Got back this afternoon from a four day trip to Cania dam. Arrived at about 2 on Saturday and headed straight up towards the chook pen. The water was 31 degrees and with the gentle rumble of thunder by 3 we were casting at the timbers despite an on coming storm (after six and a half hours in the car I wanted to go fishing). I had an 1/8th ounce spinner bait and dad was using hard body. After about five minutes I had my first strike about half way out of the snag, the second strike hooked up and a Saratoga erupted from the water only to shake the hook. I quickly wound the lure back in and cast back towards the snag I had dropped the fish and the toga was waiting as the lure hit the water. This time both hooks set into the fish’s hard mouth and after a quick aerial display I landed my first lure caught Saratoga. Two casts later and I landed my second fish prompting dad to change over to a spinner bait. Dad scored the third toga after I informed him where I had dropped a fish. This continued for another half hour. We would work a snag holding a Saratoga until the repetitively striking fish would hook up.
Light rain started to fall and I made a cast towards a small school of gar that had just been spooked by a predator beneath them. I hooked up on the drop, in an instant a few feet of 10lb braid peeled off my spool and the fish had wrapped me around a stick. We motored around the sunken tree to retrieve my lure but to my surprise the fish was still on. I pulled it away from the timber to reveal a 38cm bass. These bass where the hardest fighting I have ever encountered. Normally a mid 40’s bass would not take any line when running 10lb at 30% at other dams. Here we were using our thumbs to stop them. By the end of the afternoon we had been blown away many times and landed 5 toga and 3 bass (largest bass going 48cm). We dropped close to 4 times the number of fish we landed over a 3 hour period and had countless hits.
The next day we continued fishing in this fashion landing another 5 bass and 3 Saratoga on spinner baits and another toga on plastics as well as 2 large spangled perch (well large for spanglies) on plastics before being forced off the water at around 4:30 by a fierce storm. So far all of our toga had been less than 50cms and we were beginning to wonder where all the surf boards cania is famous for where. After talking to a few other fishermen we who had caught some larger specimens the same day (up to 70cms) we decided to fish the main body of water the next morning.
We picked up one toga off a rock face the next morning using softies before the spangled perch and gar became too annoying and we went back to the chook pen. The hard fighting bass had gone off the chew after the previous afternoons heavy rain so we decided to concentrate our efforts on the mid 40’s toga lazily swimming in clear view along the edge the banks using beetle spins. The fish however were easily spooked and any attempt to sight cast at the fish was met by a huge boil as the fish shot off the opposite direction of the sight of the lure in mid air. Instead we systematically cast at the bank aiming for the fish that were prowling below the surface. I dropped a larger specimen (close to 60cm) at the boat as I mistook it for a smaller fish as I roughly pulled it in. By late afternoon the fish became a lot more aggressive in their feeding habits and sight casting became possible (it was very exciting watching a bow wave plough towards your lure) The rod I was using however was not well suited for setting hooks in the fishes hard mouths. Dad did much better running 6lb over a 7ft moderate action spin rod, which seemed to set the hook for you.
The final day we fished the large schools of bass forming just off from the boat ramp jigging soft plastics and trolling spinner baits for about 3 hours before having to regrettably pack up for the long drive back home. All in all we had a great few days fishing landing 18 saratoga, 16 bass and 6 spangled perch between us. The best lure seemed to be a 1/8th ounce purple tt spinner bait before the storm and then the fish seemed to develop a preference for white. Though we didn’t land any surf boards we where hoping for they were more than compensated for by the mid 40’s bass that kept slamming us in the sticks for the first 2 days. There was also an abundance of wildlife ranging from Peregrine falcons and nankeen kestrels to dingoes and bettongs.
Great trip and would recommend to anyone a trip to this dam
Jeremy.
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... mate what type of boat is that ur fishing out of ..??
