Nepean River (Penrith) Report – 2/12/06

As I stated in last weeks report, Fordy and I decided to chase the magnificent Australian Bass this weekend and we had the company of Mick Munns of East Coast lures fame. Mick had within his arsenal some prototypes that looked the goods for a top-water lure but would they work on these river bass? As Fordy and I set-up our Hobies, Mick flicked one of the new lures out from the ramp. Whack! And the first bass of the day is Micks. Only a small one but it was a promising start. A few rain drops started to fall as we pushed off for the opposite bank to fish the overhanging vegetation.

The bass love to hang right under the branches, tucked in tight against the shoreline. To get the lure into the strike-zone you had to have your casting spot on or you end up in the foliage. We’d skip the lures into the shadows underneath the leaves and twitch our poppers and fizzers slightly before retrieving them with short, sharp jerks of the rod tip. Many pauses were mixed in and the top water hits often came during these pauses.

Thankfully the bass were out to play and all you could hear from us yakkers were ‘I’m on!’ or ‘Woohoo, another one.’ Lots of 22cm and 24cm bass were coming over the side and Fordy snared the first decent one with a 28cm bass that smashed his lure as it landed. About 3 minutes later I was talking to Fordy when I heard a huge sploosh. Mick was almost crying. He sobbed how a bass of about 40cm had half leapt out of the water as it hit his lure but the hooks didn’t stick. We consoled him with a ‘Sucked in!’ and flicked our lures into the snag he’d just missed the fish off. What mates, eh? But the big girl wasn’t coming back for another round.

We made our way slowly down to the railway bridge and increased the sizes of the fish in the live-well slowly. By the time Mick had to leave we had two of 26, one of 28, one of 31 and one of 35. Thankfully it had stopped raining but it was still overcast and I’m sure this kept the top-water bite going. Fordy also managed one of about 80cm, but of the wrong species. It was an eel!

As Fordy and I made our way back to the ramp we continued to get fish from under the trees. We approached a section with lantana right down to the water and there was a nice gap to flick lures into. We both cast at the same time but I think my lure touched down half a millisecond before his. A big boil as my lure disappears and I’m on! This felt like a good fish and I really kept the pressure on to keep her out of the snags. Fordy starts to film and I eventually lift the best of the day for me. 38cm total length and she shoots off back to the same snag when we set her free. Just then we realized we didn’t take a photo, but at least she’s on film so you’ll see her on the DVD.

So what a day! We must have managed about 20-25 fish each and nearly all of them on Micks fizzers and poppers. It’s such exciting fishing when they’re hitting the surface lures with the gusto that they were today. We can’t wait to get back and tussle with these fantastic sportsfish. Happy yakkin’, everyone.

Cheers,
Cid