With the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period behind us, my wife Kelly and I would like to thank the many families and anglers that chose Lake Monduran Holiday Park as their holiday destination. Over this holiday period, we saw many of these family and friend groups having a ball catching 50-65cm barra, with the odd fish around a metre mixed in amongst them.

One family group in particular boated over 25 barra for three days, resulting in a stack of fun and some long-lasting memories. Lake Monduran is not limited to just great barra and bass fishing. We have also seen many families water skiing, kayaking, sailing, jet skiing and bird watching. Everyone can enjoy this vast and vibrant waterway together.

As a trend, the next month should bring with it some hot barra fishing. Through the day, barra tend to go deep, making them a hard target. Our bite times usually range from late afternoon through the night and into the early morning. The period through the middle of the day is best spent getting some rest and relaxation.

As usual, windward points and bays will produce most of the bites. The northerly wind over the season has been the best for firing up the bigger barra, so keep a close eye on the weather and wind forecast. The southeast wind this season has also produced good bite sessions on the 50-80cm barra with the odd metre fish mixed in. Areas such as Bird Bay, Rainforest, Jacks and Insane Bay have been the pick of the areas to target.

Soft plastic paddle-tails like the Z-Man SwimmerZ, Happy Rock Big Willies and the ever-reliable Squidgy Pro Range plastics have all been working well, and in the hardbody range, Rapala X-Rap, Jackall Squirrel, Smash Minnow, Storm Thunder Barra and Storm Arashi Minnows have also been working well.

When casting and retrieving soft plastics and hardbodies, a dead slow roll is often the best method of retrieval. Just make sure your lure is creating the action it’s designed to. Short, sharp twitching and then pausing your lure for five seconds or so is also another successful method commonly used.

I often see anglers fishing the lake with equipment not meant for metre-size impoundment barra. Mainline, leader and landing nets are the main reasons anglers lose fish here. For your mainline, you need at least 40lb and max 50lb braid. Your leader should be at least 50-60lb fluorocarbon or 60-80lb supple mono. You will also need a large landing net; there are a few different styles and types on the market these days.

I like to use a large retractable silicon mesh style net. There are a couple reasons for this. The large silicon holes in the net make it easy to remove your lure and hooks once the barra has been landed. Secondly, barra have a protective slime or mucus on the outside of the scales, and the silicon mesh is soft and non-abrasive, so it will lessen the removal of this mucus, leaving the fish in better condition.

• We look forward to seeing you in the next few months, so please don’t hesitate to contact us for accommodation inquires. Email --e-mail address hidden-- or call us on 0741 573 881. Follow the Facebook page Lake Monduran Guidelines Fishing Charters for fishing updates.