NormC
04-01-2007, 06:30 PM
A breif report on my first Moogerah trip. In a word.......... RAIN.
Not enough to make much difference to the dam level, but it rained most of the time we were there. I put the boat in on Tuesday afternoon for a brief session after setting up camp. This took a bit longer than usual as it was our first trip with the fold up aluminium trailer along for the tinnie (which we carry on the Hilux roof and tow the camper trailer). Very windy. Picked up a couple of small bass. Both released
On Wednesday it rained just about all day. Had a relaxing day reading and drinking coffee, but I got a bit restless about mid afternoon and went out anyway. Five or six small bass and a monster turtle! All released. Lucky I had the 'Drizabone' with me.
We were leaving on Thursday (today), but I went out for a morning fish to see if I could improve my position. No rain for the first hour or so, then it poured. Stayed out anyway. Just two bass again, both around 300mm and released.
All the fish except two were caught on SPs. The other two were on small hard bodies. Tried bibless rattlers and briefly a spinnerbait, but no joy.
As reported before, the main boat ramp is pretty much unusable. Large rocks in front of the ramp and the end of the concrete is 10m or so out of the water. A rough gravel ramp has been established about 200m to the right (looking at the water)of the main ramp. This ramp is quite good, but a guy got bogged on it trying to get his ski boat out. He sat there and spun all four wheels and made a mess. Another guy came down and towed him out. Good on him, but to celebrate, he did half a dozen doughnuts on the soft black soil on the ramp approaches. Real smart people. I was out in the middle of the dam watching this nonesense. The ramp is still usable with care and with a couple of days of sunshine, it will be fine.
The other turkey award goes to the bloke who put in red claw pots. They were in less than 2 metres of water, but with 25 metre ropes. I hooked a nice bass and ended up tangled around one of the ropes about 20 metres from the float. Not happy Jan.
Apart from all this, we had a great time. It's great to get away for a couple of days.
There is some good structure to cast around up the 'river' upstream from the dam. Mostly pretty shallow and a few stumps just under the surface to avoid, but worth a look for some interest.
Also, just out from the gravel ramp, there is a mound of rocks or something. Deep all round it, but it gets as shallow as 3 ft in one place. Picked up a few fish casting plastics around it, but all pretty small.
The big dissapointment of of the trip is that my wife still hasn't caught a bass on a lure. She has caught a couple on shrimp in the Hinze, but I'm trying to get her into lure fishing. Because of the rain, she only came out once though. Not dedicated (or silly) enough to go out in the rain.
Sorry, no pics. I kept saying 'when I get a big one, I'll take a pic, but it never happened. :'(
Not enough to make much difference to the dam level, but it rained most of the time we were there. I put the boat in on Tuesday afternoon for a brief session after setting up camp. This took a bit longer than usual as it was our first trip with the fold up aluminium trailer along for the tinnie (which we carry on the Hilux roof and tow the camper trailer). Very windy. Picked up a couple of small bass. Both released
On Wednesday it rained just about all day. Had a relaxing day reading and drinking coffee, but I got a bit restless about mid afternoon and went out anyway. Five or six small bass and a monster turtle! All released. Lucky I had the 'Drizabone' with me.
We were leaving on Thursday (today), but I went out for a morning fish to see if I could improve my position. No rain for the first hour or so, then it poured. Stayed out anyway. Just two bass again, both around 300mm and released.
All the fish except two were caught on SPs. The other two were on small hard bodies. Tried bibless rattlers and briefly a spinnerbait, but no joy.
As reported before, the main boat ramp is pretty much unusable. Large rocks in front of the ramp and the end of the concrete is 10m or so out of the water. A rough gravel ramp has been established about 200m to the right (looking at the water)of the main ramp. This ramp is quite good, but a guy got bogged on it trying to get his ski boat out. He sat there and spun all four wheels and made a mess. Another guy came down and towed him out. Good on him, but to celebrate, he did half a dozen doughnuts on the soft black soil on the ramp approaches. Real smart people. I was out in the middle of the dam watching this nonesense. The ramp is still usable with care and with a couple of days of sunshine, it will be fine.
The other turkey award goes to the bloke who put in red claw pots. They were in less than 2 metres of water, but with 25 metre ropes. I hooked a nice bass and ended up tangled around one of the ropes about 20 metres from the float. Not happy Jan.
Apart from all this, we had a great time. It's great to get away for a couple of days.
There is some good structure to cast around up the 'river' upstream from the dam. Mostly pretty shallow and a few stumps just under the surface to avoid, but worth a look for some interest.
Also, just out from the gravel ramp, there is a mound of rocks or something. Deep all round it, but it gets as shallow as 3 ft in one place. Picked up a few fish casting plastics around it, but all pretty small.
The big dissapointment of of the trip is that my wife still hasn't caught a bass on a lure. She has caught a couple on shrimp in the Hinze, but I'm trying to get her into lure fishing. Because of the rain, she only came out once though. Not dedicated (or silly) enough to go out in the rain.
Sorry, no pics. I kept saying 'when I get a big one, I'll take a pic, but it never happened. :'(