Jump to content

Lake Awoonga, October 2007

Terry H

By Terry H
in Freshwater

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 133
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Terry H Newbie

Terry H

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The money shot: Where's Brian? I just see a smile under a hat and sunnies...

Well Feral... You didn't need a tow, and you didn't fall out of the boat. Well done:P

I don't know what you have to do to catch a fish though mate.. Two trips and no fish :( I was hoping you'd get a 1.2m bara - would have been far bigger than mine or Lees, but you certainly deserve one. Then to finish off the trip with gear getting stolen :sick: Certainly puts a sour note on a great trip

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rocket75 Newbie

Rocket75

Posted
Posted

Welcome home guys, been great fun just reading the reports, must have been a hoot in person.

Did the boys in blue pay you a visit after the B+E? I imagine that you are covered by insurance of some kind?

Big time bugger that.

Can't wait to hear more details of the trip...and that is a great photo of Brian and his new friend.

Rocket

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Feral Newbie

Feral

Posted
Posted

My slant on the AFO Awoonga 2007 adventure.

The plan this year was 6 nights at Awoonga, with a prefish for a few at Monduran on the way up. (I also had a another look at Paradise dam on the way, its only about 50k south of Gin Gin)

Well things started in the usual fashion, with Brian's itchy feet getting the better of him. Brian was off to Monduran a couple of days early, early arriving there on Thursday. Jamie, Scotty, Ken, Alex and myself arriving Sunday lunchtime, to find a tired Brian wanting to know why we had arrived a day early - sorry Brian, in all that fishing you had lost a day!

Anyway a quick unpack and we hit the Dam. Monduran is a fantastic dam, like Lenthalls on Steroids! Miles and miles of timber, structure, drop offs, and underwater hills rising from the depths.

Unfortunately, the cold weather had once again set in, and the AFO barra curse struck again! Water temperature had dropped 4 degrees in the last week, and the fish were shut down. Also a bit of rain as well, with me having quite a difficult time pulling the bullet from the water on Sunday night, took a few 1000 k's off the front tyres burning rubber up the ramp for 30 or 40 feet before I got up enough momentum to get up the hill. As we could not get into the cabins at Awoonga until after 2pm on Monday another fish at Monduran in the morning was called for. This time Ferg deckied for Brian and they disappeared up into the sticks, Alex and I fished the timber in the inlets for a couple of hits but no fish. Brian hooked up in shallow water up the back amongst the timber, but lost a good barra shortly after.

Time to leave, and the Camry had no hope of pulling the bullet out of the water on the dirt ramp, so a quick car change and pulled her out with brian's 4wd.

Off to Awoonga!

Unfortunately same deal at Awoonga, \"should have here last week\" was the general opinion, water temp down to 21 degree's fish shut down. Although Brian and Graham managed early fish trolling, then Scotty got a good un in the first day or two. The water was slowly warming each day, then team Yak arrived. That Lee is a fishing machine I tell ya! 6 barra in 2 days. He should have stayed for the comp. One of the blokes in the other cabins won a new boat and trailer on a lot less fish! Scotty and Graham managed to pick up another fish each to see the week out.

Ferg and I remained true to our principals, no endless trolling for us, we cast lures at every weed bed, every snag, every rock wall in Iveragh creek, 5 hours in the morning, 4 hours in the evening, no fish (well 1 catfish on a deep diving lure for Ferg). For the week Ferg managed 1 good hook up, only to lose the fish in the weed after a couple of spectacular jumps, he was only using 20lb leader, on his 2 to 4 kilo rod. He also got a couple of taps, I figured on a couple of taps but that was it. The endless Awoonga troll was alive and well, with Ferg and I counting aver 30 boats trolling the main basin one night!

The dam was as usual beautiful, the wind was kind to us this year, most of the time there was none of the trademark Awoonga gales, the worst we got was a few white caps on a couple of afternoons. However the fishing was that poor that Brian even left early, returning to Monduran for the remainder of his fishing time.

The ramp was usable, being gravel, and about 3 metres below the end of the concrete. But all the boofheads driving their boats on and off their trailers made it difficult for those having to sink their trailers to launch or retrieve, with big holes in the ramp from prop wash. There was one particular bloke with a huge tinnie, big V8 inboard and it was a jet boat. Everytime he drove onto his trailer, there was muddy water for 30 or 40 metres surrounding the ramp!

