Did you miss me – did you even know I wasn’t in last week’s paper?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Let me tell you, you have to be sick to die. I caught a dreaded lergy after going fishing for a night and I have to say, I thought I wasn’t going to be here for much longer.
I was thinking of what songs I wanted played at my funeral (funnily enough I wanted Going Fishing by James Reyne) and where I wanted my ashes to be placed in the ocean.
My poor endearing wife knew I wasn’t well 'cos she sent me home from work and then had to put up with my whinging – love ya babe.
Anyway, went fishing up to Blowering last Tuesday night and it sort of lived up to its synonym Lake disappointment. Not for me, but for my fishing partner, should I name him, yep I should – Dan Draper.
We left Wagga at 6pm and arrived at Log Creek at about 7.30pm, boat on the water at 8pm with still plenty of daylight.
There were about 10 other boat trailers on the ramp so I didn’t have real high hopes - but you can’t catch them in your back yard.
We headed down toward the wall on the eastern side of the dam in about 25ft of water at 2.3kph. A few fish were showing on the sounder, looked promising, got down to Log Creek and my lure stopped working, started to reel it in and said to Dan, "first fish a reddie".
But as it happened I had caught a little cod and when I say little, the lure was actually bigger than the fish.
A quick revival in the bait tank and back away in the water (remembering that the new regulations state all fish below 55cm and above 75cm must be returned unharmed to the water and this may mean that the fish of a lifetime – metre plus. You may have to get into the water for a happy snap instead of lifting it out of the water.
I know when I get mine I will be more than happy to get into the water with it to make sure it swims away.
Back to the exciting fishing story, I trolled across the wall with the wind playing merry havoc, over to the western side and up towards Browns Bay.
The lures were well washed, in the “correct” – or what we thought was correct depth – but alas nothing.
About 10.45pm I was thinking it might be time to pull up stumps so we weren't really concentrating on the sounder and got a little bit shallower when a nice yella decided to grab my lure. Nice fish, pretty good fight for a couple of minutes and a bit of renewed vigor. We trolled around Browns for another hour or so without any luck, so the count was and – I do like saying this cos it doesn’t happen very often – Harro - 1 and a half, Dan - duck egg.
I did also notice that a few of the boats on the water were down one nav light or didn’t have any at all. Come on fellas, lift your game, it’s not hard to do the right thing.
I would also like to wish all the readers a happy and safe Christmas, hopefully you will get out and wet a line, get a bit of a break, drive safely and make sure you are back next year as I already have some pretty good stuff to put to you in 2015.
Burrinjuck has been good to very good with about five fish over a metre being caught and released over the last couple of weeks.
Craig Elphick finally cracked a metrey – it went 101cm but still over a metre. Well done mate, I know how hard you fish.
Wagga celebrity Phil Tokely was up at the 'Juck and had a white hot one-hour period. One hour only where he caught three cod, four yellas, six reddies and nine carp all on lures – bloody Stuckies, Oargees, Custom Crafted and spinner baits, nothing before or after, just there at the right time.
Blowering well you have my report. There were a few other fish landed. Rhys Creed landed a couple of very nice fish during the week, Tim Mathieson has also been successful, so Blowering is always worth a go. You may not catch a fish every time you go but the more you go the better chance you have.
The Alpine waters have been hot and cold, Talbingo hasn’t had much happening, Tantangara has been going off. Shane Carroll had a magnificent session with over 30 fish in a day, Chris Chamberlain and Greg Dyde should have turned left into Tantangara but went to Eucumbene. They caught two nice fish but that was over two days.
Jindabyne has had a bucket load of water and I was up there on Sunday – working not fishing – and the water has come up about a metre-and-a-half so a bit dirty but should be real good in the shallows in a couple of weeks.
Hume Weir has been pretty good with cod and yellas on the go, bait is accounting for a few, the odd lobster being caught on said bait as well – worth a go over Christmas.
Mulwala was suffering from atrocious weather and a lot of boats so haven’t had any reports coming from there, some hot weather should see it liven up a bit.
The river is still running pretty high and still a little cold, still worth a go with a bit of bait and the kids over the break.
South Coast has the tide roaring at three knots heading south, temp at about 21 degrees. Temperature is about right, not much bait around so wait until it slows a little. At the impoundments go for flatties, bream and school jewies.
Send your pictures to craig@waggamarine.com.au or 0419 493 313.
Eucumbene 52%
Hume Weir 63.4%
Blowering 38.2%
Burrinjuck 74.6%
Jindabyne 72.1%
Tantangara 16.7%
Talbingo 70.2%
Mulwala 96.5%
Dartmouth 85.8%