Old man Creek 14-01-2011 & 18-01-2011

Went out to the creek on the 14th to have a big scout around down stream in the Hobies.
I was a little disappointed when I arrived at the weir to find that the water had stopped flowing over the wall. My thoughts were that now we would have to work allot harder for our fish instead of having them gifted to us by the running water.. haha. Needless to say Kanck hooked up to a Trout Cod within minutes of arriving at the weir, he lost the fish but it gave our confidence a boost. But after about 3 hours and a few kilometres downstream later we lost a lot of hope. It was interesting to have a look downstream but the fishing was not exciting for me, Kanck managed 2 Golden's and a Murray Cod for the day and I ended mine still stuck on a doughnut! We both agreed that there is very little need to venture to far downstream, because the few kilometers around the weir are productive enough!


Even small cod will take large profiled lures



I left the creek that afternoon very disappointed about the water level and as such didn't head out at all over the weekend.

I was lying in bed at 5.30am on the 18th and couldn't decide whether it was worth getting up to go for a fish, a few elbows in the ribs from the other half after I snoozed my alarm 4 or 5 times was enough to wake me up and motivate me to head out.



Another 42cm on this puppy and I'll be allot happier



I had a huge confidence boost when I arrived to see water plummeting over the weir again, things were looking good! My first three cast were met with semi aggressive strikes but I just couldn't hook up. Eventually the hooks stuck on a well conditioned 45cm Trout Cod on a 70ml AC. I changed lures not long after this due to a crack in the bib. I tied on a small Purple and gold Hammerhead and 30 odd casts later and I was on to a thumping 58cm Murray.... Good decision to come out! 

PB 60cm Golden Perch

There was a nice piece of water at the edge of the weir that looked like it just had to produce fish, there was a log in the water and a nice little back current on the edge of it. As I ran my small Hammerhead through a few times it was demolished by biggish fish, I called it for a 45-55cm Trout Cod, but to my surprise it turned out to be a 60cm Golden Perch in great condition. What was even more surprising was the quality of the fight in this fish. Golden's aren't known for their fighting prowess but this one performed very well in the fast water! This was a PB Golden for me and at 60cm is a credable fish, even compared to impoundment standards!....Very good decision to come out!

Add caption

I called an end to this session after this fish as I was happy to end it on such a good note. I'll probably head back out this afternoon, because apparently the water only started  coming back over the weir late last night. I think by this afternoon a few more fish may have caught wind of this and it may be back to what it was like last week!

Old Man Creek 12-1-2011

Trout Cod from the fast water in the background

I arranged with Kanck last night to head out to the creek again this morning. The plan was to head out at 5.30am and come back at 11am.

One of my favourite lure patterns!

Once we were on the water we decided to head straight up to the weir because it has been such a consistant area for the last week or so. We pulled up on either side of the fast water and within 5 cast a nice Trout Cod smashed my 70ml AC. It put up a nice little fight, as you would expect from this species.

Hooked up on a fiesty Trout Cod

Kanck hooked up!

A while later Kancky was wading accross the rapids and almost stepped on two or three Trout cod that were sitting in the rapids in plain site in about 2 feet of water. He would have only been one meter away from them. I ran my AC through the rapid where they were sitting and to our suprise one of them actually had a massive swipe at the lure, but unfortunatly it didn't hook up. Even without the hook up it was still one of the most amazing things I have seen while fishing! Unbelieveable!

Ended up pulling another 5 fish between us for the morning, with the most interesting point being that four of these fish were taken from the really turbulent white water right at the bottom of the weir wall, this was the last place I would expect to see active natives!

Not where you would normally cast for a Native

Kanck and the only Murray Cod of the day

The fishing over the past few days has been sensational and bizaar, we have been catching fish in places where native fish are just not expected to be. Niether of us could figure out why they would be where they are, perhaps they are either trying to move up the river or it could be something to do with thier spawning routines. Either way it is rather peculiar!

We planned to head back out on Friday and have a big scout around to see what effect the floods have had further downstream, and hopefully tangle with a big fella!

