[Cooks river session 11/7/11]

Good onya Snag, nothing better than seeing a smile on your kids dial after they catch a fish.....looks like Eva is hooked

[Cold and windy day on the Parra.]

Wow you blokes are just smashing the jewies, even on the tough days you are still getting nice fish. I am looking forward to chasing the jewies with the aid of my new down and side scanner. cheers PK

[Bassin hard for nil result]

Great report Basscatcher - sorry about the results during the comp. I can't imagine the hard yards and endless casting put in for a full day's fishing! Must have been exciting during the beginning of the comp but disheartening towards the end with no fish to weigh in. I'm sure you've learnt heaps in the process and will make amends at the next comp.

Hi PMAK - it was certainly tough fishing and we must have made over a thousand casts during the competition. The most frustrating aspect was being able to see fish on the sounder that refused to take any of our offerings, but we definitely learnt some important lessons for our next competition. cheers Paul

[Bassin hard for nil result]

Bad luck guys but some really nice and healthy fish there ! its exciting seeing all the boats line up ready to go first thing in the morning isnt it

I could only imagine how many cast you guys put out over the week! i tried working it out last year on a 2 day comp with a full 3 days of fishing and it was close 800 or so

Where the plastic colours you guys were using naturals?

cheers

pete

Thanks Pete - we used a mixture of natural colours, dark colour and bright colours throughout the trip. All of my success was with the natural colours, whereas Bassboy had some success with brighter colours....I reckon the retrieve was more important than the colour of the plastic. Cheers Paul

well this will be round 4 of the comp and will be held at burrinjuck dam on the last weekend in october. look up australian yellowbelly championships on google

Thanks Cheder, I will google it and have a look.

[Bassin hard for nil result]

great post, practice makes perfect in the tourny game, u should have a bit of ammo now for the next one, u guys should do the australian yellowbelly championships in october, me and iMick are doing it again this year

Where do they do the yellowbelly championships? I have a Barra trip to Monduran organised for late September / early October and could swing by for the comp if it is early October.

[Bassin hard for nil result]

Hi Raiders,

It has been a while since I have placed a post as I have very busy at work and have not done much fishing. As a consequence I decided to take some leave and compete in my first Bass competition. Bassboy and I entered the NSW BASSIN competition at Lake St Clair in the Hunter Valley over the weekend 2 – 3 July. As we haven’t fished the Lake since January 2010 we travelled up early for a couple days of pre-fishing. This decision was quite fortuitous as the lake levels had recently risen over 1.5 metres as a result of recent flooding in the Hunter Valley. We were also hampered by the fact that our HDS & DSI sounder was being repaired under warranty and Lowrance had temporarily loaned us an older analog sounder .

We departed Sydney on Wednesday 29 June for a 6 day trip to Lake St Clair. Upon arrival it was quite apparent that the water levels had risen quite substantially and there was a lot of flooded grass on the verges. This also allowed us to launch the boat immediately off the bank in front of our campsite.

The intent for the pre-fish was to replicate the sessions for the competition, ie 7am – 11am and 1pm – 5pm. Our first session was am Thursday and we concentrated our efforts along the flooded verges, weed beds and cliff lines. The top of the weed beds were under 9ft of water and in many areas the actual weed beds were growing 5 – 10ft tall……it all looked very promising. We worked hard all morning, using SPs, HBs, spinnerbaits, ice jigs and blades and every technique for donut. Upon return to camp for lunch we had to reconsider our strategy. After a quick chat to the caretaker we decided to spend the afternoon session concentrating on the drops offs on the leeward side of windblown points in 30 – 40ft of water and using a mixture of small blades and SPs. This change of strategy paid dividends with Bassboy immediately getting hits on his 3inch grub. I continued to use blades and 100mm bloodworm wrigglers for naught, whilst Bassboy finally hooked two nice bass. Both of these fish were well feed and fought hard. The 37cm Bass would have come close to being the ‘Big Bass’ for the BASSIN Competition .

Not wanting to spook the fish any further we marked this location and moved onto alternate locations. We used the same technique in numerous locations for no further success. By 5pm we were confident that we had found a couple of excellent locations for the competition and returned to camp. Back at camp we noticed more campsites springing up with fellow competitors arriving for their pre-fish.

Friday morning dawned with perfect conditions and we headed out for another fruitless morning session. After finally working out how to read our loaned sounder we could see schooled and individual fish on the sounder but they weren’t interested in any of our offerings. Upon return to camp at lunch we spoke to a couple of fellow competitors who confirmed that the fish were hard to come by. We fished the afternoon session focusing on the drop offs again, for no success….this did not bode well for the competition .

After a cold night we commenced the competition full of envy as we were surrounded by big Bass boats, who were able to quickly motor off to their preferred fishing locations. There were 53 boats competing in the competition and I reckon at least 30 of those boats were big fiberglass Bass boats.

