[polylureosis]

Hi,

I have been lucky enough to spend a few days giving the Hobie its first taste of serious Freshwater fishing. Not saying that the day on Baroon Dam wasn't great but a natural waterway is hard to beat.

I was fishing on a part of the Clarence River near Baryulgil. The area was my Grand parent’s property (now my Aunt’s) so this is where I first caught the fishing bug. Although back then it was handlines and catfish before progressing into the canoe and a spincastcast outfit when I was big enough to wear a life jacket (and not get in the road and put every cast into the trees - Although I am sure I did. And I still cast into the timber far too often :?).

Being a NSW long weekend a few other distant rellies decided to crash MY river - In bloody stinkboats no less :evil: Or well put them in there place by landing a small 30cm bass about 5th cast in. Though I was in for a cracker few days at that rate.

Next morning got up early to a misty river and headed upstream. Beautiful morning but not much happening. Landed a herring? On a fizzer which was a little unusual.
Was in a relatively shallow stretch of water and put a long cast and landed the fizzer right in the zone. Zip, Zip, Zip, wait, Zip Zip, Zip, wait, Zip Zip, Wait Zip Same thing I had done hundreds of time that morning Zip CRUNCH, SPLASH, NO HOOK UP, (Don't panic I say to myself) Zip, Zip Wait, Zip WHACK on this time!!!! Took some line of as it screamed back towards cover but managed to land a nice bass of 40-45cm.
That perked the morning up.

Drifted downstream trying spinnerbaits, Crankbaits, jackalls, etc.....

That was it of any note for the 3 sessions – Plenty of herring? When I downsized to a SX40 and Rebel wee crawfish and missed three good strikes on the fizzer.

As you can see from the pics it’s a spectacular waterway.
Wildlife count of note for the few days (fish aside)…
Black Swans, Azure Kingfishers, Dollarbirds, Rainbow bee-eaters, Pheasant cocual, A pair of Ospreys, Red Bellied Black snake (swimming), Carpet Python, Wallabies, Echidna, Turtles, 100’s of Eastern water dragons and several Playpus /pi /es (I am sure one of which stalked me for half an hour)

Oh - And the Hobie performed a treat.

 

[polylureosis]

Missed the bit about the other fish in the pic!

Had put in a few casts into a likely looking stretch of river (aren’t they all).
Was fairly shallow as the Raapla shad rap was bouncing along the bottom each cast.

I was retrieving very slowly and could feel each time the lure hit the rocks, when the lure just STOPPED, thought that the bib of the lure must have wedged under a rock, well the lure floats give it a little slack and see if it backs out, hang on this rock is MOVING :-0

Anyway this one put a serious bend in the rod and towed be near across the river, played dead at the side of the boat before giving be a serious soaking with one tail flick. An Eastern Cod around 70-75cm (I could have put my fist in its huge gob). They are endangered so a quick pic and back in the drink. I had a look at the NSW fisheries website – A fish that size would be nearly 10 years old and weigh between 4-5kg – Apparently they reach near 30 maybe even 45kg – That would be a handful on 10lb line!

 

[YakAtak]

Lovely pics mate, love the release shots, that's a great looking cod.

 

[Y-Knot]

bloody nice looking fish there mate

 

[RedPhoenix]

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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[MangoX]

nice fishing mate!

the Clarence sounds like a beaut trip Occy !
count me in

cheers

 

[something fishy]

love your work poly, got pretty enviouse looking at the pics. lovely country

 

[hairymick]

Grat read 7 pics Poly, Welld sone mate and congrats on the C&R cod & bass, bloody beauty.

Heya Occy, there might even be some terrible Queenslanders in on a trip like that. I'll bring the banjo

 

[Peril]

What they said. Well done. And I'm keen to give it a go

 

[YakAtak]

Heya Occy, there might even be some terrible Queenslanders in on a trip like that. I'll bring the banjo

:lol:
I would do my best to join in on that trip, always wanted to fish up there since fishing around yamba in the early 90s and hearing stories of big cod and plentiful bass, not to mention the scenery, HOW'S THE SERENITY?!

 

[Magicrik]

good job mate and that cod is a monster of a fish.

 

[polylureosis]

Occy - I would be keen to get a few AKFF'ers on the Clarence. Being in Retail I will be a tad busy till the other side of Xmas but maybe the Aust Day public holiday in Jan or I have had good success around Easter?

Gatesy - 1 Cod, 3 Bass, Several other strikes on Fizzers without hook ups and a heap of 'herring'. I would consider this fairly tough going. Maybe the stinkboats scraed them off a little. Usually reward would be 1 ow 2 fish per session. If I had put the hard yards in there are a few areas just a little further upstream that rarely get fished (have to drag the yak/canoe up a few sets of rapids) I may have had more 'luck'

Yak Attack - The serenity would be great except for all the noisy wildlife and the stalking platypus. I swear everytime I looked around a platypus would be checking out the Hobie.

ALL - If we organise a trip I'm sure there would be no problems accessing the river through the Aunt's property. There are a number of great riverside camping spots (you have to bring everthing). Gives access to about 15Km of pristine waterways - With the odd small rapids and gravel runs to contend with.

 

[YakAtak]

Bloody hell, even the platypi are after a bloody hobie!

 

[Dodge]

the stalking platypus. I swear everytime I looked around a platypus would be checking out the Hobie.

ALL - If we organise a trip I'm sure there would be no problems accessing the river through the Aunt's property. There are a number of great riverside camping spots (you have to bring everthing). Gives access to about 15Km of pristine waterways - With the odd small rapids and gravel runs to contend with.

Poly watch the platy isn't trying to mate the Hobie as that have a big spur on the leg and could get painful.

If Aunt is ready to be ambushed by akffers I may be a goer also