Episode 214: Peter Faust Dam Barramundi With Curtis Parker

Curt’s Top Barramundi Fishing Tips

• Curtis loves to target Peter Faust barra During the transitional periods early and late in the season.
• Bite times are important on this storage. Curtis finds that the typical early morning/late afternoon periods that fish well for most species are less important than tide changes. Keep an eye on the tide charts for the nearest station and try to fish around the tips or bottoms of the tides as you’ll usually get a peak of activity around those times.
• The lead up to the full moon and a couple of days after the full moon usually fish above average, with the fishing usually being best later in the day and into the night. That said, the fishing can still be good early in the day around this lunar cycle. Curtis also likes through the day in the lead up to the new moon.
• Consistent weather fishes best, rapid temperature drops usually shut the fishing down. Conversely, a rise in temperature can stir a bite. Higher barometric pressures usually result in good bites.
• During April and May the barramundi are usually on a weedbed bite and are often chasing juvenile bones bream. Often they’ll come up into shallow water in bays seeking a bit of warmth. They can be seen head down, tail up but can be pretty hard to catch unless they roll back onto their sides and pull their heads out of the weed.
• Another great option is to use your sounder and find the submerged junctions of the river and smaller creeks, barra are often stationed in these areas and can be targeted down deeper with lipless crankbaits and other deeper working lures. Curtis recommends sitting there on spotlock and waiting until barra show on the sounder, then firing out some casts.
• While the wind can definitely concentrate fish on the exposed points and bays, but Curtis reckons they can still be found in the sheltered bays at this time of year because the water can be warmer.
• if you can find fish by sight or on your sounder but the fishing is tough, go lighter and fish slower.

Curt’s Barra Fishing Tackle

• During the autumn months the barra are often feeding on fairly small baits like juvenile boney bream and smaller lures tend to work better. Curtis uses lighter gear to ensure the small lures swim properly. An edge 704 Black Widow rod with a Daiwa Steez reel, 40lb Toray Braid and a 50lb leader does the trick.
• When fishing bigger baits such as swimbaits etc Curtis like the Edge 705 First Strike rod, Daiwa Zillion HD reel, 50lb braid and 60-80lb leader. This tackle can handle the bigger lures and the heavier leader is necessary as the fish tend to inhale the big lures deeper, increasing the chance of a “rub-off”.

Top Barramundi Fishing Lures

• The 130mm OSP Bent Minnow is Curtis’ favourite lure for fishing Peter Faust in Autumn. He adds various amounts of weight using biovex sticky weights placed on the underside of the lure between the front hook hanger and the towpoint. He adjusts the weight to create lures that suspend anywhere from just beneath the surface to 2-3m down. These lures are cast beyond trees and structure and re worked with rips and pauses between. It’s best to suspend the lure in the fork of trees as often there will be a barra waiting. Regardless of the weighting, the lures are fished the same way, just at different depths and letting the lure suspend for quite a few seconds.
• Biovex 110 mm swimbaits are a great option for Peter Faust barra and are very versatile. Like the OSP Bent Minnow, this lure can be weighted with adhesive weights and worked at 1-2m but are especially effective fished unweighted over the holes in the weedbeds. Keep the rod tip high and work them over the holes.
• 5” Zerek Live Mullet is another versatile lure that can be worked at different depths and with different retrieves and perfect for fishing heavily timbered areas. Curt likes to add a split ring and treble hook to the towpoint, putting one point into the top of the head and the other two pointing upwards. The lure can be made more weed less by removing the bottom treble, which reduces the hook set rate but allows the angler to fish tougher areas and get more bites
• The 5” Castaic Jerky J Shad in white colour. Curtis recommends slipping a swivel onto the bend of the hook and adding a small, strong treble to it with a split ring. This lure has enough action to handle the extra terminals and it substantially increases the hook set rate to do so. Great option for fishing round the submerged junctions of the river and creek beds.