Christmas Holiday Report

[bassboy888]

Just thought I’d write a report on my, well awesome holidays of fishing. They started when I went over to NZ, for my Duke of Edinbrough gold adventure. First chance I got to fish over there was on the morning of the 11/12/09 when me and ash went for an early morning quick fish down at the lake. As we were staying on the Frankton side of the lake there was no one to be seen fishing. We got to the lake and immediately saw fish rising, for my first trout experience this was awesome, seeing huge browns rising. So we rigged up and set off I was casting every hardbody I had, only to get follows, working out that a constant retrieve got their interest. That hour fish in the morning had me get so many follows, having my leader snap I was left to re-tie, so I decided to pack up. Ash had the fly and only had one follow only to be scarred by landing ducks. But to see that many free swimming trout, and following our lures and flies was awesome.

The next chance I got to fish was the night at Te-Anu (12-12-09), which was a very unproductive fish not even seeing a fish or a rise so we packed up and left pretty early, as we had to pack for the hike the next day and the weather was pretty average…that’s NZ for ya.

Probably the best fishing experience was practically the next day, fishing the Milford track on the Clinton River. That afternoon, Ash and I went for a fish down the Clinton River, again Ash with her trusty fly and me with my spinning gear. Casting and fishing for a long while before anything happened walking up and down the river casting this small section getting close to giving up I wade down in ice cold water with crocks and shorts on, and fire a cast where I told Ash there would be a likely fish holding bank, slightly slower and flooded in the shade, Ash was walking down re-tying her fly with one of the other girls on the trip who said “nice cast” a couple of cranks of the handle and I’m on, “BANG” the drag starts running fishing 3lb braid and 4 lb leader to the max, “Ash I’m ON!” she laughed at me until she saw it was true. The fish after a few out-of-the-water-head shakes, was subdued, but not wanting to risk any line breakages Ash wades into this ice cold water waist deep to scoop the fish up as it was in the rapids, it made one last run wrapping around the other side of Ash, getting her to move, she finally takes another dig at it and picks her up out of the water, she was HUGE well at least for my thoughts of trout sizes. Getting her up taking a few snaps and releasing her. Caught on a predatek, min-min, shallow diving, rainbow trout coloured lure.

We fished on the Milford track on the last day having almost luck again in the crystal clear water only to get hits but no hook ups. Ash was that close that her fly was stripped of its feathers.

16/12/09 was the next night I could fish, we stopped the night at a lake somewhere on the west coast, silly me, doesn’t have the name or can’t remember the name. Here was a great lake with a little stream running into it which in any country spelt fish, so casting around here I had a nice strike having the fish jump out of the water but missing the hooks, one of the other boys on the hike (Nat) came over later on watching me cast when bang I was on again, thinking this was too good to be true using a little Halco scorpion in brown trout fitted with just a single hook. Bringing a beautiful nice sized brown in I had Nat take a photo and gave her a quick release.

Lake Kanere was the next stop not knowing what was in the lake thinking it was trout, but to my surprise I pull in a nice little Redfin out of an overhang, I was quite interested in this as I didn’t know NZ had redfin. That night we caught quite a few Redfin again on the little Halco scorpion, but I unfortunately lost it mid cast, I should re-tie my leader more often.

[bassboy888]

The next chance I got to fish was after I got back to Australia after Christmas on the night of the 30th. Being in Mackay we were after some nice Barra from Teemburra. This night was interesting as it had been a year since I’d been there and dad having no other previous success on the dam. As night came on and the moon came out there were Barra Everywhere, big ones jumping 2 feet out of the water and boofing fish off the surface. The amount of miss hits I got as we were casting was ridiculous, dad had a barra hit his lure wrap him round a tree and snap the line, I had my new (Boxing Day) rod snapped at the tip. The most memorable his was a barra a couple of meters from the boat hitting my lure jumping immediately and throwing the lure while a meter in the air, laving me gobsmacked, that a fish if its size could get so airborne. As the night wore on the fish died off and the clouds came over, so trolling was on the agenda dad tied on a gold B-52 and I tried a Classic. As we were trolling it started to rain on us, I found out my rain coat isn’t waterproof, and I got absolutely soaked, absolutely drenched. But it didn’t matter as the drive to catch some barra kept me going especially after dad landed a nice 87cm beauty. Trolled for a bit more up and over a drop of and BANG IM ON…. But as soon as I was on I was off, dropped another barra. We kept going dad landing another 3 barra 84cm,85cm and 86cm fish. In the pouring rain as I got nothing we decided to call it a night and get a little shut eye before a morning fish sleeping in the back of the car. As we woke up the rain was still coming down so we called it quits but decided to go to Kinchant. Going to the other side of the lake. Casting surface frogs and getting hits, but from small fish. Then BANG I’ve hooked up finally on this feisty little barra ran me straight into the weed, this had dad digging it out with the net finally landing it for a total of 48cm, happiest I think I’ve ever been to catch such a small fish.

