hello fisho's Hinze Dam bass

[dean main]

i have just started fishing the hinze dam for bass and im finding it abit of a struggle is there a preference to the eastern or western side and is it better to fis
h day or night.
thanks for any advice.

[cobiaman]

mate, i dont think you are allowed to fish after the sun goes down but try around the points with live shrimp for bait, cant go wrong

[Dunks]

Most people are struggling at Hinze at the moment. Winter is not the best time for bass there. Hit the shallow bays early where the water will be warmer, surface lures or spinenrbaits would work best. After the sun gets up troll water between 4-7 metres deep. Thats what worked for me last winter but I have not fished it this winter.

I have never used bait in freshwater before but live shrimp seems to be the go. I have also only fished the eastern arm and heading either way from the ramp has seen fish get caught.

[Pumba]

Hinze is fishing pretty tough at the moment- dont be too discouraged though, they will have to start chewing shortly.

Cobiaman is right, You are only supposed to fish Hinze during daylight hours.

Their usual winter pattern is to school off points in 4-8m of water. When they are like this they can be easily caught fishing mask vibs, soft plastics, deep fly or live shrimp. Last winter we were getting come really nice fish to 53cm. As yet they havent really started to school and there is still decaying weed down to 7m in places which is making fishing the bottom with the abovementioned lures difficult.

I usually throw a spinnerbait or lipless crank on some shallow banks on the way to the main points and pick up a couple that way. Bait fishing off the points usually will get a few- if you are catching barred grunter try moving a little deeper or fish without a sinker.

Cheers,
Matt

[darylive]

Hey Pumba, what is the go with Hinze? electric only? do you have to remove the outboard or just the fuel tank?

[Roo]

Hey Pumba, what is the go with Hinze? electric only? do you have to remove the outboard or just the fuel tank?

Electric only and petrol motor removed. not sure if you have to remove fuel tanks but i would suggest you leave it at home too if they are removable.

[d-man]

Dawn to dusk only
Electrics only - Fossil fuelled outboards removed along with tanks.
If you are using bait, expect to be picked off by barred grunters most of the time.

[OverNover]

Yep, I agree with all of the above, particularly the "don't get disheartened bit" as its real tough at the moment, even the "pros" can't be doing that well, haven't seen many posts from em, where are you Mitch???? We need help, we're strugglin!!!!!!!

Same as mentioned, chuck Jackals (or the more resonably priced models) and spinnerbaits at the shallow banks, have had some success trolling in 5-8m, only small fish though, Predatek Boomerangs in the ultra deep model on light braid is the go, particularly the darker colours.

I don't travel too far from the tower, probably too scared to risk heading too far from home and running out of juice, I HATE ROWING!!!!!!!

In regards to the motor and tank, Yep as said, gotta go!!! Not a bad thing anyway, if you're relying on the leccy all day, you want as little un-needed dead weight as possible, my little tinny gets stripped before I head out on the dam.

Hopefully haven't lost too many quality fish over the wall, can't wait for the temp to rise, keen to head over the other side of the dam and have a crack at the Toga.


Hope to see you on the water, if you see me, give us a shout, Cheers, Jamie.

White 3.7m Edgetracker (freshly painted......not that I'm overly proud of my efforts), called OverNover.