Springtime Goldens

[pmak]

G'day fellow Raiders,

Another Windamere report from me - seem to have caught gold fever!!

Made a snap decision last week to fish Lake Windamere before the full heat of summer hits, mainly to get my father in law fishing the Lake again after he lucked out at our last trip. I planned to leave last Friday evening and camp overnight for an early start on Saturday but threats of road closures and the bushfires at Springwood and Lithgow forced me to change plans. Ended up leaving at 3.00am with my FIL and my youngest son for the three hour drive to the Lake to start fishing at first light. There was heavy fog on the water which limited visibility to 20m or so but with my gps tracks from the last trip in my sounder unit, I went forth confidently to the north west shores and started casting as the fog was starting to clear.

Fishing was slow with only one fish caught in the morning session.

Session 2 was in the afternoon to late evening. After many casts I hooked up to a fish but dropped it soon after. Some smoke from the bushfires reached the lake and made for a dramatic sunset over the lake. There were many boats and anglers on the water - three competitions in the next three weekends apparently and quite a few boats were there doing a prefish and chatter back at the ramp was that the fish were very shut down that day

Our final morning session started with my gps unit failing me but thankfully there was little mist on the water so navigation was not a problem. We fished the areas where we caught fish before but all did not produce. We started our journey back to the ramp and stopped at a few random spots to try our luck to no avail. I had started to pack my rod when my youngest son put out a cast to the edge of a point we were approaching and was on! After a short struggle, his pb Yellowbelly was on deck. It went a respectable 55cm and approx 8lbs. What a way to end the trip!

My FIL was persistent to the end but was not rewarded with a catch. Fishing was slow when considering reports of double figure captures in the Lake can happen when the fish are on.

We were reminded on our drive back that the bushfires were still raging in the mountains but were able to drive through without incident.

My thoughts go out to all the people caught in this disaster and still facing danger.

[brendong]

Great effort pmak and congrats on the pb for your young bloke, a 55 would have pulled pretty hard on 8lb.

Edited October 21, 2013 by Poddy Trapper

[ving]

nice work. never caught a yellow belly

[bassboy888]

That's a unit of a yellow belly. It would have gone hard for the your youngest, wouldn't help with the addiction at all

[paul.kenny]

Hi Pmak,

Sounds like a good trip with your son and FIL, pity the fish were shut down. Did you notice what the Barometric pressure was doing over the weekend. I have found the Yellas really like a rising Barometric pressure.

Your Son's PB Yella looks huge in his hands, it must have given a good account for itself. Bassboy and I must make the trip out west to give the Yellas a real nudge, maybe next year.

[pmak]

Ving - you should give Yellowbelly a go as a break from your carp fishing though carp probably fight better!

Bassboy - my son's fish came as we were about to pull the plug. Let's just say it's restored his faith/confidence/enthusiasm

Basscatcher- you know, barometric pressure was down and we had clear nights with a full moon. Either that or we're terrible fishos. You should give the Yellas a go just for something different - I should probably try giving impoundment bass a go too eh?

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