Bass in the Upper Noosa River

[shanew]

Had a great weekend with a couple of mates in the upper Noosa bass fishing. Over a couple of days fishing just mornings and evenings we landed about 12 fish, mostly on surface lures like the Zara Puppy, Jitterbugs, and this cicada thing I've got. Hope you enjoy this pic of my biggest ever wild river bass. It was 45cm, and around 3lb.
Cheers,
Shane.

[Didley]

Nice fish there, Shane. I'm up there myself next week, I've never caught a wild bass, and I figure it's something I probably should do (if I can leave the red fish alone long enough) How far up do I need to go to get into bass country (I have an electric)

Dids

[shanew]

Nice fish there, Shane. I'm up there myself next week, I've never caught a wild bass, and I figure it's something I probably should do (if I can leave the red fish alone long enough) How far up do I need to go to get into bass country (I have an electric)

Dids

I honestly reckon you could get them anywhere from the narrows north of the big lake right through to the top end. Our fish were a few km's upriver from Harry's Hut but downriver from campsite 3 as you aren't allowed motored vessels past that point. My take on the area during my limited visits is that time of day has been a major factor. Our best session was one morning when we were on the water in the dark (4:30am) and fished till about 8:30am. We actually caught several fish in the dark. Find a likely bend in the river close to a deep bank bordered by reeds and/or snags (there are plently of places like this). Put the nose of the boat on the bank and cast surface lures parallel to and slightly out from the bank. This you can do safely without needing to see too much, particular with a spinning reel. Slow the presentation down a LOT, with lots of pauses. Expect to hook about 1 in 5 strikes with surface lures, and if the fish doesn't hit the hooks, leave the lure there and work the area multiple times. We had at least 4 fish that struck more than once like that. One of my mates was a first-time-basser as well, and he caught several.

I would also like to add that all our fish were released, and humbly request others do the same. This is a great fishery, hopefully we won't stuff it up.

[Cammy]

Top bass there mate, id be happy with any bass atm.

Cam

[Bronson]

nice bass mate and even better you got them on the surface


bron