camping the upper Nambucca

[dirvin21]

Headed up river to a mates property for some school holiday camping, we had some pretty high expectations the fishing was gonna be epic, so after a setting up the kayak was on the water and I was into it. Unfortunetly the fish had other plans and after an hour of solid casting for zip it was looking bleak, then out of nowhere my lure was smashed and after a nervous fight through some terrifying terrrain out came a solid 40cm bass a decent start atleast

headed back to camp a little disheartened and decided it was time to switch tactics and sit in the banana chair with a bourbon and and fish some unweighted worms, and sure enough 3 small bass in 20 minutes.

After drk headed dowm with some more baits did manage a couple of small eels and a 30cmish cattie

the nex day tried some more lure casting with again not much just a couple of half hearted hits again resorted to bait this time some big freshwater mussels in an attempt to put the kids onto some entertainment and sure enough the eels obliged with some solid ones caught including this beast of approx 7-8kg

then did the same thing after dark but with nothing biting I decided to sight cast some gudgeons under torch light with tiny hooks and baits and after a few attempts out came a beautiful Cox's Gudgeon appox 12cm long a cool fish to show the kids

Then I hear a noise and look over to the rod i forgotton about to find it buckled over and screaming and after a hell of a tussle out comes a proper tandan measuring up at 49cm

next cast and on again almost instantly another solid cattie this one 47cm

then decided another cast was in order and after a short while off again with another solid tandan this one 48cm

only managed a few smaller catties after this then the next moring it was time to head not a bad trip in the end

cheers for reading

Dave

[big Neil]

Couple of nice catches there Dave. Did you eat the Catfish?

[dirvin21]

Couple of nice catches there Dave. Did you eat the Catfish?

we released all the fish on this trip, we do eat some when we go out to copeton or pindari

[Mike89]

Cool report. It's a totally different ball game in freshwater!

Some nice looking fish. I'm interested in the tiny fish (12cm one) you caught with the small hooks. Were you after this species?

Great stuff! Sounds like a lot of fun.

[dirvin21]

Some nice looking fish. I'm interested in the tiny fish (12cm one) you caught with the small hooks. Were you after this species?

its a Cox's Gudgeon (Gobiomorphus coxii), they are a very common species in the system I have seen them close to 20cm long, I targeted it under torch light dropping the bait in front of it I love native freshwater fish of all shapes and sizes and I wanted to show the kids one up close