[Good session on the Georges flatties]

Nice flatties there Rob. I haven't had a chance to fish the Georges this summer but the reports indicate it has been hard work so live bait seems a very good option.

[Solid king and big bonnie on fly]

Hi Mark, great fish on fly, both must have been great fun. Average sized Bonnies are fun on Bream gear so I could just imagine how fun it would have been hooking both fish on fly gear.

cheers Basscatcher

[Windang Again ! 'The Flathead Classic' 15/01/12]

Great report and thanks for sharing the highs and lows of your day. The first photo of the flattie really demonstrates how wet it was out there.

[lake glenbawn]

Thanks that's a top report,I will give a report when we get back.

I look forward to reading your report.....I will be fishing Lake St Clair next weekend and into the week as part of my preparation for the NSWBASSIN comp and will share the results with you.

[lake glenbawn]

Hi Milling Around,

I fished Glenbawn about this time last year and my report can be found here

Weed banks were the key to success this time last year and Jackals were the go to lure.

cheers Basscatcher

[Kowmung and Hollanders]

Geoff great fish and fantastic scenery. It is good to see that your persistence was rewarded.

[terova ipilot]

Tony, no I bought my Minn Kota Riptide 12 months before the iPilot came onto the market. I have since fitted the iPilot kit onto my Riptide. The problem with this modification is that you have to remove the foot pedal control to fit the iPilot attachment. I would strongly reommend that if you have the money buy the Terova with iPilot so you can also retain the foot control. It gives you much more flexibility, especially when fighting fish amongst the snags or trying to retrieve a lure from a snag.

[terova ipilot]

Tony - you are absolutely correct. The stop lock function is brilliant if you want to fish a specific snag or school of fish and the track memory function is a cracker, great for working a bank, oyster racks and the face of a weedbed. It is well worth the investment.....I don't know how I used to fish without it .

[terova ipilot]

Hi Tony, the iPilot is brilliant and is well worth the investment. The strength of the Terova iPilot is that you get the foot pedal control and the iPilot control. I would strongly recommend you get a quality Deep cycle AGM marine battery to power the iPilot. I have a Century 12V 100amp AGM and it has been powering my Minn Kota Riptide iPilot for 3 years, including some 20hr lure sessions in the Barra impoundments of QLD. This will cost you an extra $280 but is well worth it. You should also invest in a quality recharger such as a CTEK to ensure your battery lasts.

cheers Basscatcher.

[2nd installment of the Barra fishing Trip in Mackay]

Hi Raiders,

This is the second installment of my road trip to Mackay and back to Sydney. As the New Year started the wind in Mackay had blown up with over 20 – 25 knot SE blowing. This saw tough fishing with the Barra shutting down and difficult conditions to be fishing amongst the weed beds of Kinchant Dam .

Bassboy and I headed out early on 2 January to spend the morning working the weed beds with surface lures and SPs. The morning started with a light SE breeze and water temperature of 28degrees….perfect for some surface action. Bassboy was the first to strike with a Barra hitting his Cultiva Tango Dancer, unfortunately the fish spat the lure just beside the boat. We continued to work the weed beds as the sun rose casting onto actively feeding Barra with a mixture of surface SP frogs and walk the dog lures. We had over half a dozen aggressive hits on our surface lures in the first hour of fishing, but the fish just would not stay hooked. By 7:30am the SE wind arrived and the fish switched off. We tried SPs deep into the weeds, HBs into the channels and trolling for a donut…a tough day for Bassboy’s last Barra session in Mackay. He flew back to Sydney slightly disappointed.

I headed back to Kinchant Dam for my last session in Mackay on the afternoon of 3 January. This was to be a late afternoon and night session. Once again there was a strong SE blowing and the afternoon fishing was tough with white caps in the main basin of the Dam. Fortunately the predicted change arrived just before sunset with a slight NE breeze and the Barra started to actively feed again. I had decided that this last session in Mackay was going to mainly be a surface session and it did not disappoint. It was a fun night with multiple hits on my surface lures. I had over a dozen hits on my surface lures, some within only 2 metres from the boat and whilst they were mainly rat Barra (50 – 70cm fish) it was really exciting stuff. By the end of the session I had boated 3 Barra, lost another 3 deep in the weed beds (hard work trying to get them out of 5 ft weedbeds when fishing by yourself) and many exciting boofs of my lures.

