rayke1938

Part of todays catch.

Good day at the western arm today. Rick and Joy were looking after their granddaughter Amelia so naturally she came along to show us her angling skills that she honed up at North Pine dam last sunday. She baits up her own hook and even knows how to count down the bait to the depth that the fish are holding. After doing our shrimp pots which were a little light on due to lack of maintenance we pulled into Ians island for 20 odd bass before the barred grunter moved in. We then moved upstream to the top of bass bay for another 20 odd bass till the school dispersed so we moved around 100 feet around the corner and tied up to a tree and once again another 20 odd bass. Amelia was getting a bit tired so we decided to head home but wen we went past a solitary stick we saw a good show on the sounder and in the next half hour boated another 15 bass before running out of bait, In all places that we fished the fish were holding half way down the water column no matter what depth we were in. Finished back at the ramp at 11 am with a total of 75 bass and 2 tandanus plus assorted barred grunter that the eagle enjoyed. Fish were looking real healthy with only a few showing red spot. Note rare photo of Rick holding one of his beloved tandanus.

PRFMA members released 120000 healthy bass fingerlings into NPD today. We arrived at the dam at gentlemans hour of 7am and had a Xmas drink and sausage and then did  our shrimp pots and returned to the ramp at 9am to meet the fingerlings supplied by Hanwood hatchery.  We loaded up the 2 large eskys  that were equipped with aerators to keep the fingerlings in prime condition and proceeded downstream to release the fingerlings on the edge of the weed beds. Amelia did an excellent job of doing this. Naturally once this task was completed we had to have a fish. The fish  were a bit hard to find but we finally located a school near the floats where we proceeded to catch 28 bass,4 yellowbelly and one tilapia. It was fantastic to see Amelia releasing the fingerlings and seeing her struggle to land some good sized fish.

Ps 100000 yellowbelly to come next month

Cheers Ray

Woke up at usual time of 3am and thought that the dog was being unusually friendly and found out why when I put in my hearing aids and heard the thunder. Headed off at around 5 with a spectacular lightening display accompanied with rain that had all cleared by the time we arrived at the dam. We had some shrimp left over from last trip so we headed into the honey tree on Ians Island to find someone tied up about 20 feet away from our favourite tree. By 7am we had ran out of shrimp with 19 rat bass on the counter. After going downstream and checking our shrimp traps we then tried our usual spots for only 7 bass so back to the tip of Ians island for a donut . Back to the honey tree where we increased the tally to 38 bass and a few barred grunter which are back with the warmer weather. Best bass was 42cm with the majority under 30cm. All tagged and released.

Cheers Ray

Funny sort of a day today with a fair bit of wind forecast we headed over to the eastern side of Ians island where we caught some bass last time. The bass were there but all only small. Around 8oclock the barred grunter moved in and commenced destroying our live shrimp. We moved around a bit and still only small stuff so up to bass bay where we did our shrimp traps that have been untouched since before the floods/ Got heaps of redclaw and replentished our live shrimp eskys, We only found a couple of small bass and as the wind was not too bad we decided to head down to near the dam wall. By the time we got near Ians island the wind had picked up and i did not like the prospect of punching into it on the way back to the ramp so we tried a few places in the trees on the eastern side for more undersized bass so we went back to our first spot on ians island where found more small bass with a couple of larger ones. The eagle had a good feed of barred grunter and one bass that did not survive the release. Our final tally was 47 bass with only 4 or 5 over 35cm and one tandanus. 3 of the bass were tagged as well as the tandanus.

/Bass caught by Mark Thompson hinze dam  southside.

Went to the Hinze western arm this morning for a sausage sizzle. After doing the shrimp pots we headed downstream to the usual spots. On the way Tai, assisted by Mark cooked up brunch. After eating our fill and dripping tomato sauce and bits of onion over ourselves we tried to find some bass. All we could find were plenty of unders so we headed back upstream trying in amongst the trees for more unders until we struck a school deep in amongst the trees on Ians Island. It was tough going having to extract the bass from the submerged branches. Final tally was 42 bass and one tandan . Best bass 52cm.

Slowish day today for Murray and myself. After doing the shrimp traps we went to usual spot opposite the white post and could only find small bass around 20cm. We headed into the bay before the post and fished a few of the trees.  The bass were a better size but still slow. Was interesting trying to pull some of the bass as they were sitting hard up to the trees and we had to make the decision whether to break them off or try and wait for the fish to swim out. We ended up with only 27 bass with the best fish around 43cm

I nearly did not go considering the forecast but thought I may get an hour or so before the wind and storms arrived. First hour was a glass out and then the clouds rolled in with some wind but nothing serious. Tried all the usual spots for a donut apart from losing an unseen monster at the fad and seriously looking at a donut day by 9am. We ran upon Ander who was having a bit of fun reducing the tilapia population on the floats. We hung around for a while for a couple of small bass and decided to explore elsewhere where I picked up a reasonable bass and a couple of small bass between the islands. As a final act of desperation we returned to where Andrew was still reducing the tilapia population. We found plenty of undersized bass plus a few yellas.  We knocked off at around 11.30 with a tally of 3 yellas and 20 bass with only around 5 bass being legal. I was very impressed with Andrews new geo spot watersnake. It was holding position much better than my old minnkota.

4 of us to the western arm this morning. Fish were hard to find and small. I caught what looked like a tagged bass but when I reported it to suntag it actually was a barra that was tagged in Trinity inlet. Ended up with only 46 bass with largest 42cm.

We were a bit late starting because I attended the local flea market and held up a bit more due to a decky no show no phone call no email .Uncertain what I will do if he wants another trip.   Either tell him to get stuffed or maybe make an appointment for a trip to NPD and then go to hinze. We did our shrimp pots and made certain that they were all marked correctly pending visit from fisheries. Could not find a fish anywhere until we came across Mark at the floats. He said that there were a few bass around so we moved off a bit and hit the spotlock and got into them. Most of the bass were under or just legal but a bass is a bass. Finished up with 68 bass,5 yellas and one tandan.

Four of us had another good say at the western arm today until we ran out of bait. Some of the bass had red spot disease which according to Bill  at suntag is a result of poor water quality or a sudden influx or cold water. A few others were missing parts of their dorsal fin.

We launched at 6am and after doing our shrimp traps we arrived at our usual spot opposite the white post near the old quarry at around 7am. My first fish was a respectable 50+ bass so I said lets go home as it cannot get any better. It was a hot bite with us running out of shrimp at 10.30 with 127 bass on the tally. Rick was happy with second prize with another bass over 50cm.

Cheers Ray

Could not entice a decky so I went on me Pat Malone. Launched at 5.30 and first off to a couple of spots on Ians Island for zilch and then headed up to bass bay area for the same result. Whilst I was up there I checked some shrimp pots that have been there untouched for at least 2 months. They were all manky and 2 had rusted out but the other couple were full of huge shrimp. I then headed downstream stopping on a couple of spots on the way and still on a donut. At 9.15 I arrived at our usual spot opposite the white post with nothing showing on the sounder but at least I got off the mark with a 28cm bass. I moved 30 feet and I got rather busy catching 40 bass by 11 am when I ran out of bait.

Up to 3 decky spots avail this sunday. 6 am start or leaving redland bay 4.45 am western arm bait fishing only with live shrimp ( supplied). No smoking if under 12 years old byo life vest. 0403072325