queensland Monduran Fish Photos And Report.November 2009

[rayke1938]

Still trying to get my head around it all.

So much happened its hard to comprehend so I will continue with my disjointed ramblings.

Most imprtant we have already booked in for next year for the week leading up till full moon which is on 19th december. Houses are booked out we could only get 6 days and are then going to move to cabin for last few days.

I would suggest getting in early if you wish to book cabin.

Standard of house has deteriorated a lot since we were there last year. Management is very slack. Glenda spent a whole day just cleaning up the bench tops ,tables etc.

We had a pet mouse that kept pulling the rockwool insulation out of the back of the stove.

The insides of the cupboards were filthy and full of crumbs etc.

I think all the cleaners do is give a quick sweep , change the bed lined and thats all.

Bathroom floor was filthy whe white bath mat was brown after first use.

The water inlet pipe to the house had a leak that got progressivly worse. We contacted management who sent someone around to have a look on the Tuesday and he said " oh yeah plumber put a temporary patch on it 18 months ago and slack bugger hasnt been back to fix it yet I will get onto him again " we were still waiting for plumber when we left and the fountain was reaching about 10 feet into the air.

Another example of poor management .

When we arrived we noticed a late model nissan navara parked in the overflow car park even though the normal park had plent of room.

It was still there a few days later and we made a few comments and Brian told a story how there was a car left in the carpark where he worked and after a few days they found someone dead in the car from a drug overdose.

Couple more days passed and we drove down to have a look and I conned Feral to have a look inside.Well at least no body but noticed windows were down.

Next time we were in town we dropped into the Police station bit noone there so Brian rang them and gave rego number and details and was told yhey would contact him.

We had just got back to house and police rang and wanted to have a chat to Brian and said they would meet him in 10 minutes.

Tilt tray tow truck turned up within 2 hours to take it away.Reckon the owner would be happy to get it back.

Turned the car had been stolen over a month ago.

Pretty poor management of the park not picking up on it sooner.

Cheers

Ray

[rayke1938]

They have pontoon style party boat that hasnt been used for a while as about 20 feet of it was high and dry with only the last 4 feet in the water and being anchored by a suzuki 4 stroke buried in the mud. Its not even tilted up so who knows what condition the leg will be in once its refloated.

Made a nice nesting spot for a pair of water hens.

May have a problem getting the chicks in and out of the nest once they hatch as its quite a drop to the water.

[rayke1938]

Took us quite a while to sus out a regular spot. The first few days we tried the recommended spots, trolling the main basin, a couple of fish, then the island with a few more fish but very crowded, brian and Lozzes tried the island in front of Bird bay and also into Bird Bay with a few more fish.

We kept on exploring and saw someone get onto a couple of fish around A area so we started to explore around there.

On closed examination it looked very fishy with a small island, a largish area around 10 to 6 feet deep with a pronounced point on it . This dropped off to around 15 feet deep and a bit further out down to 70 feet.

I could see the fish sitting down deep in around 50 feet of water but they were not interested in eating anything.

Probably took us around 3 days to sus it all out.

The fish periodically would decide they wanted a feed and would come up into the shallow water so we just worked out a trolling pattern to follow the shallow edge of the dropoff using barra classic ff18 blue dazzlers.

THe morning sessions were always better but the bite time would vary a bit so you just had to put in the hours.

At the end we had a procession of regulars and we would all be trolling the same area in an orderly manner with Fleet Director Brian soon putting any newbies straight if they did the wrong thing.

Quite a few tried anchoring up and casting lures and soft plastics and I didnt see one of them hook up. Trolling the 10 foot line at around 4kph seemed to be the only way.

Would have liked to have stayed another few days. Would have been out there at dawn and only fished the mornings.

Reckon we really would have cleaned up big time.At the end we were just netting and releasing the fish at the side of the boat with a big yawn and saying oh yeah round a metre. :blush:

We used this tree as one our marks for our trolling pattern.

[rayke1938]

Here are some more random photos. They are all over the place as I have a problem with photobucket crashing my fire fox session.

Monduran trout.

Who says you cant catch fish in the rain?

Should we have charged him a fee ? Guess who didnt catch a barra? :blush:

Part of our rod arsnal.

the reference tree again.

Booty getting into it.

Just love this shot . It says it all getting a mate onto a good fish its what AFO is all about. Helping others.

Another couple of spirit of AFO shots.

[Feral]

Interestingly enough the first part of the trip it was the gold colour with red stripes that was catching fish, but after the rain the blues were THE lure!

[rayke1938]

Brian trying to kill his black sheep 13 kg drag and thumb jammed onto spool.

loaded up for the trip back home.

Some useless stats to finish up with.

