slinkymalinky

It has been said that you could give 1000 monkeys, 1000 typewriters and in 1000 years one of them would come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Well, the same is apparently true of Gorillas. Give 2 Gorillas, 2 fishing rods and in 1000 casts one of them will actually land a lure in the water! Such is the strange behaviour of the nocturnal bass-fishing Southern Lowland Bass Gorilla. To have any chance of seeing one of these elusive creatures, you have to be prepared to become sleep deprived... preferably hungover. It is important to journey into their natural habitat. Areas of the Tweed River Valley in Northern NSW are known areas for observing them. The best time to find them is 1-2 hours before first light and in the hour or so once light has touched the sky. As can be seen from the accomanying photo-essay, the Southern Lowland Bass Gorilla is elusive and shy, preferring mornings when their rivers are shrouded by mist and on nights with no moon. This can make their feeding challenging... although one wouldn't know it from the specimens observed today... both having put on solid condition through the cooler months. Preferred hunting conditions for the Southern Lowland Bass Gorilla A particular challenge for the Bass Gorilla is determining the location of snags in the misty pitch darkness. Many of their feeding 'casts' end not with a splashy 'plop' but with a stony 'kerthunk!' or less commonly a woody 'crash'. At these times, they often vocalise and one could be forgiven for thinking that they perhaps almost have a language (although the meaning behind the raucous laughter, sledging and curse words is hard to decipher). One of the Southern Lowland Bass Gorillas this morning actually spent 15 minutes fanning casts in all directions in the dark, being constantly frustrated in his attempts to find prey (and water). Eventually the large silverback realised that in the inky dark he was in fact in a cove 10cm deep, surrounded on 3 sides by rocky beach... a most unlikely place to find the Australian Bass... the Gorilla's preferred prey. The troublesome cove as seen in daylight His companion in trying to move past a large fallen tree was equally confounded for some minutes by the same beach until realising that the river was around 10m wide by going the other way around the tree. More raucous cries in the dark. And the equally troublesome fallen tree... a different proposition for Gorillas in the mist At this point, the Bass Gorillas began to hunt successfully. Despite being completely unable to see what they were casting at, an occasional hopeful cast actually managed to land on the water. It should be noted that the Southern Lowland Bass Gorilla is adept at using a limited range of tools. Apart from 375mL beverage containers, they also have the dexterity needed to use conventional spin tackle with poppers and Jitterbugs. Such is there ability with these tools that a succession of fit, though skinny Bass started to be collected by the pair. As you may see, conditions and the need for stealth made photographing the hunting behaviour challenging. Southern Lowland Bass Gorillas during a successful hunt Older silverbacks like one of this pair, sometimes develop the more advanced behaviour of seeking Bass with fly fishing tackle. Only one dominant male in any group usually has the aptitude for this form of hunting. Those observing this pair this morning would have been lucky enough to see this territory's largest male successfully employing this technique. A younger Gorilla obseved beyond the fly rod of a more experienced male The younger and perhaps more showy of the 2 Bass Gorillas at one stage had been slightly more successful in the early hunting, having captured 3 Bass to the old Silverback's 1. But a large male will always try to see off an ambitious rival and with with experience of years, the silverback just waited until the sledging was at its peak before fighting back. With the coming of the sun, while the Southern Lowland Bass Gorillas become easier to observe, they like their prey also become skittish and nervous. With the hunt slowing down as the sun climbed, the 2 Bass Gorillas began migrating back towards their home range. The old silverback as if to emphasise his strength, finished with 2 very fat, fit bass while the younger male looked on, frustrated. Attempting to assert dominance, the old Silverback fights back A series of photographs of the preferred habitat of the Southern Lowland Bass Gorilla Both males successfully captured 6 Bass each on this particular morning ensuring that they will continue to frequent this particular habitat. It's uncertain how long the old Silverback will be able to maintain his position in the group as his ailing fitness was evident as he struggled inelegantly out of the water. But there is an undeniably majesty and grace displayed by both these Southern Lowland Bass Gorillas in their natural habitat... Once in your life you should try to observe these elusivce Gorillas in the mist Gorilla in the mist and extremely rare film footage of the Southern Lowland Bass Gorilla's natural behaviour in daylight Prof. S.L. Inky

Revo MGX is the one to check out for light work. I have one and love it (I have a Revo Inshore too). I was fishing with my MGX for Bass on the weekend, casting 1/8oz spinnerbaits and it does it with ease. If you want to be casting light weight lures with a baitcaster though, you'll need a good rod and don't expect anything like the distance you can get casting with a light spin outfit. Cheers, T

If the drag is self tightening when you wind, then there's something wrong with the drag set up. Possibly, washers going in the wrong order?? I'm surprised it came back from Shimano with the same problem... did you let them know it was self-tightening?

