rayke1938

 Went to NPD this morning/ At least we did better than our disastrous donut trip to the Hinze eastern arm on thursday. Took us 6 hours before the only 29cm  bass was boated. 27 forkies kept us entertained prior. Forkies up to 55cm. Quite surprised how clear the water is and very little debris. I fully expected that our shrimp pots would have been swept away but they were all there.

Another slow day at the eastern arm this morning. We were able to recover our shrimp pots that were submerged when the dam rose, Most of the the shrimp in them were dead and stunk the boat out but we still got enough to have a fish. We initially went upstream but could not find a fish on the sounder so we went downstream and managed to catch 14 bass and 2 tandans. The fish were scattered and between 14 and 30 feet and the only plus hardly any barred grunter to steal our sparse shrimp. Very large flock of shags just seemed to be resting on the water when we were on way back to ramp,

Woke up 2.30 and poked my nose outside and there was a light sprinkle and a bit of lightening out to sea. The radar at NPD didnt look too bad but by the time I had a cuppa I was having a fair bit of pain from my hernia and it was starting to rain heavily so I made a couple of calls to my deckies and called it off and I had a couple of painkillers and went back to bed.

Did not take any photos and forgot about the comp. Had a bit of a drama when I launched. I deployed my ulterra and looked at my remote and saw that all the i pilot was in spanish ( needed Ted ). Finally worked out the basics and got going but a few dramas trying to navigate and stowing the motor instead of turning right . Good thing Joy has quick reflexes and could duck quickly. When I got home dug out the manual which told me how to restore it to english but as all the buttons on the remote were in spanish I then had to work out the english equivalent of the spanish words. 

Bit slow today at eastern arm. Could not find quite a few of our new pots that we deployed a fortnight ago as they are now under water. The ones we located were reasonably full but the ones in deeper water the shrimp were all dead. Ended up with 26 bass from different locations but some locations hard to find with the high water levels and marks submerged. Water is a bit murky with all the fresh with visibility around 2 to 3 feet, Best bass 46cm rest varied from 18cm upwards. One spot we thought we were being hit by barred grunter but turned out a school of 18cm bass that we moved on from. Hai had left his rods at home but fortunately he had a 3ft ice rod stashed in the boot and it was interesting watching him land a 45cm bass on it as it was spooled with 3lb mono.

Went back to NPD for the first time for a couple of weeks to see if the fishing has improved. The shrimp traps were mainly chocka except a few that have rusted out. Found a few forkies at the second rock wall so we quickly departed that location. Could not find a fish over the next 2 hours until we found a school on 20 feet of water near fad 0.We quickly pulled 13 bass there until the school moved on to parts unknown. Fish were between 32 and 20cm. I got that excited to actually catch some fish I forgot to tag them. I have just replaced my 24 volt 285 a/h agm batteries for my minnkota bow mount with a pair of 135 a/h lithiums. I was a bit dubious as how they would go as I was told not to run my older kota over 8.5 speed to avoid burn out problems with the armature. I am very pleased with the performance as I have picked up 1/2 a KPH and at the end of the day both batterys indicating they still have 80% capacity

Back to eastern arm this morning. The shrimp pots were a bit light on. They were placed in the submerged grass on the edges. We headed downstream to where we found some fish last trip but all the large fish had moved on and only 20cm models remaining. We tried numerous other places and could only locate small bass. Caught our first legal fish at 10.30 after 4 hours fishing. We had given up and were heading back to the ramp when we lucked on to a small school of larger fish. Of the 21 bass that we caught only 7 of them were legal with the best one going 44cm.

Just be able to continue fishing twice a week. Being on the water is enough.

Went to the eastern arm this morning for a 5.30 launch. As anticipated all our pots are about 20 feet under water so we spent an hour replacing them. on the freshly submerged grass. When the dam drops to around 90% hopefully the ropes will become visible and we can recover them. Water visibility was not real flash and we headed upstream and could not find a fish on the sounder so we then went downstream and at 10am found a small school. We only had a small number of shrimp that were left over from our last trip and quickly converted them to 18 bass, 2 tandanus and fed plenty of barred grunter before knocking off at 11 am. Really enjoyed the short walk from the ramp to the car. Best bass went 46cm and 4 were under 30cm