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Sommerset Dam Report


RUSSIAN

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Sorry for leaving this in the going fishing notice board, but I don't know how to change it; ect, ect. Anyways, headed up so Somerset Dam after school on Friday and by the time we got there, we were setting up the tent in the dark.... So I decided to fish the early morning. I set the alarm for 4:30am as the first light was at 5:00 am and sunrise was at 5:30am. So the next thing, I couldn't get to sleep by 1:00am (thanks yapping parents) and before I knew it, my alarm had gone off at 4:30am. My younger brother had been nagging me the night before to wake him up to do some fishing, so I had no choice. I got out of the tent and got the rods. Thankfully the night before I had pre rigged the rods with leader and lures so I wouldn’t be stuck in the dark with it. We went down to the water’s edge and his first cast was caught on a rope (first cast!) Wasn’t happy so I told him it’s his problem. The sun had already been well established in the sky. So I walked along the water’s edge and found a nice log. So I decided to work it for a while. Previously, I had learnt that bass are territorial and usually they won’t hit the lure straight away so I worked the log for a while to try and entice a bite. I worked it till 6:30am, for 2 hours! for 1 hit, which I missed. Frustrated, then my Dad had come down. He told me my little brother (yeah the one that lost the popper (?) on the first cast) got a gig on one of my uncles boats. So then Dad and I decided to walk along the bank and work the structure with lures all morning. We fished from about 7:00am till 11:00am with only a few hits each, 2 lost lures, and I dropped a hook up. I wasn’t very impressed as I had been fishing since 4:30am. So I walked back and had breakfast. None of my other uncles really wanted to fish for bass (which surprised me) and they were only interested in the red claw. So they set up there pots and one of my uncles had forgot some of his gear and decided to steal, 3 of my floats and 1 rope. So that pretty much stuffed my chances of red claw success. Any way, he set out his pots and I had one float, pot and rope left. So in the late afternoon, I decided to give it a crack even though I had no real way of getting my pot out there. I got onto my surf ski and paddled about 1km out and put down the pot. Then, we got rained overnight and in the morning, I went out to check my pot. With doubt, I pulled up my rope and to my surprise I had some red claw in there. If fact there was about 15 in there! I was very happy especially that my pot didn’t get raided. So the rest of the day was spent checking the other pots, and tubing, swimming and kayaking. This trip has also left me with some question marks…. Why wasn’t the fishing any good? Like every other time I’ve been up there, I just can’t seem to hook into the bass? Why is this? Anyone have any tips for me? That would be really good.

Thanks for reading, and overall, not the best weekend, but I was just glad, I had got out. My first red claw pics will follow.

Cheers Anthony ;)

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Congrats on your redclaw mate. U paddled out approx 1km and dumped your pot - lol how long was your rope? It's fun tho when you pull the pot in and have a few in there.

As for the bass - I got no idea. Might be a bit better 1/2way up or down the dam which is a long paddle lol. By the sounds of it you were landbased and I daresay that any spot within a short walking distance from camp would be hammered by other fishos.

From the reports I have read in regards to bass - it seems that live shrimp is an awesome bait, maybe give bait a go next time :) I have only ever caught one bass (thanks to ray) and that was on a shrimp.

Good luck.

Cheers

Woodlaz

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There was a cove near by, and I paddled into that and dropped my pot near some hardcore timber. So long rope wasn't neccessary. I was fishing landbased, but not many people were fishing, I don't know why I couldn't hook into a couple. I'll def try live srimp next time.

Cheers Anthony ;)

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