Qld: Cania dam Toga on fly 29/30 Dec 09

[mojofunk]

I arrived at Cania Tourist retreat late in the arvo on Monday and set up camp.

Cania Tourist Retreat camp site

This is a well run park with everything you could need including; kitchen utensils, fridge, freezer, BBQ, microwave, washing machine and dryer. I also assume it would be quieter than the other camp ground due to the other camp ground having more childrens facilities (eg. juming balloon).

Anyway Due to it getting quite late in the arvo i decided to go and have a quick peek at the dam and then come back to camp for a beer and an early night. Some other yakkers were staying in one of the cabins. They let me know that the fishing was quite good and that they were smacking the fish on small poppers.

I arrived at the dam at 4.30 on Tuesday morning and decided to get the fly rod out as I have had the yak for a month and hadn't tried fly fishing from it yet. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy my revo is to fly fish from. I tied on a Dahlburg diver on an intermediate line and off i went. This was great because i could cast it into the shallows give it a few strips on top then the line would drag it slightly under for a shallow retrieve. I could also cast over any weed. Even over stuff a popper would get hung up on.

Anyway the fish first I caught a Spangled perch whos eyes were too big for his belly.

Eys too big for his bellly

next came a nice bass.

First Bass on fly

then after dropping a nice fish (Calling it for a toga) I caught a nice toga off a weed bed after casting to a boil.

Fist Toga on Fly

As the wind was getting up my fly casting abilities led me to take the fly rod back to the car and I threw around spinner baits for a while getting some touches but no hookups.

Came back in the arvo and got one nice toga on a big jackall Popper after a hard slog with an array of lures.

The next morning i was keen to get amongst the fish with the fly rod again so it was on with the Dahlburg again. I picked up a small bass that berried me in the weed before I wrenched it out and then picked up another Toga.

Last Toga of the trip

I tried some other fly's with no luck so I decided to head up the dam for a bit of a look as i had been fishing within sight of the boat ramp the whole two days. Its a beautiful dam but I dare say I didn't even get close to seeing the whole dam. I will add some scenery shot in a second post.

[mojofunk]

Here some more Pics

Main Basin

Feet

Mountains on the way to the dam from campground

Toga swimming away

[DougOut]

well done on chalking-up a few firsts mate ..... yeah that camp is always quieter then the big4 family park.

[Dodge]

Lindsay what a great result for your trip mate, and all the firsts achieved.....how long in time is travel from the camp ground to the launch. site?

[Biffo]

Nice fish, have to get back there myself. In a kayak at least. With all this rain we have been having, do you think it affects the fishing in the dam much? Good or Bad? Last time i fished it it was only around 6% and the fishing was pretty good.

[mojofunk]

The dam is about 15 mins travel from the camp site I stayed at. There is another camp site closer. I thought the fishing was quite good (though I was told u should have been here yesterday). Sudden rise in water level can put fish off the bite for a few weeks but more water should stablise temp and be good in the long run though I'm sure it's more complex than that.