queensland NPD 19/7/09

[Feral]

Well got to the Dam about 6:10, to see Ray and the boys heading off around the bend, so picked up my wheels from Ray's ute then had a yarn with Michael and Ross until Hulk arrived. Also saw Faulked parking his rig, so plenty of AFO blokes out there this morning!

With more stories of a few getting caught around the weed barrier, hulk and I decided on a bit of a paddle over that way first. Nothing there, so bearing in mind this was Hulks maiden voyage, we did not want to go to far from the ramp, we headed back past the ramp and up the inlets of the creek. No go up there either! but gee it looks fishy! I was trying a few different lures by this stage, same story as last week, deep water lots of fish on the sounder, just nothing interested in getting on the hooks!

Got back to the ramp, and Hulk was game for a little more, so I took down around the first bend to see a couple of blokes checking their redclaw pots, only a couple of littlies they reckoned. Paddled down a little way further when Hulk had to head for home, so I wandered over to the steep bank on the southern side. Lost my Hammerhead lure here, much to my disgust, not sure what happened, the rod gave a bit of a buck and no more lure. Drag was pretty loose. Reeled it in to find the braid cut, so must have fouled the braid itself on something underwater, probably a branch.

About 10 minutes later the breeze started to get up a bit, so made my way around the edge back to the ramp, finishing up a great day on the water, even if fishless!

Hulk in the mighty fish bandit! Looks a very good yak.

[Angus]

Water looks sensational!

Shame about the fishing.

Good to see you got a shot of Ray's house in the background there mate. Well according to him anyway

Angus

[rayke1938]

Beautiful relaxing day. Got 3/4 bucket of redclaw.

[rayke1938]

Third trip in a row that I havent caught anything. Consulation prize was neither did Brian. Not taking Graham Pflaum anymore.

High 40's

[rayke1938]

Bassfinger. Spiked it on a bassframe while baiting traps on last trip. I knew that a bit of fin was there but couldnt get it out. Was twice the size of thumb yesterday and still painful today.

Cheers

Ray

[Rocket75]

Graham is just making up for lost time and missed trips over the last couple of months

Has there been many caught according to catch cards? when i was there last week catch numbers seemed pretty poor.

rocket

[Feral]

Went and got the GPS out of the shed.

Looks I did about 5k today, Hulk about4k, pretty good for a first trip on the yak!

Hulk was with me on the blue, turned back on marker 003. The purple is my trip after Hulk left. Note the graph is against time, not distance. First 20 minutes was after turning GPS on and gas bagging with Hulk before launching!

[STU]

Rocket75 wrote:

Graham is just making up for lost time and missed trips over the last couple of months

Has there been many caught according to catch cards? when i was there last week catch numbers seemed pretty poor.

rocket

Thats cause I have not been there lately to catch em Lol

[rayke1938]

Lots of donuts from 17 anglers who launched today.More yellas than bass.

Cheers

Ray

[Feral]

Profile with Hulk on top (remembering he had to paddle back to the ramp from there, which obviously is not on my GPS log!)

Profile on bottom mine after Hulk left. These ones against distance!

[Enjoyfish1]

Yep I was there today too. Caught zip. Not one hit. Heaps of fish on the sounder, none of them biting. Bring on summer!

[Brian D]

Yeah cheers for the deckie spot Ray even if you couldn't get me a fish. :laugh:

I think that's either my first or second donut at NP, well if you don't count the 3 kg of red claw tails you gave me - thanks again to you and GDP

[hulk]

Gees Feral,

First surprise was when I got back to land and saw the time.It went so quickly.It was a pretty leisurely sort of ride out there with you but it was certainly harder when I was heading to the ramp by myself and rowing basically non stop.Had to have a few little mini rests but yeah felt better than I expected to.I don't think I will try fishing though for a while as it was a little cramped as you saw but that will change with practise and loss of weight.MIght be alright to troll with a few lures though as not much room would be needed to set up for that.

Hulk

[Feral]

Did you beat the wind back? Got up a bit on my run home.

[chris_stewart14]

Feral thats a nifty GPS you have yourself there.. Is it just a program that comes with your sounder that you then connect to your computer?

[viclick]

Not much to report apart from a decent catch of redclaw, got about 50. Didn't have any time to do any serious fishing, only did a fast troll down to the pots and back. Heaps of fish in anything over about 10m but nothing I tried would tempt them, only had one touch on the last straight before the ramp. Going by the catch cards not many fish being landed, and of those very few bass, mainly yellas. Anyway heres a pic of the redclaw, few good ones amonst them.

Victor

[nadders]

finger looks painful ray, i once had a frigging prawn spike stuck under my thumbnail and bury itself in there somewhere, was a horrific experience haha

[Do$tylz]

at least the red-claw are playing the catching game

That spiked finger looks nasty Ray... bet the family shakes their head at that one, add another one to that list of yours

[Feral]

chris_stewart14 wrote:

Feral thats a nifty GPS you have yourself there.. Is it just a program that comes with your sounder that you then connect to your computer?

From a bot of software called oziexplorer, it loads your GPS track in and overlays it on your map. Does all the stuff in the stats windows.

[hulk]

Feral,

I managed to beat the wind home although I could have used that excuse for being so stuft.

Hulk

P.S. am looking to do a follow up yak next Saturday morning.Don't think I will troll a lure yet.Let me know if you are interested.

[yoyo]

How do you get your yak to go up and over land like on that map Feral............? ;-)

[Davo_Dinkum]

i reckon paddling the yak or canoe about is great exercise and good fun too.

u can go hard ,just cruse along and so on.

nice yak hulk.it looks like it holds u up well.

[Feral]

hulk wrote:

Feral,

I managed to beat the wind home although I could have used that excuse for being so stuft.

Hulk

P.S. am looking to do a follow up yak next Saturday morning.Don't think I will troll a lure yet.Let me know if you are interested.

Possibly mate. Usually I can get a leave pass for a few hours sunday morning no worries. Saturdays is harder. Missus does not work friday nights, so she is pretty keen to get out saturdays and do her own thing. I'll let you know.

[MOC]

I decided to paddle upstream for a change and managed 2 bass on the troll.

This one on an attack lure (had to blow the dust of that old lure).

[MOC]

and this on a R2s V crank.

Beautiful day on the water and I even had the wind at my back on the way in.

Mick

[MOC]

Feral,

Would that GPS software be compatible with a Garmin76? It would be great for keeping a fishing diary.

Mick

[Feral]

Thats the GPS I was using on the weekend. Works with most.

http://www.oziexplorer.com/

If you get it let me know I have a few maps I can put your way. (You load and calibrate your own maps in the software, these days I mostly build my own from google earth)

Note I used to work with the bloke who sells this software many years ago. (He quite work when he realised selling this was going to make him far more money than "working for the man")

[chris_stewart14]

I take it your sounder actually needs to have GPS to work with the program though??

[Feral]

The printouts are from the GPS data, no input from the sounder on those charts.

Yoyo, we are real men, we paddle the yaks everywhere, none of this carry it rot