Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Over the Xmas break I've done two exploratory trips looking for Australian Bass in creeks around South East Queensland. Fisherpeople are generally quite tight lips about their fishing spots, so although you will see fish reports and associated pictures on the fishing forums talking about a great fishing session is some idealic looking piece of skinny water, if you want to experience it yourself you either have to become great mates with these people and hope they'll take you along one day, or find some of your own. I have opted for trying to find some of my own.

On a trip yesterday I did alright, though not fantastic. I really enjoy skinny water bass fishing as for me fishing is as much about the chase and the challenge as anything else. Naturally when I do this sort of fishing all the fish go back. Australian Bass on light gear is a lot of fun and something I think I could easilly get addicted to (probably am already).

Anyway - my report on yesterday's trip can be seen at the link below if you are interested in this type of fishing:

LINK REMOVED AS PICS NOT AVAILABLE TO NON-MEMBERS. I'VE POSTED IN FULL BELOW INSTEAD.

Sounds like fun VB... And a very successful day to boot..

I haven't heard of skinny water fishing before, I used to do quite a bit of "skinny water" fishing with a friend of mine for trout.. Some of them were tiny little streams, barely a foot across and an inch or two deep, but you can find the little pools here and there and scalloped out banks, vegetation hanging down into the water, or logs and branches in the stream. Then drop your lure in the right spot and it's quite incredible the size of some of the fish you get..

Did I tell you how much I hate forums that don't let you see images?

Hey Joel - yep that's the type of fishing I'm talking about. Didn't realise about the pictures. If I get energetic I'll post them here a bit later.

After a less than successful trip on Boxing Day during which I visited a number of speculative spots that I'd chosen from Google Earth, I hit the water again today having chosen another possible bass location to explore. I hit the water at about 5.30, having stuffed around for a bit longer than I'd have liked finding an entry point, transporting my gear to it and blowing up the Helios 1 inflatable kayak. I had considered taking my son's Seak (my 2 plastic yaks are way too big for this type of situation), but ended up settling on the inflatable.

About 100 meters from launch (and some carrying of the yak) I got to a reasonable sized though fairly shallow pool. Another 50 meters on the water looked a bit more fishy, with some extra depth and a few snags at one edge. Today I took 2 rods, one for fishing surface lures (fitted with a mono leader) and one for fishing spinnerbaits and anything else that might take my fancy (fitted with fluro leader). I started off with my Atomic Hardz Bulldog in Ghost Gill Brown, targeting the snags and the base of some trees that sat just to the edge of the water. After 10 or so casts I had my first walk the dog bass on. It gave me plenty, but I managed to keep it away from the snags and a minute or so later it was beside the inflatable. Having been cut fairly well by the gill spike of the last bass I caught (some time back) following some dodgy/incomplete advice from Al about how to handle bass , I carefully stick my thumb in the mouth of the fish to secure it.

After a couple of pictures the bass, which was nice and fat but only a bit over 40cm in length, was back in the water to be caught another day.



After this promising start things went a bit slow. I targeted the same area of water for quite a long time, getting a couple more strikes but no more hook ups. I changed over to a K9 Walker (Muddy Prawn) thinking that maybe the Bulldog was a bit big. I didn't persist for long with this smaller Hardz lure. The technique I'd been using for the Bulldog did not impart as good an action of the K9 Walker - I think I might need a bit more time in the test pool with this one and the Pup to perfect my technique. Although I'd thought I had sorted the smaller dog lure technique, the need to vary between the different sizes is stuffing me up a bit having not spent enough time getting the muscle memory happening fully.

Swapping over to a white 1/4 ounce Kokoda Kingspin spinnerbait, it wasn't long before the same area of water produced 2 fish on successive casts. These fish were somewhat smaller than the earlier one (I didn't bother measuring). I suspect these are the fish that were having a crack at my Bulldog but not managing to get hooked. I probably should have changed over to the spinnerbait earlier, but having experienced the thrill of my first surface caught bass, I was keen (and still am) to get more in this way. The thrill is just not the same with the spinnerbaits.




I headed further downstream and fished the far end of the pool without any hook ups - though a couple of strikes. Dragging the kayak aver some fallen branches, I fished a couple of smaller stretches of water without success. The terrain further downstream was not kayak friendly and was going to require more dragging of the kayak than paddling it. As I was here for an explore, I made the decision to leave the kayak and head further downstream on foot, taking the rod fitted with spinnerbait with me.

I fished a couple of areas without too much success and then came upon a fairly large pool of water with a shallowish bank running down the middle, a bit of deeper water on the left and a good area of deeper water and a couple of snags on the right, the best being at the far end. I worked my way across the pool (wading in knee to waist deep water) and managed to hook two bass in the process (approx 30 cm jobs), but lost both of them very close.

Wading was a bit of a pain. Not getting out as much as I'd like means that my casting accuracy leaves a lot to be desired. As too often happens with me, I managed to cast too long and snag myself high on one of the most promising snags within a couple of casts. To retrieve my spinnerbait I had to wade through beer gut high water and climb out on the fallen tree snag, no doubt scaring off most fish in the vicinity in the process. I had a few more casts in the area all the same, with just one strike resulting (no hookup). Having apparently scared everything else off and keen to see what was further downstream I continued on my quest.

Much of the water I came across was in small and/or shallow pools. I cast into any area that looked like it could possible hold a fish. In the process I picked up a couple of very small fish which I didn't even bother pulling the camera out for and one which was a little larger (barely camera worthy - but took a picture anyway).



The going was pretty hard, the terrain requiring that I keep to the watercourse which was slippery and quite deep in parts. At one stage I managed to find myself totally submerged when I slipped into a gutter, which although only beer gut deed, caused me to lose my footing. If nothing else this experience served to show me that the Aquapac which I always carry my blackberry in when on the water is not in fact watertight. Luckily because I was only under for a couple of seconds not much water got in and the phone is okay.

Although I would have liked to keep going, I was mindful that the further I went the further distance I had to go back. I was also mindful that my kayak and gear was unattended (albeit very unlikely anybody would come across it, and more importantly I was on orders to be home by certain time. Turning around I made an effort to keep a good pace on the return journey, only casting a couple of times until I got back to the pool where earlier I'd scared any fish that were in existence by wading through the guts of the fishing area and climbing onto the best snag to retrieve my lure. I figured this pool was worth a half dozen casts. My second cast produced the second best fish of the day. It hit the spinnerbait close to a snag and I had to use all my quite lacking fishing skills to keep it from wrapping itself around various branches as it headed straight into the snag. With a bit of luck I managed to secure the fish.



A couple of more casts produced one more smaller fish before I headed back to where I'd left the kayak.



On the way back to the launching spot I had a couple of casts around the spot where I'd caught the first fish of the day, to no avail.

All in all an enjoyable trip. The biggest shame is the difficulty in accessing some of the fishing areas, meaning taking the yak in was just not practical. On the positive side, this probably also means that few other people will fish these areas. The spinnerbait was the winner on the day, though the most enjoyable catch was on the Atomic Hardz Bulldog.

A darn fine days fishing VB...

Don't you mean fushing Rupe

looks like he caught sux fush eh broo

.. bunch of bloody clowns...