr colour.

Price also changed the weighting of the lure with sticky weight.

“The Junior B52 will float up quickly, so in order to get the most out of each cast I weighted the lure to slow the float,” said Price.

He added more weight to the lure throughout the session in order to keep the lure in the strike zone for his desired time frame.

“Early in the session the fish wanted the lure to rise up at a steady speed but as the sun got higher they wouldn’t hit the lure unless you sat it in their face for longer.”

For this work, Price used a Wilsons Live-Fibre Venom 5’ 9” rod matched with a Daiwa Steez 103 baitcaster spooled with 20lb Sunline Super PE and 45lb Snyder leader.

“The Steez and Live Fibre combo made a huge difference to my cast. I could make long underhand casts getting my lure in tight to the cover everytime,” said Price.

The win sealed a fantastic season for Price who managed to take out his first overall Angler of the Year title. Price had two wins and a fourth place for a total of 297 points out of a possible 300.

“Thank you to all my sponsors, Lowrance, Reidy’s, Sunline, Snyder, JT Reel Repairs, Live Fibre Rods, Minn Kota and most importantly my wife. Having the support of all these people really makes me feel confident that I am doing something right by them and the sport.”

Daniel Grech managed another consistent showing taking second place with 10/10 fish for the event for 488cm. The second place also gave Grech enough points to take out the southern AOY title.

Grech targeted fish holding on deep weed edges, with gumtrees standing out from the weed. He would pitch his purple Rapala X-Rap 10 tight into the cover before imparting a slow twitch and pause retrieve allowing the lure to slowly float up as it sat near the gumtrees. He would work his lure 6ft out from the bank before burning it back in and casting to the next spot.

“The fish were holding tight to the structure and not following the lure out more than 1ft; you had to get your lure tight as possible to the fish and then work it out keeping it as close as possible to the trees,” said Grech

“We also kept the standard trebles on the X-Rap to allow it to float up giving the fish something different to the standard suspending presentation we use.”

For this work Grech used ACM Rods Flats Caster 6’ 6” matched with a Daiwa T3 Balistic spooled with 20lb Suffix 832 and a 40lb Black Magic FC leader.

With another second place, Grech took out the Southern AOY with 198 out of a possible 200 points.

“It’s a great feeling to finally have my hands on an AOY title. Jon Millard and I had a great season and we both thank all our sponsors, ACM Rods, Rapala, JT Reel Repairs & Nashies Complete Angler for their support over the last couple of years,” said Grech.

With 100 fish hitting the Brag Mats over the two days anglers are looking forward to returning to the waters of Monduran when ABT hit the road for the 2013 Barra Tour. To keep up to date with the latest tournament information head to www.australianbarra.com.au

The event Big Barra went to local angler Brian Rake who caught a quality 79cm Monduran barra. Targeting fish in the top section of the dam, Rake used a Rapala SXR8.

“I worked the lure aggressively out from the bank and the fish nailed it half way back to the boat” said Rake.

Rod: Wilson Live Fibre Venom 5’ 9”

Reel: Daiwa Steez 103

Line: 20lb Sunline Super PE

Leader: 45lb Snyder

“Tinkering with the weighting of the lure can give the fish something they have not seen before and with the right changes you can get the fish to feed through out the whole session,” said Price