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big-fish-dont-move

Big fish don’t move!

Over my years on the water catching barra with my fishing charters, I have noticed a distinct pattern with re-captured fish.

In the earlier days when I didn’t have grey hair, we caught many smaller barra as part of tagging programs.

With these smaller barra, I noticed that many of them were tagged between 100 and 200 kilometres away from where I caught them. Thus meaning that small fish do travel along the coastline from system to system. It seems obvious that small barra are transient. The same cannot be said of the larger fish.

It is my belief that when the tidal run is large, the big girls will move around on the flats, but always seem to return to their favourite haunt when the tidal movement eases. On six occasions now I have been lucky enough to re-capture big girls, noticeable by distinct markings or scars. For example the fish in these photos has a definite growth or tumor on the lower lip.

Interestingly, this particular fish was re-captured in EXACTLY the same spot it was previously caught. Note the tumor on the lip in both this and the top photo.

The same can be said for the other five occasions – four in the Bohle River and one in the Haughton River.

Now when I say the same spot I don’t mean the same river, I mean the exact same spot, the same rock bar etc. The barra pictured above was originally caught on the 8th of October 2013 and was recaptured just recently.

Now, I am wondering how many other big barra have I caught over and over again that I have not recognised through distinct markings.

This could be why aggregations of big barra at certain hot spots are getting thinner and thinner.

Perhaps because they are resident fish and those taken out of the fishery are not being replaced! So please, just in case my theory has merit, let the big girls go!

They are not crash hot to eat, they are vitally important brood stock and better still, I am proof that you can catch them again. I can also assure you they fight just as hard the second time around! I am hoping that the Queensland Fisheries will reduce the maximum size limit to one metre in the upcoming fisheries overhaul.

As always, love to hear your views in the comments below and any experiences you may have had recapturing the same fish.

Keen on learning how I have caught over 2000 massive metre plus saltwater barramundi?

If Barramundi are your passion, or maybe you’d just like to catch one regularly for dinner, I explain how to work out their patterns and KNOW where they will be in my Barra Strategies Workshop.

It consists of three videos sent to you over three days (so you can digest the info) and I’m sure you’re going to love it.

Click the button below to sign up – it’s free and only takes about 20 minutes to watch each video.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Picture of Ryan Moody
Ryan Moody
Ryan Moody started his fishing career on the reef boats before catching bucket list marlin for the likes of champion heavy tackle angler Johnno Johnson, INXS and the King of Sweden. Branching out in the late 80's to guided barramundi fishing, Ryan has made a name for himself as a Big Barramundi specialist and to date has put clients onto over 2000 metre plus barra. That is over 2 kilometres of metre plus barra! With attitudes changing from 'keep all you can' towards catch and release, Ryan has decided to share his extensive knowledge and hopefully inspire people of all ages to get out from behind the computer screen/TV and into the fishing outdoors lifestyle he has spent his life perfecting.
Picture of Ryan Moody
Ryan Moody
Ryan Moody started his fishing career on the reef boats before catching bucket list marlin for the likes of champion heavy tackle angler Johnno Johnson, INXS and the King of Sweden. Branching out in the late 80's to guided barramundi fishing, Ryan has made a name for himself as a Big Barramundi specialist and to date has put clients onto over 2000 metre plus barra. That is over 2 kilometres of metre plus barra! With attitudes changing from 'keep all you can' towards catch and release, Ryan has decided to share his extensive knowledge and hopefully inspire people of all ages to get out from behind the computer screen/TV and into the fishing outdoors lifestyle he has spent his life perfecting.

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