Old Man Creek 9-01-11

I was really keen to get back out to my local water after hearing some unbelievable reports coming in from it. Micheal Kanck had fished the weir on two consecutive days in the afternoon and managed to land a whopping 23 fish in 3.5 hours on the first day and 15 odd more the next! I headed out at about 5.30am and arrived at the weir at about 6.15am, there was already a few blokes fishing and after chatting to one of them I found out that he had landed a massive 30 fish on Thursday afternoon.
There is a lot of talk about how these floods will give the natives a chance to breed, however we can only hope that they have bred better that the carp in this water way! There were copious amounts of juvinile carp schooling on the edges of the creek and at the weir. Dissapointing!
I continued to fish with these guys for a couple of hours for no result. Toni Bennett managed to land a small Golden Perch, but nothing else while I was there. I stayed until about 8.30am and got a heap of photos on my new DSLR. When I got home early, Prue was very happy... I thought that was a wise move!! Until I told her I was heading back out that afternoon... not a wise move!
Headed back out with the yak in the afternoon with Kanck. We had a bit of a scout around and I had a few problms with my sounder. But I still managed to get onto a small Murray Cod and a decent Trout Cod.


Tony Bennett and landing his small Golden Perch



I took big risk and ran my lure through a real gauntlet of snags and really fast flowing water, and had I have got snagged there was a real chance of a capsize! But I managed to pull the Trout Cod from this gauntlet and it fought incredibly well for its size, and to this day it was my most enjoyable catch from the yak. I have caught some much larger Murray Cod from my Hobie, but they didn't compare to this little Trout Cod. Becasue there was a combination of elements involved in finally landing this fish, it was very satisfying.

Ended up getting smashed by a thunderstorm later that arvo and it turned out to be one of the more uncomfortable sessions that I have endured... however it was still a lot of fun!!!

It's a very satisfying thing to be hearing such good reports for this little system, I have a really good feeling about the coming few years and I think there is a good chance of a monster or two coming out of here this season... Fingers crossed!



 Unfortunalty I was shooting my DSLR in RAW images because they are more easily edited however this website cannot recognise the images! Annoying! I will fix it so next time I can post a few more pics!
Results

• 1 Murray Cod
• 1 Trout Cod

Weather

• BOM - 1013
• Patchy Cloud, turned into Thunderstorm
• Water Tempt - 23*C
• Slight to strong winds

Racecourse Beach & Burrel Lake - Ulladulla



Beach fishing is quite easy & enjoyable!



Spent a week over news years down on the coast with Prue and a couple of other people. Managed to do a little bit of fishing while we were down there and had a good amount of success. Originally we supposed to be staying at Batemans Bay and I had lined up a fishin trip with local gun fisho James Bunn, a good friend of one of my work collegues. Unfortunatly there was a mix up in communication and it turned out we were staying in Ulladulla.



The first session I had was out at Burral Lake just up from where the channel flows out to the ocean. I mangaed to hook up on a few flatties for the afternoon, there wasn't much size to the fish but it was enjoyable all the same. That evening we decided we would go and have a little picnic down on Racecourse Beach, the local tackle shop owner had garenteed me a Salmon off the beach. I was happy with that!!

A nice Australian Salmon off the beach.

Set up on the beach with a full pilchard running off a star sinker. Ended up getting onto a couple of fish again and one of them was a good size and gave a very good account of itself.

Had another session at a different locatio on Burrel Lake and again got into a heap of Flatties. At one point I wias fishing over a weed bed in about 5' - 1' of water and as I was running the plastic accros the surface a biggish flattie came up and smashed it - very cool surface strike!



After finishing up at Ulladulla we decided to spend one night at Batemans Bay, I managed one 3 hour session fishing the flats and channell near the bridge as the tide was coming in and got into a heap of flatties again.

Overall it was a good holiday, I didn't actually do that much fishing, but it was great to get into a few when I did!

Wyangla Dam - 22-12-2010

What is with all the bloody rain ruining my fishing expeditions!!!!!
Spending christmas at the in-laws and saw it as a great opportunity to fish Wyangla, because up until recently it had apparantly been fishing its socks off! Just my luck that all the rain they had in the region has pushed the water level up from something like 40% to a massive 90% in a matter of weeks! So upon arrival at the dam I was greeted with what looked very similar to chocolate milk... only darker!!! It was bloody terrible, visability was maybe 3-5cm, even with my new spotters I was unable to see anything.
I put in at about 4.30pm and started trolling around to a little bay(well it used to be little) where I lost a good golden last time I was here. As with most of the dams in NSW that have filled quickly over the past 6 months trolling in a good depth is very difficult. This is due to the trees that have grown while the levels have been low over the past 10 years and are now covered in water. I couldn't get in to the 3-6m depth that I like to troll, so I gave up on the troll after an hour or so and peddled around to the little bay. Which looked very fishy... except for the water clarity. Pounded a heap of casts in and around the rocky banks and didnt get a touch. I tried a few different coloured spinnerbaits and a variety of hardbodies, but nothing would illicit a strike.
A dissapointing afternoon! Wyangla is such a good looking dam and I can see why it was fishing so well before all the rain! Hopefully a miracle will occur and the water will clear up within the next few days and I'll be able to get back out there.
Photos to come!

