Monduran - New Moon - Hard times

[Huxstang]

Mate and I decided to try our hand at Monduran.  It must be 20 years since I was last up there and the water level was much lower (currently only 1m below spill way) which may be why we had success 20 years ago with no sounder and no idea - there was definitely a lot of water and I am sure it spreads the fish out. 

So short hand version - saw plenty on the sidescan and even more on the Livescope.  recorded the livescope and its quite interesting as you can actually measure the fish - had 3 fish that would have been the magic meter all within casting zone and could not get them interested. 

And that was it, 4 sessions, and not one strike - didnt feel too bad because everyone we spoke to was exactly the same…zero fish and worked hard for nothing.

Dam was pure, did all my high school in Bundy and played junior golf comps at Gin Gin and have no recollection of it being so green.  Really nice time to visit.  Temps were quite mild with the SE wind.  Still obviously summer but not ultra humid like Bris when we left.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8JYMxd3dJ4D41Kpt9

According the almanac it should have been excellent fishing conditions, but clearly fresh water barra cannot read.  NE winds are apparently preferred but we still found plenty of fish just could not raise a bite.

If I can find a storage solution I will share a screen recording of the livescope.  It was my first chance to just work it really hard and play around with things to see what worked or not.  Much easier than when you are getting bounced in the ocean or river to sit on the gunnell and tinker.

So report is - saw lots, caught zero 

[mangajack]

Change of tide they say for Mondy.

 

[Huxstang]

No idea but it seemed shut down.  Quite a few guys putting in long hours just like us and zero results.  I have heard full moon is a good one.  Will try again sometime soon.

[ellicat]

I'm not sure what's worse. Last time I was there (maybe 15 years ago) @rayke1938 was typically cleaning up on the barra, so he took me and a couple of other members out to get us a barra. To that point none of us had got one. Sure enough one of the other members hooks up and lands a nice one. We were trolling and it was agreed that the next hookup I would take. Soon after, there was a hookup. I took the rod and wound in a big cattie. Aaaarrrrggghhh. haha  I still haven't caught even one.

[ellicat]

Video of the Livescope in action would be good.

[Huxstang]

I will see how I can share it.  Damn painful as wont upload into Google photos 

[Huxstang]

Hey Brian see if you can see this reel on Facebook mate?

https://www.facebook.com/1276354345/posts/pfbid0LD2gdKbhY4REmXDaieFTUcizWLxq2srDcK1TTAzTQmdf9txB1LCQUZFF31QA4Lgjl/?

Basically you can see we are in @ 6m of water and at around 1min you will see some fish moving across bottom right to left.  Scale across and up are all in meters.  

I then used the screen zoom to look more closely and you can clearly see they are barra.  The grids are 1m square so you can see just how big these fish are.  

[ellicat]

Youtube ?

[ellicat]

5 minutes ago, Huxstang said:

Hey Brian see if you can see this reel on Facebook mate?

https://www.facebook.com/1276354345/posts/pfbid0LD2gdKbhY4REmXDaieFTUcizWLxq2srDcK1TTAzTQmdf9txB1LCQUZFF31QA4Lgjl/?

Basically you can see we are in @ 6m of water and at around 1min you will see some fish moving across bottom right to left.  Scale across and up are all in meters.  

I then used the screen zoom to look more closely and you can clearly see they are barra.  The grids are 1m square so you can see just how big these fish are.  

Yeah, I see them. How cool is that. It would make the no bites more frustrating. What were you throwing at them ?

[Huxstang]

Tried everything in the box.  Jackall 79’s, Zerek Flat shads, Molix 140’s, some of my old RMG and Halco’s, B52 deep, even tried a Zerek vibe and a Zman frog for surface.   Mate even tried a curly tail to try and mix it up.  

Spoke to quite a few people at ramp and accomodation and no one was getting anything so just seems they were shut down and not feeding.  Thing with the sounders you can see just how much bait is available, so unlike rivers where its more opportunistic.

 

It was a great trip for me…so much time to spend on my electronics and really get a better feel for it.  The LVS is definitely a great thing to actually see if fish are there and look forward to being more targetted with it around the river etc.  

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Good report @Huxstang. Hope you clean up next time. 

[ellicat]

1 hour ago, Huxstang said:

Tried everything in the box.  Jackall 79’s, Zerek Flat shads, Molix 140’s, some of my old RMG and Halco’s, B52 deep, even tried a Zerek vibe and a Zman frog for surface.   Mate even tried a curly tail to try and mix it up.  

Spoke to quite a few people at ramp and accomodation and no one was getting anything so just seems they were shut down and not feeding.  Thing with the sounders you can see just how much bait is available, so unlike rivers where its more opportunistic.

 

It was a great trip for me…so much time to spend on my electronics and really get a better feel for it.  The LVS is definitely a great thing to actually see if fish are there and look forward to being more targetted with it around the river etc.  

Yeah, they don't eat all day every day.  Barometer play any part, do you think ?

With the Livescope, the river threadies and jew will be praying for you to go on holidays again.

