Lizardboy

Yes, read about it not good:( Gus

Love casting spinnerbaits to snags, glad you still have your trusty red one!

Nice report, hard work has it’s rewards. cheers

Thanks Neil, always enjoy your reports. Cheers, Gus

Special place, thanks for report.

Thanks for report, haven’t managed any on plastics yet! What scent and retrieve were you using? cheers, Gus

Headed away last weekend to try to track down some cod. I usually prefer to go in the warmer months but was really keen to explore a new area despite the cooler weather. It was cold and we started fishing just after dawn with surface lures, then our trusty spinnerbaits, fished downstream a few km's from our packrafts without a hit, switched to big and small spinnerbaits and then the same in divers along the way and kept methodically plugging away as the day warmed up nicely. By mid afternoon it was time to start heading back and we'd had just one very non commital tap from what I suspect was a small carp or golden pecking at the blades. On the way back we passed a couple of locals walking the bank and fishing the way we came, we were surprised to hear they had managed a couple of small Cod in a short time on chatterbait style lures. So we switched to something similar and my mate managed a 53cm cod within half an hour before following up with another smaller model. No more fish in the next couple of holes, so we swapped back to surface arriving back at camp an hour after dark. We packed up the next morning and decided to check out some other possible spots for future trips, I was encouraged to have a few casts from the shore and as luck would have it I was onto a nice 52cm Cod within 5 or so casts. With some renewed confidence I spotted an accumulation of fallen timber downstream and made my way down to it, hooking another within a short time, I could feel the line in the timber but I went hard and managed to get him out and then over a few final sub surface logs. A good trip turned into a great trip with a few fish and some good recon for further exploration. cheers, Gus

Hi, For Carp I'd try early or late in the day when it's quieter near where the ducks get fed and hang out, it's a 100 metres or so from the dam wall. Maybe some bread or corn burley and single corn kernel for bait. The bass are generally only small, I do well trolling small deep diving hard bodies from my canoe using my sounder to fish the outside edges of weed beds in 2-3 metres of water. Great fun with small kids. cheers, Gus

Thanks Neil, Agree a day on the water is always a bonus, particularly at your local spots! However, given my small number of trips outside of Sydney each year (1or 2) And the travel time I try and go at the more productive time to maximise my chances, I've been wanting to check out this particular area for a while but things haven't lined up until now. I've now had some separate feedback to say that the first frosts can sometimes trigger a good bite, so fingers crossed! I luckily don't have to deal with dam releases and abrupt water level drops like you! cheers, Gus

Cheers Rick

Thanks for the report Neil. If you were just dealing with the water temp drop alone would you expect to be doing significantly better? I'm thinking of heading west of Sydney near Bathurst this weekend and low minimum temps around 0-17 have me questioning whether the fish will still be active enough! cheers, Gus

Good work, my mate lives up that way, I managed to get a baby one out the back of his place on a surface lure once, have to give it another crack! They are solid fish once they get to around the 40cm mark. cheers, Gus

Not good, they'll get below Lyell before long I guess, and eventually over warragamba and into the Nepean?

I have tried fishing this place once and whilst it looks absolutely epic I wasn't able to catch anything, still worth a visit just for the scenery though and a great spot to camp. I still intend to go back at some stage and give it another crack, but I have done internet searches for stocking records and I couldn't find any records since around 2004/05 which seems a bit strange. I suspect there could be some issues at play as to why it hasn't ( from what I could tell at the time) been re-stocked, possibly something to do with it being in a national park! Gus

Cheers Neil, some great structure!