[wongus]

I arrived at Cressbrook Dam just after 8am on Saturday. Richo (Dodge), Gilbo (Headman), Karl (Yakatak) and John (Fishinswing) had arrived the day before. I was immediately impressed by the campground and set up the tent to take in the water views.

http://www.akff.net/forum/hosted_images ... te_157.jpg

Gary (Hagar) showed up just before lunch after a morning session at Coobie Dam and had 5 nice yellowbelly on ice for his efforts. We launched the yaks around 1pm for the arvo session.

http://www.akff.net/forum/download.php?id=5482

http://www.akff.net/forum/hosted_images ... ks_332.jpg

Shortly after launching I saw John pull in a nice bass. The wind made conditions tough and no further action was experienced by the 6 AKFF yakkers for the next 4-5 hours and not due from lack of trying... To rub salt into our wounds, a stinkboat with a bloke and 2 kids were pulling cricket score bass out from under our noses. Chat revealed that the guy was using a custom made spinnerbait that he's trying to break into the retail market via BCF stores. We figured the bass must be holding down deep as he was pulling them from 70ft of water according to my sounder.

The guy caught up with Gary and I at the ramp and introduced himself. Told us more about the spinnerbaits and kindly gave the lures he was using ie tied on to his outfits for us to try and also his business card. The 4 or 5 bass in the bucket that he had kept (compared with our dismal failure) was testimony that they worked. He mentioned for the moment if we wanted more we could buy direct through him for about $7 each for 10 or more. We now had in our possession the secret weapon or rather Gary x 1, Me x 1 and one for Dodge out of sympathy (Dodge had mentioned to him in the water that he had the usual freshwater tally of fat zero so the bloke had said to give it to the old bugger to change his luck).

On the way back to camp, we saw a large herd of deer coming down to feed for the evening not to mention the many kangaroos.

It was time to say goodbye to Gary who could only make a daytrip and head for a hot shower in the well provisioned campground. Headman had prepared a gourmet feast on the Cobb bbq inlcluding roast lamb & beef (with gravy) accompanied with beans, potatoes, onions, pumpkin & carrot. What a feast. Very enjoyable dinner with great company with Dodge and Headman keeping us entertained with their stories. Also had a few friendly possums that provided some amusement with their antics.

Whilst I was warm and contented with a full tummy and digesting the last of Gilbo's fine cooking, he managed to convince me to relinquish my secret weapon to him to assault the bass with on Sunday when I let slip that I was keen to give Coobie dam a shot in the morning based on Hagar's success. Hence Headman and Dodge were now both armed and ready.

Woke up to a beautiful morning with mist rising from the dam.. Certainly looked promising as I had my Weetbix watching the rest of the crew launch their assault with secret weapon at the ready... Will be interested to see if it will help break Richo's duck.

I broke camp and headed to Coobie.. will post separate report.

 

[paffoh]

Great report!

If you ever need anyone to chuck in for some bulk spinners im your man!
What a nice guy, can you give me a heads up on the branding or company name so i can keep an eye out for them... similar natives round my way would love them i reckon!

Another great AKFF gathering!

 

[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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[YakAtak]

We all bashed around with those bloody 'spinnerbaits', I'm not convinced that they're any chop. Will sort pics out later and at this stage just say, even though the fishing was pretty average, a bloody good weekend was had.

 

[Dodge]

Following on from Danny's report, my Sat arvo attempt covered many of the usual deep diving lures and Betts spin with plastics for the usual zilch result, but all were battling with the exception of the lure maker who was doing well including a mate of his with 59cms horse bass [seen by Gilbo], and he was good enough to send one up his special spinnerbait with the blokes for me to give it the ultimate challenge, with my ability to destroy good capture statistics

Left the Dodge/headman yaks on the bank 300m from camp rather than muck around with trailers etc on Sunday morning.

All were in Chateau Dodge Saturday night for the Gilbo roast and a lot of laughs and aussie stirring [the Qld freshwater crew are tops for company] and Gilbo knocks up a good feed as all will attest.

On the water about 6.30am with the spinnerbait killer more later and as the breeze started to liven up went ashore 4 hours later leaving the swing on the bank for an arvo session with Karl and the espri going back to camp as headman was going home that day.

Gilbo knocked up bubble and squeak from the Cobb left overs and we all got another big feed to enjoy.

With everyone gone, I went for a walk [2pm] around the walking track along the western arm to get the layout sorted out for future trips, and arranged to meet Karl on the water later for a final fishing session, when I got back later stuffed I had a cuppa and with the wind gusting reneged on the kayak fish and emptied the swing and later Karl towed it to the ramp and loaded the scupperpro and my boat on his car and brought it around to the camp

Final relax last night recapping the weekend and then went our seperate ways this morning..for Gold Coasters Creesbrook is 194kms from Carrara, and took me an easy 2hr 50mins [will go back again for sure]

The spinnerbait test and saga
Sunday full of expectations took the secret weapon to the area of the Saturday captures and 2 hours later had no result, the others were in much the same boat, so decided to go ashore and walk the deep bank by cast and retrieve.

