Lizardboy

Cheers Guy's, Glad you liked it, i enjoyed writing it once i got around to it. The best thing about a trip like the one we did is that it's pretty much accessable to anyone willing to do a bit of research and a bit of walking and by staying in cabins at caravan parks it didn't end up costing us that much. Lizard

The plan was to escape the onset of winter and head North to explore the freshwater reaches of some of North Queensland's rivers and streams. Our main quarry were Jungle Perch, Northern cousin's of our Aussie bass. JP's make their home in the very sweetest of sweetwater...the shallow, flowing, crystal clear, rainforest streams of tropical North Queensland! We started our trip in Townsville where we met up with Matt AKA Junglejunky and we were lucky enough to be taken on a tour of some of the local JP streams. Things were looking very good after my first cast resulted in a small JP that sucked in the little popper at the base of some rapids. The rest of the day however was a bit on the slow side,with Matt resorting to soft plastics and eventually scoring a nice JP. Pete and I continued North to Cardwell, a small town on the edge of the Hinchinbrook channel Where we took out a half day charter, in search of a few barra, but we lucked out and the onshore wind had set in preventing further exploration. So we resorting to fishing a tiny lagoon behind the marina with our ultra light gear which is where Pete scored a couple of Tarpon and the biggest Barra for the trip! From then it was on to the mighty Tully, an awesome river with the gorge itself providing an impressive backdrop of volcanic rock, rapids and waterfalls. Although with the late wet and record rainfall of the last few months the river level was still a bit too high and prevented us from accessing the best looking water above the powerstation. The water temperature was also a bit cooler than we had hoped and the fish did seem a little lethargic although we did manage a handful of JP's and small Sooties. We also spent a day fishing the freshwater reaches of the Russell just North of Innisfail an equally impressive river. It was a half hour trek up a narrow jungle track, with a couple of creek crossings along the way before we made it to the first pool. we also encountered a larger and potentially more aggressive species of grunter along the track! Again as with the Tully the river was again cool and high and it was tough work as we made our way upstream wading and scrambling over large slimy boulders and casting along the way. Again the fishing was slow, but after switching to a hawg/revhead combination i was soon connected to a solid fish that tested my 6lb leader to its limits, it threatening to bury me under a submerged boulder and I had to pass the rod to Pete briefly whilst i scrambled onto another boulder to continue the fight, luckily for me Pete was happy to hand my rod back and i was able to finally subdued a solid sooty [] We continued upstream past several more sets of rapids before eventually coming to a large pool at the base of a small waterfall where the fishing improved dramatically with us hooking up to half a dozen JP's in a short period of time. Whilst it was very tempting to continue on it was mid afternoon and it was going to take a while to get back, we encountered a few more sooties along the way back downstream before Pete and his outfit parted company[]. this made for a very quiet trip back along the jungle trail. We had been wading and swiming downstream at the time and Pete had lost his grip of the rod and it was swept under a massive boulder in strong current and could not be retreived, despite returning two days later equipped with 80lb leader a XOS trebbles. On the last day of the trip we finally struck gold, with two great JP sessions! After enjoying a sumptuous feast of sashimi, prawns, mud crab and XXXX in our cabin the night before, we set off at dawn to fish a Shallow mountain stream. The stream consisting of a series of small pools connected by rapids and the ocasional waterfall cascading in. The first pool we fished resulted in a double hookup on 2 to 30cm+ JP's, with both fish nailing surface lures it was the type of action we'd been waiting for. We crept from pool to pool with great anticipation, knowing that our poppers would almost certainly be whallloped as soon as they touched down. Continued.... The afternoon session saw us venture further north past Port Douglas to the pristine looking stream in the first pic. I'd stumbled accross it when i was in the areas a couple of years earlier and had good success there using yo zuri pins minnows, which the JP's just seemed climbed all over on an jerky retreive. After our success on the surface in the morning session, Pete persuaded me to stick with a popper, which as turned out was a good call. It didn't take long for us to get into the action with Pete landing a couple of JP's first up. the surface actioned continued, as we made our way upstream with a several more small to medium JP's landed and plenty of missed hits. I also managed a more solid JP of 32cm's that made a good account of itself after snatching a sugoi blooped hard up against the opposite bank. Time had gotten away from us and with our return flight departing from Cairns in just over 2 and a 1/2 hours we had we had to rush back to the car through some adjoining canefields. Pete could resist having one for cast from the weir next to the car and managed to land one last JP to cap off the trip [8D] Gus

