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Awoonga

Brian D

By Brian D
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Brian D

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[img size=364]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Picture_002.jpg Lake Awoonga

Quick Guide for First Timers November 2006

Here is a quick what’s doing at Lake Awoonga for the Brisbane River Fishing (BRF) Members who haven’t been lucky enough to experience the place for themselves yet. This is designed to give you a quick overview and hopefully save you some money and worry. I know there are people who know more about the place then the writer, so if you have something of value to add just drop me a line and we can include the information for other BRF members to draw on.

Accommodation

Over 10 days and 9 nights I stayed in 3 different places. The first was a basic permanent tent at the Lake Awoonga Caravan Park. It’s a canvas tent with a wooden floor and that’s it. You need all your own bedding and creature comforts; however there is a community cooking facility with power so for coffee lovers like me you can take your own kettle and make your self a coffee. If you are going to have an extended stay here I suggest you take all the camping comfort gear you want except the tent. If you’re only staying a night or two just take a swag and mattress and you’ll be fine. Cost was $17 per night I think.

The second style of accommodation was again at the caravan park but upgraded to self contained cabin. It was old and tired but comfortable – well sort of anyway. The bed was lumpy and broken, the main light and the bed light were broken, the stove didn’t work fully and the lounge come sofa bed was busted and uncomfortable. But the people were friendly and it had a great view of the lake. The cost was $75 per night – cheap enough but needs some TLC.

The third style was some new cabins that have not yet officially opened for business yet. In fact I was the first paying guest in the one I stayed in and it was swanky. I found them just down the road from the caravan park but they have not advertised anywhere yet. I think the name was Lake Awoonga Gateway Cabins The set up was great and the owners were fantastic. This is where I will be stying on any future visits, if I can get a booking that is. The cost was $77 per night and worth every cent.

The Boat Ramp and Carpark

How is this for a ramp? Steep and limited parking however there is a second carpark with even steeper access. I started offering anyone at the bottom of the ramp a lift up the hill. Some people looked at me as if I was strange, others were stoked. You choose walk or ride! Launching and retrieving boats gets difficult (but remains usable) in a south westerly through to northerly breeze over about 15 knots.

The Food and Beer

I lived on hamburgers, beer, coffee and staminade for a good part of the trip. Sounds bad but it was bloody great. I found three places that make great burgers the old fashion way with everything on it and I mean everything: steak, egg, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, pineapple, cheese, onion, and beef patty washed down with a beer after 6 hours of fishing and it doesn’t get any better. At the Kalinda Café the cost was $7.50 for the burger and $4.00 a beer and I had plenty, BUT they are closed Mon and Tuesday. I should mention that they also do traditional roasts (which I tried once and it was tops) and other menu items but I couldn’t see past the burgers. Grab a burger and pull up a free day hut spread around the lake. The other places for a good feed where at the service station/truck stop and the general store across the road in town. The truck stop is open early till late and the general store is not as busy but just as good.

The Lake

Well what to say – go and experience it for yourself. When I was there the lake was going through a phenomenon that I heard described as “rolling over on itself†or “turning upside downâ€Â. What it means (I think) is that the warm water goes to the bottom taking the fish with it and the cold water rises bringing the weed from the bottom.

Also true to my luck there was a cold snap when it snowed in November in Queensland. Only happens every 60 years or so but of course it happen when I was on my holidays. For two days can you believe I was Tropical Barra fishing in a fleecy track suit, spray jacket, ug boots and a beanie? The water temperature went backwards from 27 to 24 dec C and the wind was coming from the south between 25 and 40 knots. At one stage I was trying to troll and set the motor at 900 RPM and I was going backwards at 5.3 kph gps speed, (usually I can troll at 700 RPM and achieve about 4.5 kph going forward).

The third thing against me was that on the two weeks previous to my arrival there were two big fishing comps with a quoted 500 boats on the water all chasing Barra 24/7. This action combined with the two factors above managed to put the lake in official local language as “shut down modeâ€Â. Just my luck!

Nevertheless, there were still fish being caught and good fish at that, but man did you have to work for them.

Currently the Riverston Creek arm of the dam is shallow, and does not offer much protection from the winds. Iveragh creek has some good structure and offers good protection from the winds, as does the Boyne River, but to access both in windy weather requires a slog across the open dam from the boat ramp. You have to be careful of what the weather

is doing in these areas because if the wind gets up, you do not know it until you come back onto the open dam.

The Fishing Methods

Trolling was the method that caught fish during the shut down phase and deep trolling at that. While it is not my preferred method it was the only way I was going to get a fish. Normally trolling is relaxing but not in 25 knot winds and freezing my gonads off. The lure that was working best was the Crazy Deep from Halco. I hooked 3 Barra and landed 2 all on the Crazy Deeps. Gold and Black in the morning and Purple and Black at night.

As mentioned trolling is not my preferred method so for the first 8 days I just flicked lures around like the pro’s but unlike the pro’s I didn’t get anything. I had a few bumps and one barra tale slapped my lure out of the water but I managed no solid hook ups nor did I boat a fish. I tried more then 30 different lures and plastics without success. I kept flicking until I developed tennis elbow and couldn’t flick no more. I did manage to put a lure up in the trees (picture on the left below). I tried all over the dam from the back country to the boat ramp over to the ski area and down to the wall. I tried night, day early morning and late arvo using slow and fast retrieves but nothing. Take heart – it was not only me – I only saw one fish get hooked by flicking and heard about 3 others. I also tried deep jigging to about 70 foot of water with plastics and drop lures.

Lure Selection

When trolling deep diving Halcos worked best on this trip but according to the local tackle store the Viper Range was the hot lure during the previous comps. My advice is buy a couple of deep divers and a couple of floating or suspended lures before you go then if not working see the local tackle store or check out what’s coming in at the ramp.

The Fish

Well this is a typical Awoonga Big Fish. This guy who caught it (Scott) is Malcolm’s son and has been there so often he helps out around the Caravan Park, getting paid for it too. Nice deal if you can get it. He caught the fish about 500 mtrs from the boat ramp while trolling at about 7.00am on his way home. Another 30 seconds and he would have pulled the lure in and packed up. It went 117cm and weighted in at 21kg (by memory). Anyway who cares – good catch mate?

She smashed the lure putting a terminal bend in it and tearing off a treble. The lure was a gold viper being trolled through the morning sunlight reflexion off the water.

This one on the left went 130cm – any bigger and they would need to get a bigger boat. The one on the right is a 30cm catfish which took a lure that was intended to snag upstream Barra.

Family Facilities

For the family there are great facilities, safe swimming areas, play grounds and free day huts to make your own little personal camp for the wife and kids.

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