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Belated Coolmunda report

Aaron H

By Aaron H
in Freshwater

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Aaron H Rookie

Aaron H

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Hey guys thought I would post this after a few failed attempts to post while the site was running slow and a few people wanted to know how I went. Aust day long weekend went to coolmunda dam for the first time and camped for the three days. Departure time was Friday afternoon and after packing the gear and boat (and the missus and dog) I was racing against time to get there during daylight hours to firstly find the camping area and secondly set up.

Well my fight for a daylight arrival became a lost cause, driving near Kalbar a huge storm was brewing and I was driving into a scene that looked straight out of the movie twister. Never mind I said, will give the car and boat a wash. Next thing I was driving through the worst storm I have ever driven through in 12 years of driving, the road is flat and water was laying everywhere, rain was faster than the wipers and water was going over the top of the focus:blink: so I crawled following the middle line till I could find an area to stop that was not under water to take the bungs out of the boat.

After a stop in Warwick we reached the dam around 7:30pm and the next problem I encountered was finding the camping area. It was pitch black and with a road train up my backside finding the entrance to the first camping area was not an option as slowing down was gonna result with a bdouble truck driving straight over me. Doesn't matter I thought will find the camp spot Ellicat was telling me about past the wall. Let me tell ya if u have never been there before, trying to find this spot in the dark is not easy. There are two entrances and I drove past both three times before the missus pointed out the small entrance. From the road I thought uhoh, here I am in a 2008 model Ford focus loaded to the hilt towing a boat and trailer and before me is a little bushtrack:unsure: . I went for a walk with the torch and found the road to be quite good after the entrance.

After driving around the edge of the lake for a while, (I couldn't believe the amount of people had the same idea as me and were setting up on the Friday night) We found a nice campsite about 20 metres from the water and proceeded to set up by car headlights. Again I advise against doing this as every bug from Warwick to Goondiwindi decided to visit the area we had illuminated for setting up camp.

Now for the good stuff the fishing.

Well the Saturday I slept in and was greeted by the sound of skiboats already turning the water into froth. I then waited for the arvo. The best thing was bank launching was possible in the area with a focus (front wheel drive was a bonus for once) and I could leave the boat in front of the camp site.

After launching I went looking for the creek bed as this is one big shallow basin, and if going dont worry about deep diving lures. Water was about 50 per cent and the deepest spots I found were only around 30 ft near the wall.

On the Saturday I started near the wall but got sick of the inconsiderate ski boats that think a boat trolling along at walking pace is a target :angry: Lucky I am working on anger management.

So I headed to the southern lot of timber and found about six ft of water:blink: Not exactly inspiring me with confidence. With mostly deep diving Cod lures, I decided Yellowbelly were now my target as I had plenty of small 3mt diving lures.

Lets just say that there is no shortage of yellowbelly in this waterway. In the area where the creek enters the southern section of the lake a massive weed bed exists and trolling this area I caught a heap of yellas on the edge of the drop off on oneside (when I say drop off it is only 13-14 ft of water but in this lake that seems to be deep enough) Predatek spoonbills in yellow, green and red were the best lure I found but talking to other people they were getting fish on spinnerbaits and wee willy lures. Most fish I caught were good eating size b/w 35 to 40 cm, however I did see a couple of monsters taken by other fisherman.

I did try shrimp as well but did not get one bite on bait, which was weird, but as I was solo in the boat (Missus decided she would rather sit under a tree and read a book than sit out in the blazing hot sun in a tinny. Even the dog snobbed me and jumped out of the boat) didnt try to hard as it is a pain in the backside anchoring up with no decky.

The rest of the trip I concentrated trolling along the old creek bed (which is not easy to do as u go from 20 ft of water to 6ft in the blink of an eye)and encountered for plenty of yellas all in the 30 to 40cm size bracket.

Will definitely be back with some Sandviper lures I think as the timber even though shallow looked very fishy. Camping on the lakeside is awesome and I wish more dams allowed it, my advice take a chemical toilet (Mine got accidentally left behind to make room for my fish smoker, boss was not impressed) if taking females as driving to and from the picnic ground facilities gets a little repetitive.

Thanks for reading:)

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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Sounds like one of our family expeditions Aaron LOL. Did you go in through the Scout gate at Tobacco Road corner or the other one? First time there it took me a few goes to find in broad daylight, so you did wellB)

Good to hear you got onto a feast of yellas:woohoo:

Did you catch your shrimp there or take them in with you ?

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Aaron H Rookie

Aaron H

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ellicat wrote:

Sounds like one of our family expeditions Aaron LOL. Did you go in through the Scout gate at Tobacco Road corner or the other one? First time there it took me a few goes to find in broad daylight, so you did wellB)

Good to hear you got onto a feast of yellas:woohoo:

Did you catch your shrimp there or take them in with you ?

Caught them there in the weed beds Elli, I entered through the other one, did not find the scout camp entrance until daylight mate:blush:

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