Windamere Dam

[TANKN]

Anyone got information they are willing to share on prefferred lures and or techniques for fishing windamere dam (mudgee), i am attending an annual city v country fishing trip next weekend and the country boys aren't letting up any secrets.

target species is golden perch, silver perch, murray cod and the odd trout.

i have got a couple of hundred $$$ to spend at the local tackle store. thanks to ruddy's stimulus.

[FishDrought]

Mate Good luck with the fishing,

The water level is pretty low at the moment so there will be a lot of good snaggy areas around the shore line & some of the deeper areas. I think there is some rain threatening this week so the fish may strike a bit better.

My knowledge is somewhat outdated on Windamere as I left home about 12 years ago haha but you are welcome to what I remember.

My favourite lures in the dam are black & yellow 'tiger stripe' pattern "fish sticks" with the red & black a close second ( I still have some in my tackle box), other lures are the Stump Jumper, Dam Buster, in similar colours there are a couple of local lure makers including "Louee" lures and a bloke from Rylstone - but his name fails me now. The Yellows seem to really like motion in particular if the water is cloudy so I always preferred lures with a slight rattle or a really good action to create vibrations.

I don't know if the guy's at Go Fish could hook you up with some of those lure but it is worth asking them!

If you can't locate the lures then & you end up in Mudgee, you should find these lures available at some places around the town probably the camping shop on Sydney Road Mudgee.... or there is a bloke by the name of "Mark" he sells a fair bit of tackle & gear, his place is not far from the camping shop & I am 100% sure he could provide the best local lure for you.. Just ask the guys at the shop about him.

Yellow belly are everywhere, depends if you are landbased or on a boat? The dam wall shore line is good along with "limestone Creek" Landbased. Boating just try some deeper areas around some submerged trees & if your boat can handle it, troll along next the shore line too between the drowned trees & the shore .. you would be surprised at how many big Yellows fall in that area.

The odd trout you will find probably in the higher regions of the Rylstone end near the river or you may snag a brown if luck is with you. I think they have been releasing trout into the dam but I have never bother to chase them in the dam when they are everywhere in the Gudgegong river down from Windamere.

Silver perch I use to find hiding in the shallow weedy areas near a corpse of trees in the water.

Big yellows & Cod - well just keep an eye out for all the set lines that locals would have placed & they are a good indicator - also have a look on overhanging branches for dead rabbits, strips of meat & so forth, enterprising fisho's may have baited a good hole in preperation of the comp.

As the meat rots & is blown by flies maggots & pieces of meat fall into the water & fish are happy to stay around for a free meal.

Hope the info helps & Mudgee Rainbow Trout love selter spinners with their tail dipped in Aniseed oil.

[GregL]

My fave out at Windamere is a 60mm Jackall in black gold.

My fav run is the last bay before the no fish zone on the left looking at the wall.

We just hop the jackalls down the walls of the bay focusing on the points.

Greg

[snapR]

TANKN,

There's some great advice from fishdrought there - mate I left home about 7 years ago, not far behind ya!

Here's some of my 2 cents as my old man fishes windamere quite frequently.

The colder months see the yellas move into deeper water so try those deep pockets in open water with obvious sunk trees showing their tops... If no good, try close to the shoreline as FishDrought suggested in between sunken trees that you can spot with good snags generating around them. If the area has gotten any decent rain lately ( not sure but doubt it will make much difference to the low low low level) try sticking closer to the shoreline.

Areas with big structure are gona hold the cod too and troll around rocky, tree littered areas with your larger deep divers to get the bigger cod and yellas.

You can try decent sized spinnerbaits for yellas and cod.

Throwin med size Jackall chubbys do well too.

I've even used blades in the dam and hooked yellas so take some of those up with you. The vibration is the key here sometimes gettin the fish on the fall of the first / second retrieve. Speed em up if no interest is shown, the bigger fish might be moving quicker.

As suggested fish down toward the wall end if in a boat use your sounder scanning the old river bed for the deeper areas to secure a nice location.

Good Luck and hope you get a nice big cod and if not some decent yellas mate.

[kiwi waynie]

Three weeks or so ago spinner baits seemed to be going ok in shut down conditions, in particular my sml ginger beer colour, sorry duno the brand of it but its got double blades.

Lata Raidas.

Waynie.