82 hours on motor. Most of it trolling at idle at around 3.7 to 4 kph.

460 kms travelled .

Fuel usage averaged out at around 6 litres per day.

Some more dribble also.

The dirt ramp hasnt much more use in it there are a few good rock outcrops for the unwary. No NOT trim your motor down till the sounder shows 10 feet of water.

If you are going in next few days happy to share gps marks for trolling area.

Cheers

Ray

[rumrunner]

wow what can i say! im speachless!

almoast unbeliveable!

thank you very much for the report!

chers Ian

[Brian D]

rayke1938 wrote:

Still trying to get my head around it all.

So much happened its hard to comprehend so I will continue with my disjointed ramblings.

Yeah me too Ray. It was a very full trip, very satisfying, very rewarding for efforts, very tiring from the extra efforts needed for it to be considered successfull.

Most imprtant we have already booked in for next year for the week leading up till full moon which is on 19th december. Houses are booked out we could only get 6 days and are then going to move to cabin for last few days.

I would suggest getting in early if you wish to book cabin.

I would suggest you book your cabin now if you want one as mine is already full.

Cheers

Ray

[Do$tylz]

guys that is awesome. Ray - fantastic comprehensive report to help people get onto the fish and a good start on how to find the fish and techniques to figure out whats working and whats not.

ok.. so I think I'll have to commit to this one next year... If theres another organised trip with a spare bed... I'll book my holidays for it.

[Little Grey Men]

Doesn't get any better than that !!! Ray...you were on fire mate ! How were your arms after wresting with all those big girls ?

[Brian D]

I suppose I better mention our routine and procedures so the readers don't think it's a holiday.

3.30am rise from slumber, coffee toast and crap

4.00am launch boat

4.15am arive at hot spot or target spot.

4.15.1 deploy lures

6.00am bar in boat open for beer and wurst.(or when first fish is caught).

11.00am return to ramp, unpack boat, drink beer

11.30am eat lunch, drink beer

11.35am sleep, dream of fish and beer

3.30pm wake, feed, beer, pack boat and esky

3.45pm go fishing, drink beer, eat chips

3.46pm -till dark or after catch fish.

7.30pm dinner, beer, work on leaders, lures, lines etc

8.30pm bed

3.30am rise from slumber, coffee toast and crap

4.00am launch boat

4.15am arive at hot spot or target spot.

4.15.1 deploy lures

6.00am bar in boat open for beer and wurst.(or when first fish is caught).

11.00am return to ramp, unpack boat, drink beer

11.30am eat lunch, drink beer

11.35am sleep, dream of fish and beer

3.30pm wake, feed, beer, pack boat and esky

3.45pm go fishing, drink beer, eat chips

3.46pm -till dark or after catch fish.

7.30pm dinner, beer, work on leaders, lures, lines etc

8.30pm bed

THrow in the ocasional trip to town for supplies, lures and fuel

along with the quick trip to kiosk for ice creams.

Now do that for ten days and see how tough you are.

[tugger]

what a trip chaps some good size barra, beer, boats and laughs is this time of year better than others ? looking at next year already to hit it up

mark

[Brian D]

Yes 1000 tugs, there are special times throughtout the year. We appear to have the Nov cycle ccovered but fishing has a way of deflating egos. We had to work hard to get the cycle sorted.

The biggest thing I know is too leave yourself enought time (10 days or so) to make sure you get at least the tail or begining of the cycle so you get fish.

You gotta be very lucky to do 3 days and hit fish every day.

[straddiebrad]

guys sounds like you had a cracker lots of great and hard fighting fish well done .brad

[Davo_Dinkum]

i like the sound of the our routine and procedures.

not fond of the : 3.30am rise from slumber.

but i guess the 11.35am sleep, dream of fish then 3.30pm wake, feed would counter act the early wake up.

bit different from my routine and procedures ,but i think i could do it and would work better than mine.

every1 goes to bed around 12 /1 am ish .

dave drink stuffs about makes noise etc till 3 or 4 am.

every 1 gets up 5/6 am,goes fishing etc .

dave gets up 7/8 am,by the boss or scary peeps leaning in the car .

no 1 is about.

heads out for the late morning time session

spend the day fishing in the sun and drinking and fires up for the night again, and so on .

goes for 3 or 4 day then i'm buggered and sleep and quite down for a week lol.

i think yours is a more planed routine and procedures where mine is just random chaos.

anyways sounds and looks like u guys had a top trip .

[wesfish]

bloody great report of a fantastic action packed trip guys :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[rayke1938]

Found out why the old girl was taking on a bit of water.

Cheers

Ray

[Brian D]

It's a bit more than a pin hole. Any scratches around the hole? Was it opened by the launch or that bugger rock and stump at the ramp.

