The new pinup couple of barra angling, Daniel Grech and Belinda Winton cleaned up at the inaugural Barra Trophy, amassing 8/9 barra for 6.86m, nearly 2.5m clear of their nearest competitors

Without a prefish, the pair tried B Arm in the first session before moving into Jacks Bay where they found a nice shallow point. Using their Humminbird 997 Side Imaging sounder, they identified barra which gave them confidence to fish the point. Action came soon after with several catfish and then their first barra to Daniel at 9.30am, followed by another just half an hour later. This got the team off to a flying start.

In session two, the team got another three fish, two to Daniel and one to Belinda, although the fish were deeper in the afternoon session, with all fish caught by casting parallel to the boat rather than into the bank.

In session three the lucky point continued to produce enough barra to fill their limit, and secure a sensational victory in the inaugural Barra Trophy!

Their lure used by the pair was the FLT Transam 95s in ayu colour with standard hooks. These lures were cast into the point and hopped quite quickly and aggressively. In the morning sessions the fish all came from the shallows. However in the afternoon session the fish were holding deeper in 10 – 16 feet.

Outfits used were Daiwa Steez and Zillion baitcasters spooled with 20lb Platypus Superbraid, rigged with 40lb Black Magic fluorocarbon leader matched up to ACM custom rods. Using the relatively light leader wasn’t a problem for the duo, as they fished light drag setting, due to the lighter hooks on the Transams.

Proving that theory that where you find catfish, you will find barra, the pair also took out the title of Catfish Kings with 15 for the weekend, and Belinda got the biggest catty at 62cm fork length.

Team Halco (Jason Ehrlich and Tommy Woods) fished well to take out second place. A real mixture of youth and experience in the team proved a successful formula but it was young Tommy who had to show Jason how it was done on Saturday.

10 year old Tommy from Gin Gin showed up the entire field by catching the first barra in a Barra Trophy tournament at 6.34am: A 64cm model on a Rapala X-Rap. Proving this was no fluke, he pulled two more fish in the Saturday afternoon session, including a metery that won him the Biggest Barra Junior catergory and put team Halco into fourth overnight.

Jason finally cracked the pattern Sunday morning. After losing two good fish in the timber early in the session, he finally managed to get two good ones to the boat, including a 105cm model that took out Big Barra Senior for the competition.

Jason and Tommy had their best results fishing a point in Jacks Bay using suspending Rapala X-Raps. Their tally of 5 fish for 440cm gave them an 88cm average, well above the average sized fish for the weekend. Their winning technique was the long ‘pause for effect’!

Taking third position was father and son team of Peter and Kyle Hansen, who had a two great sessions on Saturday. Unfortunately the barra proved too big and strong on Sunday, and all they got for their trouble was a couple of destroyed lures.

The Rapala Street Team of Craig Griffiths and Daniel Roth took out fourth with four fish over the weekend on their Rapala X-Raps, while well known mother and daughter team, Elaine and Katie Sanderson held down fifth position with a great second session, and managed to land all their fish with a broken net – thanks to a metery that escaped whilst doing the damage.

Thanks to all the teams that braved the conditions, and came and had a go. It was great to see teams put the effort in and find fish. There was a great sociable atmosphere at the comp, and a sharing of information that saw more teams catch fish as the comp progressed.

The next Barra Trophy event will be held at Awoonga Dam on the 20th -21st August from the Awoonga Caravan Park full details on australianbarra.com.au.

The Barra Trophy Tournaments are great fun events, aimed to get new anglers, kids, wives, girlfriends involved in barra fishing, and to meet other barra anglers and share in the fun and learning. – Matt Fraser

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