On 6 January my holiday was over and I commenced the long drive back to Sydney towing the boat and in the company of my dog (wife and daughter got to fly home). I had decided to stop at Lake Monduran, near Gin Gin as my first overnight stop. I arrived just on sunset and set up camp in the camp grounds.

As I set up camp one of the campers nearby informed me that there were good Barra being taken in the Kolan River just below the dam wall. After having some dinner I decided to grab a couple of rods (a Barra spin rod and a Bass spin rod) to have a quick sesh. As I arrived at the river I could hear Barra boofing and immediately put a surface SP frog on my Bass gear. On my third cast I caught a feisty little 55cm Barra, which was great fun on my Bass gear.

I continued to get hits on my surface frog with another couple of rat Barra being accounted for with my Bass gear, including this 65cm Barra.

Unfortunately in all of the excitement I forgot to check my leader knot on the Bass gear and the next fish snapped the line at the leader knot. I then reverted to my Barra spin gear utilizing a weedless 5inch Ripple Shad. Using a slow roll retrieve I had a couple of hits but no hook up. I adjusted the retrieve to a quicker roll and had an aggressive strike which stuck….this fish was bigger and it immediately made a bee line for some sunken trees. I could feel the leader touching the timber and decided to free spool the fish. Luckily the Barra gear had 60lb leader whereas my Bass gear only had 20lb leader. Once the pressure was off the fish it moved back out into the main basin of the river and the fight was on again. Fortunately my patience was rewarded with this fantastic 93cm Barra.

That 93cm Barra finished my checky 2 hour session and I decided I had better get some sleep before I continued the long drive home to Sydney…… ..It was a fantastic way to end my holiday.

I am now counting the days down to my next Barra trip in Spring this year…250 days to go!!!!!

[FIRST TRIP TO WINDAMERE.]

Hi Fisho, great looking fish mate......those YB are fat. Good onya for getting your mate onto his first ever fresh water fish, especially a Murray Cod.

cheers Basscatcher

[Barra at Mackay in December]

Way to go fellas

Barra off the surface, couldn't think of anything else I would rather be doing. Hope you get a few more fish you deserve it after towing the boat that far. Nice sooty as well. So so jealous keep the reports coming

Thanks Heath, the drive is a real challenge but generally worthwhile. Unfortunately the wind has been strong in Mackay over the last week so I have only had two more successfull sessions....I will post the report shortly.

nice fish guys and good to see that the locals gave you

the good oil for some Barra

Hope the rest of your trip is as productive

Chris

Chris, thanks mate. The trip has been good and I have just finished my last session on Kinchant Dam (report will be submitted soon). I am now packing the car & boat ready for the long drive home .

Looks like a world of awesome!!! can't wait to hit a barra impoundment sometime in the coming year....

Thanks mate. I would encourage you to seek local advice well before a trip to a barra impoundment. I have fished three different dams during 2011 and each was completely different. In each case it took advice from the local tackle shops to get me onto fish (ie location and types of lures the fish are taking).

[Lake Lyle]

Well done , those big Bass would have made a good account for themselves.....can't wait to see the photos.

[Barra at Mackay in December]

Hi Raiders,

Bassboy and I are currently visiting relatives in Mackay and decided to drag the boat from Sydney to Mackay to give the Barra impoundments another crack. The extra effort to drag the boat 2000km was looking like an expensive gamble as the first three trips to Teemburra Dam had resulted in no Barra . We tried the trees, weeded points, weed banks, wind blown bays and creeks for a big fat donut. We had a couple big fish follow the lures but they were reluctant to hit the lures. I mixed up the Barra lures with a couple of casts with my Bass spin gear into likely Sooty snags. This resulted in a lonely 40cm Sooty Grunter (equalling my PB).....pretty grim for three trips onto Teemburra, including an overnight venture (total of 30hrs on the Dam) .

With such disappointment from Teemburra we sought advice from the local tackle shops. Their advice was that Teemburra Dam was not producing any Barra as there was too much water, whereas Kinchant Dam was experiencing a hot bite period with Barra taking lures throughout the day and night. With this advice we headed out to Kinchant Dam very early Fri 30 Dec to try the Barra on surface lures at dusk…..this required a 3am start to drive out to the Dam and be on a weed bed at first light (4:15am). This was also an opportunity to get my younger brother onto his first impoundment Barra.