We decided to head out to Kinchant again and try some barra while casting but had no luck and snapping the second rod casting a plastic frog (b.o.s.s rod from BCF real strong on the fish but a crappy tip). Deciding we know Teembarra better and we should stick to there.

The Next trip up to Teemburra was on the 6-1-10. This time we left for a day session, trying to get one on the cast. As we launched we headed straight to a great morning point which we had success on previous days with the 3rd cast dad picking up a nice little 65 cm barra again on his gold B52. The rest of the day how ever was extremely slow until a decision to go up one of the timber arms was very giving, having dad pick up a nice 76cm barra, and an astounding amount of hits. We went up the arm which the wind was blowing up, dead fish and much every where and barra boofing all arvo. I did manage to get a huge birdsnest which took a ridiculous amount of time to undo (too used to casting those little trout lures) again fishing into the night, and again I was getting hits but no fish. It got dark and as was the previous night trolling was called for. So out dads B52 went and with in one pass of a drop off he was on. Fighting this nice barra having it jump all over the place, eventually getting it in the net (this was our net for small fish down south, so as I’ve been told by dad I’m a perfect deckie), the barra went 93cm dads new personal best. Fishing into the morning I was hungry for a barra, having only slept 1 and a half hours that night I pushed on, by about 8:30 dad went to sleep and I kept casting, and casting and casting and casting. Desperation and will power was pushing me to get a fish, and after fishing for 27 hours I was about to give up when BANG I was on, how ever this fish wasn’t taking the surface and wasn’t too big, and then it showed its self a nice size sooty grunter, my first and bigger than dads PB, not the barra I was after but at 42cm it was an awesome fish, caught on the spinning gear, rolling plastics.

Being the last trip to Teemburra before we headed south I was determined to get something out of that dam.

We left Mackay on the 9-1-10 and got to Monduran, Known Barra hotspot on the 11-1-10. After setting up camp we went out for a really brief afternoon session getting nothing but realising the real size of this dam. Our first real outing was on the 12th where the morning provided a few little hits but that’s it. Coming into camp the people next to us told us of a spot where a bloke had picked up 2 barra over a meter and one in the 90’s, this got my attention and gave me hope of my first sizeable barra. The afternoon session was hard and sending me into a loss of mojo and spiralling depression of not catching a nice sized barra. Asking what I had done wrong over and over, thinking Murphy’s Law was well in swing. Having a boil next to the boat had me asking what more could I do wrong. Hearing shouts we look over to see and amazing fight going on between the guys we camped next to and a nice barra, unfortunately the glare from the sun restricted my vision and I missed a fair bit of the fight. But as it was landed it went to a whopping 112cm. a huge fish. We left that afternoon; still high in fishing depression I continued to wonder what I was doing wrong what was I to do to hook a fish.

Day 3 of our trip and our camping neighbours were in the same spot again. And by about 9 in the morning one of the kids were on, only to be out muscled by quite a large barra loosing it in the timber, this was really unfortunate cause the two kids hadn’t caught anything and had been casting for hours, for young blokes they did well. The up side was that this was their last fishing session there so we had this awesome spot to our selves to fish. As the afternoon came the casting practice continued getting into every tree every corner, until…. BANG dad was on BIG fish, (this was caught on a plastic he had hooked in a snag the previous morning, a slick rig evil minnow), he muscled this fish away from the snags and infinite amount of times bringing it bout side was when we knew how big it was when it didn’t fit in the net, unlike the previous 90cm ones, so I got the lip grips, got her in the mouth arm under her belly then asked dad kindly if he could lift me into the boat now. Lifting her into the boat and on the brag mat measuring out to a huge 109cm. shaking hands and taking photos, we were both ecstatic, (admittedly I was a little pissed and jealous). 30 mins later I was on, small fish but I was on I was soo pumped until I saw the dreaded catty, this saddened me quite a bit, but only fed my barra addiction and I was determined to get one, I had to get one.

