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Ewen Maddock Dam – 7/05/2007

Terry H

By Terry H
in Freshwater

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Terry H Newbie

Terry H

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Angus, his mate Alister, Jamie (polyphonic) and I headed up to Ewen Maddock Dam, in search of some big bass and hopefully even a saratoga. Despite the rain free conditions in Brisbane, we were undoubtedly soaked before we even managed to cast a lure.

Baroon’s Bass Catching Machine, Lee (pcsolutionman) along with several of the AKFF members were already at the dam, and we all joined up and the 11 yaks headed to the grassy banks in search of some Saratoga. Just about everyone had something different on, and the variety included just about everything except soft plastics and bait. Unfortunately nothing was biting so I decided to shift my attention to the bass.

Following the success of Lee’s deep divers in Baroon, I was eager to try out my new Boomerang 65 Ultra Deeps. Just as I pulled out the scissors, and cut the spinner bait off, I notice a big toga come right up next to my yak before quickly returning to the weed covered depths. Spewing! Where was it when I was throwing the spinners? I pulled out my other rod and threw out the SX 60 in a vain attempt to catch that beautiful fish.

As I threw out the Boomerang, I quickly learnt two things. 1. Unlike some other dams, the majority of Ewen Maddock isn’t deep. 2. There’s a LOT of weed in Ewen Maddock. I started my troll out to the middle of the dam, stopping occasionally to get my lure out of weeds, at least until I made it into deeper water. Another new addition to my freshwater/kayak fishing is my scotty rod holder for the yak. I must say, they’re great for trolling! Watching the rod tip vibrate strongly from the ‘ultra deep’ diving boomerang, I was more than happy to see the lure get hit hard. You beauty! Deep diving lure is working already!

After a nice little fight, a new personal best 42cm to the fork bass came to the surface, and then returned after a few pictures. It was this time that I spoke with Lee and found out he had already caught a couple of bass at 54 and 56cm (one of which broke his rod!) Not bothering to trolling over that same spot again, I continued out into the middle of the dam in search of some bigger bass. By this stage the rest of the fleet were well off into the distance in more shallow water, leaving Lee and I to troll the depths of Ewen Maddock. As I came in line with the second point, my lure was hit hard again (Hard for me anyway! This was my 4th dam trip, with which the only other fish producing trips were the 2 trips to Baroon) and after a nice little tussle I managed to pull up a slightly smaller bass at 41cm from the weedy bottom. By this stage, I had fallen in love with my new Boomerang lure and reaffirmed my liking for pink lures.

This time I decided to troll back over the same spot, although from the opposite direction. As the lure came to the same spot, BAM! You beauty I’m on again! After that I have no idea on what happened. It became bricked and I quickly started to fear the loss of my lure. It was well and truly snagged, and I had no option other than to break the line. Thankfully, to both Lee’s and my astonishment the lure wasn’t hooked in any fishes mouth or caught on any snag and floated back to the surface. Lee and I then started to paddle over to where the rest of the yaks were, but had to stop every 50 metres because our deep diving lures were in the weeds. After a few chats, almost everyone there converged on the centre of the dam where Lee (3 bass) and I (2 bass) had all the success. No more bass were caught there and most people headed back off to have a troll near the launch point and then go home. Not me! After a quick pitstop, I trolled the same spot where I got my 2nd bass, however from a different direction again. Without fail, when I reached the location - WHAM! Holy crap, whatever this is, it’s huge! I described it to Angus as making the 42cm bass look like a small wind up toy. I really did struggle to get the rod out of the holder, this thing was motoring along! After a short fight, I felt the line go limp. The lure had busted off, and whatever it was; perhaps a bass well over 50cm; was now swimming around with my Boomerang in its gob. Upon inspection, it appeared that the fluorocarbon leader had broken, and there were noticeable fray marks all up the leader. Spewing!! My only B65 lure was in the drink. Not content with that I busted out its bigger brother, the Boomerang 80 Ultra Deep (now this thing would have been literally digging a trench in the bottom of the dam, but a lure is better than none. right?) was thrown on the Daiwa, and a Jackall on the Symetre. Unfortunately there were no more hits as I trolled the same spot numerous times, all whilst keeping a look out for my pink Boomerang, in hope that it floated to the surface. I turned for the ramp since I could see everyone in the far distance packing up. Angus had already left!

I caught up with some of the guys at the launch point, and found out someone had caught a nice yellow belly. I can’t remember if anything else was caught.

Known Tally:

Terry: 2 Bass (41 and 42)

Lee: 3 Bass (42, 46, 54)

Ashley (AKFF): 4 Bass, 1 Yellow (56)

Post edited by: TerryH, at: 2007/05/08 09:59

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Feral Newbie

Feral

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Sounds like a great trip!

Wise man always checks his leader after every hookup and every snag. To many times I have lost a fish then when going to tie a new lure or hook on, felt the last 3 feet of line was all chewed up!

I also retie the lure after every hook up of a decent sized fish.

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Brian D Newbie

Brian D

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Well done Terry - good size fish, pity about the lure but if it caught you a couple of fish then you got your money worth out of it.

Although I still got the lure that boated my 2 barra from last Awoonga trip :P I might retire them in case I loose em.

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Feral Newbie

Feral

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Being Ferg's \"lure fishin apprentice\", one of the things he told me was that when your having a hot day, and the fish are deadset leaping into the boat, use every lure in your tackle box so you know they catch fish! Gives you confidence in them he reckons!

I reckon he went through about 20 lures on that big day we had at Baroon!

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polyphonic Newbie

polyphonic

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So here I am at 10.30 last night chatting to a few of the guys in the chat room. I was chatting to Terry saying how I could not find a deck hand and was heading out solo. Terry reminded me of their trip to Ewan Maddock and the fact that there was a spear viking available. After some persistent arm twisting from Terry I shot off a pm to Lee to see if the spear yak was still available. By 11.00pm I still had no idea so I headed for bed and set the alarm for 4.00am.

Woke up with the alarm and like a true AFO crew member flicked on the pc while boiling the jug. Pm from Lee was there saying that the yak was available and he would take it down for me. So here's the decision A: head out for a day in the boat by myself that I can do anytime or B: get behind the spirit of fishing and go and try a new location and a new way of fishing with new people.

Well you guessed it by 4.30am I was unhooking the boat and grabbing out my rods. I jumped in the car and dashed over to the north side where I meet up with Angus who was kind enough to give me a lift up to the dam and back.

Headed up the coast with the usual chit chat and arrived at the dam to discover the guys from the yak site already on the water. Lee had left me a yak on the shore. So we unloaded Angus' yaks and set out for the day. I found the yak easy to paddle and really stable. Unfortunately I didn’t get any fish so I can't comment on what it's like to land one in a yak.

Thanks heaps to Lee for the use of the yak, Angus for the ride and to Terry for twisting my arm and getting me to try something different.

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pcsolutionman Newbie

pcsolutionman

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Hi guys just thought id add some pics and tell my story

It was a great turnout with 11 kayakers on the water. the tally for the day was Terry 2, Ashley from akff got 4 bass and a nice yella 56cm long and I got 3 bass.

My fish went 42cm fork, 46cm fork and the third was over 54cm to the fork it was hard to measure thrashing around but you can judge for yourself the size of the Beast.

All fish boated were caught before 8am so an early start seems the go

First fish 42cm fork [img size=500]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/100_0044_web.jpg

post-1283-144598414031_thumb.jpg

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