Good report and pics Hooky, Cheers, Lizard

Yep, just got a call from a mate, they've just about got it open Gus

Yep, Canoe's are pretty wicked, theres so many places that only canoes and kayaks can get into The seats, sounder and electric are a bit of a luxury, but well worth it As for the 1st bass i really can't say with any cetainty what caused its condition, they can obviously tolerate salt water when they breed, but perhaps they can't sustain themselves in it, i'm really just guessing. The narra bass was much more healthy, other than a small scar. The only bad thing about the final trip was that i managed to crack the LCD screen on my camera, so no more photos for a while Cheers Swordfisherman, Burke' my middle name Gus

I had a few very rewarding sessions over the New year's period exploring the brackish and small pockets of fresh in some northern sydney creeks. NEW YEAR'S EVE.... We used the big morning tides to push right up one of the creeks that I'd been meaning to explore for some time, hoping there may be a bass or two around. We took the canoe up as far as we could and continued on foot. I'd had a few casts in one of the tiny pools, then moved on but Pete persevered and eventually this bass darted out from under a log and inhaled his little daiwa presso cicada. Same fish as above, ready for release. As you can see by its fins, it's wasn't in the best condition, so we minimised its time out of the water. I could be wrong, but I really don't think there'd be many bass at all in this particular creek as it ended so abruptly. I was even thinking that this fella may have migrated back up the wrong creek after its winter spawning. The water was quite salty, although this was probably more a result of the king tides. The Celebration....we started drinking pretty early new years eve[] NEW YEARS DAY... Pete's smallwater Bass had inspired me and at about 6:30pm New years day, when the temperature was finally becoming bearable I grabbed my rod, a handful of lures and loaded the canoe onto the car. I headed up one of the creeks that feed my local lake. I'd heard there was the odd bass in the upper reaches of the lake, but frustratingly I'd never been able to prove it. I kept focused and paddled a long way upstream, resisting the urge to cast surface lures for bream. Once in the upper reaches, I started casting at the fallen timber and was concentrating on paddling softly and being as quiet as possible, but when I passed a group of paddlers on their way back dowstream I lost confidence. Soon after I found a little backwater with a nice fallen log, it was seperated from the main creek by a few sparse reeds. From a distance I slung a cast over the reeds and the little cicada fizzer was nailed on the first bloop, I wasn't taking any chances and went hard on the fish early, luckily I was able to stay in control and guide it away from the timber and through the reeds to the more open water and i soon had him canoe side[] 345mm Lake Bass I got a few more surface hits, but didn't get any more bass, just this little EP! ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER CREEK TO EXPLORE... A few days later Pete and I went to explore another creek a bit further a field. We motored upstream as far as we could and then continued on foot. We moved from pool to pool, It was really tight water and bow 'n' arrow casting was used to good effect. over a couple of hours we managed 10 or so bass each. They were mostly little tackers, but good fun none the less particularly as most were taken on surface lures. Some of the pools were more like puddles ....but they still held fish[] Gus

I'm Thinking about making a purchase from "lureworld" http://www.lureworld.com.au/about.php, just wondering if anyone has dealt with them before, are they reliable etc? Cheers, Gus

Cheers guys, Shane, the coleman has copped a beating, but is still going strong. The bottom of the moulded keel is well and truly through to the core at either end and i envisage it could wear through sometime over the next year! I took some platic weld and a jet lighter along just in case I had to make some running repairs! Sorry it's taken so long to reply, holiday season! Cheers, Gus

The starting point for the in/out trip The view from the bridge down the first little run Guiding the canoe down a small drop Alex with a nice little cod, that came aboard for a quick pic Bailing out the coleman, which was pinned against a rock after we chose the wrong path through a set of rapids and rolled it...a scenario that repeated itself several times, but we didn't mind too much as the water was like a bath! ....oh yes, I'll be back!!!

I spent a week in early December exploring the rivers around Grafton with a couple of mates, Aaron and Alex. Aaron lives in Grafton and Alex made the road trip up with me from Sydney. The week was broken up into several trips, we spent a couple of days camped out in gorge country on the Clarence, did a 2 day 25km in/out trip on the Nymboida, as well as a couple of other day trips. There were a few dramas, but we got to visit some great locations and caught some nice fish I think I'll let the pics do most of the talking.... Alex was first on the boards... Me with 46cm of jackalled Clarence bass I went to take a leak and after a 2 minute climb this was the view Aaron with the biggest for the trip, a nice 48cm specimen taken on a white kokoda spinnerbait. Steep rock faces made for good jackalling! Alex with a nice 45cm (from memory) Bass in the morning sun Me with my biggest for the trip @ 47cm's, taken on a megabass vibration. It was a memorable tussle, he took the lure in the corner of rocky bay and got me around a snag, but the leader held and with a change of angles i was finally able to pull him free. We caught a couple of fork tail catfish, Alex got this one on a Jackall DD Cherry...i'd just passed him my rod telling him how much of a wicked action it had!

