Luc53

Yes another great session at Baroon. Cold start but warmed up to a good morning, weather wise and fishing wise.Had to do a lot of moving about, trolling lures and shrimp fishing. Managed 46 bass of sizes from 20cm to 45 cm. Glassed out conditions and the water is a bit clearer than at NPD.
Dino

Hey Sunny boy,
Fair points. Your rant is understandable. 
While I have caught fish on them throwing slugs off the rocks I wouldn't recommend it for the faint hearted. I agree with you that they really are not a lure casting type reel unless you just want to tea bag a vibe or something. 
I have caught loads of large fish on them, It is quite an art to pay out line and not burn your fingers or get your knuckles wrapped by the handles. We would have a wet piece of towel on the ready if a Cobia took a bait and held it against the line as the reel spun away. Exciting stuff. 
I still love to use them on the beach and fishing for things like whiting in the bay but overheads and threadlines are a lot easier and drags are smoother for trolling or reef fishing. The organic nature of being one to one with a fish has a strong appeal to me. I am sad they have called it a day, and thankfully that they gave it a good second stab over the past 3 years or so, but glad that I have a pretty solid collection that will see me out. 
 

Late start this morning, visited the gym first. Hit the water at 10.30am,and headed to the spot I got bass a few days a go. Nothing on the sounder all the way there, or when I got there. I did notice a few fish soon after leaving the ramp, so I got back there as quick as I could, right move as it was fish on. They were hungry for shrimp and did not like any of the lures I tried to entice them with. Managed 48 bass and most were over 40cm.

Headed up to the top end of NPD yesterday searching for clear waters. After launching I headed right to the top of our boundary to where the waters are clearing and trolling a flickashad lure I was on right away.While releasing the bass I noticed the sounder was lit up with fish, so over the side went shrimp and it was fish on and on and on, for a couple of hours,also as they slowed down managed to pick up some on spinnerbaits and chatterbaits.I was home for a late brunch away from the cold blizzard.Also managed a 50cm toga, microchiped it but tag gun failed and in my hurry to get it back in the water, I missed getting a pic.
Dino

Slipped up to Baroon to see what the water was like,I found out it was still dirty dirty dirty. Found a dozen medium sized bass and on the way back to the ramp found a school of smallies, ended up with 44 bass and 3 whopper eel tail catfish, all on shrimp, lures just did not work.
DinoMessenger.exe

I have been waiting for over a month for Hinze dam to reopen and Friday when I saw that SEQ water reopened the western arm I said that is it I am off first chance. 6am launch  with a sneaky freezing westerly as soon as I ventured out of the ramp bay having a drastic effect on my bladder with a major operation with several layers of clothes to delve through to obtain some relief. Talk about just in time. Water is very discoloured with about 6 inches of visibility so I headed upstream to see if I could locate a fish. By 10 am I gave up and turned around and headed downstream  and found a school of fish on a small drop off in a bay down towards the dam wall. No monsters with the fish going between 25 and 38cm. A few of the smaller bass had fin rot probably due to poor water quality. The school dispersed after around an hour and I unsuccessfully kept on searching to see if I could find more fish . Back at the ramp and happy with a tally of 17 bass.
Cheers Ray

Bit hard leaving the fire this morning. Met Hai at gentleman's hour of 6.30at the gate because I under estimated the traffic. The shrimp traps were chocka and the water was chocolate brown as we headed downstream. We tried quite a few spots and not a thing on the sounder so by the time we got to fad 2 we decided to accept the advice that someone had written in the sign in book and head upstream. Ran into Kev at the powerlines who said he had been  getting a few at the powerlines but they had gone off. A bit further up on the LHS we found a good show on the sounder ajnd quickly boated 3 nice fat bass that were released for someone else to enjoy. We worked our way up to the barrage ad then turner around had headed back towards Kev who said he was still getting the odd fish. We spotlocked near him and Hai dropped one fish and we moved on as it was a bit rude sitting on top of Kev. Back at the ramp by midday and happy with a total of 3 bass,

Finally got out on the dam with only half a boat. Last time i was out I noticed that the screws holding the seat down were loose. What I thought was only a minor job turned out to a major. The rear section of the floor was rotten due to me sealing all around the floor when I installed it several years ago. The boat sits out in the open and when it rains the carpet is sodden the the water got into the screw holes for the seats. the wet weather and with the dams closed it was a bit of a bonus but the last few days were sending me stir crazy and even though the boat was half finished I said stuff it I am going fishing. Only one seat installed no top on the new battery box and carpet just roughly installed but at least I got out for the grand total of one forky. See the eagles are commencing to rebuild their nest in the dead tree for the third time.

Had a good day between the three of us. Murray started off on what he called a monster fish that turned into a 4 ft eel. We did not find any fish till we reached the tip of the island at around 9am. By this time the sun had come out and it turned into a beautiful day with glassed out conditions. We ended up with 65 bass,5 spanglies.5 forkies, one tandan and one eel when we left them biting at midday when we ran out of bait.

