Winter Impoundment Bass

[paul.kenny]

Hi Raiders,

Bassboy and I competed in our third BASSIN team competition on the weekend of 7 - 8 July. We travelled up to Lake St Clair in the Hunter Valley on Thursday to set up camp and prepare for the pre-fish day on Friday. Fortunately we were able to set up camp before the rain set in.

Friday morning dawned cloudy but dry. We spent Friday searching and marking schooled fish and finding where they were feeding. The morning pre-fish was successful with Bassboy catching our biggest fish of the weekend....damn-it . This nice Bass was taken on a T-tail soft plastic that was hopped across the bottom amongst active fish in 18ft of water.

Whilst working the schooled fish we notice a couple of big Bass were working the shallow weed and smacking stuff off the surface. Unfortunately they weren't interested in our surface lures, even our small bream surface lures.

We caught a few more nice fish during the pre-fish. The successful technique was to cast towards the edge and hop the plastics through the active fish in 15 - 18ft of water.

It rained again on Friday night as we all gathered for the pre-brief for the competition, it looked like we were in for a wet competition. Saturday morning dawned with clearing skies, but cold. With the other 32 boats competing we headed off for the first session at 7am. Bassboy and I arrived at our first location at 7:09am, a prominent weeded point in the Carrowbrook Arm……I was onto my first Bass on my third cast, unfortunately it was just undersized. We then experienced a short hot bite for the next 30min as I hopped a small blade (ZX35). I was able to get two legal sized Bass, whilst Bassboy was unable to get a fish to stick to his T Tail soft plastic. We persisted in this location for another 30min before moving to other locations that we had identified during the prefish, however we were unable to place any further legal fish into our livewell for the morning session. 2 out of a possible 4 was a respectable start and we ended the first session in 18th place.

The afternoon session started at 1pm and we headed back out to our prominent point in the Carrowbrook Arm, once again identifying schooled fish in 18ft of water. We worked hard hopping blades and SPs through the school and working small ice-jigs for not even a touch. Frustrated at the locked jaw Bass we moved off to work other banks for a donut during the second session. It appeared that we weren’t the only team to get a donut, with many of the teams finding it hard to fill their livewells. Unfortunately our donut saw us slide down to 21st place and Bassboy frustrated that he had a second donut in a row.

Saturday night was spent sitting around the camp fire strategizing as we enjoyed a couple of amber ales. We even sought advice from the leading teams, who were more than happy to provide advice. As a consequence, we decided to head back to our prominent point again as we knew the fish would be active first up in the morning. The third session on Sunday morning started with fog enveloping the lake and we all headed of at 7am slowly motoring through to our chosen fishing locations. Our decision to return to the prominent point paid off almost immediately as a 30cm Bass hit my blade within the first ten minutes. I then caught an undersized bass before they went off the bite again. This time we moved immediately and worked further along the bank, finding small schools of fish sitting in 20ft of water. As we found active fish we hopped blades and T Tail soft plastics and danced ice-jigs past their noses for no luck. In the last hour of the final session I changed technique, specifically the weight of my jighead (from 1/8 to 1/6) and a smaller T Tail (from 2.5 inches down to less than 2 inches) to slow roll the soft plastics across the bottom. I started to get more hits on the lure and finally caught a second legal fish for the live well. That was to be our last fish before the last session ended at 11am.

We ended the competition in 22nd place, pretty respectable considering I was carrying a passenger (Bassboy ended the competition with a donut). Fortunately we won a lucky number prize which softened the blow for Bassboy.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend. The Bassin competition is a well conducted and friendly competition and we will give it another crack next year.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Basscatcher

[Heath R]

Well done boys

Those bloody bass can be very tempramental in the colder months up there

[brendong]

Welldone lads....sounds like a whole lot of fun despite the shut down fish......clearly over the next couple of months they start to wake as that's a hell of a lot harder than last november when I was up that way .....can feel bassboys disappointment, very though being a passenger when your mate is catching everything else, bizarre how that just happens at times.... Must fish a comp one of these days....puts all your kills to the test when times get tough....

Edited July 15, 2012 by Poddy Trapper

[PRED-ATOR]

well done guys some very fat bass there! i wish i caught something like that in the nepean i know they are there.

Im assuming it was very cold judging clothes lol.

Well done again guys, Stan

[arpie]

Well done, boys - shame the biggie came on the prefish!! Doesn't it always happen like that?? Gees, it would have been a bit cold camping by the lake!!

Some nice fish there, too. Shame they were a bit scarce - it should get better in a few months tho!!

cheers

Roberta

[paul.kenny]

Thanks for your comments guys. It was an enjoyable weekend and we have continued to learn from each competition and broaden our knowledge and techniques.

[Jewhunter]

Well done guys.

It's tough when the fish shut up shop during a comp. Bloody frustrating!

Still a respectable finish & it just goes to show that OLD BLOKES RULE!

Glad you were there to help retrieve the boat & do the netting Bassboy!

Great report & pics as well Basscatcher.

Cheers,

Grant.

[bassboy888]

It's tough when the fish shut up shop during a comp. Bloody frustrating!

Glad you were there to help retrieve the boat & do the netting Bassboy!

.

haha grant your not wrong, it gets hard when the fish shut down! even harder if you cant catch em when they do bite

im lucky i didnt drop any fish while netting, would have been the worst fishing partner then