Our morning plan was to start the session fishing the flooded verges and weed beds. We worked hard throughout the morning for just a single strike that did not result in a hook-up. It was a depressing morning, which was tempered by the fact that we had not seen any other competitors catch a fish. At the first weigh-in only 35 fish were weighed in. During the afternoon session we focused on fishing the drop offs, including the location where Bassboy had success during the pre-fish. Once again we worked hard for donut . At the second weigh-in only 18 fish were weighed in……..it was indeed a tough competition.

Sunday morning dawned with no wind and extremely thick fog.

We decided to head straight out to a large bank of weed beds that we had found the previous day. We worked hard slow rolling SPs and HBs across the weed beds again for a donut. As we headed into the final weigh-in we could hear many other competitors complaining that they had finished the competition with a donut ….we were not alone. During this last session only 17 fish were caught. The winning team had clearly won with full bags during two of the sessions and had fished a single bank for all of their sessions. Surprisingly their approach was similar to ours , except they twitched their SPs as they rolled them over the sunken weed beds.

As the rest of the competitors headed home on Sunday afternoon we remained at Lake St Clair for an additional day and decided to try the winning technique. That afternoon we went searching for a suitable stretch of weed bed and used the winning technique for instant success. In a 2 ½ hour session Bassboy caught a nice 35cm bass and lost another two whilst I caught three well feed bass and lost another two…….a complete contrast to our experience during the competition.

Unfortunately Monday dawned with the frontal system arriving early and after a quick attempt to fish in the strong winds we packed up and headed home. Overall the five days of fishing were challenging, however we learnt some excellent lessons from the experience…we are certainly looking forward to the next BASSIN competition.

[Tuff fishing in beautiful conditions]

As I sit in my office in freezing Canberra I can see your point Greg....10 fish to 110cm in three days in balmy Gladstone must be tough fishing . I can't wait to head up that way in October.

[Friday night EPs]

Now that is a nice surface caught EP ....I am surprised that they are still taking fish off the surface at this time of year.

[Monduran week]

Pete - bad luck about the Barra mate, but nice Bass . I am planning to visit Monduran in early October and I hope they are on the chew. Seeing the size of that Bass I will ensure that the Bass gear is also packed......it is a long way to drive for a donut.

[6th report on the front page of lure n fly! =)]

Well that's just greedy - six jewies and a shoelace . That monster looks to be at least 70cm long

[Lake Conjola]

Cracking croc there mate and good onya for releasing her

[Tuggerah Lake weekend]

Hi Pete - well done catching that flattie on the silly string....you were really testing your luck with that one

cheers Paul

[Woolooware Bay & Georges R success on Good Friday]

What a cracker of a day! I fished WB on Wednesday for a few flatties and hooked 2 very active salmon around the racks too!

Rob - those Salmon are great fun on light gear in shallow water....I will have to check out WB for more Salmon next weekend.

[Woolooware Bay & Georges R success on Good Friday]

Hi Raiders,

Headed out on Friday for a full day out on the water with Bassboy and one of his mates Brent. We started at dawn fishing the incoming tide on the lower Georges concentrating on the flooding flats and shallow rocky ledges searching for bream and flatties. The tide was perfect for the rocky ledges but we could only hook very small but feisty bream and were surprised by a small squire.

The action was slow so we headed out to fish the flooding tide into the Oyster leases in Woolooware Bay. This move brought immediate success with the first cast into the edge of a oyster rack with a Atomic hardbody being rewarded with this nice 42cm Flattie .

We continue to work the racks with our hardbodies and bloodworm wrigglers searching for some bream. The bream were not at home but the hardbodies continued to be aggressively hit by some nice flatties…… We were surprised by the number of flatties hiding deep in the racks, making it exciting fishing on light gear. The average size of these fish was 42cm

At one stage we had a double hook up with Bassboy hooking up to a nice 43 Flattie in a boat channel between the racks, while I got hit by an aggressive 26cm bream deep in amongst the racks.

As we moved deeper into Woolooware Bay we noticed bust ups occurring in a shallow channel next to the racks and Bassboy decided to chuck a Bloodworm Wriggler into the edge of the bust up with his lightest gear. The wriggler got hit as soon as it hit the water and the 3lb braid screamed off his reel as the fish ran towards the racks. As Bassboy put a bit of pressure on the fish it went aerial....a monster salmon ....fortunately it then ran back to the deeper water. The fish went aerial another half dozen times and must have circled the boat three times before we finally netted it.....the first salmon into the boat.

After the excitement of the Salmon the top end of Woolooware Bay went quiet and we decided the chase the tide up into the mid Georges River to chase some EPs.

