After dropping in to check out Koombooloomba Dam some months ago during a road trip, and reading reports here, Nic and I were keen to give it a go. One deterent was the hike from Townsville as all we had was a weekend, but thought we'd go anyway.
I thought there was only one way in and out from TVL, but my Navman F20 told me to turn left between Cardwell and Tully. This 'short cut' brought us out in the Tully Gorge, involved one dodgy creek crossing due to a bridge having been washed away and ended up at a locked gate at the Misty Mountains! It added two hours to the trip, and saw us back tracking to the Bruce Hwy. On a positive note, I stopped on a bridge along the way and spotted stacks of JPs in a pristine stream. Will definitely go back and explore that.
We arrived at Koombie at 7pm after leaving TVL at midday. Set up camp, had a feed then crashed.
Next morning we rose with the sun. We had no idea of where to head and decided on a nice looking arm with good snags along the bank, still shaded from the morning sun.
Here we got our first sooty on a C'ultiva surface lure. We persisted for a while then moved further up the arm where Nic got a 39cm specimen on a Jackall Mask Vibe. Further up this arm we found a great spot with a creek in-flow. No fish but a beautiful spot.
We tried numerous other likely looking spots with nil return so we found a spot out of the wind (it was cool, something I'm not used to in NQ) and had lunch.
I was keen to find where the Tully enters the dam, so we set off on a search. We didn't find it, but we did find another 11 sooties in a great part of the dam with fallen timber bank side and steep cut away banks that provided the perfect sooty hang out.
Nic was still using the Jackall and I had tied on a spinnerbait. First cast with the spinnerbait, the lure was bumped and nudged several times. Next cast it was slammed and a 39cm sooty was soon boatside. Nic soon followed with a 39cm sooty too. We went on to catch another nine sooties ranging from 20cm to the 39cm mark. We didn't find any barra, though with our limited time there didn't really target them either.
With the dam littered with timber at waterline, we headed back to camp at a slow pace arriving at 4pm. By 5pm the camp was packed and we were back on the road. The run home, going the right way was 360km and took us five hours. We were both stuffed when we got home, but the trip was worth it.
Next time we'll go for a couple of nights and explore this great waterway more thoroughly. Hope you enjoy the pics.
Regards,
Dave.
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Originally Posted by tiges
but the sooties make the day for us.
