Barramundi Lures | MoTackle & Outdoors

Barramundi are one of Australia's most iconic sportfish. You can catch barra in the run off every year in February, March and April and anglers from all around the world come to Australia's top end to fish the run off for Barramundi. You can also catch them in saltwater creeks around the top end of Australia and in the many stocked freshwater dams in QLD. Many a monster barra has been pulled from legendary Dams including Monduran, Awoonga & Peter Faust Dams. Without any direct predators these barra can grow in excess of 1m in length and some as big as 1.4m.

Barramundi are great fun to catch with the added bonus of being a top table fish. As mentioned they can grow to over 140cm in length, but any fish over the magic metre mark is considered to be a trophy fish.

Dan Peart - Mail Order Processor at Motackle & Outdoors

TARGETING BARRA

When targeting Barra, keep in mind they are an ambush predator, they hit hard, take hard but short runs, they are acrobatic, jumping in the air while shaking their heads to throw your hooks and can inhale your lure just as quickly as they exhale it leaving you gutted as you missed the hookup. Barra are both challenging and highly rewarding.

When it comes to lures, there can be multiple points of attack, hardbodies for both trolling and casting, 4" to 8" soft plastics such as paddle tails, soft vibes, swimbaits, prawn imitations and surface lures such as walk the dogs and 'frogging', we cover a few of them below. Like all fishing it's best to match the hatch for bait in that area.

Craig Hanlon - eCommerce Admiistrator at Motackle & Outdoors

Hardbodies - Trolling - Lets start hard and fast! Trolling has been a popular technique for a longtime, and honestly whats better than sitting back enjoying a cold beverage while slowly trolling a lure along an edge! Take close attention to where your trolling and what depth and select the appropriate lure for that situation. Some popular lures are those like the Classic Barra Lures which come in a wide range of sizes and depths from 4' all the way down to 20'. Find a nice trolling line and start movinf ever so slowly along the line. To entice the bite hold the rod in your hand and add some quick aggresive jerks into the troll.

Hardbodies - Casting - If trolling isnt your thing and you prefer a more hands on way to fish for barra look at casting suspending jerkbaits at structure. You want to looks for snags, rock walls, eddies, deep edges and in the dams sometimes weedy flats. Move along the area casting your hardbodies deep into the structure, because thats where the barra will be hiding! Give your lure a few quick rips to get the lure moving then suspend it for a few seconds and a few more quick rips and suspend again, continue this all the way back to the boat or out of the area of structure and cast again. When you get the bite you'll know about it!

Sam Howard - Estaurine Specialist at Motackle & Outdoors

Soft Plastics - Depending on the bait in the area and the depth the fish are sitting it, there are many different soft plastics that are effective and different ways of rigging them.

One of the most popular is big paddle tail plastics rigged with a jighead to get them to the bottom. The big thumping paddle tails attract the barra and entice the bites, these are popular in the QLD dams. You then just need to figure out the bite pattern whether it's a slow roll, lift or twitch that gets the bite.

In the salt smaller paddle tails and prawn imitations are very effective especially when the jelly prawns are around. Rig them with a jighead or weedless and cast them into the structure, let them sink and twitch them back out enticeing a bite.

Up top on the surface, weedless rigged paddle tails and soft plastic frog imitations run along the surface create spectatular top water bites, often you can see them chasing the lure, creating a wake behind the lure as it attempts to eat it, then the barra engulfs your lure and you attempt to set the hook. In the QLD dams this is a popular technique over the top of weed beds.

Sam & Brendan with a Double Hookup - Motackle & Outdoors

Soft Vibes Vibes are a very popular lure in the deeper salt water systems but can also be used in the freshwater dams. Soft vibes are the more commonly used vibe but hard vibes do also work. Cast your vibe towards the structure and let it sink to the bottom, add a few quick hops off the bottom and let it sink back down continue this until your lure is back at the boat and go again. Often the vibes have two lots of trebles so the hook up rate is good but remember barra are an inhaling feeder and can tangle the lure and spit it back out so be ready for small ticks on your line and set the hook.

No matter how you fish for barra, hooking and landing argueably Australia's most iconic fish will have you coming back for more! Many a NSW fisherman has moved north of the border and dedicated the rest of fishing lives chasing these big silvery fish after catching their first Barramundi.

Dan Peart - Mail Order Processor at Motackle & Outdoors

Barra is arguably Australias No. 1 sports fish and rightly so!... Australian's are know to travel from as far south as Victoria to the top of Queensland to fish for barra, thats how popular they are! Barra pull hard, will run you through the nearest piece of structure and break your heart, so when you finally hook one hang on!

- Daran Ryan - Fishing Store Manager at Motackle & Outdoors