bass----do they all migrate in winter?

[elleburra]

We're in the upper reaches of a mid north coast NSW river, a few rapids, some good deep pools and shallows, mainly stony river bed.

Since few weeks ago after the first frosts I haven't had a touch, tried surface lures and sub surface lures, nothing.
Question is would anyone know if they mostly all head downstream to the brackish and salt water during the colder months?
Only started fishing here last September and since then have usually managed at least a few C & R fish each outing mostly in the range of about 32cm to 42cm.

Advice would be gratefully received.

[Jim_Tait]

Sounds similar to my situation, I'm in the upper reaches of the Richmond basin (northern NSW) and post March all the big bass shoot through to the coast and arn't seen again until Sept - Oct. Sub adults remain in the upper system (~25 cm) and occassionally I've been surprised by a bigger straggler but by and large they're gone for the cool months - have to take up estuary fishing, or gardening or somthing ( if you really get desperate for a fish chase a few eel tailed catties with a light rig and worms).

regards - Jim

[Kuhlia_R]

The winter months are the period when Aussie Bass get that instinctive twitch n tingle to do what nature had intended, they will atempt at all odds to succeed in the anual migration to reach the spawning requirments.
however its not all smooth swimming and many chalenges await them on thier choses course, water levels, wiers and other impacts can all but devistate the attempts of Bass to achieve thier primordial urge.
which leads me to the posible exploitation of bass during this period,
lets say there is a point where the bass can no longer head down stream due to a wier that impeeds downstream access. and a bunch of fishermen that give the rest of us a bad name decide to hammer this with casts untill theyve had their fun and left a pile of rubish and taken more then what regulations allow.
Its a sad but true scenario.
however if its a respectable modern day fisherperson like you and I and i would hope a vast majority of others, and we happen to discover such a location, we have the ability to liberate the wonderfull Aussie Bass by releasing them over the obstical that the curently faced.
I am not sugesting taking them to another location as that is a big NO NO. but just past the barrier downstream if possible.
I must also mention that there is a likelyhood of bass comming under a closed non target period during the spawning period depending on where u are located or the location of where u fish.
Also we must understand that to catch a certain species such as bass during the spawning period may place undue stress on that fish cuasing it to abort spawning attempts and reabsorb its roe.
so if this is the case then all attempts to impart the least amount stress would do a whole lot of good in preserving wild fish stocks.

Kind regards and no offense, Kuhlia R

[elleburra]

Jim, thanks for that, I thought I'd lost my touch. Guess it makes sense that most of the fish would be breeders and head downstream.

We're in the upper Hastings catchment well west of Port Macquarie. Plenty of catties here in our section of the river plus some monster eels.
However bass are the fun ones, we just catch and release with any feeds of fish bought from the fish shop in PM.

Last summer there were a few evenings where storms were about, the barometer was dropping and there was plenty of insect activity. It was incredible to stand in the river fishing and hear the bass all around taking insects off the surface of the water. Strange sound halfway between a pump inlet all of a sudden taking air and tossing a lump of wood into the water.

Guess I'll just have to be content with bream and drummer fishing during winter.

[elleburra]

Kuhlia, no real obstacles from here on down, just a few shallow rapids. Main problem could be drought years although it is incredible how bass can bash through a shallow, rocky rapid.

Actually I thought there was already a closed season in NSW for Australian Bass from June to September, we observe it anyway and give the bream and drummer a bash. However as I said I was surprised that the bass moved downstream so early in the year.

Must admit I have a bit of a reputation of being a cranky old B as far as inconsiderate fisherpeople anywhere near our place, amazing what a bit of barbed wire and a lock on the gate can do. We have about 4km of river through our property with some great deep holes and some good eddys where fish can shelter in floods so I feel it is a worthwhile exercise to protect it.

[JewseeTHAT]

You may need to check your land Title mate, in NSW the common arrangement is an easement along creeks and rivers of some metres from the bank. You're perfectly entitled to fence stock out and protect the banks from any damage, however people are allowed to fish in a river bounded by your property as you don't 'own' the river. Also bear in mind the damage fences do as they get washed away in flood. That said no-one may enter your property to access the river through your front gate without your permission, lol.

