kyuss

Found myself with an unexpected free Saturday morning so decided to check out a stream that google earth suggested might have trout. Left Sydney at 7.30am and began the 1-2km walk in by 9.30. I was pretty happy to find an access road that got me in quite close. The day was heating up fast so I kept an eye out for snakes - the day and the terrain had a snakey feel about it. Found the stream soon enough and it looked good - free stone base, gin clear water - encouraging. I took my time rigging up and just enjoyed the water on my feet and some shade. I checked the movement of the lure downstream and I was ready to roll. Its funny how the knot has to be on exactly the right angle and on the right part of the lure or the movement is warped. I really must learn that rapala knot one day (I was just using a stock standard rapala tied onto a 6lb leader and 6lb braid. My rod is a skinny 6ft Nitro). So - the long anticipated first cast was upstream into a nice little cascade and some deeper water (up to 1m). The cast dropped perfectly into the breaking water and I waited for the hit... bugger, nothing. Then just as the lure was about to emerge from the shadows a little rainbow hit and jumped three times as I brought it in. Success - a new trout stream found. Now the deal I struck was that I'd be home in time for a late lunch - so I was just going to have afew casts to see if it was worth coming back for a day trip. But... I thought I really needed to confirm that the first trout wasn't an aberration so I decided to fish afew more runs. 10 mins later and I'd caught another two rainbows. I knew it was time to go but I could see a great pool ahead so... yep... 2 hours later I actually did head home. It was one of those 'shiny' days. Great weather, the stream was alive with life. I saw snakes (thankfully just red bellied blacks), a yabby, heaps of water dragons, king fishers, grey kangaroos, a goanna and the biggest wallaby I've ever seen. I came upon it as I was walking back on the side of the stream. I actually thought it was a dead deer. It was only as I stood above it that I noticed it was breathing... crap! I knew I was in abit of a predicament, it was a male and they dont like being disturbed in their lay. I back tracked and about 2 secs later it jumped up and thankfully bounded away. Not a bad day. The weekend before I followed in the footsteps of Nanook in the Blue Mountains. If I can get organised I'll follow-up with a post.

Headed up Coolendel way for a couple days of Bassing. The weather was not ideal but we were confident of catching a couple. On the way we tried afew streams and caught afew 25-30cm fish before my mate Rick managed a decent 40cm+ in a beautiful pool. Secretly I regretted my decsion to leave the pool for him! The fish was definately a pb for Rick and also the stream for us but we forgot to measure it. Officially I'm prepared to concede that it was possibly 39cm... just shy of my pb naturally. The one good thing about it was that I got the video camera out to record the cast and caught the take which was exciting. Unfortunately I managed to hit the pause button straight after the take and missed the rest! Apart from the fish, we saw a nice diamond python which was curled on a branch stretched across the stream, a couple of kingfishers and the obligatory water dragons. Time was ticking so we headed on toward Coolendel. Next day we opted to check out a well known tributary instead of the main river. We drove to a closish access point and MTBed and walked the rest. The creek was barely running and in many places completely dry on the surface. We managed the one little Bass but it was a warmer day so enjoyed the solitude, swimming holes and the odd encounter with the resident goannas. Good trip.

First Post. First Bass. Headed out Saturday morning with Rick up Maq Rivulet fairly confident of snaring a Bass given the forecast of 30 odd. Rick was very keen to catch his first and deliver his wife 'a delicious Bass'. Unfortunately the rain dirtied up the water and it was abit slow. Just the one bite and one Bass caught and it went to Rick (which was released... the wife will have to wait). After an hour we headed up the Mountain to try our luck in one of the small trout streams on the highlands. After abit of a hike in we found some decent looking water however, again, it was muddied up by the rain and not looking promising. Rick managed a couple of hits but nothing caught. We moved to another stream, this time no bites but one rainbow sighted. Took a couple of pics, hopefully I manage to attach them.