rayke1938

Hard gong this morning with Mark and Craig in the western arm. Plenty of shrimp in the pots but the bass were scarce. We started off at Ians island trying the usual spots and worked our way upstream to just past bass bay. No schools found, just the odd bass hard in against the odd tree. Total of 22 bass and 3 tandans. All bass released and the tandans tagged and released.

https://youtu.be/CMtMD5qUw6k

Another good day upstream at the eastern arm with Rick . Bass and barred grunter everywhere. Ran out of bait due to the barred grunter otherwise we would have scored over the ton. Final tally was 63 bass and Rick happy with an over 50. Large flock of fairy martins feeding on small insects. Also new addition to the ramp.

Eastern arm this morning with Craig and Mark. Craig did the right thing yesterday and braved the heat and collected a heap of shrimp so we were able to start fishing straight away. Nothing doing opposite the water tower and the next favourite trees so we headed upstream and found a good show and proceeded to get quite a few fish before the barred grunter forced us to move. We kept moving upstream finding plenty of fish before the barred grunter forced us to move again. We tried in an area that had previously provided a hot bite but that was barren. We moved close in to the cliff face and the bass were thick but it was a struggle to pull them out of the thick timber. The shrimp were getting low so we went back downstream and found bass everywhere we tried on the edge of the trees. Knocked off with a total of 95 bass and plenty of barred grunter. Craig had the best bass at 47cm.

Eastern arm today with Rick and Joy, First place we tried was the drop offs on the flats opposite the water tower downstream from the tractor. Quite a few quality bass until the barred grunter moved in and spoilt the party. We then leapfrogged upstream from tree to tree finding bass and barred grunter at most locations in around 20 feet of water. We finally ran out of live shrimp with a tally of 62 bass and one tandanus. We would have lost around 20 bass to snags. Best bass to Joy at 49cm.

https://youtu.be/m33_iw3bV3I

Another good day despite a hickup with my bow mount. We started off ok and did the shrimp pots and then the bow mount kept turning itself off and I notices a little red battery symbol on my remote which indicate a low battery. We proceeded upstream on just the stern motor and still made 5.6kph . Saw the feral cows still around grazing on the green pick . With no bow mount I could not use spot lock . Fortunately there was no breeze so we were able to hold position reasonably easily while we caught some good fish. We ended up with 47 bass and a bonus of 7 yellas with Joy catching 6 of them. One was deformed possibly damaged as a fingerling. All the yellas were tagged and released . The fish went off a bit at 10.30 so we called it a day as it was very hot and humid. I checked out my chargers and batterys when I got home and found a corroded anderson plug so everything will be ok for Sundays return trip. 

https://youtu.be/XvUYvxzm6_E

Couldnt scrape up a decky this morning so I went to the western arm by myself. Had about 6 very small shrimp left over from last trip so I used them up at the upstream end of Ians island for 3 bass and a yella before doing some of my shrimp pots. Only barred grunter back at Ians island so I just pottered around in the trees whilst working my way downstream . Got a few scattered bass but no schools located so I went downstream to opposite the white marker where I found a small school. Back at the ramp by midday with a total of 34 bass,one yella and one barred grunter. Smallest bass went 34cm and one just scraped the 50cm mark.

Had a good day well upstream with   60 odd bass all on live shrimp and only 2 barred grunter for the eagle. All bass were legal with most over 35 cm.

Wet bum today for 3 of us but it was worth it. We launched at the western arm at 6am and headed up towards bass bay and did our shrimp pots. Had to walk the bank to retrieve a few that were high and dry as it was a fortnight since we last did them. We tried a few spots locally and only picked up a few bass and then the rain came. We went back to the trees at the tip of Ians island and found some quality bass ending up with a total of 41 bass. Would have been a lot more if Craig was not using 6lb leader. I watched him get bricked 7 times in a row. Very heavy rain for over a hour and I ran the bilge pump around 5 or 6 times. Only one photo due to too hard. Out of curiosity I had a look at BOM for Advancetown which uses the Canungra weather station and it said only one mill of rain.

https://lensdump.com/i/BD38tH

Another good day up the eastern arm this morning. The cows were still hanging around and we tried to ring Matt the ranger to give him the heads up but were having problems with getting signal but think Matt finally got the message. Bit of entertainment with a couple of water bombers passing overhead every 15 minutes. I tried for a photo but only got cloud think Rick may have been more successful. Bass were schooled up on the edges of the trees and good sized and healthy. Between the three of us we boated 71 bass on live shrimp.  14 of the bass were over 40cm and only one undersize.

What can go wrong. Barometer 1020+, full moon ,slight wind. 

Hai forgot to tell decky no bananas. Guess what he had in his lunch box.

. Only one 25cm bass by 10 am. We even at one stage seeing if we could catch some tilapia in shallow. Hai was happy because he caught his first one and was impressed how hard it went. Tried all the usual spots and ended up just slowly checking the main basin until we found a school in 20 feet of water near fad 0.

Spotted a couple of scabs who must have walked in from Whiteside road fishing the bank in H6.

Final tally was 29 bass,2 tandans, one tilapia and one forky