Cow Paddock Bass

For a while I had been meaning to fish a section of creek on a nearby farm that the farmer assured me held some 'perch'. Now remember this is Cheese-World I am talking about, the land where cows walk through rivers, bank side clearing has been the norm, the lower stretches of rivers are heavily silted with sand and pumped near dry to irrigate superphosphate rich paddocks .... you get the picture, not the sort of place you expect to find many 'perch'.


I was short on time but the creek in question was very close to home, so with a degree of cynicism and only half my heart in it I decided to go for a quick flick. Thinking it would be an open shallow creek I opted for the fly rod, a box of flies and a head torch.

The creek was everything I thought it would be; surrounded with cow poo and 'improved' pasture, irrigation pumps humming and reducing the depth to a few feet at best.Not much cover on the bank side, the odd stand of resilient Casuarina trees and a willow here and there.



It was almost dark so I focused my efforts on the deeper pockets under the casuarinas. I was not expecting anything so the first boil on my fly was missed by a long way... A recast to the same spot produced an instant hit and this time I made no mistake. Bass in shallow water can certainly go hard.



Under the cover of darkness the bass ventured out in the shallow water to investigate the source of the blooping noise that usually meant dinner.



The bass were not huge but what they lacked in size they made up for with attitude climbing all over the ear-plug popper with the reckless vigour of 5 year old boy full of red cordial.



As I climbed into my old Landrover and rattled along the cow pat paved dairy road to the gate, I shook my head, smiled and muttered to myself 'bloody cow paddock bass, who would have thought'. I marvel at the tenacity of bass.

Eagles, transfer cases, tomatoes and bass fishing

What do Eagles, transfer cases; tomatoes and bass fishing have in common?? I had one of those days today......

Even before breakfast a bloody great Eagle managed to get into our eagle proof chicken coop and was making a breakfast of our chickens when my wife turned up to get the eggs. My wife is scared of angry Eagles trapped in chicken coops so I'm called in; “you're always on about catch and release, catch and release that bloody big Eagle". Slightly outside my area of expertise, I quickly search for an Eagle friendly C & R tool. The only Eagle C & R tool I can muster at short notice is my prized vintage prawn net. The angry Eagle is not at all happy with the idea of being in a prized vintage prawn net but it is eventually liberated back to the wild to harass some other poor hippie’s chickens. Prized vintage prawn net is no longer suitable for prawning.

I gather the remnants of my no longer prized vintage prawn net and climb into my vintage Land rover to drive up the steep hill to the building site we call home. 'Best stick her in low range' I think; clunk grrrr clunk ping...mmmm nothing,…. clank bang clank bang...nothing , mmmm no low range. Land rovers are very reliable, they break down once a week without failure, and you can rely on it. Martin, my mechanic, knows me well, he smiles and books another holiday to Fiji every time the Landie rolls into his rustic workshop. Sadly for me Martin wants two holidays in Fiji to fix the Landie. "What the F#@K happened to ya prawn net Steve?"asks Martin as I write out another cheque to Bega Travel World.

In the building site we call a home, the fishing rods (weapons of bass destruction) are stored in a cupboard with my wife’s collection of preserved bottles of veggies and fruit. Now I was unhappy with my wife’s decision to store these potentially dangerous goods with my collection of fine tackle. I recall at the time she asked "what's the worst that could happen?". What I should have said was “a toxic mess of tomato sauce could ferment for weeks in glass bottles then explode showering all my fishing gear with toxic tomato compost like stuff that really stinks" Ahhhh the benefit of hindsight. Nothing that a good old fashion garden hose and 25,0000L of tank water couldn’t fix. Soooo....with my bass fishing gear all clean I got to thinking…days preety much rooted may as well tempt fate and go bass fishing....

I know what you’re thinking, he fell in the river, got bitten by a snake, broke his Gloomis in 2 places and hooked himself in the arse with a barbed treble………sorry to disappoint bad things only happen in threes

 It's not Fiji but....there are bass in there

Fishing With Gus

I first met Gus through the Ausbass website, our mutal intrest in all things bass fishing and his frequent trips to visit his folks that live in the district meant that it was only a matter of time before we hooked up for a fish.

The phone call from Gus was all it took to get me to down tools for a spot of bassing that particular day. An exploration of some promising Google Earth proved fruitless so we were forced to shift to Plan C which involed wet wading my local freestone creek for an hour or so through the peak period just before dark.

Gus with the first fish for the day.

We ended up with 5 bass for our brief session but they where all lovely little bronzed wild fish that pulled hard in the cool clear flow of this magic little stream. I seldom share my favourite fishing places but I really enjoyed wading the stream with Gus, chating and tossing little lures, he is a fine fisher with a real appreciation for bass and the places we find them. On such afternoons the bass are a real bonus.

And another..

Koolabung Cicada Fizzer take yet another bass

The best fish for the afternoon, a fine healthy Aussie bass.

Final fish just on dark.

Gus and I have since become good mates and often fish together; this trip was kind of the start of that friendship and many adventures.No doubt there will be many more as we both share a love of X-Stream Fishing.