OFFSHORE – The fishing has started to come good again after a few lean weeks. fish were off the bite and you had to work hard for your feed and battle the wind aswell. sunday is looking the day to head offshore over the weekend. some good reports of snapper again on arkwright shoal. good snapper on caloundra 9 mile and snapper, cobia and sweetlip on the 12 mile reefs. on the outer gneerings some good parrot, sweetlip and snapper have been caught.  good yellowtail kings around the blinker and they have showed up on murphys along with snapper, cobia, sweetlip and some big old cod. out on the barwon banks some good red throat, snapper and pearl perch have hit the decks.

ESTUARY – Chopper tailor, bream, trevally and flathead at the mouth of marrochy river. back at chambers island some good bream and the odd whiting have been caught. on the run out tide in the cod hole and around the motorway bridge good trevally action on poppers and plastics with chopper tailor in amongst them. some school jew have been caught on plastics in the area aswell. up in the bli bli reach flathead have also been caught mainly on plastics. in mooloolah river again on the run out tide.. some good flathead around the lower reaches and off the rocks chopper tailor and some good bream.

till next week… ben

SOMERSET DAM – Somerset has been producing some quality fish of late but the numbers have dropped throughout the dam.  Fish can be found in many places in the dam but the concentration in each spot can be varied.  Queen Street is still holding a nice little school in close to the bank (6m of water) with other patches of fish being found in the vicinity in deeper water (10 – 11m of water).  On the weekend just gone the fish were very fussy and with a small window to fish before the wind became unbearable it became a hit and run mission. After trying many of the well-known bass lures that have worked in the area over the last month or so it was the tried and true jackal in gill colours that proved to be the most successful. For a 3 hour session there were 8 fish landed with the biggest just under the magical 50cm mark and in very good knick. Slow rolling close to the bottom was working well. Bay 13 also had some good shows of fish, however, the wind made this area difficult to fish but it is worth ducking in there for a sound or troll in the next week or so.  Pelican Point was the end of the voyage and there are some fish there but they are not very concentrated which makes them hard to target. Trolling along the old river bed is a good option until you find some solid shows of fish and then you can begin to cast and jig.

LAKE BORUMBA – The fish in this dam have been very hard to work out of late with locations changing readily and the day they fire seems to be few and far between.  There have been few reports from this dam but a well-known bass guru went there within the week and got six fish, none of which were massive.  The junction of the creeks in the timber was the place to be with most of the fish coming on ice jigs in this area. If you go to this dam keep looking at the junction, the yellow marker buoys and across from the boat ramp as these are regular haunts for the bass at this time of year.

Hope this helps,

Brendan

SOMERSET DAM – Well the fish are starting to make their way further down the dam as the cooler weather hits full stride. It does however seem to be taking a little longer than other years for them to make their way to the regular haunts such as Pelican Point and the Spit. A recent trip up there found that Pelican and the Spit had very little fish activity at all with only the odd arch or arches showing on the sounder.  After a few hours of searching around the bottom end of the dam the decision was made to head back up the dam towards the camping ground and work our way down. This strategy worked a treat with fish being landed almost immediately.  The most productive area was from Queen Street back toward Kirkleagh. Our tactic was to cast to the banks with spinnerbaits and jackals and slowly hop them down the face of the drop-offs of these banks.  We were finding that they were in small bunches in certain areas and they were smashing the lure on the drop. These fish were all between 40 and 45cm and all in excellent condition. This bank proved productive for a few hours before they dispersed and changed location.  Up in Queen Street it-self was our next area to attack and this was where we found a nice school of fish.  The juncture where the sticks meet the bank was where they were hanging out in about 5 – 6 metres of water. The go to lures were jackals and the river to sea glassie vibe jigging and slow rolling. These fish were quite tight to the bank so casting up in the shallows and slowly winding back with a few pauses and hops was working well. There were only 2 undersize fish taken in this area with other fish getting well over the 2kg mark, nice healthy fish.  The fish will continue to make their way down the dam as part of the spawning process during winter, so if you don’t find them at Queen Street then try Dead Tree Point and Bay 13 before looking at Pelican and the Spit. The fish are there so sound around or troll and you will eventually find what you are after.

