Cania Chaos Easter Weekend

[bishop]

We’ll it was a great Easter at Cania Dam. Camped at the caravan park with plenty of fishing early in the morning, before everyone got out of bed and drinking in the evenings.

All fish photographed and released

Friday Morning
Left Gladstone early on Friday morning and arrived at 7am. Went straight out for a quick recon and couldn’t help myself, so I had a 1 ½ hours session and landed 5 bass ranging from 36-42.5cm.

Friday Night.
I took a friends young fella out for a quick fish for no result. Returned to camp, had a few drinks too many and got ready for Saturday morning.

Saturday Morning
Woke up around 4.30am and headed out at 5am. The remainder of the group aren’t fishing purist and decided to sleep-in, well that was their loss. First up was a 50cm toga and then found a hot spot and caught 34 bass from 37-45cm in 1 ½ hours, at one stage landed 10 bass for 10 casts. Even caught a bass while untangling an overrun and having a drink. I headed further up the dam chasing some more toga. Caught 2 toga over the next hour, with the largest being 72cm.

Saturday Night.
Well after such a great morning I decided to join the rest of the group, have a few drinks and tell fishing stories, as the night rolled on the fish got bigger. Hence the photos, they don’t lie, as the old saying goes “I fish therefore I lie”.

Sunday Morning.
The wind had changed to a NNE with a slight chill to it and the fish had shutdown. It was a very difficult 5 hours, using every trick I knew and a few new ones I made up for one 48.5cm bass. Didn’t feel so bad when I got back to the ramp and heard the familiar reports “no fish today”, “fish have shut down”, “too many boats”.

Areas Fished (all distance and reference are from the main boat ramp)
The most important thing is to look for the dirty water, generally the windward sides, and watch the sounder
Friday – Bass - 4km from the main boat ramp on the northern flat from corner to corner, shortly after this area there is a hard right turn.

Saturday – Bass - 4.92km from the main boat ramp, the second smaller inlet on the northern side (the next inlet after the larger inlet).
Toga – First, same location as Friday morning, 5.28km small creek on eastern side, 5.66km on northern side (second inlet)

Sunday – Bass - 4.92km from the main boat ramp, the second smaller inlet on the northern side (the next inlet after the larger inlet). Fished all other areas for no result, could see schools of bass on the sounder but they weren’t interested.

Equipment – Rod - Shimano Ian Miller Bass Raider, Reel Okuma Nemesis, 20lb Bionic Braid, 20lb Black Magic Leader, Lures Rapala CD-7 Colour MN and Rapala Minow Rap MR09 Colour SD – Shad, Knots – Albright to leader and perfection loop to lure.
Tried various other hard bodies, soft plastics, spinner baits, frogs and bugs with no success.

[NAGG]

Good report Bishop ...... & smart fishing , well done.

nice to see the condition of the bass improving since the top up

Nagg

PS .... The humble rapala hey!!!

[Pumba]

Nice report Bishop- some nice fish there.
Are those rapalas the suspending type?

Cheers,
Matt

[bishop]

Matt,

The CD-7 is a sinking lure and I think the Minow Rap is fairly neutral. When all else fails, I always use these two lures in the colours above and have a number of spares.

[Awoonga]

Earl....The allround fisherman Barra and Bass........And Toga...too.Top effort Bloke...

[Peter4]

Great report - rich in detail and proven results by doing 'your own thing' when others preferred to sleep or drink!

Well done, you deserved the success you achieved.

Regs

Pete

[Little grey men]

A nice haul of bass there, looks like a great long weekend. Throw some toga into the mix and it becomes a perfect weekend....very well done

[bdowdy]

great report and photos, sounds like agreat trip..fish.friends..few drinks. thanks for showing..cheers bdowdy..brett

[Kayak1]

Thanks for the report Earl...so much detail I could picture myself at each spot.

Cheers,
Steve.

[SeekingBarradise]

Hi Earl you have got a nice mixed bag of fish there mate - well done.

How many campers were at Cania on the weekend and how many boats?

Cheers Kel & Lyndon.

[bishop]

Lyndon,

Second caravan park (closest to dam) was full. Early in the morning (before 6am) 2-3 trailers at ramp, returned around 10am each day and 15-25 trailers at ramp. If you want the peace and quiet, don't go during the holidays.