|
Sections
The Gloves Come Off AGAIN!
When Things Go Off
|
|
|
The local waters are becoming a lot less popular this month, with the cooler weather keeping all but the keen fisho’s away. With the footy and a hot pie or two being more enticing, it’s not surprising that the cooler conditions are that attractive in comparison.
The bass breeding should be in full swing as you read this issue, with some of the larger specimens being caught as they migrate downstream. There’s being more than the odd 450mm or better specimen being caught, which have been carefully released to allow the migration to continue. These bass migration can continue until November, so consider any fish you catch to be important in the future of our bass.
Getting our kids excited about catching and releasing bass is only part of looking after our bass. The author’s son Nathan looks forward to three things after he lands a bass. Measure it, photograph it and let it go again. While there’s nothing wrong with a feed a fish, teaching kids the importance of catch and release with hopefully ensures they enjoy a future of fishing.
Some bass will be on their way downstream to spawn but this depends on a number of factors as to when they actually spawn, such as climatic factors, food availability, and salinity of the water. The type of salinity we’re talking about is 12 - 18 ppt, which is around a 1/3 to 1/2 the salinity of saltwater. When a one-kilo female bass spawns, she’ll produce around 500,000 eggs, of which about 30% will reach maturity in accordance with the general rule for wild creatures.
Some bass will not make the migration downstream, and this offers those anglers who will not target spawning bass, the opportunity to continue catching them away from the traditional spawning grounds. In these areas, anglers will often find bass less active than earlier in the year, but while most anglers are putting their gear away, they are still a viable species to target.
I’ve found suspending lures in these areas are a great way to get quiet fish into a cranky enough mood to strike. The suspending Rapala Husky Jerks, in the HJ6 model are a proven fish takers, but for a great Australian performer, you can’t go past the Halco Sneaky Scorpion. These little guys work really well on bass that aren’t interested in other lures. Working along the face of weed beds and in pockets of weed, bass will often chase these down from quite a distance or dart out from weed beds to smash what it thinks is an easy feed.
Another technique to try this month is to work a soft plastic very slowly over the bottom. I love my Slider 3” bass grubs worked slowly on fine diameter lines. My love for Nitro Whiz Bangers is well documented and unashamedly so, but with a slowly worked Slider 3” grub they are perfect for the job of targeting bass in deeper water. You can rig these with a standard jig head, Texas or Carolina rigged. Use as light a weight as you can get away with, and add your favourite catch scent for added attractiveness.
Peter Wilbow with the biggest Bass from HNBAA April Competition meet at 368mm
Estuary perch also love plastics, which often give the plastic a slight tap, which is felt through braided lines quite easily. A brief pause usually works best for me, when I feel a tap, with the EP’s taking the plastic during that pause. As well as the soft natural feel of a plastic appealing to the fish, I also add some catch scent to help stimulate any timid fish that need any more prompting to strike.
With bass and estuary perch, remember that as the weather cools, fish won’t be as active as during the warmer months. You’ll need to show more patience than you did in summer, and fish smarter and slower. While you might not rack up tallies like you did earlier in the year, any fish caught will still provide excitement. Remember, anyone can catch bass when they’re on the bite, but great anglers can catch them under all conditions.
Yarramundi has suffered from its usual summer weed problem, and the condition of the area has been a shock to anglers that have visited over summer. The weed will be less of a problem this month, and be much more pleasant to fish. May is really the last chance you have to land some of the dreaded carp before the cold water makes them harder to catch. Carp of six kilo or better are a possibility; so if you’re looking to spice up a cool day in May, give the carp a visit in Yarramundi Lagoon.
Another far less targeted species that deserves some attention is the trout. These fish are found in Warragamba Dam, which although it is illegal to fish this dam, seems to allow the odd escapee to be found below the dam wall in the Warragamba River. With the cool waters below the wall, trout can be caught year round there, but as the waters cool this month, trout become more adventurous and head out into the Nepean and Hawkesbury Rivers. While I would consider eating a trout from the Warragamba River, I wouldn’t eat one from below it. Trout have been caught around North Richmond, which would mean it was not going on my plate.
