queensland NPD with Clawhammer today

[Feral]

Well after poor old Clawhammer (Cameron) was buggered after tagging along last week (in his kayak whilst we were in the boat), he hinted broadly he wouldn't mind a Deckie spot and to chase some redclaw. Well yesterday was one of those days at work, so late yesterday a quick phone call to Cameron to set it up, I took an RDO today and we went fishin!

Found him at the gate with legs crossed at 5:50am (cant go in to fishing lease until 6am), come 6 and there was a mad dash down the road to the porta loo. That'll teach him to find a bad prawn in that 6 pack of beer

Anyway, I had signed in, rigged the boat etc etc before he put in an appearance and we were on the water by 6:10am

First order of the day, check Ray's shrimp traps to see if we had any bait. 3 shrimp, not looking good!

So then we checked Ray's red claw pots, a bit better haul this time around, 2 dozen red claw for the esky and another 10 or so shrimp in the livie bucket!

So down we went to the lower end of the fishing lease where reports of fish being caught had filtered through. Nothing at all on the sounder, so back to basics, find a point, sit off it in 25 foot of water and dangle live shrimp on a paternoster rig. With in a couple of minutes Clawhammer was on the board with a nice 35cm Bass. Shortly after I got a 41cm, which made me very happy, this was only the second bass I had caught in a year, the first was only a week ago! We then traded back and fort Bass for Bass on shrimp over an hour or so until we ran out of shrimp! 11 Bass boated from 13 shrimp, not bad considering we were rusty at bait fishing.

So we then decided to do some of the dreaded trolling, We managed another 4 bass. As we moved further back up the dam, we stopped getting any bites, the fish are definitely holding in the lower reaches now, getting ready for nooky season no doubt.

Picked up my PB Bass at 52cm on a purple Voodoo, which I was really stoked about, my PB has been 49cm for like 3 years. Finally made the 50cm club! (2 years after my son Alex did it at 9 years old mind you!)

Clawhammer was pretty stoked with getting in to a few bass as well, he took the redclaw home, and is already looking up recipe's on the net! (I have redclaw in my kids fish tank, I would have been lynched if I had cooked any!).

And off the water by 3pm and a mad dash home so missus could get some sleep before starting work!.

[Angus]

Hahahaha good report Feral!

Thanks for the photo texts while I was at home doing paperwork

Angus

[Malcolm]

Beautiful big Bass Feral and looks nice and glassy out there too

[Aaron H]

Nice bass mate, gotta love NPD in a boat.

[werewolf]

Ripper bass Feral! Congrats on joining the 50 club! I can only dream of it lol.

[tugger]

great looking bass congrats on the 50 club i haven't cracked that yet but lets hope one day

[Rocket75]

purple lures are the way to go it seems. 9/10 fish we caught recently were on trolled puple deep divers. Got to agree with your theory of fish movements too, most action seems top be up towards the island at the limit of access line.

Congrats on the PB, good to see a few big ones amongst the schools

Rocket

[Brian D]

Yahoo good one mate. Gee that's a wooper bass, even with your broad shoulders behind it it still looks huge. 84.61% catch rate to bait id pretty good for some rusty bait boys.

Check out the "rust stain and tight cheaks" on clawhammers dacks hahaha.

[Clawhammer]

Nice write-up Feral, T'Was a great day...I coulda' swore that 50+cm Bass had a set of tusks on it as it was coming in

Red Claw were delicious...Sauteed in Garlic Butter and white wine, and served on a bed of white rice!!!

Knife is about 35cm long for scale

P.S. Those ain't rust stains !!!!:woohoo:

[Little Grey Men]

WHOA !!! Good bass there Feral. Impressive stuff mate. Those redclaw are a good size too.

[chris_stewart14]

Great Bass guys... This report answers a question I put in another report.. Cheers

[Dinodadog]

Well done Andrew and Clawhammer nice session nice fish nice place

[BrisBassMan]

Hey Clawhammer,

How long do you cook those craytails for ?

Also what is the best bait for those redclaws ??

Cheers

[kiwifisho]

Ah the joys of being able to boat on NPD again hey fellas :woohoo: Well done guys :ta:

Dean

[Feral]

One set of pots had a mixture of cat food / bass frames in them, the other set had a cut up Mullet in them.

[Clawhammer]

BrisBassMan wrote:

Hey Clawhammer,

How long do you cook those craytails for ?

Also what is the best bait for those redclaws ??

Cheers

Just long enough for the flesh to go from glassy/translucent to opaque white....2-3 mins on a hot pan.

Don't wait for the shells to go orange, it took a while for the colour to change after the flesh was already cooked!