Boondooma Dam

[Brian]

Well with a couple of days available a mate and i vanished to the interland to check out our venue for our Catch & Release comp in November.

As there were some improvements going on we felt a visit was in order.

The Dam is approximately 1 hours drive north west of Kingaroy and 20 klm outside of Proston, a quick check of my speedo shows a return trip from Brisbane was 649 klm's.

The dam was constructed after the government decided to proceed with the Torong power station in 1978 and primarily supplys water via a 67 klm metre 1000 mm diameter pipeline to the power station. The dam also allows for irrigation supplies.

"Boondooma" is a historic homestead located over the storage. The name is of Aboriginal origin and means "a hole in the sand to get a drink of water". Let me say this is one big water hole .

The dam wall is 61 metres high and 600 m across, when full creates a puddle of 1915 hectares and 212000 megalitres.

As for the stocking this is carried out by Boondooma Dam Fish Stocking Management Committee and you have Australian Bass, Silver & Golden Perch, Murray Cod, Saratoga, Barramundi and the resident eels and eel - tailed catfish.

You also require a Stocked Impoundment Permit (SIP) and this can be obtained at the dam's new kiosk. The kiosk is mainly geared up to supply milk bread, ice, gas and boat hire. More details can be obtained from the managers Lance and Kristy Frahm on 41689694.

Improvements there are now 5 self contained units, new amenity block at the lakeside area, the old workers cottage overlooking the dam houses around 30 persons has been fully revamped with a common kitchen and toilets.

So the place is looky fantasic for our comp later this year.

On the fishing side of things this was rather quite with a couple of golden perch and a bass falling victim to our lures. I was completely smashed by some finned beast so that location has been noted for later to be explored in more depth.

The water was a dirty colour and we were told the main dam area had rolled about a week ago, so that would explain a few things. We never ventured to the timbers of either river as we really did not have the time . In hindsight we should have, but with only an overnight stay and a few hours to fish we opted to do that next time.

Anyway a worthwhile time was had fact finding and we are looking at another trip very soon.

[Slates]

G'day Brian.
As things have panned out, the ol' fellah and I will be definate starters for the comp! (woo hoo!!)
I've emailed him the form, my details and the $$ for noms so the form should be in ASAP.

Looking forward to it - the '96 & '97 comps were great!

Cheers, Slates

[Brian]

Bloody great to hear slates ......... be good to catch up with you and your old man again and down a few ales . Yes they were good comps and this one will be the same if not better.

I'm sure you will catch up on a lot of regulars as well

See you there

[Smithy]

Steve Morgan fished it two weekends ago with 2 visiting South African Bassmasters and caught and released around 50 quality bass for a few days. The same weekend Al Mitchell, Scotty Matthews and Roger Major were there and all caught over 20 big fish per boat on fly mostly and a few on plastics.

[Brian]

Yes well i'm looking forward to fishing there so will be there for about a week so will give me a chance to check a few things out and try different methods.