Avoiding Elections with a Camera

So it has been a long while since I did any serious amount of posting on X-Stream Fishing.  Out of necessity, my work life has dominated my time for the last year and half and adventure time was pretty minimal to say the least.  Things have again turned and I am once again able to pursue my walking, paddling and of course fishing.  Over the next few months I have numerous adventures planned that will take me around my beloved southeast, over to NZ and Tasmania. Here is a little photo essay from last weekend, an election avoidance trip with my friend Matt to camp and fish a small hidden estuary that I have missed very much.  Click on the images to enlarge them ;-).

The Wait

The desire to tie on a surface lure and lob it at some gnarly bankside structure always peaks on the 1st of September. The self imposed closed season that allows Bass and Estuary Perch to go about their business undisturbed felt very very long, the warmer than usual winter temps only added tension to ‘The Wait’.

Mike, Jeff and I don’t really plan to fish the start of the season, it is a given, no plan is required. So as with seasons gone, we met as and where we do, readied gear and launched. We cracked a beer and drank a salute the start of our season; it was nice to be back on the water, talking fish, sharing our hopes and plans for the season ahead.

As often happens with fishing, expectations exceeded reality, the fish proved tough and as the light of the afternoon faded so did our hope of early season bass. It was almost dark when a tubby little shallow diver was clobbered half way back to the canoe.

It did not hit like a bass, fight like a bass nor indeed look like a bass, my mid fight call of flathead was right – flattie! Normally I am happy with by catch but…

We settled into a rhythm of lure and retrieval variations, searching for the winning combo. I was in the midst of a beer renewal when my stationary lure was boofed hard…damn missed chance (fresh beer though). A quick recast and more subtle retrieve with more pauses paid off with another solid surface boof, this time I was connected.

We don’t consider EP’s by catch, we often put a bet each way by selecting from a small group of lures that will take both species. In the grey area that contains both bass and EP’s it makes sense.

It went a little quite after that, cold air sank onto the river and we started moving around searching for more fish. After a few more boofs and a few missed fished we found a small group of EP’s along a reeded bank and connected with a few better specimens. Mike was all smiles with his first for the season.

As is often the case with Perch, they hang in schools year round, so it was no surprise when we nailed a few more in relatively quick succession, all off the top with the pulse raising boofs that tells them apart form their cousins the bass. The sound of an EP boof is totally different to that from a bass. 

The bass manage to elude us so and so the hunt for our first bass for the season continues but…..The Wait is over.

Last shimmer of bronze

On the far south coast the bass head down stream earlier than their northern siblings, so I usually leave them be from April on. I then pursue the EPs for the final month of the season as they begin their breeding cycle later, about the time the 'season' closes I am ready to let them go about their winter business.



My buddy Mike and I headed out for our final pre hibernation fish to a nearby estuary that we both like to paddle. The fishing was (as always) pretty consistent with some nice EP's caught and quickly released, I love catching EP’s and this season has been a great one for them with both numbers and some size encountered throughout the season.



Amongst the EP's there were a few other partygoers wanting some cheap eats, we landed bream, tailor, silver trevally and some large Sambos had found their way up the system and provided some fun on the light gear in the blow up boats.






This tailor took a liking to Mikes Thermafleece; pretty funny watching him trying to get it to let go, jaw like a mousetrap.



It is always interesting when unexpected fish hit EP offerings thrown into snaggy country, a few times I thought I had hooked the elusive super trophy EP...but alas another sambo... it will have to wait till next session now.



In a few weeks I pack my sport fish gear and head to Arnhemland for my winter fishing adventure fix but I will come back keenly awaiting the opening of the Bass and EP season.

The Grey Area

There is a grey area between bass and bream that attract a particular type of angler, the type that likes grey areas. 



EP's are 'The' fish of that grey area and EP fishos are the grey area anglers. I consider myself a grey area fisho, I love bass fishing and dedicate a good amount of my life to the pursuit of drinking water bronze fish, but in pursuit of bass I very often find my self fishing up estuaries. 



In doing so I find I am catching bream, whiting, flatties and eventually EP's before I find bass when the water becomes drinkable. The moveable transition from EP water to bass water can be fine and almost indiscernible at times, I love this zone and more and more find myself seeking it out.







My recent fishing mate Mike is another such fisho and we share a love of the intertidal zone and the search for consistent and trophy grey water fish.



EP's are habitual fish that respond to many variables; water level, seasonality, salinity, and tides....they are very hard to predict. I have landed dozens and sometimes hundreds of these fish in a season yet I consider I know little of them and have struggled to improve on my PB after more than 10 years of chasing them. My latest effort, a 44.5 cm model, a mere 0.5 cm improvement after several hundred EP's and several years trying.....a lean large headed fish indicating an old fish with it's breeding days behind it.





Mike did a research project on EP's as a young fisheries student a few years ago, his knowledge of these formidable fish is impressive, this trip yielded a 44 cm PB for him also despit his strong background in catching EP's.



Which came first???...the EP is the precursor to the bass and ep's in the 40 cm range are likely to be 40 year old fish in many instances. Such fish deserve respect and I would encourage those that pursue them practice catch and release as habitat destruction has reduced their distribution dramatically over the years to the point that they are now becoming scarce.. 

The builders mate

At the moment my time is filled with trying to finish building the first section of my house before Christmas, fishing has sadly taken a back seat to owner building. A phone call and offer from my good mate Tim to give me a few days labouring if I took him fishing was exactly the deal I needed to get a pass.

Good to his word Tim turned up and got on the tools with me for a few days, it was a great help and we got heaps done. A deal is a deal so I was 'obliged' to hold up my side of the deal, backpacks were packed, Alpacka rafts thrown in and we were off for a few days fishing with my other mate Peter in tow.

Tim seldom gets away fishing so he was pretty happy to get a new species with his first ever EP. He managed a few more over the evening on poppers, nothing too big but he was pretty happy with the surface hits and spirited tussle of the little EP’s.

It was only a matter of time until a bream found his popper and kissed it off the top, once again he was very happy as it was a PB bream on lure for him and his first off the surface.


Not to be outdone Peter got in on the surface action and landed a nice bream from amongst the small EP’s. 

Things pretty much shut down on top with a large moon rising and lighting up the estuary so we retired for a feed around the campfire. A few hours chatting and joking and we hit our tents only to be woken by thunder and torrential rain an hour later. The rain lasted right through the night and first light saw it still bucketing down. Tim was up and off to fish the flats though despite the appalling conditions. By the time I dragged myself out, Tim had landed a few silver trevally, a few whiting, a squire and a few more bream. Seemed the fish didn’t care about getting wet, nor did Tim, he was having a ball.



We fished on for a while , got a few more whiting, but it was starting to get quite cold and we were all soaked through so decided to walk out early and head home. 

I managed to sneak in a quick Bass session with him before he went home , he only managed one rat bass but as usually was pretty stoked with it 


The weather and the fishing disappointed me but Tim claimed it to have been his best ever estuary trip and he could not wait to visit again and help me with the building if I’d take him fishing again, what a great mate to have !! 

Scoffed.

These lures obviously rang the dinner bell,  scoffed!!

A few 40's

The bass season is proving to be a good one thus far,  many of the bass I am getting at the moment are in the magic 40 Plus size range.  I have been smoked by several XXXL bass which has promted a switch to 4 kg line and a heavier than usual drag,  I am thinking it is only a matter of time before I crack 50 for this season.  In the  mean time enjoy these recent fit bass.