Found a nice little cove to land course sand amongst much mud, good hard push with paddle assured me it was OK so threw the legs over, and went through the crust to be knee deep in black crap, working the legs to get out had the love tackle only a couple of cms of some of the same treatment, reached behind and pushed the swing onto the bank, along reach to get ashore had my left arm also buried to the elbow.

With only one free limb it was a final thrust for the bank with the right arm..now 4 are buried and I became a human plow on hands and knees climbing, on arrival ashore a spear and boomerang would have suited my appearance... found a hard blob of mud to stand on and bloody Gilbo came round the point as I was washing down with handfuls of grass, and made the moment worse by asking for a hand to unhook a small bass he had taken on his secret weapon [lent by wongus].

Finally walked the bank for half an hour and Karl paddled by asking if I knew was there anywhere you could bury someone [they don't understand I am sensitive and have easily hurt feelings :wink: ]

Later took the lure over for a trial by YakAtak who had the same result as me, and more of the same on Sunday.

So I remain a bass/yella virgin at this time :lol:

After the recent Poona post that is the target now for those present and will post a firm date in January [possibly March]

 

[YakAtak]

:lol: So many laughs (and yes, mostly at Bob's expense, sorry mate)
As usual the Richo/Gilbo banter was a highlight, closely followed by the results of Gilbo's skills with the Cobb ovens. You can bring that prick again anytime Bob, oops, I mean, top bloke that Headman.
Thanks to John for planning the weekend, even though the numbers were down a bit, we still had a great weekend, a bit of a shame some more of the Brisbane crew couldn't make it up and great to see the Gold Coast crew making the effort.
My first session on saturday morning lead me to a small inlet (just around from where Richo took a mud bath :twisted: ) where I stopped and flicked a few gulps. The wind factor was zero and I just sat there flicking around, not getting a touch, then I thought to myself 'every other time I've caught bass this way I had a light to medium breeze to push me along' A split second later, the breeze arived, and as the yak started to move, I got the familiar tap tap of a bass nibble. I drifted accross the mouth of the inlet and got a few touches, but no hook ups, by this time it was probably about 7.30am. I tried a closer start point to the bank and drifted into the mouth of the inlet and the wind pushed me right up into the very end of it, so I decided to get out and water a tree, then flick from the bank.
First cast from the bank and I hooked up solid on a nice little bass about 35cms, sadly no camera, and I gave him a quick Rex Hunt and back he went. Yeehaa I though, let's get some more.
I put about 30 more casts into that inlet for nada, doh. :roll:
And that was my action for the weekend, short of a few taps here and there and one hook up that lasted about 5 seconds.
And here's some pics.

 

[Fishing Man]

looks like a good trip fellas,

cressbrook looks pretty small, as if you can see the whole lake in Richos pics. is this the case or is there another arm behind etc.

that food sounds good in the cobb i tell ya.

wheres the next trip gunna be??
dunno if you guys like yellas but leslie dam at warwick fishes very well,
we camp there each year.

 

[YakAtak]

Hey Ben, the arm to the left in Richo's pic goes quite a ways back up the creek and also there is a similar sized arm behind the pumping station that runs off to the south.

 

[JD]

Sounds like a fun weekend, fish or no fish. Had to work but will try harder to make the next one.
John

 

[Peril]

Sounds like you all had a good time. Well done guys

 

[Dodge]

cressbrook looks pretty small, as if you can see the whole lake in Richos pics. is this the case or is there another arm behind etc.

Ben, measured on Google Earth Cressbrook dimensions [filled in GE image].
Ramp to end of western arm is 4.53 kms [left of my pics]
Ramp to end of eastern arm [behind tower in my pic is 3.45 kms

 

[Guest]

Found a nice little cove to land course sand amongst much mud, good hard push with paddle assured me it was OK so threw the legs over, and went through the crust to be knee deep in black crap, working the legs to get out had the love tackle only a couple of cms of some of the same treatment, reached behind and pushed the swing onto the bank, along reach to get ashore had my left arm also buried to the elbow.

With only one free limb it was a final thrust for the bank with the right arm..now 4 are buried and I became a human plow on hands and knees climbing, on arrival ashore a spear and boomerang would have suited my appearance... found a hard blob of mud to stand on and bloody Gilbo came round the point as I was washing down with handfuls of grass, and made the moment worse by asking for a hand to unhook a small bass he had taken on his secret weapon [lent by wongus].