[Lozzel]

Well I'll add my little bit.Had a fantastic time with some good mates that we haven't seen for a while. Pleanty of laughs and a few beers later we hit the water for an afternoon sesh, no joy but gave the boat a good blow out and sussed out where to try next. Hit up Bird bay where Glenda got onto a good fish but threw the hooks after 3-4mins, not much happened after that only picked up some local "Trout", so went to town and picked up cleaning products and cleaned house.Next day was better with a couple of good runs and a 95cm in the boat after some good aerials and long runs.Came across booty hooked up and in the timbers, had a few laughs watching him peddel his heart out and going nowhere, but thats fishin.Next couple of days were trout and more trout even tried live shrimp and every lure I had in the box, just goes to show some have & some dont.

Glenda finally got one to stick, although I took it for a snag at first as we could feel the tree against the braid, but she pulled ot a 97cm model not bad for her first Barra.

Had a good hit in the deep only to pull in a lure with a scale on all the jags.

Still had a great time and will be there next year and maybe a little more prepared and a few more meals prepared so wee can have more time on the water at night.

Glenda's first 97 cm

[Lozzel]

Mine

[Lozzel]

Booty hooked up (in the timber at this time)

[Lozzel]

Shortie, I think the net is a tad small

[Lozzel]

Glendas on the mat,For the C&R Nazi's, our fish were released after filleting and freezing.

[yellahunter]

Absolutely Awesome stuff fellas,

what a trip woulda been one to remember.

does Mondy cop a flogging these days, i mean more and more people are heading up there i assume, did you guys see many boats out each day...?

im looking to head up in Jan or Feb,

is it ok fishin at that time? and is there any advice i need before planning the trip.

ie: moons, camping areas - booking, gear etc

cheers

Ben

[Brian D]

Loz, don't worry to much about the meals, we take it as it comes. Ray and I feed on leftovers, wurst, frozen vegis, snags and gravy for the last couple of days. Nothing too hard or fancy, although I might upgrade the sausages to a bit of gourmet style next year as they are easy and filling.

We were going to crumb some fish but we got busy fishing and lazy when we came home.

[Brian D]

yellahunter wrote:

Absolutely Awesome stuff fellas,

what a trip woulda been one to remember.

does Mondy cop a flogging these days, i mean more and more people are heading up there i assume, did you guys see many boats out each day...?

im looking to head up in Jan or Feb,

is it ok fishin at that time? and is there any advice i need before planning the trip.

ie: moons, camping areas - booking, gear etc

cheers

Ben

Ben everywhere gets a floggin these day but this is a big dam witrh heaps of room. It takes about 45mins to get from one end to the other, that's if you know the way. Do not even try going to the back country with out a GPS.

I suspect that Feb will see the fish in the back country but I haven't fished it at that time. I base my comment on the spawing run in Oct-Dec, then fish returning to warmer water of the forests.

A current theory is that as they have been letting out water for irrigation for the last 9 weeks, this has caused a current. I don't realy agree with this, I think the fish we found were simply feeding on bait fish gathered around islands and flats. If the bait fish were drawn from the timbers to the flats because of the outgoing water will be hard to prove.

When we were there there were a couple of islands that got flogged real hard yet they still produced fish after 10 days. Sometimes there were 12 boats around the island in the basin. The Bird Bay island was much better and even worse at times but held it's form.

THere were 12 boats following Ray and I around one day.

[Lozzel]

No worries, Glenda has some idea for taking the slow cooker up and having it cook while we are out. Nice & hot when we get back.

[Brian D]

Sounds like we need bread to go with that...yum yum

[rayke1938]

Brian D wrote:

It's a bit more than a pin hole. Any scratches around the hole? Was it opened by the launch or that bugger rock and stump at the ramp.

Bit of a ding in it but I think its a combination of ding and crappy stacer electrolisis will find out tomorrow when i crawl inside it and have a good look.

Should have had a good look under it at the dam and bunged a bit of juicy fruit in it.

Cheers

Ray

[Feral]

Its not a boat if it doesn't leak!

Justifies the bilge pump

[ellicat]

Lozzel wrote:

Shortie, I think the net is a tad small

Little was he to know that his pasty white legs would be the colour of his yak just hours later :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

The net wasn't bothered unfortunately

[Dinodadog]

Well done to all looks like you enjoyed yourselves, some people come all the way from Vic and go home empty handed, its good to get into a few, memories forever

[Brian D]

We got more then a few Dino, but compared to your NP numbers I suppose it's only a few. Check out this guy, the hook pinned his eyeball and rolled it into his head. When I pulled the hook it rolled back as if nothing happened and he swam away happy.