We hit Lugarno on the turn of the tide. As we sounded out schools of fish the wind and showers arrived. Despite the inclement weather we used the stop lock feature of the Minn Kota to work the schools of fish in the deep holes with our go to SPs (bloodworm wrigglers). This tactic brought immediate success for Brent with him catching his first ever EP a nice fat 31cm specimen.

Our success against the EPs continued with another 3 EPs falling victim to the Bloodworm Wrigglers. We also caught a nice 43cm Flattie deep in the hole.

Considering the boat traffic and inclement weather it was a fantastic day on the water with a final tally of 9 flatties over 35cm, 2 legal bream and 4 EPs. All the fish were released to fight another day.

[Windy..Wild and Wet Thompson Creek Dam]

Great commitment fellas and well rewarded .

[Running Barra report]

Just awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwsome

[Running Barra report]

Greg - I am very jealous of you and can't wait for the photos......I wish I could find the time off work to tow the boat up there.I was due to fish Monduran in January, however the weather forced me to cancel the trip and fish Glenbawn instead. I am now thinking I should have cancelled my leave and scheduled the trip for April - damn it.

[Running Barra report]

Welcome to the Metre club

Keep those reports coming.

[A day on Burrinjuck]

Great report Hodgey, pity about the weather, although I reckon you will need your winter woolies come winter .

[Swansea Fishing Comp last weekend]

Great report.....how do I get a job with a company that arranges fishing competitions during the week

[Another day,another waterway]

Great report Stewy and nice fish. I also found the tides very strange last Monday. The tide just kept running out well beyond the time (over 2hrs) it should have changed....very strange.

[Where's the limit?]

geez the most i have paid is $24 dollars and when i lost that a little part of me died i couldnt imagine the feeling of loosing a $100+ lure thats crazy

Yep I was there and he was almost crying.....I have not seen Bassboy so upset since he spent almost 2 weeks lure fishing for Barra only to catch a catty after I had just caught a 109cm Barra

[Successful weekday lure session in the Georges]

Hi Raiders,

I was fortunate enough to have a long weekend and decided to fish on Saturday and Monday. On Saturday Bassboy and I headed out to Woolooware Bay for a final crack at the surface bite before the water gets too cold. The weather and tide were perfect; however the action was slow with only one decent bream caught via a surface lure. Bassboy caught this nice bream hard up against a floating oyster rack.

I am not sure what has happened to the surface bite this year.

I resorted to casting HB lures into the remnants of the oyster racks with the result of 1 x bream caught and 2 lost HB lures……both HB are now bling attached to bream hiding amongst the racks .

For the second weekend in a row I also caught some flatties amongst the racks with HB lures. Check out the fresh scars on this flattie…I reckon it has survived a shark attack.

After the fish went off the bite in Woolooware Bay we headed to Taren Point and the Drums to fish the run in tide for little success before the wind arrived. We also chased a school of large tailor near Tom Uglies as they busted up small baitfish; unfortunately they were not interested in any of our offerings.

Mondays fishing session was confined to the Georges River on account of the predicted southerly due for about 10am. Bassboy and I hit the water just before 6am so that he could get some time on the water before going to Uni. The conditions were perfect and we focused our efforts on the area between Sandy Point and Kelso Beach.

We headed to some flats near Kelso to work surface lures and small SPs. Bream immediately started to hit Bassboys surface lure but just werent connecting. I used small SPs using my finesse gear (4lb leader and braid) and on the third cast of the morning I was rewarded with a nice EP.

The flats continued to produce fish, with this fat 35cm Black Bream and Trevor falling victim to a Squidgy Wriggler. Both gave a great account of themselves on my finesse gear.

Bassboy had to depart early to attend Uni lectures so I dropped him back at the ramp and returned to find the tide had dropped substantially. As a consequence I worked the drop offs and holes for another Trevor and a decent flattie.

Fortunately the flattie was hooked on the lip so it didnt chew through my 4lb leader.

The southerly came in at 10am as predicted and ended the session. It was a fantastic morning with constant action throughout…..it was great to be out on the water during a weekday and I was surprised by the mixed bag of fish (all were released the fight another day), especially the Trevors so far up the Georges River.

[Awesome Day out !]

Wow what an outstanding session.....I would have been happy with bream bite in the Cooks, but to follow it up with a successful bay session is just awesome

[HB fishing in Woolooware Bay]

Hey Basscatcher. Some good fish there. What HBs were you using? Not many WB reports this summer I've noticed.

I've not hit WB much this year as well and have found little surface action in the bay so far. A bit disappointing as last year was quite fun with surface walkers.

I'm going to try again this weekend and see how I go.

Hi PMAK - this summer has been a bit slow with regards to the surface action in WB. I have had significantly more success with surface lures in the Georges River compared to WB.

The successful HB lures were a river2sea baby crank (5ft diver) and a atomic diver (2-3ft).