Awonga Dam, Central Queensland

Awoonga dam can be the ultimate tease for an angler, you know before you go that lying on just about every weed bed, snag or rock are the biggest, fattest barramundi you could ever want to catch. Unfortunately you also know that the fish have seen every lure invented come past their nose a million times. They've seen these lures twitch, jerk, walk, speed up, flutter down, you name it, they've witnessed it.

So for me it's one the best tests of your fishing abilities. If you can consistently catch fish here, you can hold your head high in fishing circles. I love the challenge. My good friend Peter Van Heck and i booked a day off for the 26th of November. We decided this would be the day to renew acquaintances with the mighty Awoonga dam.

The sense of excitement you get when your car gets to the top of the boat ramp and you see the magnificent open water, is a feeling that only a fisherman can explain. Memories of previous expeditions come flooding back, the good(a 102cm barra caught near a weedbed), the bad(a day when I missed two nice fish back to back on the same snag) and the ugly(a horror trip in almost cyclonic conditions, where we didn't see a fish the entire day).

On this day, we had nice weather and we arrived at the dam at about 5:30am. As we placed Pete's boat into the water, I expressed my reservations at the size of the landing net we had. It was far better suited to netting a nice bass than a big barra. But we decided that we'd cross that bridge when we came to it. One of the challenges with fishing Awoonga is forming an effective gameplan, the size of the dam can quite often trick anglers into spending too much time on the move travelling to different spots, spending more time on the move then actually fishing. I didn't want to fall into that trap.

We decided that we would try out a few of Pete's well known barra spots as I had never seen them before. But first i successfully lobbied to have a few casts at the timber near the massive eagle's nest not far from the boat ramp. I had three rods rigged up and ready to go, one with a hard bodied classic f18, one with a squidgie soft plastic and finally a top water lure that was given to me by Pete. Pete did not have any lines rigged up and this would prove to be a crucial factor in my soon to be success.

As we approached the timber, the electric motor was lowered into the water and I decided I would go with the f18. As Pete began to thread the braid through the eyes of his rod(I'm always impressed by Pete's gear, it's always top notch), my first cast proved uneventful. The second was a joy to behold. As I retrieved the lure, I felt it brush through some weed and I gave the rod two quick flicks, attempting to rid the f18 of the salad. I was successful and I had probably only managed a couple more cranks of the reel when I felt the unmistakeable pull of a fish. It was so early in the day that my mind had trouble registering the hit but I was soon snapped out of it when line started to disappear from the reel.

"I'm on Pete!!"

"You're kidding?!" he replied.

This fish was an absolute treat to battle with. Despite being 111cm and probably 15-20kg, she managed 4 extremely acrobatic leaps, getting clear out of the water with ease. Pete did a fantastic job getting it's massive head into the "bass" landing net and together we dragged it into the boat. A new personal best for me. Of course she was released to hopefully add 10-20cm to her length and who knows how many kilos in the coming years.

It was downhill from there for the day unfortunately, Pete briefly hooked what looked like a 70cm fish and we got a couple more hits, but to me it didn't matter. That fish had made our day, another great team effort. Next time will be Pete's turn, I can't wait..

Thanks Chris and Pete, great story look forward to another ABU adventure in 2010.