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. 

Cow turds and 40 cm bass

Fishing at night in dairy country has one major downside - cow turds are hard to see in the dark. 

The tell-tale slide of my boot was all I needed to know that I had been ‘cow turded’, the stink had me thinking it was a bad omen and I should probably just go home and forget about bass.

The first three casts I put across the deep dark pool drew a blank, not good. I was a more than a little disturbed by the odour of digested Kikuyu that was rising from my left boot. Fourth cast got monstered and for a few seconds the rod loaded and drag sang a little song of protest, it was too brief, the bass was gone and the smell of cow poo returned. 

A few casts later the smell disappeared about the time my fizzer was again monstered, this time the hooks found their mark and the little Stradic sang its song of protest again. The song played out and a strong low 40's bass was lifted for a photo. Strangely I could no longer smell cow poo.

It was only a few casts later that the fizzer was again eaten and my drag got to preform once more. Another low 40's bass and the air was smelling very fresh.

A good ten minutes passed without much action and I had begun thinking about the downside of night fishing when a fit 34cm bass distracted my sense of smell. Sadly that was the last bass for the evening and the smell was making a comeback, wafting its bovine stench once more. Time to head for home and hose my boots.

Looong Weekend

I never realised that the "Long" in Long weekend related to slow fishing but that is exactly what we got on the far south coast. We had plans of greatness but a week out the weather looked bad and our plans where rationalised. 

Jeff and I fished a two sessions, joined by my mate Gus for the morning session.

The predicted bad weather went to other way and produced perfect fishing conditions for us, calm with light cloud/fog cover and a barometer rising to 1024…no one told the fish that it was good conditions and they should have been on the chew.

For a total of about 7 hours solid fishing we only managed to raise 4 bass, gently fished deep Bettspins accounting for 3 and a cicada fizzer the last. 

The fish hit hard and fought well for their size but we just struggled to find them, I guess that is just fishing sometimes, perhaps we are spoilt and have become acustomed to always catching bass.

Some times the bass just don’t play even when they should, that is when we make noises about how great it is to be on a beautiful river with good mates and how it is better than working…..I would have still liked a few more fish.