It's been a long time between drinks for Jewhunter and Slink Bass attacks. It's also been a long time between buying and finally using my Jackson Coosa Kayak. Well finally this morning, I dragged my sorry backside out of bed at 1.30 am to head across the border into NSW for a pre-dawn bass raid. After a bit of firgging around, I managed to get me kayak on the roof and with all the rest of the gear dumped in the back before heading south for the hour drive. Reports of big bass being caught in some of our favourite haunts had us both keen. So keen that JH was actually waiting for me at the door when I rolled into his place at about 3am. We hoofed it up to our launching spot and got the yaks into the water. It was surprisingly easy getting sorted and out onto the water... a combination of keeping it simple and good head torches (big fan of my new Lenser H7). What isn't easy is snag bashing with lures in the pitch dark. Grant knows the bit of water we were on like the back of his hand. So do I... but since I don't know the back of his hand very well it left me at a disadvantage. Needless to say he was keen to show off (probably trying to cheer me up for leaving me behind while he fished Weipa)... his very first cast with a jointed Jitterbug got smashed and after a short tussle and lots of yahoos, a 35cm'ish Bassamundi came to hand. I made the mistake of taking a light baitcast outfit with me. Awesome outfit in daylight... truly stupid in the dark. While Grant picked up a couple more fish and was getting regular hits, I was getting practice unpicking birdsnests. Finally, with just enough light in the sky to be able to make out the snags, I found a suicidal bass in the mid 30's that grabbed my little Jitterbug. My first ever fish from a Yak so I was pretty chuffed. Then I decided to break out the magic wand (Reddington 6wt flyrod!!). Grant had given me a couple of poppers he'd found at a local market and they swam like champions. Short little strips had the fly popping loudly while barely moving. With the fly making so much noise while staying in the strike zone, I immediately started getting hits. In fact the first good snag I fished to had a fish that hit my fly on 4 consecutive casts before finally coming up tight on the 5th. A nice 37cm Bass for my first on fly from the yak. Grant meanwhile was getting steady action on his big 'Cod Botherer' sized Jitterbug and for a while just on first light the river was ringing with the sound of boofing bass and yahoohing fishraiders. Give me surface fishing every time!! Eventually we decided to start heading back towards the cars which were now about 1km behind us. The action had slowed but there were a couple of really big laydown snags that we'd passed in the dark on the way down. I nosed my yak into one of them and got absolutley hammered on the first bloop of my fly. In the still conditions, the sound of the take was awesome... and so was the fight in this fish. I quickly learned how hard it is to deal with a fish that was towing me and my yak into the snags. I used all of my 9' fly rod's length to monouver the fish under my yak and out to the other side away from the snag but he had some serious horsepower. Finally in the boat he went 40cm... my PB Bass on fly. Before heading back to the cars, Grant called for a quick diversion into another snag filled section of river away from the wind that was starting to pick up. Not far into the area and I heard a yell from behind me. Grant had managed to pull a solid bass nudging 40cm off the edge of some lillies. Like all the fish we caught today it was in great condition... clean and green with big shoulders and a bad attitude. After grabbing some snaps we continued on. Some of the snags in this section are insane. With the light well and truly in the sky now it was a lot quieter so we were throwing suicide casts right into the middle of snag-riddle ugliness. It's a bit like a car accident that you can't look away from... you see a great pocket surrounded by timber and sticks and you just know there is no way to get a fish out of there... but you throw the cast anyway because getting smashed and smoked is an awsome rush regardless. On one particular snag I almost had my baitcaster pulled out of hand after switching to a small spinnerbait and getting blown away moments into the retrieve. I'd love to see the fish that hit me because he popped my 10lb leader on the hit like cotton. Finally we decided it was 'ass o'clock'... the very special time of day when one's posterior insists that it's had enough kayaking for the day. Back to the car, an inelegent dismount after realising that my legs no longer worked properly, egg and bacon sambos in Murwillumbah, and another awesome fun session came to an end. Cheers, Slinky

Thanks mate. Sad news is 'nope... no new gear' but I did get a Ukelele so there's a whole new hobby that I can annoy people with.

Fishing and location looks pretty ordinary, boys. Glad I didn't have to work my way through a trip like that and put up with all that sledging and seafood. :1crybaby: :1crybaby: (well done all!!)

Good work Rev. Here was I thinking that I had to travel north and use expensive lures to catch Barra. All I need to do is follow wedding photographers around . Congrats on a great and unusual day's fishing... and an enjoyable post.

G'day Ben, I use a pair of 10x42 Bushnell H2O binoculars for hunting. Waterproof, good quality optics, very rugged and good value. I got mine for around $170. Cheers, Slinky

The 7m centre console sport-fisher is on the other side... right between the on-board tackle warehouse and the personal tackle rigging butler's quarters.

Great stuff boys. Sorry I couldn't get out there with you... maybe next time I suggest fishing you'll take your own skirt off at the time and say yes, rather than wait till I make other plans before deciding that you're feeling all better and getting off your wussy 'I'm not feeling good' backside. Tell the truth, you just didn't want to share all those bass in your private dam. Top fish

Medium fast is a better choice for you. Fast action rods are great for delivering heavy flies, fighting wind and casting long but are less forgiving of casting errors.

