Nepean Bass

[Conor_B]

Hey guys. I'm an Irish guy recently moved to Sydney and am wondering if anyone can enlighten me on the movement of Australian bass. So I've been targeting these fish for a few months in the nepean and the georges river pretty extensively, and while I usually catch on every trip they are never of any size...usually mid twentys. I have fished from yarramundi to the nepean gorge past penrith and am just wondering if the bigger models would live in these areas or if I need to fish further upstream. I hear of fish being caught in bents basin and camden and research tells me they keep pushing as far upstream as they can before coming back to spawn. So should I fish different areas depending on the time of year or will big bass live some of the areas mentioned? Someone even mentioned catching them at richmond and windsor, but i thought it would be too salty, so is this just pre/post spawn or would they live in this section all year round? I thought the best thing to do is ask people that actually fish for bass. Any help would be appreciated as I have put in a lot of time and research into catching bigger bass but with no luck. Thanks in advance.

[diesel]

quietest I've ever seen it conner, this time last year was a different story they were everywhere,Not sure about Windsor area but penrith has been very quiet unless you wanna fish at midnight but you gotta put up with the bats and mozzies and even then the bigger ones are hard to come by.When the going gets tough (live yabbies) that's all I can advise

[Juggs]

what methods are you using ?

not many will give advice if they think you are using bait as a lot of smaller fish get gut hooked on bait v artificial lures

the fish are there all round, would be suicidal for a species if 100% of breeding stock moved at the same time

[Conor_B]

Oh ok diesel, I'll just keep putting in the time and hopefully it pays off. I only have a kayak so can only fish small sections of the rivers at a time, and even then the conditions might not be right on the day so that section might fish differently on a different day/time?

Juggs I only use lures for bass, would never have even thought about bait fishing for them. I have been getting some bigger models lately, 38 being my biggest so far, from the upper nepean. Got a few mid 30s in the upper georges, but very tough terrain in the yak with rapids and shallow stretches of water but I am happy with the fish lately and feel like I learn more about bass on every trip.

Are any of you members of any bass/fishing clubs, and if so do you think it would be worth joining for someone like me looking to learn about bass fishing?

Thanks for your replys

[PRED-ATOR]

hi mate,

if your fishing from a kayak, have you tried launching from devlins rd yet?

I reckon your in for a chance on the bigger bass in there.

[Conor_B]

Hey mate.

I've only launched from there once and didn't notice much activity, got a couple of small bass but I don't think the conditions were real good for it. You're not the only one to mention that to me so I will have to go back and give it a good bash. Thanks

[Jeff]

Through the summer you can catch them anywhere from Wiseman's Ferry up. If you check the results of acoustic tagging you can see they move around quite a bit. Not all the fish push right up and fish movement varies from year to year. The only active bass club I know of in Sydney is Western Sydney Bream & Bass as HNBA closed down. They hold socials for both boats and kayaks.

[Conor_B]

Thanks for the reply Jeff, I will check out the fish tagging and hopefully it will give me more insight into the bass' movement. Thanks again

Conor

[dean]

Hi mate, like others have said, the fish will spread throughout the system in summer. I fish in the camden area and it has been a slow year, fish in the high 30s are big for the area, the average would be around the 300 mark. At this time of year the fish should be feeding up for the run down river, fishing will be tough but there should be some bigger fish about.

There are a couple of small clubs in the area, Bass Sydney and the Wollondilly bass club, both are kayak based and both run socials on the river through the warmer months, well worth a look into.

[Conor_B]

Hi mate, do you think this is because of a lack of rain that the fish havnt made it up that far?

Cheers for the info on the clubs, will have to look into them. Have looked at a few of your reports on previous trips down south, some excellent stuff mate, makes me want to venture further a field for future trips. Looks like a lot of fun!

[dean]

Not sure why the fishings been poor this year. There was plenty of rain early in the season, the fish ladders are working and there's plenty of flow from the environmental releases for the bass to make it up river. There's always next season.

Love exploring new systems, seem to get better fish and you don't have to travel that far from Sydney. Good luck with the clubs, they can be a good source of local info.