The comp on the last weekend seemed to generate little extra traffic, probably only another 20 - 30 boats, but for some reason it seemed to attract a fine class of idiot on the ramp, with people doing the usual annoying things but reaching much higher levels of stupidity!. IE stopping at the top of the ramp to rig their boats, one bloke parked in the turn around area for half an hour because his power tilt would not lift his motor.Others were parking at the bottom to launch or retrieve boats leaving their lights on making it darn near impossible to see anything for those trying to back down the ramp. Doing 40 or 50 k an hour up the ramp with empty trailers, past boats trying to reverse down the ramp (about 150metres) launching boats with people sitting in them, multiple attempts at driving boats on to trailers (5 goes was the most we saw, before he gave up and winched on, with damage to the hull at each failed attempt).

With the comp on, the police were out in force, I was breath tested and had my trailer lights checked just in front of the cabins (just as well I fixed them, I had broken the lightboard the night before!), then the same again on the water a couple of hours later, breath tested by water police, safety gear checked, also a bit of a discussion over the length of my boat, (being 4.9m there is no need for Alex to wear a life jacket), but they were nice enough about it all. I will carry a copy of my rego papers in future in case I get a nigly bugger just to prove the length!

Then of course was our little visit from the lower end of the Gene pool on the last night, that has been covered elsewhere, but suffice to say there was 10's of thousands of dollars of gear knocked off from the 3 cabins hit. The people at the park were mortified, and are already planning on increasing security. Which is a shame, it was so easy to just drive in and out any time of the day or night. It looks like at a minimum there will be a locked gate policy at night from now on. (With keys provided to guests).

General consensus is Awoonga is to hard and to far. Plans are for next year Monduran in November or December, with maybe a day trip to Paradise dam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brian D Newbie

Brian D

Posted
Posted

Dan23 wrote:

Haven't heard much about the results from Monduran. were many fish caught there?

Mate before I do my report I gotta say when i pulled into the ramp at Monduran today I saw 3 fish boated while I was putting the boat on the tailer. They where jumping in the boat on the troll. reports are 8 fish caught by 1 bloke in 2 hours, all between 90 and 115.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brian D Newbie

Brian D

Posted
Posted

Well just a quick review of my week at the AFO Awoonga 2007.

Lee Lee Lee says it all. What a bloody champion, 6 fish on his 1st Barra trip. Hats off to you mate; you're a great fisherman and a top young bloke to boot. I look forward to seeing you on the cover of a few mags mate.

Special mention here to Terry - you got one too, under a distinct disadvantage - Lee peddles while you have to paddle. But Terry, some of those photos you got of Lee are fantastic, great work mate, I am absolutely humbled as to what you guys achieved.

I was thinking about buying a yak but then I thought motor power is easier.

PA240032AFO.jpg

And my room mates Jamie and Scott, thanks for the company, you guys are cool. Here’s a shot of how neat and tidy we were.

PA270059AFO.jpg

And here’s the other guys cabin, they know how to party

PA270053AFO.jpg

But I gotta say I do have a problem with deckies! They catch all the fish.

PA240038AFO.jpg

Bloody deckie – throw him over Jamie.

PA250039AFO.jpg

The old buggers do it again.

PA230019AFO.jpg

About me: Well I got the 1st one and it nearly went a meter.

PA230017AFO.jpg

But I am happy.

P1090063AFO.jpg

This is the way home at Monduran – pick a line and be careful.

PA290117AFO.jpg

After a run in with the overhead trees in the sticks.

PA290120AFO.jpg

Can’t wait for next trip. Book it Ray!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rayke1938 Experienced

rayke1938

Posted
Posted

The only 2 fish that Graham caught were caught trolling across sounder shows like this.

The majority of the fish were sitting below the thermocline.

When we stopped and baitfished over the show all we caught were catfish that were sitting below the barra. [img size=500]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/IMG_9527_AFO.jpg

post-230-144598430636_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rayke1938 Experienced

rayke1938

Posted
Posted

Brian did some in a thai sauce. I will have to get recipe it sounded great. We had fresh barra in breadcrumbs twice.

Here are the rest of my photos. I will have to get Feral to show me how to use photobucket so i can put them all in together.

Packed ready to go. [img size=500]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/P1010683_AFO-9f5f720c04834bdc01fb0caa09f66fb8.jpg

post-230-144598430647_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...