Jewel, Check out this month's issue of NAFA barra, bass and bream, theres an article on shore based bream spinning around kangaroo island, it looks pretty impressive with some real stonkers recorded from the area. Cheers, Gus

Great Report Shane, nice pics Gus

Cheers guys, yep, gotta love the serenity! G'day Stewy, Petrol motors must be removed and you cannot have any fuel on board, unless yor the ranger Shane, unfortunately no video on the cards at this stage, but Its something that I'd love to do, even if it was just for myself and mates to view. James, Welcome to the site, thanks for info on spawning, I checked out the link interesting stuff I like the articles and fishing show's Rob Paxevanos does. Lizard

I spend last weekend exploring Googong Dam, just outside of Queanbeyan with an old mate of mine Murray. It lacks timber but its a great looking dam with exceptionally clear water, party due to being an electric motor only impoundment. I last visited Googong in late february when another mate and i got into a few cod. This time we only saw yellowbelly and plenty of small redfin. The fishing wasn't hot although we caught enough fish to keep us interested and sighted plenty more. We spent quite some time fishing from the bank, which was a good chance to stretch the legs and it was great to watch the yellowbelly cruise in behing your lure, although frustrating when they turned away at the last second or struck, but failed to hook up. The area has had a fair bit of rain recently and the dam had risen a metre or more which meant a lot of the bankside vegetaion was now covered and the boat ramp has re-opened. One of the most interesting things we saw took place in a small bay with a steep hilside, which had water flowing into the bay via a small waterfall. We'd seen something strange in the corner of the bay and gone in to check it out, on closer in spection there was at least 5 yellowbelly of around 40-50cm's flopping around in the shallows with there fins an tails out of the water and right below the canoe there was another 10 or 15, we sat there for several minutes and so did the fish flapping away with their fins out. We had no idea what they were doing, but they weren't intersed in our lures. I took some video footage, but its about 8mb's. Upon asking another fisho the following day he said that they would have most likely been breeding, which would make sense. Lizard the old faithful Nu Murray's best casting near the wall my first a couple more pics Great looking dam this Yella, fell to a jackall cherry which was easy to work over the weedbeds Lizard

If everything goes to plan I'll be heading down to Googong Dam with a mate and the canoe to see we I can temp some yellowbelly and hopefully a cod or two as a by-catch The Dam's up the barometers rising and I've heard its fishing well, so fingers crossed! We did pretty well when we were last down there in late february, so hopefully I'll have some photos for another report early next week. http://www.fishraider.com.au/Invision/inde...=googong+goodoo Lizard

Cheers for the replies, I still don't know whether i should take a sample (leaf, bark or possible drill hole) and send it in to be tested, I may jut get in contact with the council or fisheries. I've taken some photos (but haven't had time to re-size) and the hole in the base of the tree (which is roughly 10-15mm in diameter) appears to be circularly grooved on the inside. Lizard

A mangrove tree at one of my local fishing haunts has turned half brown and i can't see any reason for this to have happened when all the other mangroves seem healthy . Mangroves are pretty hardy as far as i know. Given its position and the removal of other bankside vegatation and need less De-snagging from the area I'm considering the fact that it may have been poisoned! I'm not interested in naming names or revealing the location at this stage as i may be wrong. I'm sure someone from the site will be able to tell me how you tell if a tree has been poisened? ie could you take a leaf sample and send it in somewhere to get tested, or would i need a branch, how long would the poison stay in the trees system. The last time I was there was around a month or two ago and the mangrove looked perfectly healthy then. I examined the base of the tree and there were a couple of holes, but it was too dark to determine if they were drill holes or knot holes. Cheers, Lizard

Some real sweetwater there Brent, great pics. I still intend to do some exporing up that way, in the near future. Gus