BORUMBA DAM – What a tricky dam to work out!  The fish in Borumba are moving everywhere.  Reports over the last fortnight have them in a few different locations and moving constantly.  Recently they had been at the 1^st and 2^nd yellow marker buoys but seasoned anglers have hits these spots in the last week with little reward. A very large school was found at the mouth of Borumba creek and some large fish were taken but a couple of days later they are no longer there. I mentioned in the last report that the junction of the Yabba and Kingham might come good and this has come true with a session there landing 25 fish using ice jigs. The key features to look for were weed beds or islands located near flats with some deeper water nearby. As the winter weather continues keep looking for fish around the junction, the yellow marker buoys, the first point on the left from the boat ramp and down across from the boat ramp as the fish make their way to the dam wall.

LAKE MACDONALD – There have been very few reports on this dam and I was disappointed that I didn’t make it there on the school holidays. However, from the little information that I could get there were some nice fish caught up in the Borer creek casting to the weed edges with lipless crankbaits and plastics. My advice is that at this time of year there is a big chance that the fish will be in the main basin areas like the botanical gardens, the bubble trail and close in near the scout den boat ramp on the other side of the dam.

Hope this helps,

Brendan

SOMERSET DAM – Well Somerset has begun to return to some normal fishing patterns and the water is becoming much more clear and with this cold weather it should speed the process along a little. An example of some of the clarity is up in the sticks in the shallows you can actually see the fish swimming something my young son thought was amazing.  It was also interesting and pleasing to see the number of dead and dying Talapia there were on the banks, floating and some of them on their last legs in the water. Our little expedition yielded little on the day we went for a trip into the timbered area of the dam. We were not there for that long and the weather was awful so we didn’t fish that hard. There are fish still up in the sticks, however, the numbers and size have shrunk somewhat from the previous 3 weeks. If you do venture up into this part of the dam use spinner baits and jackals and cast them as close as you can to the very edge and slowly wind your lure back so that you are keeping it as close to the bottom as you can.  Also, try and fish banks that are slow slopping and are near some deeper water.  There are many areas in the sticks where the banks drop off into the old river bed and these areas will hold some fish. With the fish thinning out in the timbered area they are beginning to make their way down to the main basin and dam wall areas trying to get to the brackish to spawn (which they cannot do in impoundments).  With this in mind look for schools in the areas of Pelican point, the Spit, Bay 13 and even Poly point.  These schools are only small at present and can be difficult to find so sound around or troll until you see some arches on the sounder.   In the coming weeks you will find that these schools will thicken and become quite large with some absolute monsters in them.  I find that August and September is best as the schools are formed and they are ready to feed again.  Use blades, ice jigs, soft jackals and plastics on 1/8 oz jigheads for good results. The best report from the past fortnight is around Queens Street where a couple of fellas caught 8 Bass with the smallest being 55cm to the fork.  That’s a good days fishing!

BORUMBA DAM – This dam is beginning to really frustrate anglers with the hit and miss nature of the fishing.  A mate of mine was there last weekend and caught over 50 fish for around 6 hours fishing over the 2 days.  There were some models landed that were over the 50 cm milestone. I went up there during the week and was able to get only one fish with a couple of missed bites. I thought it might be me but I have since spoken to another experienced fishermen who also said that for their expedition they only landed 3 fish. A little disappointing!  There are some schools now forming in the main basin with good numbers of fish so it will depend on the day you go and the attitude of the fish on that day.  The areas to concentrate your search are at both the yellow marker buoys (9-12m) and the boat ramp side of the weed bed off the first main point (5m).  Ice Jigs, blades and soft plastics have been the pick of the weapons to use. It would also pay to keep an eye on the junction area as the fish come from the creeks down to the main basin you mind find that they will hold in the timbered area where the 2 creeks meet. There are some fish there but they are suspended and difficult to target, but check there if the crowds begin to target the schools in the basin.

LAKE MACDONALD – There are some good reports coming from this dam at present with some big numbers and solid fish being landed.  The bubble trail and botanical gardens have schooling fish and Bass bay and the three ways have fish tight to the weed. The fish in and near the weed are the better quality fish and are more fun to catch as you will have to cast into the weed, rip it out and wait for the strike.  Once they have the lure it is a heap of fun trying to extract them from the weed. The schooling fish love soft plastics, blades and ice jigs whereas the weed dwellers are going for lipless crankbaits and blades. I am heading up there early next week so I will let you all know how I go.

EWEN MADDOCK – Few people are fishing the dam at present but one lucky young man managed to snag himself a mid 50’s bass out of the dam recently on a blade. The main boat ramp is closed now for health and safety reasons but you can still access the dam through the picnic area.  In my last report on this dam I mentioned that there is some work being done around restocking Baroon Pocket dam. I have since spoken to the group behind this and they have said that everything is going ahead well and they are lodging some paperwork to ensure that everything will run smoothly.

Hope this helps,

Brendan