[elleburra]

jewsee, you're mistaken there, at least for this neck of the woods.

I checked this a long time ago, the titles clearly state the property boundary is the edge of the river and sometime ago our surveyor confirmed that is regarded as the edge of the river with a normal flow of water in it. Absolutely no mention of any river bank easement on the certificates of title. Maybe you're getting fresh water rivers confused with salt water rivers

Of course we do not 'own' the river but actually a bit further upriver the title boundaries are the centre of the river. Therefore it probably would not be a great idea for anyone to demand access in either case. Of course we do allow some to fish the river, depends on their manner of asking and their behaviour. All we are trying to do is protect this stretch of river, including from the brain dead illegal netting guys who used to give it a bash.

"Bear in mind the damage fences do when they get washed away in flood"? are you kidding? It takes us days to repair flood damage after floods, what do you think we do, just let the fence merrily float downstream?

As for us being 'entitled' to fence our cattle off from the river, I wish. By law now we will be REQUIRED to fence off the river and I will be grateful for any advice how we can stop flood damage to our fences.

[JewseeTHAT]

As I said.. the 'common' arrangement. In this neck of the woods there is an easement to the (freshwater) creek and my understanding is that that is normal for NSW. If you take down your barb wire fences before any flood, and don't let miles of barb get dragged downstream you're one in a million and I applaude you.

[elleburra]

Jewsee, common arrangement or otherwise, there's absolutely no legal access along river banks here. But as I said, it depends on the manner of the person asking and their method of fishing.
And I guess it also depends whether our bull mastiff dog likes them. He's probably the best friend the bass could ever have :-)

In the ideal theoretical world I guess it would be great if we had cattle proof fences we could take down before a flood but in the cold, hard practical world of farming that's a pipedream. We often get 3 or 4 inches of rain in one storm here, that is enough to start a flood and often could happen overnight. With about 4km of riverbank fences we just have to do the hard slog of repairing them afterwards.

[Jim_Tait]

What law are you referring to that requires you to fence off the river? Does that entail total cattle exclusion or are you still allowed to practice controlled seasonal grazing?

In my experince total grazing exclusion can sometimes do as much damage on some river systems as total grazing access via the accumulation of hot fire fuel loads and the proliferation of exotic pastures and other palatable weeds that cattle provide some control over. It depends on the bank profile and the nature of the riparian vegetation and weed suite.

If you want some ecological advice to take on a beligerant law maker give us a PM.

Regards - Jim

[hardb8]

Hi elleburra,
This is starting to get a little ugly eh.Anyhow,In my local around winter when the water temp drops the bigger Bass do head down stream to spawn,But not all.I've seen and caught some big fish(45 to 56 cm) upstream in the cooler months.The majority of the juveniles stay up the top feasting on the smaller prey they're accustomed to eating,But a few smaller ones will also go downstream,The top water action slows considerably during Winter but you'll get the odd fish at night if you persist.I've read that the seasoned and wise Australian Bass will not migrate to spawn if there has been a very long dry spell,As these are not appropriate conditions for their young to survive.And/or if they do decide to go their path is unable to be travelled due to pools forming from lack of rain.It is apparently a built in mechanisim to insure the survival of the species.Not taking the risks associated with the down stream journey or wasting energy on a hopeless spawning.Not sure if this is related to the lack of suitable food or water temp for the young to survive.My answer to your question,Do all Bass migrate in Winter? Is no.Keep castin mate maybe try somethin deeper in your area,Plastics,Prawnstars or Spinnerbaits?I'd personally have a go at the arvy and on to dusk when the water has warmed up from the day time heat.Hope I've been able to help.

