Episode 311: Lake Monduran Barramundi With Will McNee

Will’s Top Barramundi Fishing Tips

• Lake Monduran is a year-round barramundi fishery, although they do tend to be more active and aggressive over the warmer months. The more time you spend fishing the lake, the more you’ll figure it out and the more consistent you’ll get.
• Barramundi fishing is a percentages game, lots of little things all put together can make a difference. The more “one percenters” you line up, the better your chances.
• Wind is your friend on Lake Monduran. A key to Will’s success is to spend some time doing some research before he heads out onto the lake. He’s looking to see what the wind has been doing for the past few days and identifying the points and bays that have been exposed to the breeze and are catching water flow. These are areas where barramundi will be more present and active.
• Look for areas where points and weed beds are close to deeper water. Barra will move onto flats and banks to feed and retreat to the deep if the shallows get too warm.
• The basin is a good place to start in the warmer months, as barra try to move downstream to spawn and will congregate at the bottom of the dam.
• Spend time locating where the fish are on the dam, then fish the peak bite times such as dawn and dusk, moon rise and moon set, especially in the leadup to a new moon or a full moon when the gravitational pull is greatest.
• It’s important to be stealthy when the conditions are calm and glassy, but less so when it’s windy and waves are slapping on the shoreline.

Will’s Barramundi Fishing Tackle

• Both baitcast and spin tackle have a place on Lake Monduran, although the heavily wooded nature of Monduran means the baitcast tackle tends to get used more often.
• A 6 foot, 12-25lb line class baitcast rod and matching baitcast reel with 40lb Suffix 832 braid and a minimum 80lb leader is perfect for around the structure.
• A 7 foot, 10-17lb spin rod is better for open water where long casting is requires, or when fishing with lighter lures during windy days.

Will’s Top Barra Fishing Lures

• Soft plastic paddletails in sizes from 5-7” are a great on Monduran barramundi. Will particularly likes the 6” Berkley Powerbait Hollow Belly rigged on a standard jig head where possible. 3/8oz, 8/0 jig heads have the versatility to be burned, slow rolled or anything in between. He’ll sometimes use a stinger hook, but doesn’t find he misses too many bites with standard jig heads and no stinger. This lure is very consistent and it’s often the first one to use over weedbeds, flats, points and so on. In timbered areas he’ll fish these lures a little faster to keep them up out of the structure. Will fishes soft plastics on Mustad fastach clips so that he can switch through lures quickly.
• The Jackal Squirrel 79 Hank Tune suspending hard bodied lure is a favourite and the fact that it’s silent and can be fished subtly is an advantage. This lure can be used in all of the previously mentioned types of structure, but also in areas with spindly timber, especially when the fish are sounding up well off the bottom, hanging 5-6 feet below the water surface in the timber. Will tunes the lures to suspend before leaving home by putting them in a bucket of tap water and switching the hooks out for Decoy EX60lb or YS80 hooks until he finds what makes the lure suspend or only float very slowly. This lure is fished very slowly on a tight line with small twitches followed by 10-15 second pauses to keep them in the fish’s face. The Jackall can also be successfully trolled or slow rolled.
• A soft vibe is a great option for Monduran barra and over the warmer months can be burned across flats and weedbeds, hopped along the bottom with short rod lifts of simply slow rolled back. They are a good option when the hollowbelly or Jackall Squirrel fail to get a bite. Great run down the contours of a bank.