queensland Got my first Bass...EVER! Hinze Dam

[mojo]

Gday all. sorry if this is long but its one of those fluky stories that my wife usually experiences and I'm over the moon : )

my Anzac day trip to Hinze was put on hold until yesterday.

We intended to take bait and do some spinning for the banks, unfortunately we couldnt find anyone selling worms and the compost heap was dry as, not a worm in sight so decided to take a small shrimp net and try our luck with that.

Anyway got to the northern boat ramp area around 6am, beautiful overcast day with not a breath of wind and proceeded to walk over to a bunch of snags that looked ok.

Walking across the mud flats I decided to kick over a few rocks searching for some kind of bait, the second or third rock exposed something that looked like a cricket, not sure exactly what it was..about 2cm long with pincers on the tail(anyone know?).

was a bit worried my 3/0 wide gap kahle hooks were a bit too big but thought what the hell and threaded the bait onto it, looked pretty crude to be honest with half the hook still visible.

My first cast was a directly out from shore a fair way and didn't produce a bite for 5 minutes so I wound it in and recast a bit closer to shore, where there was a nice looking snaggy drop off about 5 metres out.

Now thinking this was pretty much a waste of time I turned around and picked up my lure rod and started walking and flicking along the shore....Not 2 minutes went by before my brother yelled out that my bait rod had fallen over. I then turned and saw it being dragged into the drink at a rate of knots....Holy Sh*T!....I got to it just as the cork handle was about to get wet and proceeded to land a very nice bass around 35-40cm....YOU LITTLE BEAUTY!!!

Now is that luck or what?

We tried the shrimp net and finding more of these superbaits with no luck and 3 hours of spinning didnt get a hit.

My brother was using soft plastic powerbaits and I tried a selection of oldish hardbody lures mostly dark green/yellow color that produced some nice yellowbelly out at Mackintyre river a few years back, and a yellow feather sonic rooster tail spinner....not a touch.

Were going back next week equipped with some better bait and hopefully better lures.

I would just like to ask for any help or suggestions on what lures/colors we should try here and if anyone knows where we can buy or catch some shrimp in the area? I remember a place out near jimboomba that used to sell boxes of freshwater yabbies quiet cheaply, has anyone tried these in the dams?

We were chatting to one of the guys trolling past and he had a good morning....he said he'd been fishing there for 4 years and today got his first ever yellowbelly....a beauty at that 58 cm. he also got 2 nice bass and threw back another ten.

Must have been a day for first evers ( :

Cheers to all

Mojo

[rayke1938]

Good effort. You can buy small shrimp and redclaw at the pet superstore at capalaba and Annerley aquarium shop at Coopraroo roughly around 60 cents each,

They get fresh stock in every thursday. Usually plenty of redclaw but shrimp sometimes are scarce and too small for bait.

If you have a cast net try to get some saltwater prawns they will kep for a couple of days with a aerator. The bass at baroon hammered them on anzac day.

We have also caught bass on banded grunter fleas in the Hinze.

There is an old guy who catches small banded grunter and he gets some really stonker bass on them fishing from the bank.

Ray

Post edited by: rayke1938, at: 2007/04/28 09:12

[Angus]

Mate thats awesome well done.

I got my first Hinze Yella there only a few weeks back so maybe they are coming on!

The bait you found under that rock sounds to me like a dragon fly nymph or some other sort of insect larvae.

Hinze always seems to be a tempermental dam for lures. But in the deeper water try blue or purple deep diving or lipless lures.

Also spinner baits have produced their fair share of Toga with blokes from this site.

Angus

[Cowfish13]

Could that bait have been a Water Scorpian?

[mojo]

Thanks for the tips guys.

Regarding the bait, it was some kind of mud burrowing bug, about 4mm in diameter, around 25 mm long, the rear pincers were more like something you see on large bullants, it was pinching the palm of my hand but not sharp enough to draw blood or inject any toxic venom...lol.

whatever it was, that bass absolutely nailed the sucker.

cheers

[jeff f]

sounds like a mudeye or dragonfly lurvae, great bait

[Bud]

I tend to have a lot of my luck with bass on gold or white bibbed and bibless minnows.

[shaggy]

mojo,

where are you situated, I could tee you up with a few yabbies if you need them. Great on the Yella's and Bass too I suspect.

[mojo]

Hi Shaggy, I'm at woodridge mate, I'd love to get some yabbies next time so please let me know.

cheers

Mojo

[shaggy]

Mojo - no sweat, just shot through a PM.