[Huxstang]

I feel a lot more confident with the livescope after Monduran - like any marine electronics, time on water is the key thing.  Watched every video known to mankind I think but it was a couple of solid days of use that really made the difference.  Now its time to try it in some deeper salt water.

Will see how it works around the Clara rock/boat passage reef which is only @ 10m but I guess quite disturbed from current or maybe if no cruise ships in, give it a good workout around the new terminal which is probably a better spot.  Regardless I will be using it more now I feel more confident.

[Jono4500]

Sad to hear, I'm trying to get up there end of March, hope they hungry by then. 

[Huxstang]

Try a full moon.  We were on new moon which according to Almanac should be a good time….clearly not . Also from what I saw the better points are where northerlies are hitting whilst we had a SE wind.   Still we found them just couldnt get a bite - so just hope you find them hungry.

[mangajack]

A mate has been recording times he is catching fish in Mondy and entering it into a database with lots of other fishing....Seems there is a real coincidence in Mondy with tide changes at Gladstone...high or low does not matter, but it is around 70% lining up within an hour each side of a tide change.

Something to take note of in the future I guess.

[Neil Stratford]

I took my brother up to Monduran in November 2022 for a three day camping trip . It was our first time there and haven’t been back since , so I’m certainly no expert on the place 

The dam was over 100 percent and was spilling , was temp in the main basin was only 24 deg C,it was  2 days before and after a super moon , it was also a full solar eclipse.

I dropped a fish next to boat first cast and we didnt get another bite all the entire first day. We went back to camp disappointed and were forced to review our tactics.

We got 24 Barra in the remaining couple of days fishing day time only.

The code we cracked was a combination of 

  1.fish showing on side scan,

2.looked for water a couple of degrees warmer than the main basin.

3.fished up in the shallows off gently sloping points fringed with Water Lillies with timber present,well away from other boats

4 . Super Stealth on the electric when spot locking . 

5. Number of casts = number of fish.

6.. didn’t bother with fishing only the tide changes we just stayed on the water and fished all day.and enjoyed a few drinks in the evenings.

Apart from one other boat , everyone we spoke to at the camp ground donuted that weekend , so we were pretty happy with  our rookie effort.I put up a post back in November 22 but you won’t be able to view the photos.

 

 

 

[Old Scaley]

On 12/2/2024 at 7:41 PM, Huxstang said:

Hey Brian see if you can see this reel on Facebook mate?

https://www.facebook.com/1276354345/posts/pfbid0LD2gdKbhY4REmXDaieFTUcizWLxq2srDcK1TTAzTQmdf9txB1LCQUZFF31QA4Lgjl/?

Basically you can see we are in @ 6m of water and at around 1min you will see some fish moving across bottom right to left.  Scale across and up are all in meters.  

I then used the screen zoom to look more closely and you can clearly see they are barra.  The grids are 1m square so you can see just how big these fish are.  

That is really interesting vision @Huxstang  First time I have seen live scope excel for demo mode. What are those straight vertical lines?

[GregOug]

On 12/2/2024 at 6:14 PM, Huxstang said:

Mate and I decided to try our hand at Monduran.  It must be 20 years since I was last up there and the water level was much lower (currently only 1m below spill way) which may be why we had success 20 years ago with no sounder and no idea - there was definitely a lot of water and I am sure it spreads the fish out. 

So short hand version - saw plenty on the sidescan and even more on the Livescope.  recorded the livescope and its quite interesting as you can actually measure the fish - had 3 fish that would have been the magic meter all within casting zone and could not get them interested. 

And that was it, 4 sessions, and not one strike - didnt feel too bad because everyone we spoke to was exactly the same…zero fish and worked hard for nothing.

Dam was pure, did all my high school in Bundy and played junior golf comps at Gin Gin and have no recollection of it being so green.  Really nice time to visit.  Temps were quite mild with the SE wind.  Still obviously summer but not ultra humid like Bris when we left.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8JYMxd3dJ4D41Kpt9

According the almanac it should have been excellent fishing conditions, but clearly fresh water barra cannot read.  NE winds are apparently preferred but we still found plenty of fish just could not raise a bite.

If I can find a storage solution I will share a screen recording of the livescope.  It was my first chance to just work it really hard and play around with things to see what worked or not.  Much easier than when you are getting bounced in the ocean or river to sit on the gunnell and tinker.

So report is - saw lots, caught zero 

Hi @Huxstang. Is that a LVS32 or LVS34 transducer?

cheers

Greg

[Huxstang]

12 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

That is really interesting vision @Huxstang  First time I have seen live scope excel for demo mode. What are those straight vertical lines?

You can have the grid lines show or are you talking about the really bright lines (which are trees).  We were right up amongst the timber which is a bit touch in a boat as big as mine (not exactly a 4.3 edge tracker ).

Simple way of thinking of livescope is ultrasound.  You move the beam around and it paints a picture.  So you can see these really bright vertical lines which is the beam hitting the trees and then fainter lines fading in and out which is just trees a bit out of the beam.  I think the fish can be seen quite clearly in the video?

And Greg LVS34.