Hawkesbury prawns fished on a 1/0 hook with a small running ball sinker, are accounting should provide you with some decent catches of bream, flathead and juvenile mulloway. Good berley trails will draw the fish to your area and keep them there for hours provided the trail is consistent. Larger flathead are also being taken on strip baits of mullet or tailor, with fish over 500mm or more being caught at this time of the year.
The Gloves Come Off AGAIN!
May seems to be the month that ends the “bass season” locally until it starts again sometime in late September or early October.
With the bass migration now underway for this years bass spawning, as sure as summer leads into autumn, the argument for and against fishing for bass during their spawning period will be debated. Various fishing chat rooms on the net will be buzzing with frantic debate about this hotly contested issue, which sadly often degenerate into attacks on individuals, rather than on the issues. The shared passion and love for bass fishing during the “bass season” simply disappears as normally civil people take to dissecting people who don’t share their views.
While many frown upon fishing for bass in their spawning areas, there are three main camps that don’t see eye to eye at this time of the year. There are those that are definitely opposed to fishing for bass during their spawning season, those that don’t have a problem with it and those who are yet to be convinced one way or the other. The first two camps often go hell for leather during the great debate, and the third group is often accused of being a fence sitter or left alone if they stay out of the spawning areas.
Defining when the spawning period actually starts will vary from season to season and, given the geographical range that bass are found along our coast, will vary from location to location. Fellow Fishing Monthly writer Dean Hayes, one of Sydney’s best known fishing guides, believes that the spawning period can extend from late March to early November in local waters, after having found fish full of roe in November.
How do you define the spawning period then in our local waters? How then can you define it to being a definite period across the geographical range that bass are found? Whether or not bass anglers agree on whether it is right or not, or whether it harms the bass in anyway which are spawning, is only part of it. How can the spawning period be defined?
It’s always an interesting debate to consider, and as both sides are undeniably lovers of bass, it’s a shame the volumes of energy spent in heated debate in chat rooms, wasn’t pooled into constructive work to help bass.
If you see personal attacks being made on individuals, bring the argument back to the issues and keep the debate civil. Better still, if you really feel strongly on an issue, start writing to local members of parliament and the Department of Primary Industry and see what is being done to help spawning bass produce future generations of wonderful bass.
While lure and fly anglers who target bass trade blows in the chat rooms about the rights and wrongs of targeting spawning bass, there will be those who will be spending their energy on a much more damaging pursuit. Well founded stories of people netting and filling eskies loads of large bass for the freezer are becoming more and more common, with some of these individuals heard openly bragging about the fact that they know where and when to net. These stories aren’t rumours people. While the arguments rage on in chat rooms, there’s some serious damage being done in our rivers.
Whatever your views, I hope this stimulates you to act on behalf of our bass and act in a constructive way to ensure they prosper. If that means we witness less heated debate in chat rooms and more attention given to people who can facilitate the success of future generations of bass, I for one will be very happy.
When Things Go Off
While the fishing might be too slow this month for some, it’s worthwhile trying new things, developing your skills and experimenting with your tackle.
When it gets quiet on the water, I look to try some lesser-tried techniques. They might be a technique I haven’t used much, having relied on more productive methods. You naturally use the techniques that work, which often means that other techniques need some more practice to become successful. For me, one of these techniques would be drop shotting, but it might even mean dedicating some time to working out some new plastic presentations, or lure retrieves. It’s also meant that some fish just happen to interrupt my experimenting, which is always nice and reassuring.
When doing any of this, I find it useful to write down what I discover and enter it into the computer when I get home. I makes for very interesting reading when you look back on it, and become valuable lessons when the fishing is tough.
|
|
|
This Fishing report was supplied by
Steve Prott
Steve is a keen fisherman who enjoys creating fishing reports.
He contributes to the magazine Fishing NSW each month on the fishing in Western Sydney.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Site Updated
As often as possible |
|