The change of location to Kinchant Dam immediately paid dividends with Bassboy hooking up with large Barra on his fifth cast of his surface lure....the explosive strike of this fish in the darkness startled all of us and unfortunately this fish spat the lure after a brief but intense battle. Despite the loss of this fish we were very encouraged as we had seen more fish action in the first 15 minutes of this trip than in the previous 30hrs spent on Teemburra Dam.

Bassboy continued to persist with his Cultiva Tango Dancer and within 10 minutes he hooked onto another decent Barra. This feisty 76cm Barra aggressively stuck the lure and provided a fantastic but clean fight.

We continued to work the weed beds with surface lures and SPs for a couple of strikes but no hookups. As the sun rose further we moved deeper into the expansive weed beds casting our lightly weighted SPs and surface lures onto the weed beds, which were standing 8 feet deep with only 1 2 feet of water above the top of the weeds. We continued to disturb large Barra in these weed beds and numerous half hearted strikes. These strikes felt like bream taps as the Barra inhaled and quickly spat out the lures before we could set our weedless hooks. Our perseverance eventually paid off as we found Barra actively feeding in a 14 foot channel between the weed beds.

I was the first to strike silver with a 96cm Barra aggressively striking my jointed hard body Lucky Craft lure . I had to fight this fish with my rod held high to keep it from diving back into the weed bed fortunately the Barra had completely engulfed the lure and did not throw the lure during its many leaps for freedom. This fish improved my hard-body Barra PB by 2cm:

......and before you make comment the 'high-vis' yellow shirt was a Christmas present .

We continued to fish the same area so that my brother could get his first impoundment Barra and within 10 minutes he hooked onto and landed a feisty little 74cm Barra. As you can see in the photo he was absolutely rapt with this result.

With only six days left in Mackay I will be hitting Kinchant Dam at least another 3 or 4 times.....I will keep you posted.

[Quick Flick at IC]

Well done mate, glad someone is getting them off the surface. That water looks a lot cleaner than the Georges River has been for the last few weeks.

[PB Flathead]

Great croc there mate and good on you for releasing the big breeding girl .

[Braid for beginners]

Wow Slinky I have fished with Braid for over seven years and this is the first time it has been explained fully to me....I am glad I have generally spent a little extra on my braid as you get what you pay for

[The King and I]

Cracker fish there Captin, well done on a difficult day

[Snowies Trout Fishing]

Outstanding report Geoff and great persistence to get some excellent Trout.

[Teaching newbie with great success!]

Next time you take him fishing he might need to teach you a thing or two aaaaa the student becomes the master.

[Port Hacking and Botany Bay]

Stewie - not all the fishing genes have been transferred to me. My dad still managed to outfish me on both outings ! Mum is still recovering from her cataract operation so she had to also have dark glasses on all the time.

Basscatcher - hope your MK unit is fixed soon. Mine occasionally plays up but going bezerk (spins around like it's lost its GPS bearings and then stops). I have to switch off the unit and then on again and it seems to recover after a 'reboot'. Was your issue similar?

Hi PMAK, my Minn Kota is back now after a service and is working fine. The problem was just that when turning the motor it was a bit louder than normal. They replaced all of the O rings etc and it is back like new. I have had the same problem as you are experiencing and found it was my connection to the battery was loose. I fixed the connection and it stopped. If that doesn't work I would send it away for servicing under warranty and they may just replace the control board.....hope this helps. cheers Paul

[Cracker flatty in skinny water]

Great sesh there Rob and cracker fish. That big girl in shallow water would have been a great fight.

[Burrinjuck Yellas]

Mick,

You should have seen you Bassboy's reaction when he lost his first jackal to a flooded fence at Lake Glenbawn in January this year.....lots of cursing and I reckon a hidden tear .

Those yellas look fat and healthy, I must try Burrinjuck as I am working out of Canberra at the moment.

PS. I have found that using the spot lock function of the iPilot on my Minn Kota has significantly reduced the instances of 'electric motor' induced lure loss.

Paul

[Nepean River Bass]

Nice Bass & scenery....what a way to spend the day.

[Lake Glenbawn Bass Trip]

What an awesome trip lads.....those fish look mighty healthy. Did you catch the large Yella amongst the Bass? I love fishing the impoundments this time of year, pity I am stuck in the office .

I always find it a little embarrassing launching an aluminium boat beside the sea of glass boats at the impoundments, but I always remind myself that it is the results that count....although I was looking forward to an action picture of your Stratos. Coyote could have taken a picture whilst he was swimming beside the boat , I will just have to wait.

PK