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I drove up there at about midday today. It's about an hour north of Byron. Heading North, take the Murwillimbah turnoff on Tweed Valley Way and then take the Stokers Siding exit. When you hit the T intersection at Uki, crack a left and you'll see the dam sign in 5 k's.
After unloading and carrying the yak down the short 40 metre ramp, I set up the leccie motor and all my gear. Also hooked up the sounder and GPS for that fully rigged yak look. Very sexy!!!
My plan was this, slow troll a lure for an hour or two past the lillypads and into the small tribuataries and sound it all out for a proper fishing session next week.
All I can say is WOW! This dam is structure city. There is everything from sharp dropoffs to snags made of treetrunks to lillypads that go forever. As far as structure goes, it's like the bloody great barrier reef. Add to that something wierd. Every now and then a big midwater mass would appear on the sounder. Next to the mass were these big arcs and things moving upwards.
I changed from softs to a generic diver (maybe a manns) in a firetiger colour and kept trolling but no hits. The Maroi peak time hit 2.34pm and I stopped and switched to a generic olive green diving bream lure. At this time I was in an arm of the lake and I decided to cast to the edge of the lillypads.
5 cast later - Bang! My first ever Bass was boatside. It was somewhere around 35cm and was legal. I can now see the attraction with these fish. They fight harder than bream, they school and they love smashing lures. They also look as nice as a fish can look.
Rather than lip grip the fish and pull out the trebles, I decided to do it manually. What I ended up with was a treble loosely fixed in my finger and a flapping fish. I searched for my pliers but they weren't to be found. By that time both trebles were now perfectly embedded in my hand and finger but I was still able to release the fish.
One handed, I bit the line, grabbed my paddle and straightened the yak. I turned the leccie motor onto speed #5 and motored back to the ramp at 6.5km/h using one hand to paddle steer. The trip took about 45 minutes so I must've been about 5k's up the dam.
Back at the car, I was able to remove one treble from my hand by holding a piece of string between my teeth, while pressing the base of the hook and dropping my hand super fast. Unfortunately the treble in my finger was almost hitting the bone and wasn't going anywhere using this method.
One handed, I then had to load the yak onto the roof and drive to Byron Hospital for professional treatment.
It's now about 5 hours since I left the dam and I can't wait to go back and catch me some more Bass! Just gotta wait till my finger heals.
Here's the lesson, always use lipgrippers and always carry pliers. If these were used, my fishing would have continued and the trebles would never have embedded as deep as they did. Even if they did, I could've easily cut the treble and kept fishing with the point still in my finger.
After unloading and carrying the yak down the short 40 metre ramp, I set up the leccie motor and all my gear. Also hooked up the sounder and GPS for that fully rigged yak look. Very sexy!!!
My plan was this, slow troll a lure for an hour or two past the lillypads and into the small tribuataries and sound it all out for a proper fishing session next week.
All I can say is WOW! This dam is structure city. There is everything from sharp dropoffs to snags made of treetrunks to lillypads that go forever. As far as structure goes, it's like the bloody great barrier reef. Add to that something wierd. Every now and then a big midwater mass would appear on the sounder. Next to the mass were these big arcs and things moving upwards.
I changed from softs to a generic diver (maybe a manns) in a firetiger colour and kept trolling but no hits. The Maroi peak time hit 2.34pm and I stopped and switched to a generic olive green diving bream lure. At this time I was in an arm of the lake and I decided to cast to the edge of the lillypads.
5 cast later - Bang! My first ever Bass was boatside. It was somewhere around 35cm and was legal. I can now see the attraction with these fish. They fight harder than bream, they school and they love smashing lures. They also look as nice as a fish can look.
Rather than lip grip the fish and pull out the trebles, I decided to do it manually. What I ended up with was a treble loosely fixed in my finger and a flapping fish. I searched for my pliers but they weren't to be found. By that time both trebles were now perfectly embedded in my hand and finger but I was still able to release the fish.
One handed, I bit the line, grabbed my paddle and straightened the yak. I turned the leccie motor onto speed #5 and motored back to the ramp at 6.5km/h using one hand to paddle steer. The trip took about 45 minutes so I must've been about 5k's up the dam.
Back at the car, I was able to remove one treble from my hand by holding a piece of string between my teeth, while pressing the base of the hook and dropping my hand super fast. Unfortunately the treble in my finger was almost hitting the bone and wasn't going anywhere using this method.
One handed, I then had to load the yak onto the roof and drive to Byron Hospital for professional treatment.
It's now about 5 hours since I left the dam and I can't wait to go back and catch me some more Bass! Just gotta wait till my finger heals.
Here's the lesson, always use lipgrippers and always carry pliers. If these were used, my fishing would have continued and the trebles would never have embedded as deep as they did. Even if they did, I could've easily cut the treble and kept fishing with the point still in my finger.
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