Tag Archives: landanglers freshwater fishing report

Walilly Creek nr Lake Monduran – 25 October 2013

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Friday

After a week at home with no time to fish it was time to get back to work. Apologies to my regular Bribie Island readers, but I have not had a chance to fish on my home territory for a while. Whilst I am missing the best time for flathead fishing in the Pumicestone Passage, I am sure there are plenty of people out there catching good fish.

I was headed from Brisbane to Rockhampton again on Friday and decided to break the journey at a suitable looking creek to have a quick fish. I chose Walilly Creek just to the west of Lake Monduran. The Bruce Highway crosses the creek via a small bridge. I parked up to stretch my legs after a few hours driving and decided the sunken timber on the western side of the bridge looked promising. It was overcast but hot and it was about 11.00am.

I rigged up the light spin outfit and loaded it with an 1/8th ounce, size 1 hook, jighead on a 2.5 inch GULP Crabbie in the Peppered Prawn colour. I was fishing with 10lb fluorocarbon leader and 8lb original fused Fireline.

I cast the soft plastic at some fallen trees and immediately got snagged. People often ask why I used the softer, light wire TT jighead series (they come in the green backed packet). I like them because, as in this case, they give and bend when you apply pressure. This has a downside if you hook a monster fish but it means that you can often bend the hook slightly and pull it out of a snag, then bend it back into shape. This means you lose a few fish but you lose a lot less gear, while you are working out what is going on under the water. The problem with fishing soft plastics in the freshwater is that the fish are always buried deep in the structure, so you have to put your casts right into the middle of it.

The bridge across Walily Creek
A chunky catfish
Sunken timber
Always good to start with a GULP Crabbie
This looked like fish heaven
A Camo coloured GULP grub tail got this one
Pylons are often good targets
I certainly know how to catch these now

I straightened the hook on the jighead, pulled it free and then reshaped it with my pliers. Don’t do it with your teeth – I learned the consequence of putting a hook in your mouth fairly early on – not good! I straightened the soft plastic lure so that it was sitting right and cast a few feet to the left of the fallen tree. As soon as I lifted my rod something took the plastic into the timber. I felt the leader pulling against the branches so I loosened the drag and waited for perhaps twenty seconds. I retightened and pulled the fish free. I saw the slime covered leader and realised it was a catfish. I think I can safely say I now know how to catch catfish.

I moved further away from the bridge and caught a catfish. I moved closer to the bridge and caught two more catfish. In fact, I caught about 8 in the next 30 minutes. I change soft plastics and tried some small hard bodies. The different soft plastics caught more catfish and the hard bodies did not get a hit.
I looked at my watch. It was time to get going. I had found another creek full of fish; the only problem was they were catfish. Still it was better than sitting at the service station with a bad cup of coffee!

Bedford Weir – Blackwater – The Mackenzie River – 17 October 2013

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Thursday

Back to Blackwater – theoretically to do some work but, of course, my true purpose was to have a go at those fussy saratoga, swimming around down-stream of Bedford Weir. I arrived on Wednesday and got the paid work out of the way. On Thursday I had some time in the afternoon.

It was full moon. I had fished the full moon last time I was here and I had found a few good fish. This time I drove down the four wheel drive track, which runs to the east, alongside the Mackenzie River downstream of the weir wall. I followed it almost to the end – about 6 kms in total. The track is reached by turning to the east, off the Blackwater Cooroorah Road (right – if you are coming from Blackwater) just before you reach the weir.

Take care on this track. It is fine while the ground is dry and solid but it would be fairly tricky once it has rained. Also be aware there is a very high fire danger at this time of year, with tall dry grass lining the river banks and tracks.

At this point the banks of the river are quite steep and there is wide pool that has formed as the river runs against a rock bar, which slows it to a trickle, beyond this point. It looks like the fish cannot comfortably travel beyond this pool so it should be a good fishing spot.

Sure enough, as I approached the bank I could see several large saratoga lurking under the overhanging branches. The only thing that had worked on them before was a GULP soft plastic with arms and legs flailing everywhere – the 3 inch Ghost Shrimp. The hard bodies had just spooked them. I was out of suitable plastics so I started with a ¼ ounce spinner bait in a yellow and white colour. The fish were very well protected by the overhanging branches and it was pretty difficult to approach them without spooking them. I managed to get the spinner bait quite close to them a couple of times, before they dived down out of sight. These are very cautious fish.

Lurking saratoga
And then there were two
They like the shadows
A healthy small yellowbelly
The yellowbelly was hiding by this fallen tree
Good to get something other than a catfish

I moved a little further along the bank and loaded a 1/11th ounce/size 2 hook jighead with a 2” GULP Shrimp in the Banana Prawn colour. I hopped this along the bottom around the snags and soon connected with a small catfish. I caught three of these.

I moved a bit further along and switched to the same soft plastic in the Peppered Prawn colour. I cast this at some sunken branches, which were close to the bank and felt a slightly more urgent tap, as I retrieved the lure. I cast back in the same spot and this time I hooked up. It pulled hard and fast, faster than the catfish. But it was not big enough to be a saratoga. I kept the rod tip up and pulled it clear of the snaggy timber. It was a respectable golden perch/ yellow belly.

I looked for a few more and may have had one on, that I did not land. After a while I could see the saratoga out in the middle of the stream, again. I swapped back the spinner bait and even though I pulled a few directly past their noses, I could not entice them to strike. They would turn towards the lure as it hit the water and sometimes swim towards it – but then lose interest. Its pretty tough fishing in the fresh water but I learn a little more on each session.

At about 5.30 pm, having caught a couple more catfish – I gave up for the day.