It’s in our best interest and the FTA teams best interest to educate our retailers on the products we develop, build or import and right now there are few things more exciting than barra fishing in the Queensland impoundments.
And so it was that a massive road trip to Peter Faust Dam, in the hills behind Proserpine and Airlie Beach was organised and the teams hit the road.
The aim of this trip was to give first hand learning to the FTA staff on products like our Aussie-built Venom range of rods, the Blade N Tails rods and the Bone series of rods. These were matched to the ATC reels we import and of course the massive range of lures from Zerek, Bone, Duo, Live Target, Mustad and McArthy Baits were all tested and trialled.
On the trip were our big dogs Willy and Kord, as well as Troy Dickson and Scott Fleming. The FTA team consisted of two seperate parties who were going to swap out half way through. The lucky staff included Josh Kerridge, Sam Howard, Luke Cook, Brendan Bernard, Cameron Hill and Clayton McGuire. And we can definitely say these boys were primed and ready to go!
First Half
To say the first half of the trip was a bit challenging wouldn’t give enough credit to the awesome weather. Rain, wind, torrential rain, sunshine, calm, wind and some more rain – and that was just the first two days!
With the fickle weather the fish were proving a little challenging as well, but with some persistance and effort the team started putting barra onto the board.
In fact, the barra fishing was so challenging at times that when presented with an opportunity to head offshore and get into some nannygai on the wonky holes, the entire crew jumped at the chance – except Dicko, who promptly went out onto Faust again to nut out a bit more of the barra code.
The offshore trip was a great success with nannygai coming over the side and the FTA crew getting a better look at some of the reef fishing gear we have including the brilliant ATC Vigilance reels, Venom offshore rods and the newly released Venom Slow Fall series.
Big smiles, plenty of fillets and some tired anglers made it back to the lodgings at Airlie Beach where Kord cooked up another incredible feast and everyone headed off to bed early in poreparation for the next day’s barra fishing.
As the time went on the barra bite got better and the team started working it out. The stand out lure was the Zerek Live Mullet, but fish were taken on all sorts of lures including the Zerek Live Shrimp, Zerek Fish Trap and Duo Realis Minnow 100DR.
Everyone in the first crew ticked the barra box, had some epic misses and took home some fantastic memories and technical reinforcement on the range of Wilson gear.
Second Half
A new crew arrived and a new focus came to the group with the weather being a little more stable and tropical.Â
This time the barra started to really get involved and Venom rods were being bent on all the boats. The Live Mullet was proving to be a big hit with the barra and the FTA boys and everyone learnt a lot more aboutfishing on live sounder technology and how importnat getting it right was to be successful. It certainly wasn’t see fish catch fish. The angler had to be on the job and had to get it right to get the barra to bite, but with some tuition and practice, leaping silver slabs were hitting the air!
During breaks in fishing, the FTA teams grilled Troy, Scott and Kord on the ins and outs of the tackle they were using. How it was designed, what was its original purpose, how had it changed – heaps of questions that gave everyone an incredible insight the tackle being used. All the FTA crew loved having Kord on hand to take them through the Aussie-built Venom range as Kord was 100% hands on in the design of the Venom blank and knows more about Venom rods than anyone else on the planet!
They also enjoyed having Troy’s fishing experience and, according to the boys, Dicko’s ability to make them get up at all sorts of stupid hours to go fishing. Word on the street is he was relentless and they loved him all the more for it when that first barra bite sent shockwaves up the line!
Overall
A huge success that achieved more than its goals, this trip will live in the memory banks for many of the participants for years to come.
All agreed it was not only the fishing they’ll remember, but all of the nonsense and fun that’s had around the trip – you all know what it’s like when keen anglers get together – the amount of banter is staggering and relentless!
All in all, everyone got what they needed from the tour and it was great to see everyone get stuck into some fish.
A special mention must go out to a couple of people who helped make this such a huge success. Luke Fallon from Luke Fallan Sport and Gamefishing gave the crews plenty of help on Faust. Luke is the local guide on the lake and knows its barra intimately – well worth anyone visiting checking out for a day or three.
Local Proserpine resident Shane Spann provided the boat and local knowledge for the big day out chasing nannies. He is well regarded as the nanny specialist and for very good reason – an absolute gun at finding then catching them.
