queensland Feedaclaw NPD 22/12/09

[rayke1938]

After finally finishing smoking the xmas hams and chooks I headed up to NPD this morning.

Perfect not a breath of wind.

Checked my shrimp traps and only got one shrimp. All of the pots had holes chewed in them.I have plenty of shrimp at home but didnt take any up there as I thought I would get a few from my traps.

Did a lot better with the redclaw pots.

Not a bad haul from 9 pots as another 2 were empty with holes and another one has gone walkabout. I found its float on the bank.

I caught one bass around the 35 mark on the lonely shrimp.I tried small redclaw with no result.

Could see the birds working in the out of bounds area .

Sat and watched but they were not moving so just had to drool.

Trolled in the usual spots for nothing so around 10 I checked the redclawpots again and picked up another 20 or so.They have really picked up in size during the last couple of weeks and quite a few are in berry. They now seem to be in between 6 and 10 feet of water.

While trolling back to the ramp I picked up this one on a napjaru in around 20 ft or water over the submerged trees.

Was all set to release in the water when I noticed this.

I didnt have a ruler so I marked its full and fork length on a board and had to hold it in a wet towel to clean the gunk off the tag to read the number.

Rang up and reported it and gave the gps coordinates from home and it has grown 5cm since March. Not a bad growth rate if it was measured correctly when tagged.

Just as an aside the person whom I was speaking to said that he had just got back in the office after spending the morning rescueing Barra that had become trapped in a drying lagoon.

Cheers

Ray

[kiwifisho]

Now thats a good feed of redclaw Ray, nice one :ta:

Dean

[RichH]

sounds like a great morning well done on the redclaw!!

[ryanyoung]

Wow! That's a lot of redclaw Ray. Judging by the photos it would have been a fantastic day out, even with minimal fish.

Thanks,

Ryan.

[Keen-as-fisho]

Wow home smoked hams, smoked chickens and now a big feed of reddies, you will be eating well this chrissy. Well done. Just one querry tho, isn't it 4 pots per person?

[rayke1938]

thats right.Forgot to say how many were in boat.

cheers

ray

[Davo_Dinkum]

nice pic's of the dam ,looks like glass .

bet its nice to get out when it's like that.

after being out on somerset for 4 day's on the canoe,i have seen how a dam can chop up with the wind .i reckon it got up to 2 feet / 1/2 a meter a few times in the arvo's

[Feral]

Davo, I've been on North Pine Dam in my 5m boat, both electric motors flat out, still going backwards, waves breaking over the bow in a squall. Easy 3 foot waves. Scary stuff.

[rayke1938]

Went back agaim today only got one bass but plenty of redclaw again. Dennis and Graham smiling they got 3/4 of a bucket of redclaw each and Graham got the bass.

Cheers

Ray

[kriso]

man i have to get off my arse and try for some redclaw one day thats tops ray!

[Davo_Dinkum]

i like redclaw catching .

the traps are cheap .

the spot to drop as easy to find .

the bait is scraps of fruit .

that = kids eat the fruit ,i use the scraps ,no wastage = a happy davo and its like free bait.

guess i will fish NPD 1 day as a decky .

its closer and somerset or maroon dam ,but longer traveling time .

i guess if i have heaps of extra $ i would get a watercraft permit when they are on offer.

as i could only see my going there a few times a year ,maybe 10 or so.

when the water craft permits where on offer i thought about it .

but taking time ,distance ,fuel and cost into account ,it didn't seam worth it to me .

nice 1 ray ,seams the bass been quite for a while now .

but at least u keep getting a feed of redclaw .

got to be happy with that ,way better than nothing .