Maclean Trip

[frankie machine]

Hey Raiders,

As I asked for some advice about a trip to Maclean, I thought I should report back. I was up there with the tin lids visiting my sister and the best piece of luck I had was meeting her neighbour, Tom, a born-and-bred Maclean man with a passion for fishing. My second day up there Tom took my out in his boat. We were up early and it was a pristine morning - the only noise as we put his tinnie in was the rat-a-tat-tat of the the wings from the flocks of of birds taking off from the Clarence River. As Tom said "On a day like today, any fish are a bonus."

We headed up to an area the locals call the broadwater. Tom has been fishing for more than 40 years and he is a solid convert to lures. He only uses Gulp 2" shrimp (mostly in banana prawn colour, but occasionally pepper and new penny) and Atomic 2" prongs. So armed with those we cast out - Tom uses the a rhythmic retrieve and drop method. Second cast in Tom pulls a 30cm+ bream into the boat, bit throws it back "as I don't like the taste of them". I get into a couple of bream (and I do like eating them!) so into the esky they go. But before you know it, Tom has two lovely lizards in the boat. I join him with one - lose another - before he nails a couple more. And talk about 'matching the hatch', one that Tom gets near the boat starts throwing the head about and spews up bellyful of the Clarence River's best prawns. After getting a few more flatties, we head back and Tom says we'll just stop and throw few hard body lures in because he thinks there could be some decent bream around and they could be 'a bit of fun'. I change to a TT vibe and second cast in I've got another nice bream. Talk about local knowledge. It was one of the best fishing experiences I've ever had.

Apart from the trip with Tom, I caught more than 10 dart on worms off Pippi Beach in Yamba - not for eating but great fun catching on light great gear and from the bank under the McFarlane Bridge (I think) over the south arm of the Clarence at Maclean I lost a good flattie close to the bank and then nailed a monster 72cm lizard that tore plenty off line off my reel and was a real buzz to catch. She went back in, and unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me to get a snap.

All-in-all, it's a great area to fish and if anyone can get up there, don't miss the opportunity.

[brendong]

Sounds like a cracking time....its great fishing new areas with a local, can't beat that...congrats on the big girls....shame about the camera...

[anthony f]

Glad to hear you had a good time and help from a local never goes astray. The broad is the spot for flatty during winter. You would of noticed a pocket net prawner set up on the eastern bank not to far inside the entrance. This has a rock feature and a hole one of my places to fish spots. A mate of mine went up there the other day and was annoyed to find it there. Over all the clarence valley is a great spot to fish and live and having a boat helps heaps. You also would of noticed Lover Point at the end of Pippi Beach a good spot to throw a lure for all sorts of things at times. Hope you were not here when we had all that wind which made life difficult for a while. Sounds like you should visit your sister more often.

Edited October 21, 2009 by TDH

[andrew399]

Good work mate! How good is the clarence! Mostly i fish up around ulmara where my grandparents live, its kind of brackish but you get monster bream and good bass - i love it up there!

[jenno64]

Local knowledge is gold. When I go on hols to fish its often pretty tough getting into good numbers of quality fish ....the first thing I do when I get back is hit one of my favourite spots and bring home a feed.

[mako1]

Sounds like you had a great trip.

Nothing like a bit of local knowledge to get onto the fish.

Some nice flatties there.

Well done