[Brian D]

here, try this

[Brian D]

splash

[Brian D]

looks like a bass

[Do$tylz]

Ahahah... shorty never learns with getting sunburnt on his yak. .

Did ya get burnt on your belly through the gap between the buttons in your shirt again mate???

[BR65]

Brian D wrote:

THese were the winning lures. Just proves that every year is different. Last year it was the main basin and big B52's that were the killer lure. This year the fish were smaller as were the lures. Year befor eit was deep divers.

There's a lot to learn from this photo. The flash down the side is not just to attract fishos, it's to replicate teh flash of a fleeing bait fish.

Note also that we upsized the hooks on the top lure, which caught all the fish. I ended up using the hooks from 8m+ deep divers. The bigger hookes looked oversized for the lure but they sure stuck the fish.

Congrats boys, lots of fish!

There is a bit in that photo that makes you think. Two differant ways of rigging, is the top lure on a snap and the bottom straight to the split? Bit hard to tell from the pic. Seems to be two differant styles of leader as well? Definately a difference in trebles between the lures. What did those over size trebles do to the action? You would guess slow the lure down, make it sit lower, and limit the wobble?

Makes you wonder what those little differences combined did to the the top lures action to make it more appealing to an active fish?

Did you guys notice a difference in rod tip "quiver" for lack of a better word, that may have indicated a differnce in action between the two presentations?

Or is it just luck of the draw, sometimes one person will smack em, regardless of everything?

Bloody barra, keep you guessing all the time, do your head in if you think to hard!

[rayke1938]

Both leaders basically the same . Home made twisted leader ,using Matt Frazers idea, one using 14 lb red and other 14 pound clear.

We were a bit short of the norman speed clips so Brian was using his straight onto the split ring.

The leaders held up very well with the failures usually being at the braid above the bimini.

Only had to change one leader that had 2 strands broken but still landed the fish.

It was a continious process of upgrading trebles and split rings.

Cheers

Ray

[Brian D]

Br65 there's a few questions in that.

Yes they were different leaders but over the 10 days both styles came out even, so it's not the leader that made the difference. One was a clip and one was a ring but the clip was attached to a ring. One was red and one was clear but plenty of fish were caught on red.

We did upgrade the hooks to a larger size but that was after we ran out of the smaller size. This did improve the staying connected rather then the hook up a bit. We dropped plenty of fish on both hook sizes, especially when the fish went aerial.

The biggest thing was the position of the boat. On the north side of the zone (which was only a boat width) the lure would weed up every pass. The strike zone was so small.

I out foxed the fox on the last day by having a stand by rod in the rod holder ready for deployment as soon as we got to the zone if I was either out of position, in the right position or weeded up. I would move the rod I was holding to either shot gun down the middle or hold it out wide depending on the position. It worked a treat, as in the half sesh we got in that day I scored 3 to 1 (on the red leader split ring set up).

Good example was the double hook up we scored. We passed tight to the zone, heading west, so I hit the spool release on the rod in the holder as we straightened out of the turn. The lure sat about 2 boat lengths behind the zone. I locked the spool as the boat pasted the zone and the lure dived. It got hit within about 5 secs; I grabbed it out of the holder with one hand and placed the shot gun in the other holder with the other hand simultaneously.

As I set the hooks a fish launched out of the water and I knew instantly it was a double as the fish was heading the opposite direction to the one I was fighting. I called double hook up to the boat behind us hoping they would do the right thing by getting out of the way, and they did. I remember screaming “my fish is under your boatâ€. Credit to them, they broke the snag they were one and cut the line. The look on their face was priceless. That was one of the most memorable moments of my fishing life.

Ray did a great job in dealing with his 110cm fish that was heading north east when I was trying to scull drag the 110cm barra on my line which was heading west. I thumbed the spool, locked the drag and gave it every bit I could to get it to the boat ASAP so I could get back to deckie duties and help Ray. I remember licking my thumb half way through the fight to stop it burning.

Once the fish was at the boat, I grabbed it with the grippers and ripped the hooks from its head; it took about 10 secs, then raced over to Ray’s side, who had his fish in a wide holding pattern. This was good time for me to gather breath and reflect on what had just transpired. Ray calmly worked his fish to the boat like an experienced pro who does this sort of thing all the time.

I will never forget those minutes, Ray was an absolute champion, the onlookers were bemused and I was buggered. After that Ray set the boat for another pass, I changed the hooks on both lures and deployed the lines, than we cracked another beer in silence processing the amazing once in a life time event.

Funny thing is that if we had moved another boat length forward we both would have weeded up and the pass would have been wasted. So no mate it was all about placement and timing.