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Just spent a few days @ Monduran dam for some R&R .
I pretty much had a fair idea it would be tough going due to recent happenings on the dam.
Now being a sucker for knowledge i thought it best to check it out and not take the easy way out by fishing something easier. Anyway i'll cut to the chase..... Spent 20 plus hours fishing for 2 Barra landed out of 3 hook ups, also had to deal with about 9 or so Catfish as well. One Barra came via fishing a Evergreen ES-Flat basically just dead sticking it over some structure that held a few fish in 15' of water, while the other fell to a 6†Mr Twister curl tail fished unweighted with a 7/0 worm hook on a medium retrieve in less than 2 feet. And the one jump off came via a 4†Rattle Trap jigged @ 20 feet in 50 plus foot of water.
Most of the catties came via 110 Slick Rigs on the shores that the waves were crashing into. Not a lot of fish getting caught at the moment and the most common reply from anglers was nothing for several days fishing or the odd boat got 1 or 2 after 40 hrs combined casting.
Casting softy's in the shallows paid off for a few but only after hrs of casting practice. A lot of boats trolling for little or no reward as well. Lots of comments on water temperature being the problem but i don't think it's an issue IMO.
The big problem at the moment is lower than normal dissolved oxygen levels over most parts of the dam due to flooded ground vegetation being broken down by bacterial decomposition etc.
Until this process is mostly completed the fishing is going to be very indifferent and challenging indeed. If it wasn't for the very windy conditions the fishing would have been even worse off.
Bugger all bait fish to be found near the surface and the hundreds of thousands of cormorants that usually black out the sky have taken off somewhere else to find a feed.
So if your heading to Monduran in the near future then the fishing is most likely going to be challenging.
Cheers Les
I pretty much had a fair idea it would be tough going due to recent happenings on the dam.
Now being a sucker for knowledge i thought it best to check it out and not take the easy way out by fishing something easier. Anyway i'll cut to the chase..... Spent 20 plus hours fishing for 2 Barra landed out of 3 hook ups, also had to deal with about 9 or so Catfish as well. One Barra came via fishing a Evergreen ES-Flat basically just dead sticking it over some structure that held a few fish in 15' of water, while the other fell to a 6†Mr Twister curl tail fished unweighted with a 7/0 worm hook on a medium retrieve in less than 2 feet. And the one jump off came via a 4†Rattle Trap jigged @ 20 feet in 50 plus foot of water.
Most of the catties came via 110 Slick Rigs on the shores that the waves were crashing into. Not a lot of fish getting caught at the moment and the most common reply from anglers was nothing for several days fishing or the odd boat got 1 or 2 after 40 hrs combined casting.
Casting softy's in the shallows paid off for a few but only after hrs of casting practice. A lot of boats trolling for little or no reward as well. Lots of comments on water temperature being the problem but i don't think it's an issue IMO.
The big problem at the moment is lower than normal dissolved oxygen levels over most parts of the dam due to flooded ground vegetation being broken down by bacterial decomposition etc.
Until this process is mostly completed the fishing is going to be very indifferent and challenging indeed. If it wasn't for the very windy conditions the fishing would have been even worse off.
Bugger all bait fish to be found near the surface and the hundreds of thousands of cormorants that usually black out the sky have taken off somewhere else to find a feed.
So if your heading to Monduran in the near future then the fishing is most likely going to be challenging.
Cheers Les
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