What a great day. I was fortunate enough to have Mark (Mono) Stewart invite me down to fish his local dam. It’s a big dam he has down there, bigger than Somerset I reckon. The water was clearer than anything I’d seen up here, but it didn’t taste real good. I couldn’t even see the other side. I dunno how Mono finds his way around down there, ‘cause there aren’t even any trees to use as land marks. I thought we may have been able to tie up to a tree to have some lunch, but they did a hell of a clearing job before the dam filled. Mono’s pretty tricky too, he doesn’t have to launch his punt, ‘cause he keeps it tied up to a jetty which is fortunate ‘cause I reckon his car would have troubling towing it, it’s the biggest Bass Punt I’ve seen.
First stop was the bait grounds, which Mono found using a TV Set size thingy on the dash. This was the only time I was permitted to use my Baitcaster after specially respooling with new 14lb Fireline. Once the bait tank was full, it was off to find the Bass. My first hookup didn’t last very long. It was sorta like trolling at Somerset and getting the line caught in the prop of a passing Ski Boat. I couldn’t see another boat, so I guess it must have been a fish. I lost three or four of these Racing Bass before Webby finally landed one. Bloody weirdest looking Bass I’ve seen, but the other guys seemed happy, ‘cause they were all yelling out “Wahoo, wahoo!” (Must be a NSW sort of thing!)
We then went looking for a deep hole that Mono knew about, the sounder was showing almost 300 feet deep, and because my baitcaster only had 125 yards of Fireling, I left it in the holder again. I used one of Mono’s monster baitcasters. I didn’t want to say anything to him, but I reckon you’d struggle to cast a spinner bait on one. First drop something ate my bait, This one pulled harder than a Wivenhoe bass, and I struggled to get it off the bottom. This fight didn’t last long, ‘cause the harder I pulled him away from his home, the more he wanted to get back there. He won. Then I finally caught something that looked like a bass. Mono said it was a Pearler, but it didn’t look all that big to me. Then I got a couple of some sort of mutant Yellowbelly. These are tough buggers, and pull much harder than the Queensland Yella’s. Mono said something about me being the King Fisherman, there is no royalty in my family, although I do have an Uncle who’s a Queen.
We did some more lure tolling, although I reckon we missed out on the normal bass, ‘cause Mono was trolling a bit faster than I normally do. They wouldn’t let me put out a Blitzie on my baitcaster. We finished off the day landing a few Yellow Finned Racing Bass, and some other sort of racing Bass called Mac. Looked similar to the Yellow finned jobbies but a bit duller colour.
It was a great day with great company. Thanks Steve, Mono, Nugget and Webby.
If you want to fish Mono’s dam, look up his details in the Charters Section.
Here's Mono's big Punt.
Originally Posted by bigdan123
