Wandandian Creek Report 1-5 April

[GreyNurse]

Took off for some much needed R & R to Bewong last Monday morning. Stayed at the RiverRetreat resort and fished Wandandian Creek land based over the five days. Would have loved to have taken advantage of the canoe provided except for two things; my back wasn't in the best shape to handle any weight solo, and I discovered on Thursday that the canoe was under lock and chain because the original one had "gone missing" in the last year, along with another trusted unsecured mooring along the creek. Mongrels!

Anyway, first day in I was throwing lures all over the place. Hard Bodies, blades, SP's, the lot. Not even a bump. Mmmm. This area is supposed to be prime flatty territory. What's going on? So off to the nearby roadhouse for some prawns and pillies. Well the bait hardly hits bottom when tap, tap.., tap, tap....gone. Feels suspiciously like bream, so change terminal gear for a 40cm 8lb trace with a small ball sinker running to a number 2 suicide hook. That did the trick. Started pulling in a mixture of yellow and black bream, but all undersized. Still, on light gear these little creek bruisers put up a good fight and were lots of fun. This continued over the next few days. My wife ventured down with her new JW Desiree combo and was immediately on to some nice little bream. She had a ball.

Finally on Friday afternoon, I land a 26cm black bream. Hallelujah! Something to write about. Quick photo and a kiss and back in he goes. I then put a pilly head on and cast out. I just put the rod down to slice up another pillie when zzzzzzzzzzzzz, off it goes. I pick up, set the drag and I'm on to a good fish at last! The mouth breaks the surface about 20 meters away, but I can't ID it because the water's quite tea stained, as it has been all week. I start gaining line and, keeping steady pressure on, decide to turn around and pick up the landing net. When I turn back, the fish has headed left and found a submerged branch to wrap the line around. Damn, gotta be careful because I'm using 4 kilo braid, but only a 2 kilo leader and trace. I give the line some slack and wait. A short run and a head shake, then nothing. I finally de-snag to find the line bitten though. Damn again!. Still, it was the best bit of excitement for the whole week. A couple more undersized bream after that. All up, I landed over 3 dozen bream, with only one legal. Then I call it a day and pack up the gear for an early start back to Sydney the next morning.

Normally, I head down to Bewong in January or Feb and score some nice sized flatty's. I've never pulled one out of that spot that's been less than 50cm, but this time I think the flathead had moved on down out of the creek to the Basin. Still, the purpose of the holiday was to recharge the batteries, and five days of fishing did exactly that.

Cheers,

Nursie

The submerged tree on the left where the mystery fish found freedom!

[Stapo]

know all about the back situation can symphathise on that for sure.

Nice report at least you had plenty of action and r&r bad luck on the one that got away.

[Centrepin]

_{Thanks for the report. Looks like you had good time.}

_Geoff

[Robinsoi]

Lovely relaxing report and nice photos too

Better luck next time with that mystery fish!

Good on you for escaping and recharging the batteries.

Thanks for sharing.

Ian

[docfitz]

Nice report - the creek looks like a relaxing place to fish - I have often driven past the sign for the River Retreat and wondered what it was like.. might take the kayak there one day