Thursday, May 6, 2010

Wild Creek Exploration

The search for adventure, wild environments and fishing are happy bed fellows that have taken me to many missed and forgotten corners over the years. A propensity for exploration and discovery sees me 4 wheel driving, hiking, rafting, kayaking etc into some remote areas. I do not seek huge fish or even large numbers of them, I seek the adventure of finding fish and the beauty that one finds in wild places.
I have had my eye on this inconspicuous little creek system for a while, I traveled it on Google earth, poured over it on Topo maps, quizzed my bush walker mates that had been in the area and came to the decision that I needed to explore it. 

The access like all good potential creeks was impossibly complicated and arduous… but kinda doable…albiet only just. A very long initial hike/portage with heavy packs and my awkward sea ski saw us hit the creek a little bruised and tired on Friday. 
 Plan was to explore the creek downstream, then portage out again from lower down on the Sunday arvo.
As is often the case with such trips, the combination of weather and the window of opportunity clashed and a low pressure weather system moved in closing down our chance at landing a bass in the freshwater section of the creek.
We tried the full range fishing techniques but failed to interest any fish in the fresh,  the scenery made up for it and just travelling through such country brings it's own rewards.  By the days end we had traversed the freshwater and over a small waterfall that divided the fresh and saltwater.
We eventually found some fish in the mid estuary section,  went on to land some nice Estuary Perch which at the time was not a common catch for me.

We camped by the lower estuary section, walked the sand flats, fished the beach and adjoining rocks and generally chilled out in this wonderful wild pocket, the difficulty of getting there makes it all the better.
The Australian  Salmon  seemed to be in plentiful numbers on the flats and  off the beach, they had a taste for Clouser flies and  in many instances could be sight cast. Hooking hefty 'Sambos' in the skinny flats water made for excellent sport.
If the story ended there it would be a happy ending, the walk out however, was what could only be termed as a shocker. 
5 kms of steeply undulating rough track lugging a 28 kg sea ski plus my camping and fishing gear.  The 5km's took us 2 hours to walk but it was about the hardest 2 hour walk I had ever done.  By the time I reached my trusty Landrover, I had vowed to get an Alpacka Packraft and never lug the sea ski again.

3 Mates - 3 Days Fishing

Work had kept me from my bass fishing early this season, so on arriving home from a stint of work in Canberra I was keen to hit the water.

First day I planned a walk in trip to a small system that would offer a few options in the ordinary conditions. A cold and wet snap saw the water high, cold and tannin stained. The bass elluded us but my fishing mate Peter and I managed a few EP's and other estuary dwellers.


one of four EP's


Peter with a small EP from the rubber duck (note the raft camo colour)


Another species on the Bettspin - Silver trevor.


Another Bettspin victim the humble tailor


A few days later I hooked up with another south coast mate Craig on the lower section of a local creek to see if I could get a bass on the board for the season. Conditions looked promising but it was fairly slow fishing generally.


Craig with a typical south coast bass (just before he cooked up a bonza pasta for dinner!! I gotta fish with Craig more often).


Check out the silver colour of this fish, we figured it was not long back from the saltwater?


My first litlle bass for the season. After dark with a boof off the top.


Third day saw me hook up with my good mate Jules for an afternoon session on yet another local creek with the flyrod. It was a cracking afternoon and the bass came out to play. We landed several fish each off the surface in the last few hours of the day.



 A nice little creek bass on my new 4 weight.






Jules with a fly munching south coast creek bass.

So the season started for me, as the season progressed the weather warmed and I spent many of my afternoons poking about the creeks chasing bass.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Black Sea Bass in Canada


This year I skipped my winter escape to the NT and went for a bit of a trip to Canada and then onto Belize with the aim of targeting some salmon and then bonefish and anything else that happened along in the meantime. Whilst out chasing sea run salmon we discovered these "Black Sea Bass" on the kelp forest edges.  They pretty much ate any fly put in front of them and the habit of schooling up in vertical colums meant that you could fish down a school pulling off the top fish with sucsessive casts. Like most bass, they pulled like a train and made for some great sport. We caught a heap of them, so ....if your missing your Aussie bass fishing next winter, I am calling these as a very suitable substitute.
 
A typical Black Sea Bass
Kinda familar head shape 
 
My good mate Gav with another average fish
Bloody ugly with a big mouth, the fish ain't too pretty either...  
Eye like bass

As you can tell by my down jacket it was pretty cold despit being summer over there, water temp of 14oC!!! Call that a bloody summer. Belize was another story altogether , but no bass there....

Smallmouth Bass

Last winter I headed off to Canada for my good mate Gavins wedding.  After the wedding we spent a few days in the 'Cottage Country" and I got to spend an afternoon chasing small-mouth bass, a similar fish to our Australian bass. I fished the less than ideal 'mid afternoon' and had to leave as the fish started moving but still enjoyed landing a new species of bass. I had only taken fly gear with me on this trip, I may have fared better with a light spin stick and a few bettspins. They are pretty much the same as Ausbass by way of fishing techniques, habitat, fight.


Pretty lakes and full of water!!

There seemed to be an abundance of these little bass, they loved a slow fished Wolly Bugger.



This was the largest fish I could manage
The only 'Large-mouth' seen

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Skinny Water Tailor

Whilst fishing a remote estuary system for skinny water bream I hooked another lucky by catch, a big tailor pinned in the corner of the mouth.  I was lucky to land this fish, it went very hard in 1 foot of water on 4lb, with razor sharp teeth they usually bite me off before I land them.





Check out the business end of this bad boy, all teeth and attitude.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Summer Floods

Well it never rains but it pours......too true, we got up to 300mm of rain in parts on the far south coast over a few days in february of this year. Much needed rain that caused a lot of local flooding, great stuff!!. I slipped out one afternoon to have a look at my local creek, took a rod just in case.


This is usually a calm pool!!



The river was pretty much unfishable but I did pull this little fella out of a back eddy. Had a few boofs but it was tough fishing. Still...very stoked about the rain and intrested that I could still pull fish out of the flooded mess.  Back eddies are productive bits of water in such instances.  I have fished the Clarence river in full flood and found some really productive fishing in the back eddies. 



It is a little restrictive as you are forced to fish around the heavy flow a bit to find the 'pocket water'.  It is not unlike fishing a fast flowing trout stream really.


  
 Back  eddy rewards.

Variety Is The Spice of Life

The fishing was pretty cosistent this summer in the system I fish most and I have been fortunate enought to be able to spend a bit of time on the water. The bream have been a bit slow but a range of other species are getting in on the act, some days I am geting 6 or 7 different species, variety is the spice of life!!. Heres a few different pics of the various species all from the one short system.














 


I would estimate over 90% of the fish I caught this summer took surface lures.  I put this down to the fact that surface is my 'go to' choice so I spend more time fishing them but perfecting the various retrieves has really paid off in terms of fish numbers and variety.