The young fella(Mike) and I arrived at the camp ground on Thursday night to high humidity and a sprinkle of rain to start our first trip for the year. A couple of quiet drinks were needed to settle the IBD until the morning and off to bed.
The plan was to fish "B" on Friday before the crowds turned up on Saturday, when we would head for quieter water up the back and also to mainly use plastics.
Gentleman’s start on Friday morning (luckily Mike likes a sleep in as much as I do). We started fishing weed beds up the back of south B. Probably only fishing for an hour or so when a 66 hits my Evergreen jointed minnow while doing a slow roll. Dave 1, Mike 0, Barra 0. All quiet for a couple of hours so we decided to try some wind blown points, back towards the main river but still in south B. Since I had 4 rods on board, I selected 4 different plastics to use, 130mm Slick rig, 110mm Slick rig, 5” Hollowbelly and a 5” Storm swim shad rotating through each one using different retrieves. The hollowbelly was the only one without an owner stinger. Mike was doing a similar thing but also using a few HB’s as well. Soon after tying off, Mike’s 130mm Slick rig gets hammered . The initial run was a good 50 meters with us giving chase on the leccy through the timber. The fight ended quickly with the Barra doing a 360 around a tree 10 ft down. By the time we realised how she had stitched Mike up, it was all over.
Dave 1, Mike 0, Barra 1. Having never had a look in North B before, we tried a couple of weedy points for no result. By now it is 4.30 pm so we decided to fish the point where Mike lost the fish earlier for the rest of the day until dark. 30 minutes after trying off, my Storm gets air-born with a Barra attached. On the 2nd jump, she spits the plastic back at me. Dave 1, Mike 0, Barra 2.
The plan for Saturday was to fish up the back of the dam but after Friday’s results we decided to have another look in south B and then up to the back after lunch. South B was very quiet. Very few boats were seen and not even a bump. So off to H and F we go. We tried a few different bays and threw to the timber with no luck and finally tried up within casting range of a good looking laydown. ½ hour in and my Storm is nailed by another flying Barra. 1 more jump and she stitches me up in the snags under the boat and wears through the 80lb leader in no time. Dave 1, Mike 0, Barra 3.
Sunday morning comes around and an early start of 5am is needed to get in a few more fishing hours before the trip back home. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the fish before heading back to camp to pack up.
Water temps were high 29’s to 32 by the end of the day. Although we did find 33.2 in H around 4pm on Saturday.
Wind from the southeast for the week or so before.
Friday southeast at my guess of 10kts and new moon.
Saturday southeast again at 10kts in the morning but reducing with calm times in the later afternoon.
Sunday morning calm.
3 of the 4 hookups were to 5” Storm Wildeye Swim Shads using a slow roll and high stick to keep it out of the weed.
4th hookup was to a 130mm Slick rig.
Stingers on all plastics.
In 3 years of fishing Mondy this was our first serious effort to put into practice some of the great info shared by the Ausfish community. Things like
1. fishing wind blown points
2. trying to find currents
3. tying up rather than using the leccy
4. spending more than ½ hour at a location
5. plastics
6. stingers
7. different retrieves.
In the past we have been lucky enough to fluke a fish casting with many donuts in between. Never before have we had such success at locating fish. Hopefully our next trip will be as good so we can improve the next bit. Getting the buggers to the boat. I think the mistake we made was our fighting technique was inflexible. Basically we used middle of the road drag pressure and hung on and prayed. That approach should work OK in open water but in the confines of the timber appears to be inadequate. So our next trick is to learn when to lock up the drag and when to freespool.
I’ll put up the pics tonight.
Dave
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....and hookin some fish....
