Lake Monduran Barra Classic 2024

Monduran Anglers Stocking Association – also known as MASA – held the 2024 Hummingbird Barra Classic at Lake Monduran on March 22-24.

This year, the weather gods did not listen to our wishes of ideal fishing conditions for the classic.

Twelve months previous, you set a date and hope the weather will be as good as the moon phase you choose – pity that doesn’t always happen.

This year it rained… a lot, and the wind blew, and the temperature was all over the place.

The anglers who were able to get to the dam a few days earlier for a pre-fish, spent time moving around the points and bays just looking.

Not casting but checking out where the fish were holding, to save time finding them on the actual day or night.

Friday afternoon was the time to get official, pick up the nomination team bag of goodies, have a briefing on the rules for the classic and get to the water.

With the weather coming in, anglers launched and gathered around the starter boat, which sent them on their way for an all-nighter session as the rain came in and the wind gusted.

 

The rain was cold, and fishos tried to huddle under rain jackets or anything they could find while waiting for their turn to get underway.

Not ideal fishing conditions at any time, though just another challenge these top anglers had to deal with.

No one looked very comfortable, but off they went, one at a time, for a long wet cold night of barramundi fishing.

Session one finished the next morning with some cold tired anglers, yet they did have some good fish recorded.

And of course, some sad stories too, with not all managing to land fish, but they still lined up a little more enthusiastically for session two because at least the rain had let up.

Session two was only an eight-hour night in more comfortable fishing conditions, unfortunately the cooler water temperature made the fish a little quieter.

So, a big Sunday morning brekky was ready for the anglers who emerged after 24 hours of fairly hard fishing.

 

All seemed to have a great time and some better than others, but that’s fishing.

I can’t tell you the secret spots because I don’t know myself, though here are some of the lures that worked well – Zerek Live Mullet swimbait, Molix Shad 140 barra swimbait, Pristine PT150, Halco Laser Pro 120 and 140 and Zerek Fish Trap 110mm.

Monduran is a huge dam and it’s impossible to fish everywhere, so having a few likely spots and working them, changing lures, depths and retrieves will be your best bet for targeting barra, and hopefully landing some magic 1m models.

This year it was tough going for the teams who fished a total of 24 hours in very ordinary conditions, yet they still managed a total of 137 barra, of which 26 were 1m fish.

Well done to you all.

Here are the results:

• First place winners were team Tracker – Kris Lassig and Anthony Pelling – with a total length of 534cm, their five scoring fish measured 110, 109, 106, 105 and 104cm
• Second place went to team Hot Bite – Jason Ehrlich and his son Blake – with 476cm total length, their scoring fish measured 113, 103, 100, 81 and 80cm
• Third place went to team Schwerin Concreting – Jake and his father John Schwerin – with a total length of 460cm, their scoring fish measured 111, 110, 80, 80 and 79cm
• Fourth place went to team Daiwa Bait Junkie – Callum Munro and his father James – with a total length of 452cm, their scoring fish measured 106, 104, 81, 80 and 79cm
• Fifth place went to team Mondymen – Sam Rowley and Justin Allen – with a total length of 450cm, their scoring fish were 103, 100, 91, 79 and 77cm
• Sixth place was team Atomic – Terry and Paul Allwood
• Seventh was team Halco – Jason Medcalf and Paul Kuplen
• Eighth was team Zerek – Liam Robinson and Marc Edmonds
• Ninth was team Old Dogs – David Wollard and Shane Anderson
• Tenth was King of Roys – Brett Turner and Dylan Brandley.

The longest barra for the classic was caught by Dylan Mott from team Garmin, with a chunky 115cm horse caught in the first session in the wet windy cooler conditions.

An awesome effort by everyone.

Luke from Queensland Computers won the competitors’ raffle of a lithium battery, kindly donated from Boating Lifestyle Adventure and Humminbird.

 

A big thank you goes out to our sponsors for this event – Humminbird, Boating Lifestyle Adventure, Impact Post Tensioning, Pristine Lures, Lake Monduran Barra Charters, Wilson Fishing, Halco Tackle, Queensland Computers and Barrier Reef Corals.

All in all, it was a great weekend with a great bunch of anglers and club members, and again a huge thank you to Humminbird.

Lake Monduran will continue to be stocked with barra fingerlings, with events such as this and the Family Fishing Competition – which will be October 19-20 this year – helping to raise money to purchase more.

More information on Lake Monduran, the fishing guides, accommodation and Monduran Anglers Stocking Group can be found via Facebook, search Monduran Anglers and Stocking Association.