after missing a few weeks fishing due to an extended interstate work trip i was frothing to get on the water, especially given the recent influxes as i was keen to see how things had changed. with the weekend fully booked i snuck off friday afternoon for some therapy...
with the dam well and truly full there was plenty of new areas to target. we decided to start by having fun with the XOS sooty population, while often overshadowed by the big silver things that reside there now are still great fun..upon rounding the bend of the first locale we were greated by a couple of local killit and fillet boats so off to the next spot..motoring right up to the rapids i placed a cast to the top and let the water bounce the plastic down them..almost immediately i was thumped by a solid fish...after a few tense moments due to tight country and trying to kick the bow mount down with one hand with a rampaging sooty on the other a nice thick fish was boated...kind of got over that though, the allure of previously mentioned silver things was too great. first spot was worked over thoroughly for a solid hit on a boney and a follow to the boat on a slick..then it happened...
we saw a sizeable snake swimming across in front of us, he seemed to take a liking to the island made out of alloy so i sent a warning shot across his bow with my boney..trouble was i was a little too accurate and pinned him in his tail..of course he was not happy so here i am freaking out with what we believed to be a taipan on the end of my rod in one hand (not a brown, as neck was too thin and colouring was wrong, he had those black eyes of death) phone in the other calling matt asking him the release procedure of said taipan while my mate is fairly crapping himself...he advised to cut the snake off as its not worth dying over a lure, not even a boney! after a while mr snake decides he's had enough and needs a rest, what better place then our boat! as it attempts to board i get my mate to dump the enviro over him to keep him at bay, this was a good thing as rather than swimming under the net to exact revenge he tries to keep his head up above water. we were then able to grab him through the net, lift him on board and remove the lure without dying, which was good
light was failing after that episode, so the call to fish surface lures around freshly flooded structure was called for. it proved successful with a feisty and hungry 96cm model commiting 100% to my stickbait, first hit he came half out of water but managed to miss everything...i kept the tango in there with just the occasional twitch and he came back with his glasses on and inhaled it, putting up a good aerial display. within a few casts i got hammered again, a good fish bricking me on heavy drag very quickly...a few more boofs and boils and we went home happy and relieved campers indeed...
a few pics to follow, can't wait for a decent trip, although living 45min from the dam makes it relatively easy i guess...
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Originally Posted by tiges