The next morning was my last chance a 5 hour session and it was up to me to catch a barra. 7 hit we had been fishing for an hour, dad cast his plastic into a snag and we saw a massive barra hit and roll snapping dad’s leader immediately. Thinking of course it would be you to get the fish, 40 mins past and BANG this was it the moment I had been waiting for 2 weeks for a big barra. She jumped giving me nerves. Swimming straight out of the snags, to the boat than under it, stumbling around the boat I followed it under the electric and anchor rope passing the rod to dad, and picking it back up, down around to the stern of the boat handing dad the rod again avoiding the standing rods. Finally getting the big girl boat side I was unbelievably happy, overwhelmed by her size not a metery but by far my biggest. Dad nets and my body relaxes PHEW. On the brag mad and measuring a good 94cm. a couple of photos and she gets released. Dad was next to get on… again he hooks and lands a nice 92cm barra. 50 mins before we leave dad hooks on again this time being pulled around a tree, free spooling I lift the anchor and chase the big fish with the Minn Kota unfortunately ha gets pulled under a laydown and PING looses the fish. Happy with our efforts we pack up and leave driving to Brisbane and then to Lake St Clair. Unfortunately we had to put our dog down on the same day as we caught all the big fish which saddened the day a little.

13-1-10 we get to Lake St Clair, at 11 in the night we set up tent and wait for the morning to fish. That morning unfortunately fishless, we wait until the wind dies down and head out again. Finding a nice spot where the bass were going off using lipless crankbaits (dad a jackal, and be a gold Jazz) we land 7 Bass biggest was 36cm, not big but good fun on bream gear. The next morning we get one on the troll but that’s it, finding out the afternoon sessions are more productive, with another afternoon yielding results this time I use a river to sea glassie. Dad not using his jackal I keep bugging him to use it first cast and BANG he’s, on small fish but shows the powers of the mighty jackal. A few more fish for the night, than our biggest fish for the trip 38cm again on the mighty jackal. Last session for the trip was a morning session, where we explored a bit trying to find fish, we pulled up in front of a bass boat and first cast I was on. 29cm, but in front of a flash bass boat it was a good feeling.

Edited January 21, 2010 by bassboy888

[Berleyguts]

Great reports and some good fishing had there. Well done!

I didn't know NZ had ridfen either!

Baz

[arpie]

WOW BB!! What a terrific report! Congratulations on your NZ trout - that first one is a cracker!! Thta was terrific of Ash to get so wet to bring it in!! Yeah - I didn't know about the redfin either!

Once back on Aussie soil, your Barra Bashing is amazing!! I would have been swapping rods with your old man!! His seemed to have all the mojo!!! WHat an awesome number of barra were caught - so pleased you finally got your whoppa on the last outing!!! Great looking fish, too!

And I thought I was a fishing nut - I don't think I could have kept up with you guys!!

Well done

Roberta

[Young Gun]

Wow that is an outstanding report. Well done.

YG

[jenno64]

What a holiday and some fantastic fishing there with brilliant pics!

[jewgaffer]

Pretty slow start there bassboy looked like moving along from digging up oversize garden worms to actually catching middlin trout with not a bad build up catching oversize barramundi on hi tech garden worms along the way

Cheers

jewgaffer

[pmak]

Great report there bassboy. Pretty awesome fishing that some of us can only dream of.

You can start calling yourself barraboy from now on ...

[Hodgey]

What a memorable trip! Congrats on some fantastic fish, mate. Great read and terrific photos. A trip you'll remember for many years to come I reckon

Cheers

Hodgey

[Jewhunter]

BB888,

That is a terrific report! Very well told with some beaut pics in there as well.

You guys are some truly hardcore fishos & were well rewarded for you efforts.

Well done on finally cracking that Barra. You certainly deserved it.

Cheers,

Grant.

[tide'n'knots]

what a sensational holiday! and some awesome fishing.

sorry to hear about you dog mate its always very sad when a pet has to be put down.

pete.

[imaddictedtofishing]

Some very nice fish there. I caught a 3kg rainbow trout on a $5 rod from a petrol station when i was in NZ

[Blood Knot]

Great stuff bassboy an Epic report and very well told.

John