[Kuhlia_R]

Obviously there are a nubmer of factors that determine whether or not a sexually mature bass will attempt a down stream spawn migration. from a female fishes perspective it takes a lot of resources to acumulate the energy requirement to produce eggs and then make the journey to the brackish water.
if all the ideals where at optimum such as season, temperature, rainfall, waterflow, down stream access and excess energy acumulated from a good feed supply during the warmer period then i wouldnt be surprised if 99 percent of sexually mature fish make the attempt.
however ideals are few and far between and sometime they dont bother trying and leave it till next time. which brings me to the point i stated where any undue stress may effect the atempt to migrate.
another explaination to the disapearing bass is that due to colder temperatures the fishes metabolism slows down and bassically the fish shuts down untill cirumstances improve. they might be there under your nose hiding but have absolutely no interest with any offerings froma fisher persons perspective.

I'll stay out of the fence debate and stich to the bass questions.
Kind Regards Kuhlia R

[akman1]

hi,elleburra,youve got 4km of river and you just started fishing it ? most blokes I know would give their right arm for something like that,Ive only got 500m of access to the orara (Coffs hbr area)and we generally can go upstream or down at least a km or so.
It is hard to catch a good bass in winter as most appear to move downstream to the clarence (50km in a straight line from me)and then they hold winter fishing classics there(Copmanhurst),poor Bass
My 2bobs worth on river access-even though you may own the land and in some cases the river(where the watercourse has changed over the years)it is still 20m from the edge of the water you cant stop anyone.
As for fencing we use elect tape parallel to the river and elect plain wire 90* to the river,will still get knocked over but much easier to remove grass and limbs,I have seen posts that will fall over with weight on them then stand back up but doent know where to buy them.Another way is to have elect plainwire and on the downriver side of your posts put 1/2" bar into the posts bent up at a45* angle and then when anything pushes against it it comes off the post without taking the post with it providing youve got good corner posts(we usually ram ours in about 5').
Ps.I usually use our buglight to tell if there is heaps of insects around as to whether we'll do any good fishing.

[elleburra]

akman, thanks for the fencing tips. We do use electric a fair bit and as you say the cleanup is much easier. The floods here are vicious, the river is in a steep sided valley and the water force during big floods is massive. I often wonder how the bass survive although there are several good back eddys where the gullies bank up and during floods they are alive with fish, probably plenty of feed for them there as well.

Actually the access bit is really a non event. Pretty dense undergrowth either end of our property and only road access to our stretch of the river is right next to the house. Add in a bull mastif, looks fierce but is a real sook, plus locked gates when we are away and we do not have trouble. The other (northern) side of the river has very bad access, the property owner and his workers are really the only persons we have ever seen over there.

Guess the right of way bit is debateable, I did check with the local council surveyor and our own guy who has done some work for us and they both said in this area our boundary is the actual edge of the water, taken when the river is in normal flow. A small property we have a fair way up river actually has it's boundary in the centre of the river.

Yes, owned the place for a long time and never fished for bass till last year. Always a salt water fisho, did look at the river many times but I really did not know much about bass until I joined Ausfish. Then late one afternoon I went down with a light rod and 4lb line with a tiny soft plastic.
Stood in a very narrow rapid and cast down into the swirl at the bottom right next to a log lying against the bank but never thinking anything would happen. Next think I got a hit, reminded me very much of a drummer hit, then I was hooked. From memory it was only 38cm but a great fight as it used the current well. However it was really only when I got some surface lures, a tiny torpedo and a 1/4 oz jitterbug, that I really found out about bass.
That time was in a big pool, first cast was near some big clumps of reed over a stony bottom. As soon as the lure hit the water it seemed that all hell broke loose, frightened s### out of me . I've never seen such agression, except maybe tailor and the like in a feeding frenzy, from memory that one was in the high 30s also. My PB is only 45cm but it is incredible to see how small they can be and still hit a lure. Caught one about 10cm recently.
Yes insect activity is one key, also barometric pressure another. We've had a few great evenings, approaching storm and insects everywhere, quite amazing to hear a lot of bass hitting insects on the surface.
Best fun of all is I had a mate who wanted to try bass fishing. I did not warn him about the way they strike and it was so funny to watch his face for the moment he got his first hit.

[Charlie]

Don't know where you get your info guys but there is defintely no easment along NSW streams much to my dismay because Victoria has it, I don't know about Queensland.