Jewhunter Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 G'day Raiders. After last Thursday's fun I decided to hit the dam again on Easter Monday. This time I was on my own. Conditions looked good & the moon had only just started to wane so I was confident it would fish well. It didn't let me down. I got to the dam & it was glassed out again. I mosyed along looking for any sign of surface feeding. It didn't take long to spot a feeding fish. I landed the popper on it, let it sit, twitched it, stop & bang I'm on. Nice fish of 33cm's posed for the camera before release. Had a few more casts in that area for a missed fish before moving to the shallow bay that produced the other day. I smiled to myself as I spotted three or four fish boofing the surface. I positioned myself near the closest rise & landed the popper on it. A massive explosion made me jump but watching the line closely I realised the fish missed it's mark so I left the popper where it sat. I twitched it a couple of times & the fish had another go but missed again. It didn't miss the 3rd time & pulled a bit of drag. It ended up being the fish of the day at 43cm's & fought very well. I just floated around that little bay casting at rises. How good is it casting to actively feeding Bass?! Many times the fish would miss on the 1st go & by not striking I could tease them into having another shot. I picked up another 4 fish there including a very healthy 41 cm fish that hit the popper so close to the boat & so violently that I got sprayed with water on the hit. Moved to another shallow bay & they were up & feeding there as well. 1st cast & the popper got smashed by a fat 40cm fish that I had to wrestle out of the weed. I nosed right into the shallows amongst the lily pads & picked up another 4 that I had to go hard on from the word go to get them out of fronds. Ended up with 11 fish for the morning with none under 30cm's & the 3 over 40cm's & fat. Too much fun! All fish released. Hope you enjoy the pics. Cheers, Grant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjneville Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 How healthy do those fish look! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmoshe Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Sensational outing Grant Aren't they healthy looking bass as well and fat as fools....must be full of Easter eggs . The dam is really firing now and yesterday must have been an exceptional day moon phase wise or something as I had the same thing at Narra where the fish were just biting their heads off...and Yakfishing also experienced the bream going nuts yesterday too. Hope it stays like this for a while now but by the looks of the barometer..it aint gonna last long. Currently 1011 Great session and fine pics. Cheers, Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bream Mad Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Wow Bass off their heads he he excellent quality fish there mate good outing and all on the surface as well! life just doesn't get any better cheers Kael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewhunter Posted March 24, 2008 Author Share Posted March 24, 2008 [quote name='MallacootaPete' date='Mar 25 2008, 07:59 AM' post='229833. The dam is really firing now and yesterday must have been an exceptional day moon phase wise or something as I had the same thing at Narra where the fish were just biting their heads off...and Yakfishing also experienced the bream going nuts yesterday too. Yeah Pete. I reckon it should have been a good w/end fish wise. The fact is that we had a full moon coinciding with the Autumn solstice on the 21st and a good barometer. It doesn't get much better than that! Cheers, Grant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arpie Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Terrific outing, Grant!! Well done. With the bass you get in your back yard (tweed river) would they be wild river bass, as against the dams being stocked impoundments? Would that be right? Do you notice any difference in their mode of attack? Can't wait to get back to the Manning ..... Roberta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewgaffer Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Another great session and another enjoyable report Jewhunter Makes a life time of targetting the various fish from Jewfish to Bass look all so easy when in reality a lot of effort and trial and error has gone into it which counts so much in constantly getting you top results like catching Bass over a foot long and regularly at that! Cheers jewgaffer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewhunter Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Terrific outing, Grant!! Well done. With the bass you get in your back yard (tweed river) would they be wild river bass, as against the dams being stocked impoundments? Would that be right? Do you notice any difference in their mode of attack? Can't wait to get back to the Manning ..... Roberta Yep, spot on Roberta. The Tweed Bass are wild fish, but quite a few have escaped from the dam by going over the wall in floods. As for modes of attack they are very similar except I reckon the wild fish are more aggressive. They rarely miss when they whack a popper! I use surface poppers a little differently in the rivers though. I cast upstream of the snag or tree that I think is holding fish & let the flow take the presentation to the fish, twitching it a bit to let the fish know it's coming. Remember that the goal when surface fishing for Bass is to have your lure in the zone for as long as possible. With poppers this means a lot of twitching & shaking of the rod rather that 'blooping' the lure back to you. In faster flowing rivers I like using surface crawlers such as tiny torpedoes & jitterbugs with a stop start retrieve. I'm sure you'll crack some big ones in the Manning soon. Thanks for the kind words Byron. I've been going back to basics & fishing when I should rather than when I can. It makes a world of difference. Cheers, Grant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve07 Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 What a great session on the bass,with some top quality fish too, good photo's & nice report. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewhunter Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Thats a bloody good camera Grant... what is it? Chris would you believe that it's an old Nikon coolpix 3700. 3.2 megapixel! It's always taken great pics. I've also got a Casio 6 m/pixel but just don't get the quality shots from it. Go figure eh? Cheers, Grant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boban Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Session to remember Grant. Like the idea of fishing when I should as opposed to when I can. Got to get those priorities in order. Cheers Mitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brendong Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 How good are those Bubble Pop's in Black, you dead set can't miss with them? Top effort!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouliis Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 THE BASS LOOK VERY HEALTH. WELL DONE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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