Some Yankee Bass

[Bullrout]

Hey all

Started off my weekend with a bang on saturday,finally we're settled down enough for me to go for a fish, so i got my gear and hiked off into the bush... first cast with a little spinning jig head - i'm on... pulled out a nice little Small mouth bass he was about 27cm ... it was great, the water was clear enough to watch them strike.. i was so happy, went to get the camera... no Xd card for my pictures. left in in the damn laptop!

oh well, changed to a ecogear sx40 matched the little bait fish perfectly and got another 5, dropped two and missed a couple of strikes in a few hours. I even got a little bluegill. Biggest bass i got was 41cm, lean mean fighting machine that he was!

All went straight back into the water for me to catch another day.

They fought great on my 4lb gear and i seriously had a ball. They wernt big, they definitly wernt bruisers, but i couldnt stop grinning when i headed back to the car - reminded me thats what fishing is all about.

Bummed that i had no piccys, i decided to go re-fish to try and catch my first US bass again.. this time on camera!

SO I went out again this mornin after Lauren went off to work. It was about 8am, and the sun was out over the river...Tied on a Beetle spin and Spent half an hour where i got the fish saturday but all i got was a couple of half-hearted hits and a dropped fish i hate that lol.

So... thought i'd go for a walk up river and do some exploring. About 5 minutes upstream (walking past some un accessible bue awesome looking water!!),i found a little clearing and another great looking body of water to fish, lots of structure, big weed bed on one side and in complete shade from the tree cover. I got rid of the beetle spin and tied on my favourite little crankbait the Ecogear SX40 which got me my fish saturday. Couple of casts and i was on, bringing in the first litle fish. And this time i brought the camera - so lots of photos.

Well in the nex hour i caught another five 20 - 30cm bass, and a litle blue gill, and dropped something big which just bricked me as soon as i set the hook. Bye bye to my 2nd last SX40.. I had no chance!!

About now the sun was coming over the river and the fish were going off the bite.. so i headed home, and decided to have another fish later the afternoon.

When i got back around three, my new little area was back in the shade, and my now last SX40 was in the firing line again. A couple of casts over the weed beds and another little bluegill brought to the bank. There a pretty little fish!

I went back to the first section of river, and for half an hour got nothing, when Lauren finished work and decided we should go home. I pleaded one more cast... and BAM - my little lure got smashed.. after a great fight including the fish leaving the water a few times and a few hectic moments in the snags i landed my second 41cm bas from the same stretch of river - afte being bummed after catching one saturday and not having a camera i was as happy as a pig in the proverbial to get some happy snaps with this one!! Lauren didnt quite understand but she took them anyway... she'll get it when i hook her up to her first bass!!

Anyway all fish went back into the river as usual for me to catch again another day.

Thanks for reading all!

The River

Blugill

Some Small Guys

My new PB!! (also check outh the clothing style soon to be big in hollywood - \"KDB\" - Karana Downs Bogan )

[rayke1938]

Good to hear from you great report and nice fish. The river looks a bit different to Kooka Park. No threadies there.

Cheers

Ray

[Plastic Fantastic]

good on ya my fellow karana downsian :laugh:

where abouts in the US where ya? that looks so god damn fun! good on ya man...great read too

[Brian D]

How cool, where were you?

Looks like the stream out the back of my place.

[Bullrout]

Yeah its great fun, just a walk down from our donger (or trailer they call it here) and i'm there.

We're in Agoura Hills, its in the Santa Monica Mountains Reserve in California, 15 minutes from Malibu, 30 mins from LA. Theres a trou farm up the road to and im hoping they escape and come into my part of the river lol.

It surprises me the size and amount of fish in the creek... its extremly shallow and in some places also isnt much larger then the creek at Platypus Park!!! But I know theres some HAWGS in there coz i've heard stories he he he. You'll know when i get one, youll hear me in Brisbane!!

[Angus]

Well done mate thats awesome.

Please keep the US reports coming. Very interesting to see.

Thanks again and Karma to you.

Angus

[MichaelJ]

great report sounded like fun congrats on the bass

[jeff f]

great report ben glad to see you're of to a good start on the us capture list.

[kevinchen19870316]

those sunfish looks so nice

the black bass strikes hard, don;t they

[STU]

Thats awesome mate I would love to catch a small mouth bass great pics try and go catch a large mouth bass somewhere would love to see a pic of one of those.

[Plastic Man]

mate the just bloody aewsome great pics mate keep the reports coming

[Dazzamcgee]

Mate, great work sounds like your living the dream!!

Keep them posts coming mate looking forward to seeing more pics from the U.S!!

karma to U !!!!!