PS. I've also got both Lamson (Velocity) and Sage reels and they are absolutely beautiful pieces of equipment. If you like good gear then absolutely get one but if you're on a tighter budget you don't really need anything that sophisticated. Even a cheaper Redington or Okuma fly reel will have a drag more than up to the job. You're better off spending more on the rod and line and saving a little on the reel than getting a more expensive reel and compromising on the rod. Cheers, Tony

G'day Stan, Have a look at Redington. Its a good quality value brand and they do complete combos that are very fishable for pretty much any budget. I've got Loomis and Sage rods to play with but one of my favourite rods is a 6wt Redington CPX. I've caught plenty of Carp on fly and Chris is right, they won't just jump on your hook unluess you get the approach right... although if you get it right they can be caught consistently. Depending on where you chase them, try fishing with either some scruffy brown nymphs or some wooly worms. I used to catch them in the Parramatta River right in the middle of Parramatta where they'd wait under some overhanging trees for little berries to drop off... in that situation if you can make a slow sinking nymph plop into the water just like a berry, they will come and hoover it up no worries. Other times in rivers, your best bet can be to try to spot cruising fish and either drop a nymph a few meters in front, allowing them to find it just as its sinking... or if its shallow or the carp are 'bottom grubbing', switch to a wooly worm type fly and let is sink to the bottom in front of them. A strike indicator is handy for that kind of fishing. Cheers, Tony

Probably not the best place to be building an artificial reef.

G'day Phase, I think it's a Red Bigeye, mate. A bit hard to see the shape of the dorsal fins but I'm 99% sure. Cheers, T

Happy 29th birthday, Roberta. Hope you have a great day, for this the 31st celebration of your 29th year Best wishes, Tony

You talk too much!! Congrats on a lot of good info and hard work.

Many Happy Returns, Stewie. Have an extra couple of beers for me Best wishes, Tony

You've got some big chickens down your way. Looks like they might be a possibility for some early morning surface action but you might want a bigger landing net.

Definitely slow... it's not possible to fish lures too slowly for Cod. And don't just throw one or two casts at each snag or bit of structure. Cod will often ignore a lure until you annoy them into striking. If you find a likely snag, pepper it from every angle and put in a heap of casts, then a few more for good measure. It's not uncommon to get hit on the 5th, 10th, 20th, etc cast at the same spot. Once you start to find a few and get a feel for the sorts of spots they hold, you'll improve your chances a heap by bypassing the mediocre water and concentrating more of your time on the better spots. Cheers, Slinky

Hey Mike, In my time I worked as a deckhand on a fishing boat, was good friends with a couple of Tassie professional trout guides, and got to know guys in Tasmanian fisheries. If you're serious about it there's 2 things to do... first, get experience on boats and the quickest way to get a deckies job is to go down to the docks and just ask all the skippers you can find. Working as a deckie is hard work and the pay is crappy but what it gives you is time on the water and that leads to part 2... you need to get a coxswains ticket or better so that you can operate commercial vessels. Check with maritime what the requirements are and start working towards them... one of the requirements is log book time so see point 1. As a guide, you need to be a) good at finding fish for other people incredibly patient and at times, tolerant c) qualified if boats are involved d) insured e) willing to live on not very much income f) membership of an appropriate association will help g) able and willing to run a small business professionally (there's a heck of a lot more to it than just taking people fishing) As for jobs in fisheries of similar, the best advice is education!! Check with the sort of organisations you're interested in and ask them what qualifications you might need... depending on the job you might need anything from nothing special to a marine science degree. Cheers, Slinky

I've done small boat fishing in a few different boats and get glass as your first preference. RIdes a lot softer and quieter. Plate alloy as the next option... not as soft or quiet but something like a Bar Crusher is an awesome fishing rig. If offshore is what you really want to be doing, don't go with a pressed aluminimum hull. I've fished out of my Quintrex a lot and it's perfectly capable of fishing 20km out and has done it heaps... but it's not the best rig for the job (even if it were a metre bigger)... pressed alloy boats are about versatility IMHO... a rig that you can fish offshore, inshore, in dams, up rivers. If you reckong you might do a lot of fishing up snaggy rivers and may want to run it up on sand or put it in at ugly boat ramps yet still want a more capable boat offshore, think seriously about plate. If offshore is only a sometimes event, pressed allow will be a lot cheaper. Cheers, Slinky

Jewgaffer is one of the great characters of Fishraider folklore! I had the unique experience and fun of fishing with him on my boat and his passion for his Jewfishing, Tiger rods, sitting patiently on his favourite spots for anything up to 36 hours at a time, and chatting on the phone for almost the same length of time, is legend. I caught my very first Jewie with Jewgaffer and I'll never forget him or that night... even having to hand start a motor at 3am after my battery died in order to get home couldn't put a dampner on it. He was always a great contributor to Fishraider's forums and many of our members met and knew him personally. Byron... you were a gentleman and a friend... you'll be missed. My thoughts are with Shirley and the family. Tony

I use Powerpro Super Slick as backing on my fly reels. It's a lot smoother than regular Power Pro