rayke1938

Brilliant video done by Hai on his phone. After releasing fingerlings we we headed downstream to the floats where we quickly boated 5 bass before the school moved on. We sat there for another 2 hours for 2 yellas one at 45 cm and one at 50cm. They were tagged and released for someone else to catch. On the way back to the ramp we observed 3 flocks of geese each about 20 birds heading downstream. First time I have seen this.

Chubbstar was looking after you.

Was told no cricket ,golf or tennis for a month so went home and told judy to turn off tv. Now have frying pan implant on head also.

you will be ok if you do not bait your breath

We decided to go downstream this morning and had a bonus when we went to do our shrimp pots. The dam is now at 97% and we found 4 of our old pots that would have been submerged since 2021 when the dam was last at that level. Needless to say there was nothing in them so we brought them home to clean up and refurbish. After checking the rest of our pots we went furthur down stream and could only find around 4 or 5 bass. We had a friendly visit by the rangers who were checking all boats and they said that the fishing was a bit hard. We then went upstream with a few small bass and plenty of barred grunter in Ians island. Then up to a few spots just above bass bay where we found some small schools of larger bass ending up with 33 bass before we ran out of shrimp. 

Back to the eastern arm this morning with Rick and Joy. Hard going with only rat bass. We went downstream first off to where we caught some good bass last week and apart from a 40cm one they were all rats. We then went upstream for more rats. We were a bit restricted as I had not charged my i pilot remote and the spare remote in my tackle box was also flat and I do not know how to drive the i pilot from my humminbird. looks like I am going to be doing a bit of study and also be more careful about charging the remote for the i pilot. Finished up with 38 bass and one tandan and 6 barred grunter. Joy caught the 2 best fish a 40cm bass and a 45 cm tandan.

I was planning to go to Hinze today but got email yesterday from a recently retired person who must be suffering from early onset Alzheimer's . Said going to NPD on sunday so I said meet you there. After a couple of text messages I got a phone call to say he meant next sunday.

 Anyhow didnt matter as there were more fish for me. I ended up with 64 bass ranging from 15cm to 40cm with the most between 20 and 32cm. All on live shrimp with the fish sitting at around 6 to 8 feet and they were taking the bait immediately before I could get the bail arm over. Knocked off just after 10.30 and left them biting.

Went to eastern arm for the first time for a few years. 8am launch due to having to return home for a rough job to change a wheel bearing using a second hand bearing. Woke the neighbours up as I had to use the angle grinder to cut the inner to get it off the axle  Found fish in all our old spots. First place was in 25 feet of water on the edge of the drop off opposite the pump tower where we pulled around a dozen bass before going to check some other spots in among the trees further downstream on the western side of the dam. We fished another 6 spots before finishing up at midday with a total of 5 tandanus, 4 barred grunter and 43 bass. Was glassed out all morning and only one short shower. Now to source a magnet for the brakes , set of brake linings and a new set of bearings .

Hard going to start off new year at NPD this morning. 16 bass and one yella between the 3 of us. Small bass around the floats and nothing elsewhere, Percy is back pestering us and all his mates stinking up the ramp.

Good day today at the western arm. We had a fair supply of shrimp so we headed upstream straight away and tied up to an isolated stick that is now protruding from the water now that the dam has gone down. We quickly boated 20 odd bass but they were just legal or under so we headed further upstream into the trees above bass bay. The bass were a better size in the high 30s and low 40s.Just after 8.30 we ran out of shrimp and proceeded back where I had a few shrimp traps to load up with more bait. While we were there Neil said I had some traps further in that I lost when the dam came up 3 months ago. We located the pots and amazingly they were loaded up with shrimp so we rebaited them for next time that Neil comes. We ended up with 70 bass and 3 tandans tagged and a few barred grunter for the eagle.

Cheers Ray

Part of todays catch.