Steve Morgan's Day One highlights reel from Lake Monduran is the kind of slow-burn tournament vlog that only makes sense once you know the clock was running. Morgan, fishing the Humminbird round of the 2026 Wilson BARRA Series with partner Cole, filled his five-fish limit at 11:38 pm — just 22 minutes before the session cutoff — and moved up to eighth place for the 2-day event.
"We finally got a limit on the first day of the Monduran 2-day event at 11:38 pm when the finish was at 12:00," Morgan said. Processing results inside the cutoff meant the team really wanted to be off the water "by quarter to 12" — meaning that final upgrade was effectively a one-cast window.
The afternoon had started slow. Morgan and Cole locked into a frog pattern in the shallows, throwing a 6-inch Rapa Crush City Heavy Hitter weedless. "No joy, and the one boil up the back of Insane Bay," Morgan recounted dryly. With Monduran's shallow bite refusing to deliver, the pair left the frog water and made the long push down the lake.
"We moved down the lake to the timber and to the channel near where we fished in the overnighter," he said. "Ended up getting eight bites, landing five fish, sitting in around eighth place."
The fish mix was varied. "Some on a jerkbait, some on the Prolure hybrid shrimp 93 mil, and one fish on a Freeloader strolling." Translation: a Redic DS80 jerkbait did the work when the fish were suspended in the trees, a hybrid shrimp plastic handled the deeper fish in the channel and a Freeloader glide strolled under the electric motor picked up the kicker.
That kicker was Cole's — a 104 cm fish Morgan initially thought was a "dollar" (Monduran-speak for a metre-plus fish). "What a surprise that he ate it," Morgan said as the fish loaded up. "Oh, he's a good one. He's going to lose his mind soon. Boom — that's a dollar. 105. I reckon it is. Cole is 104. She's the boss."
The final fish of the session — the scoring barra that sealed the limit — came strolling the Freeloader. "68. Got it. Let's get out of here," Morgan said.
Eighth place on Day One of Monduran, with a full limit and a 104 cm kicker, is a strong platform. The practical takeaway for dam anglers is in the lure rotation. Frogging didn't fire the way many competitors expected. The bite came from a jerkbait/shrimp/glide stack on the timber edge — a three-presentation system that covers every feeding depth from 1 to 4 metres. As the Wilson BARRA Series moves into its next rounds, expect that depth-ladder approach to become increasingly standard on the pressured impoundments.