Weather
27*C
Water temp 24*C
BOM unknown
Slight wind

Old Man Creek 28-11-10

Headed out to the creek for a quick two hour session on Sunday afternoon, I shouldn’t have! Had just travelled back from Bathurst on the Sunday and was reasonably hung-over. Kanck was out there as in his Hobie but I couldn’t be bothered getting mine so I just walked the bank. The water looked really good and the creek actually came up about 15cm while I was there. I used a variety of smaller lures, teeny extractors, 50ml AC, small stumpy. I lost three lures and was not happy! I am not having the greatest of runs with lures that’s now five that I have lost in my last 4 trips. I am putting down two of the lost lures to being hung-over, I would normally take my time but I got frustrated very easily and ended up snapping the line with my retrieval pole. Very stupid of me, but as they say if you’re not getting snags you won’t catch fish.... at least I was doing one of those things! I lost a small JD lure because it got snagged around a f#@king set line. That gives me the shits.... f#@king setlines!

Kanck's 45cm Golden

I would have pumped 200 casts off the weir wall for maybe one hit, but I may have just imagined that. As soon as Kanck pulled up in his yak and let a cast go off the wall BANG he was on to a nice 45cm Golden. We both had a chuckle to each other about that, got some quick snaps and let the big fella swim off again. Kanck trolled up one other fish before this, but it was only a small Golden.

The release.

After seeing him catch that Golden off the wall I quickly realised that it wasn’t my day and I probably should have just stayed on the couch and watched a movie, so I headed back to the car.

Plenty of rain predicted for this week could play havoc with the creek again. I wouldn’t mind heading off to an impoundment after some big Golden’s this weekend. Hopefully soon I write a post about catching lots of fish and not losing lures!

Weather

• Humid & overcast
• Temp unknown
• BOM unknown
• Water Temp unknown

Results

2 Golden Perch

Old Man Creek x 3 & Mundowy rocks 20th 21st 23rd November



Small Cod taken late Saturday afternoon.



Headed out to the creek with Kanck on Saturday arvo for a quick session, went straight up to the weir and was disappointed with the water clarity, it had cleared a little but not enough. Punched over a thousand cast in and around the weir with a only a small cod and two lost lures to show for it. The most interesting point was that I picked up the cod as soon as the shadows came across the water. It was stinking hot and a tough session, but we thought it might settle a bit more over night and be clear enough for lures in the morning.

Water coming over the wall...
Has been a rarity of recent years.
 Now its becoming a regular thing.

Headed back out at 5:30am with Kanck and was fishing at the weir by 6:00am. Kanck hooked up to something in the fast water but alas, the hooks didn’t set. After an hour or so with no result we decided to head over the Mundowy rocks for a look. We thought the river would be a little dirty but it couldn’t hurt to give it a go. We both tied on spinnerbaits Kanck had a small profiled natural coloured one and I had a fairly large purple and green one. I had a terrible start and managed to snag up 5 or 6 times which was not helping my frustration levels. When I finally got to make some effective casts my spinnerbait was demolished with a very savage strike. I called this fish for 70cm+ but it turned out to be a very fit and angry 51cm trout cod. These things hit like freight trains and it was a nice change to what was turning out to be a very tough session. It's certainly starting to heat up not that summer is here. That was enough for us and we fished our way back to the car with no result and headed home.

Bloody Camera on the wrong setting!

Tuesday afternoon I headed back out to the creek because it looked like some storms were starting to roll in and the water level had dropped quite significantly. I thought things were looking promising, within 20 casts I managed to pull a very small 18cm trout cod from the fast water at the weir. The water was only coming over the main release part of the weir wall and it was creating some great looking water. Although it looked great, no fish seemed to like it. I managed to find a couple of nice lures on my way back to the car, but overall is was a disspointing session.

51cm of Trout Cod

My thoughts are that the Goldens may have either finished spawning or made their way further up river when the water was flowing over the wier. The water had dropped significantly this week and once the banks dry out a bit I think I will resort back to my normal approach, rather that focusing on the wier area.