[Bullrout]

cheers guys, will keep you posted how its going over here.

Went out again today for a hour or two, got another sunfish, and 4 bass, used some bigger baits today to see if i can hook up something bigger, i got 3 bass one was 24cm, one was 32cm and one over-ambitious 12cm bass on a 2in spinner jig head and pumpkinseed minnow, and the last one was me playing silly buggers with a gold surface twitchbait that got smashed and it was awesome He measured 36cm. Went out this afternoon to Wal Mart and got a couple of Frogs for me to have a play with sometime this week!

Another One

Bigger Bass this time

Surface Smasher

[Plastic Man]

now your getting them on the surface how good is that awesome mate good stuff

[Cowfish13]

How would you compare the fights of the small mouth bass to australia's fish? Like, what fish in oz would fight like them?

Looks like an awesome place.

[pcsolutionman]

great stuff dude, thats an awesome looking little bit of water you have there

Lee

[James W]

wicked fishing bullrout!..hope ya teachin the yanks some aussies styles...good work man:)

[username_taken]

great work!

How long are you there for? I usually find myself in LA a couple of times a year for work, if you're still there next time I'm over I'll look you up.

[Do$tylz]

Thats sweet as. When I was there a few years ago I got to fish in a little backyard lake with some poppers. Nothing more exciting than seeing a big mouth engulf a little popper on the surface.

Too bad I can't see the pics of the fish at work (you must be hosting the pics on a blocked site). Gonna have to have a look when I get home.

[Dazzamcgee]

Sweet pics mate well done!!

[Bullrout]

Thanks again all its heaps fun. Gonna go try frogs this afternoon!

DoStylez - Its amazing watching them take it off the surface - this guy i got missed it the first time and i saw him so i slowed it right down and he smashed it again!

Cowfish13 - size for size i think there alot similar to our bass.. as soon as they know there hooked they run for cover. However the SMB do like to get airborne a lot - its pretty cool watching them think thre barra leaping out of the water!! Whatever briked me the other day thoguh fought like a jack - i had not a chance in hell of stopping it!

JImmbob - I keep telling myself the fish arnt used to aussie fishing style and lures thats why i keep catching them lol

Username Taken - mate im here for 2 yrs indefinitly so i'll b here a while !!

[Bullrout]

Instead of starting a new post i just continued on with this one... Please tell me if youd rather i started a new one...

I went out this morning for a bit with my 10lb bait casting outfit and a couple of SnagProof frogs i got from Walmart. Never used a frog before, but after getting one on a surface bait yesterday thought it would be a bit of fun. I wasnt mistaken!

I missed the first 4 strikes - heart stopping stuff when they take it off the surface... i kept attempting to set hooks which all up ended with the frog being pulled from the fishes mouth... every time i did it i said to myself \"dont do that next time, let it take it yadda yadda\" and then i'd get a strike and forget everything i told myself LOL

Eventually i got a hookup, and brought a good 30cm to the bank, happy i'd broken the frog in. That brought the confidence levels up!

In the nexthour or so i got a few more hits, a few more misses (kept telling myself to slow down!!!) two dropped fish, but did succeed in landing two more solid bass... there definitly is a link between bait size and fish size - no fish i got today were skinny or under 25cm like i had caught in the last few days, whether thats cause it was surface or what not im not sure.

At about 0930 my life changed... I landed the frog into a snag pile that was perfect.. two twitches and it exploded! For a few hectic minutes i played tug of war with godzilla... him trying to steal my frog and me just trying not to fall in... and when i finally won i had at my feet a monster of a fish... i wish i had a set of scales, but measureing him up he came in at a hair over 51cm. It was unreal... My new PB on a Frog of all things!! And of course no one was there to share it with me so i didnt get a picture of him with my ugly mug but oh well!!

All got released back into the river after a few happy snaps and hopefully i'll get them again when there bigger!!!

My first SMB on a Frog

Smaller Frog-Eaters

GODZILLA

Another of GODZILA with my foot for scale, My boot is a Size 12

[James W]

that is awesome bullrout!!!!! congrats!!!..i bet that was real heart in mouth fishing....well done man:woohoo:

[ellicat]

Ripper fish there. :woohoo: :woohoo:

That's a seriously sturdy looking hook in the frog, and looks like it's needed too:ohmy: Good one.

[Do$tylz]

Mate thats awesome . keep these reports and pics coming.

[Cowfish13]

Great Fish. Any one else notice that every fish caught on the frog was hooked in the bottom jaw? Maybe thats why you couldn't get them when you were striking.