Finally walked the bank for half an hour and Karl paddled by asking if I knew was there anywhere you could bury someone [they don't understand I am sensitive and have easily hurt feelings :wink: ]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

LMAO Stop it Richo, My jaws are starting to hurt from laughing.

Great little dam there, pity the fish were so shy.

I had planned to get up there but with the wind blowing hard here at home knew it would be difficult up there. I just had a big slack attack and didn't go.



Cheers

 

[fishinswing]

Another add on to the cressbrook dam weekend. It was a great weekend had by all. I arrived on the Friday just before lunch and set up camp with great views of the dam and so the other akff members can park their campervans and utes etc. After setting up, I was desperate to hit the water. I drove around to the launch site and got ready. All aboard and headed of down the long arm of the dam to try my luck. I started trolling a boomerang and a bassman spinnerbait very slowly. Reaching the rock wall, I started to cast and slow roll the spinnerbait back to to me. No luck after 30 mintues, I slowly trolled back and got a hit on the spinnerbait. Just as I put the net under the fish the spinnerbait pop out and flung of over my shoulder. Lucky for me I was using a net and safely put him in the kayak for measuring. He went 33cm and safely released after some photos.

 

[fishinswing]

Another add on to the cressbrook dam weekend. It was a great weekend had by all. I arrived on the Friday just before lunch and set up camp with great views of the dam and so the other akff members can park their campervans and utes etc. After setting up, I was desperate to hit the water. I drove around to the launch site and got ready. All aboard and headed of down the long arm of the dam to try my luck. I started trolling a boomerang and a bassman spinnerbait very slowly. Reaching the rock wall, I started to cast and slow roll the spinnerbait back to to me. No luck after 30 mintues, I slowly trolled back and got a hit on the spinnerbait. Just as I put the net under the fish the spinnerbait pop out and flung of over my shoulder. Lucky for me I was using a net and safely put him in the kayak for measuring. He went 33cm and safely released after some photos.

I kept trolling and casting all the way back to the pump station. I headed up the other arm of the dam. I trolled and finally caught a nice little bass on the bassman spinnerbait. It was nearly 2 hours since the last capture. I headed back to see if anybody had shown up yet for the cressbrook dam weekend.

Karl and Dodge were there setting up camp getting ready for a big session on Saturday. We had a drink and had a good look at Karl's new scupper pro kayak, a very nice yak indeed. They continued fitting Karl's yak out for Saturday. Gilbo turned up approx 7pm and got his ute ready for the weekend. We all talked the night away and went to bed.

Up early next morning and got ready to head to launch while the other had some brekkie. I launched and headed back down the long arm again still with no success. As I got close to the launch area, I saw Karl in the distance slowly paddling to the ramp. I started to steer in the same direction as my reel went of with a nice bass that I quickly bought to the kayak. I kept paddling and got Karl to take a picture of me and my fish for my photo album. The bass was quickly released. It was also caught on a spinnerbait. They sure were loving the spinnerbaits that weekend.

Back to camp for some brunch and relax for an afternoon session.
Danny and arrived by then and we got talking. Hagar also made an appearance to have an afternoon fish with us, after having a excellent result at Cooby Dam. After lunch we all headed off, I caught another bass as Danny was following behind. This bass hit the jackall that I was trolling. He measured 35cm. Nothing else was caught that day. We all stopped on the bank to give our sore asses a rest while some of the crew was casting spinnerbaits into the dropoff with no success.

We all headed back with mouths drooling looking forward to Gilbo's cobb roast dinner. Absolutley superb. Thanks again Gilbo.

Danny pulled stumps and headed for Cooby with success that can be found at another posting. It was great to meet you Danny and hope to see you at the next AKFF weekend.

Up early again for a morning session, we pretty much stuck together and slowly trolled around the pump station. After some time I caught a bass on the spinnerbait again, they were going off thet weekend.
He measured 35cm as well. He was also released to fight another day.
The crew were trialling a spinnerbait that was generously donated to us for testing but still no success. Eventually Gilbo caught a nice little bass, I am sure Dodge still knows that Gilbo was the first one between them to catch a bass. They are great mates and give each other shit all weekend. That in it self is entertainment that brings tears to my eyes thinking about it.

The fishing was hard going with bass spread right over the whole dam, not schooling up like they tend to do.

It was a top weekend and can't wait for the next one at Poona if it goes ahead.

A few photos of the weekend.

 

[fishinswing]

Some more photos.

 

[Guest]

Great pics and reports guys

I feel better about not being able to make it for this trip knowing the fishing was so poor 8)

The Kylie concert was absolutely as painful (and a visit to the mens toilet amongst all the he-bitches just plain frightening!) as I imagined it to be, but Viv had a great time so thats the main thing right? :shock:

Where are we going next? 8)