Cheers Guys, The water level was pretty low, just below the level of the concrete boat ramp about 35% from looking at the latest freshwater fishing mag. The area looked quite green for a change so i reckon they must have had a bit of rainfall in recent months. We used the daiwa lipless', surprisingly I din't lose a lure all trip snagged plenty of times, the tackleback was a real saviour! I got the lip grip through the website Shane mentioned, it was $120-$130 from memory I'm not sure what they tase like and your right about the guts on them! The smallest we got would have been about 1.6-1.7kg. Matt, The seats are the padded folding type from Whitworths around $100 each from memory and well worth it in my opinion, they're a real saviour and help prevent canoe ass. Also something to consider if you put put the canoe on your roof racks upside down...I have the seats bolted permanently onto the fitted coleman seats, which had already been lowered an inch or two by the person i bought the canoe from, this is good as it means your centre of gravity is lower, also when mounting the canoe on roof racks the folded seats are almost flush to the lip of the canoe. although because of the shape of my cars roof i mount the canoe upright using canoe/kayak braces fitted to the roof racks. I also run a matrix 17x with the transducer mounted on the electric and screen on the esky, the battery is an 80 amp/hour Delkor and last about a days fishing under moderate use. Lizard

Geez I love spring! Pete and I set off at 3am Sunday morning for a couple of days fishing Windamere Dam near Mudgee. Conditions were great and so was the fishing despite the fact that the place was pretty packed, with tents, caravans, boats, fisherman, water skiers and sail boats. Pete was quick to find his rythm managing to boat four nice goldens before i landed my first. After initially casting spinnerbaits, Pete discovered The fish were responding well to lipless vibratons fished tight to the sticks and we bairly felt the need to use anything else....in fact two individual lures accounted for 12 of the 15 Goldens we landed between us from a day and a halfs fishing. All fish were caught casting to timber bar one on the troll. Pete's first, he got another fish the very next cast from memory! My biggest at 4.5kg HMAS Tackle Slut Petes' biggest another 10lber The fish were in excellent condition and averaged around 3kgs mark, providing some great close quarters sport around the timber, with some creative manouvering of the canoe required to land them. The next morning was cooler, but we stilled pulled a few Pete was really lucky to land this one, the nitro and 8lb leader didn't have too much left in it! I bought a predatek Gob-loc lip grip a few months ago and this was the first time I got to test it out, I was very happy with the way it performed, the trigger mechanism was very useful enabling the fish to be latched onto to firmly and precisely. All in all a memorable trip and a great way to kick off spring! Lizard

Sound like a wicked trip Brent, love the dark chrome colour of the barra! Lizard

Good Stuff Mick, That wouldn't happen to be flat rock creek/dam would it? Lizard

Brettoes, Pittwater is extraordinarily tough to fish this time of year, especially for bream the water is gin clear, and pretty bloody cold. You might do ok with a flush of rain, but your probably better off trying somewhere further up river like the hawkesbury, cowan or coal and candle. Lizard

After a quite a few fruitless sessions of late attempting to lure my first jew, I decided it was time to catch some fish, so Pete and I headed off at dawn Sunday morning to a spot that's reliably produced fish for me over the colder months. It was nice morning with next to no wind but it was bloody cold There were also a lot of tiny baitfish milling around surface near the wharf where we launched to avoid getting the feet wet. We fished around boats, but it was pretty slow with just a few tentative touches from bream chucking the usual BM's. I'd tied an SX40 on my spare rod the night before to force myself to use it, as it had pretty much been just gathering dust since I bought the thing several months ago. I chucked it out the back for a troll as I went in search of the thick bait schools I'd notice earlier in the morning. After passing alongside a moored boat I swung the canoe hard so the lure ran directly below the hull, as it did I hooked up to what I was expecting to be a brean, but after a short tussle a nice EP of around 33cm's was swum into the environet. I was pretty pleased with my first EP on a hard body and with a bit more confidence in hardbodies I started casting it around the around the boats and managed a slightly larger EP of just over 35cm's. Pete started chucking HB's around too, but we didn't see any more EP's, he finally pulled a nice bream that nearly did him on a pilon. Later in the day with the sun higher I was able to sight the thousands of tiny baitfish, they were only 1- 1 1/2 inches long semi clear, with a flash of silver when they turned on their sides…..can anyone tell me what they were? The most interesting thing was how they appeared on the sounder, they almost blacked it out despite the fact they didn't seem to be so tightly packed….it was a value able insight into interpreting the sounder reading. Lizard

Based in Sydney, but my folks have a flat just above the main wharf, I usually spend a week down there over the warmer months. Had some good fun surface luring bass in a nearby river and being demolished by bream around the leases up the back of the inlet! Will say g'day if I run into down there over summer. Lizard