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Well what a week! just got back from a trip down south to the beautiful countryside of bellengin. Bellengin is located about 40mins south-west of Coffs Harbour and what a beautiful, peaceful place it is. We were camping on a property just outside town where the upper reaches of the kalang river run through. This river was no more than a small stream at this stage, never more than 10 metres wide and at an average of about half a metre deep. When we first arrived i would never have anticipated that anything of decent size or quality would live in this small mountain stream, how wrong was i!! One morning i thout what the hell might have a flick, armed with an sx40 i began walking the banks casting into any deeper holes i could find or snags or anything that looked like it might normally hold fish. 15 minutes of flicking BANG bit of a tussle LOST it. WHAT WAS THAT! so continued casting, only took a few more when BANG again and with a short tussle in comes a nice 30cmish Bass. MY FIRST EVER BASS! released him and he was on his away. Time to get serious. Kept making my way up the stream and came to an interesting bend. The water was flowing around the corner pushing onto a bank well hidden under overhanging trees. If only i could get my little sx40 under there! flicked the lure causing it to land about 30cm in front of the tree line, not good enough so i let the current take it under the tree towards the bank. Okay it was in position, HERE WE GO! all it took was one crank. ONE CRANK and up rises a MONSTER bass, what an exhilirating experiece seeing it with m own two eyes. ZZZZZZZZZ oh shit! this place is snag city, only about 5 metres wide but in this 5 metres there was probably half a dozen places where i could get busted off. i could feel the line rubbing on structure below the surface until up pops his head...IN THE MIDDLE OF A TREE! Took some work but i got him out and the remainder of the fight was relatively easily handled. Up onto the bank slides 47cm of fat quality bass! out of a stream i would of normally not even looked at! WOOOHOOOOOOO! this was to be the biggest fish of the trip but by no means the last. Everyday from then on i went for a 1-2 hour session and everytime i would land one, two or three fish. No more monsters but all of decent size with the average about 25-35cm with another 40cm fish thrown in. But what a buzz seeing them rise and smash a lure on the surface. I soon discovered that lure positioning was absolutely essential. Your lure had to be right into the snags, deeper water pushing up into a snag was ideal. At some cases this involved casting into a 30cm by 30cm hole just to get in the strike zone. 20 failed attempts at getting in that strike zone would soon be forgotten when the lure was smashed only seconds after it hits the water in the strike zone. For a bit of fun i even tried poppers. Didnt land nearly as many fish but certainly got the strikes and what a rush. The bass were smashing the popper on impact with the waters surface, most times you didnt even have to work the lure at all, My theory is that the lure looked somewhat like a cicada falling onto the water. GREAT FUN!
sorry for the long report but it certainly was an exciting experience for me, MY FIRST EVER BASS and then landing a stonker 47cm fish out of a tiny little stream.
I grew up on the family farm which my Dad owned for 40 years in the Kalang Valley and the first fish I ever landed was a bass from the river on the farm.
When I was about 7 years old a mate of my Dad's from out west came to stay with us. One afternoon late he asked did I want to come down to the river with him as he was going to see if the bass ( we called them perch) were around. He had this small fine rod with a "funny" round reel on top of it. When we got to the river he tied on a strange plastic thing on the line and commenced casting this thing out into every hole with snags and winding it back in. He took great care where he landed it and it floated on the top then when wound in made a swimming type motion on top. I thought he was nuts for about 5 mins until the water exploded and he was fighting a good fish.
This was my introduction to lure fishing 45 years ago and while Dad is long gone and the farm sold I still think the river systems of the NSW Mid North Coast with their bass and natural beauty are still among the best forms of fishing I have ever enjoyed (there have been many).
The spelling of the town is Bellingen (not to offend) and I fully understand your feelings when the 1st fish hit. Guess it doesn't matter what age you are the effect is the same. BTW the entire river system is like that, not just the Kalang and the fish run up to 4 1/2lb generally. Also each hole will contain 1 larger female breeder and a number of smaller males which are rarely above 1 1/2lb.
Only got a pic of a smaller bass taken on a popper that was smashed on impact with the water in a small eddy lined with thick weed, ill post that later when i get it uploaded onto the comp. I forgot to mention it was also my first fish on an sx40 AND on a popper! I was using a popper called a 'thong-thing', the guy at coffs bait and tackle recomended it. It was just amazing fishing an area which i quite possibiliy was the only person to fish, maybe not but still!
bdm56 thanks, it was astounded that anything of size would live in such a small narrow shallow stream. Might i add that there was also alot of mullet swimming in schools so i guess if they were there so could the bass.
To add to my report one of the days we hired canoes from a place along the Bellinger River, paddling up a small creek that just screamed bass and bream i was unfortunate only to have the popper (lost the sx40 to a snag), still i got two nice hits one of which occured after a misplaced cast that went over a tree branch landing the lure on the otherside, BANG straight away, wasnt a big fish but still, ended up losing it due to the complications with the tree =P. The second hit was just a big slash at the lure on the surface with no hook up. Also, which was quite interesting a waterdragon had a go at my popper! Jumped clean out of a tree to take my popper, lucky it didnt hook up LOL.
Even if i dwasnt to catch any fish the all round scenery of the place is just spectacular!
Celta's were one of my main lures in that area, even the little no:1 size would bring hits from quite big fish. Also bream, ludrick & gar will hit them in the brackish areas.
bellengin Bass
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