I just spent a few days with the backpack on wearing a hole in my old Redback boots whilst checking out a few remote creeks to see if they held bass.
As always on such exploratory trips my packraft was stashed into my pack with my minimal ultra light camp gear. Many of these creeks are not easily accessible by foot and paddling in is often the only way to access the freshwater reaches.
In many of the smaller systems the demarcation between fresh and salt can be as little as 100 meters with a clear 'line' between the two; One can catch bream, EP's and Bass within cooee of each other.
This particular system had a good long stretch of fresh water that looked like it should hold decent bass.
Likely looking snags were covered with a variety of lures but the fish were reluctant with only a few decent boils under surface offerings, golden sides hinting that a bass was not far off. A cicada fizzer eventually worked its magic and an explosive strike saw me hooked up and loosing line to a good fish.
When I finally got colour it was the tell tale golden flanks that had me thinking I was into bass...then up came the scoped head. big eye and bucket mouth of a 41cm EP.
Sadly that was the only fish I could hook in the fresh water stretch. I will have to return and fish higher when time allows me the few extra days it would require. I opted for the consolation prize of 11 EPs and a brace of surface munching bream...it pays to be adaptable
Skinny Pop Jr from Zipbaits has to be one of the most effective surface lures around.
Like their freshwater cousins, night time is prime time for the EP's.
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