The ongoing technology split in impoundment barramundi fishing got another field test over the Wilson MASA Barra Classic weekend at the end of March. A YouTube team walked in having decided, before a line was wet, that they would not be turning on forward-facing sonar against a field full of it.
"We're going to try and beat the guys with the livescope. We're going to fish with no livescope and we're just going to hammer it hard," the angler said in the pre-comp piece-to-camera.
The Wilson MASA runs a 16-hour night session format — 3 or 4 p.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Sunday — that tests stamina as much as skill. The team drew boat 37 for session one and 13 for session two, a draw they were happy with.
"It's sort of good — we didn't want to be first and we didn't want to be bang in the middle, so it doesn't swap for the second session," the angler said during setup.
The comp bag handout gave a tidy snapshot of where the impoundment barra market sits in 2026 — a new seven-inch Wilson Weedless, a 60-inch UV-activated variant, Raid Japan Super Fish Rollers, Duo jerkbaits, and the usual comp mat locked to 132 centimetres. The team had no complaints about the gear. It was what they could or could not see that became the issue.
The morning report was honest.
"Not exactly how we wanted to go. We got a heap of follows from fish, but dropped heaps as well if we did end up hooking them," the angler said.
"It was a bit weird because the one thing we did notice that we have noticed in all the other sessions is there was minimal barra boofing throughout the night. Normally you're hearing them every five minutes if that," the angler said.
That detail matters for a no-livescope team. The topwater boof is one of the few free cues left for anglers working without sonar — it tells you exactly where a feeding fish is in the dark, and it does so for anybody with ears and a torch. A quiet night removes that advantage, and the team's admission that the livescope boats did well reflects exactly that.
"A lot of the guys with the livescope did really well. Obviously Flynn and I, we aren't running the livescope yet," the angler said.
The larger question hanging over impoundment events in 2026 is whether to keep the format open or start drawing a line around technology. Wilson MASA ran as it always has. The team's decision to document the deficit is, in itself, a useful data point in a debate that is moving rapidly across tournament fishing on both sides of the Pacific.