Over a week off with the man flu (not covid, tested neg 4 times ) and the bass were pleased to see me back out at NPD. Managed 41 bass and one yella ( i think its the same one Ray caught ) Spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, ice jigs and only a couple on shrimp as traps were nearly all empty.
Dino

Back up to baroon this morning, cold, damp and windy, but the bass were still hungry. Managed 56 healthy bass around the 45cm mark, on spinnerbaits,chatterbaits and livebaits.Traffic was bumper to bumper heading up the coast, when I was heading home down the road.
DINO

With the water clearing a little out at NPD it was the edge bite that was firing yesterday. A few reasonable size bass from the edges followed by some smaller ones in the clearer shallows.  28 all up on spinnerbaits and chatterbaits and saved my shrimp for another day.
Dino

Another disappointing day. Got a heap of small redclaw out of my pots but only 20 shrimp. I decided to leave my 2 deckies use shrimp whilst I used cooked redclaw flesh for bait. ( Not allowed to use live or dead redclaw for bait but ok if it is cooked) We only managed 3 bass . I gave up counting the forkies at 30. The local magpies had a great squabble and feed on the left over redclaw when I got home.

Second time out at NPD this week. Plenty of willing bass, hungry for spinnerbaits and chatterbaits. Never got a chance to soak a shrimp as I was having to much fun on the lures. Managed 35 bass and a large spanglie before the rain and the wind hunted me home  at 10am.
Dino

Felt like a change, so headed up to Baroon, just love that dam and the size of the fish in it. Started off trolling, but that didnt turn out to good to much weed.So I decided to fish in amongst the weed like I did last time up there. Managed to drag 76 bass out including some real bruisers.I was the only one on the water.
Dino

I nearly did not go this morning as my regular deckies either were sick or had other commitments and just before 4am it poured rain . I checked the radar and not much showing so i set off and by the time I got to Capalaba the rain had stopped. Got a reasonable ammount of shrimp out of my pots but there were more small redclaw than shrimp. . I kept the redclaw and fed them to the magpies when I got home. Had to search for the fish but finally located a school on the edge of a drop off where the depth went from 17 to 30 feet. Ended up with 41 bass and 11 forkies so best solo session for quite a while.
Cheers Ray

Dont know what happened there.Managed to get 33 bass on the chatterbait.

Water still dirty out at NPD,so I said to myself,self, you got them on chatterbaits from the bank, so give that a go and I did.Started off with a few nice ones in one spot then after a heap of casts for nothing, I moved on and found a school of smaller bass that were willing to take on a chatterbait. M

Another hard day at NPD this morning. One good thing is that the shrimp are starting to come back and are not dying in the pots. Small redclaw are outnumbering the shrimp by about3 to one so hopefully the redclaw population will explode. The water downstream is still very dirty. We only went as far as the tree with the floats and as we had only caught one 20cm bass in 15 feet of water we decided to head upstream where the water quality is much better. We picked up 4 bass at the entrance of Forbes creek and at least Stew got a couple of fish to take home for a feed. Hopefully Hinze will be open on Thursday and the fish will be hungry down there,
Cheers
Ray

Not much going on in the deeper water out at the dam, so decided to go for a walk and fish the shallows from the bank.I said to myself I will stay as long as I can and see what pain sets in first. Well the back won, I only lasted a couple of hours and was home before 9am. Managed several small bass and although I tried several lures, they were all caught on the one chatterbait.
Dino

Quick trip up to Baroon turned into a great session. Hard to find fish to start but managed to drag 62 out of floating weed in 25ft of water. Had to spot lock in between massive clumps of weed. Chatterbaits and some on shrimp done the trick.Couldnt get a park at the pie shop but was lucky when I got home as the wife had just made a heap of mini quiche.
Dino

3 of us went to NPD this morning. We forgot the stump jump plough so we were only able to manage one forky. Managed to salvage a lot of our pots and abandoned what we think might have been a couple more but they were too imbedded in the hyacinth and lilies to reach. The further we went downstream the dirtier the water became so we turned around at fad 2 and went upstream to just past the power lines and although the water was a lot clearer we could not find a fish on the sounder.

Went with Mark and his brother and his wife from Townsville this morning. Shrimp were a bit light on but we finished up for the day with 54 bass and 3 Tandans. Merle took line honours with a 48cm bass. Cheers Ray

Bit of fog, bit of rain, bit of wind, bit of sun at Baroon Pocket this morning. The bass were hungry but we had to move about to get out of the wind with some good trophy size bass boated . The bass are very healthy and they will be a real challenge on light gear when they commence to roe up in the next few months. 55 bass boated.
Cheers Ray

The weather was kind to us today although a bit cool until the sun hit the water. The shrimp traps productive but the fish slow. We thought we were onto a good session first up with the firstf ew fish in the high thirties but it slowed drastically. Final tally was 28 bass and one unnamed decky only boating 3 fish. Even the eagles were on holiday.
Cheers Ray