queensland A River Somewhere..... Top water Bassin!

[Joe K]

When I arrived at the walk-in track at 3pm it was a hot sunny day out West. After 90 mins of walking and casting jigs and deep diving cranks for only a couple of bumps, I was starting to feel the heat. There was no wind only dry heat and my water bottle was empty. My mate Paul joined me after work at 5pm. The sun was setting and the heat abated by 6pm. Still no fish to my name. Paul had a big tussle with an adult lung fish giving him a free shower before throwing the hook close to shore. The baby bass became more active as it got darker but so were the mossies!

Before walking back to the car I remembered James's recent MR Cod. At 6.55pm I threw out my biggest top water lure hoping for a cod! Half way in, a big swirl but the rear trebles failed to hook up. I kept reeling.... 5 seconds later the fish hit from below right into the 1/0 treble hooks. I felt the weight load up the rod and it was a solid hookup. After a good struggle and a quick pic of this beaut 47cm river bass, she is released to hopefully breed again next Winter.

Cheers... Joe.

[Dinodadog]

Well done Joe good to see there are still some in there.

Dino

[Luvit]

Nice fish off the surface Joe.

Last Sunday I was using a large cod surface lure and had 5 hits from bass, no hook up , no cod hits

They can be aggressive little buggers sometimes and the funny thing was they were not interested in small lures this morning.

Usually if the fishing is tough, I drop lure size and avoid rattles and go to silent lures.

In this case tried a larger bibbed lure and the fish were all over it. Another lesson learnt. :whistle:

[Joe K]

Hi Dino! This time last year the fish were schooled up around the drop-offs and were fat and hungry. My last few trips have found the bass to be leaner and scattered, hiding close to the banks under cover. There is a healthy population of bass in the river as the live bait fishos no longer target the area.

[Joe K]

Hi Luvit! At times it may take 3-4 hits before a hookup. I just keep reeling..... and pray for the rod to buckle down. A variety of lures is the answer to these finicky bass, from surface lures down to bibless vibration lures and jigs. I mostly fish silent lures for heavily fished areas. A rattling lure on a hooked fish can spook every fish in the vicinity. I hope you get that cod this weekend!

[Luvit]

Bass off the surface is great, but cod off the surface is better.

[Joe K]

It's true that cod surface strikes are more spectacular but these are few and far between (for me anyway). A good top water bassin session will get me 8-12 hits and a very good session 20-30 hits.

[Joe K]

Returned to the river in the morning. The sun was already up so I missed the dawn session. Fished for 40mins without a hit so I decided to try a walk-in spot at a nearby dam. The fish were scattered and a 2.5hr session yielded 3 nice bass.

I'll return next week before dawn for a top water session. Attached pic of the best bass of the morning session.

Cheers... Joe.

[Angus]

Cracking fish man thanks for sharing!

Looks like good water

Angus

[Joe K]

Thanks Angus! I'm off surface bassin at the river Tuesday 4am. I hope to have at least 1 photo to post up on the forum.

Joe.

[Joe K]

Hi Guys! Arrived at the river at 4.30am and I cast out my surface cod lure. First twitch and bang! A hit but no hookup. Couple of casts later the lure was hit again half way across the river. Again no hookup. I knew they were bass so I changed over to a smaller profile lure. Clipped on a popper and on the 2nd cast it was hit after a few pops with a big splash from behind. The fish dived deep but I managed to pump her up away from the snags. I leaned into the river to lip grip a nice long bass. Haha! My best river bass for 2014. A few casts later I got another hit and hookup but it threw the hook moments later. Probably another bass. By 5.15am the bass shut down so after an hour it was off to a mate's house for brekky.

Cheers... Joe.

[Joe K]

Haha! How do you like this for a selfie?