Summer Bassing - December 2013

Terry finally convinced me to drag my weary bones out of bed at 3:30am one morning to go tangle with these Bronzed Battlers. We headed out to a stretch of the Nepean River at spot 'X' and as I was launching Terry hooked up to his first bass of the day. "That's a good start," I thought and the 'Anticipation Meter' went up a couple of notches. There were numerous Fruit Bats skimming close to the water and when one of them crapped on me for luck, I knew I was in for a good day.

We slowly cut through the swirling mists, heading further downstream and away from the launch area which is obviously hit fairly hard from other anglers. A couple of km's later we started casting. I was using one of Gladiator Tackles most successful surface lures, a Kozami 60 and had two rigged up, one in colour #10 and one in colour #14.

First colour out was #10 (black top/orange belly) and it started getting hits from the first cast. First there was a tiny 15cm 'bassette' but this was quickly followed by a 35cm beastie that screamed out and away from the snags which I thought was very generous of it as they normally try to dust you up in the closest snag possible. A couple of quick photos and he's back into the water and off to his lair.

Terry was about 50 meters behind me working the opposite bank and I heard him cry out in despair as he lost a big girl.' Ha ha, sucka,' I thought just as my lure landed next to a semi-submerged log. The surface erupted in a huge spray of water and the Psyborg rod bucked in my hand as this fish surged back to it's home. The drag was locked up but that doesn't stop the fish from dragging me and the kayak in it's direction. Just when I thought I had it under control, the rod kicked back and I knew I'd been done over in a grand fashion. Bugga! That was a really good fish. I guess you win some and you lose some.

I picked up the other rod and started casting with the Kozami 60 in colour #14 (translucent olive green with dark stripes). Thankfully the fish were liking this colour too and a succession of bass between 22cms and 32cms joined me yakside.

The Kozami 60 is easily worked on the surface and I was fishing it in a slow walk-the-dog fashion, working it for a few feet before pausing it for 5 seconds or so. The lure was tied to a meter of 10lb Gosen leader which was attached to 9lb Gosen Braid.

Casting right under the shade of an overhanging tree, there was a small boil just behind my lure. I paused then gave it two subtle twitches. BOOFO! and I'm on again. This is another good fish but this time I stay connected and extract her from her lair. She's a nice chunky bass of 36cms and another worthy victim of the Kozami 60.

Not to be outdone, Terry also hooks up but his is a tiddler compared to mine. But what he's lacking in size he's making up for in numbers. In fact we're both having a cracking day and have both landed over 8 bass each by now.

We continued moving downstream but the bite slowly tapered off. Every now and then I get a half-hearted swipe at my lure but there was a definite difference in their bite pattern. Ok, time for a change to try and rile them up again. I figured maybe they wanted something smaller and changed to one of my old favourite lures, a Mick Munns hand-made Fizzzer style lure.

And it was just what the doctor ordered. The downsizing of the lure was exactly what they were after and Terry and I were back into them again. I pulled another 35cm bass out from an undercut in the bank and this was quickly followed by a 34cm model about 10 meters further downstream.

By now the cicadas were in full song and the fish we were pulling in were disgorging chewed up Black Princes left right and center. As we traveled along this absolutely beautiful stretch of the river, we'd keep an eye out for surface smashes and swirls ahead of us. If we saw one, we'd quickly fire a cast off in that direction. You were usually guaranteed a big hit if you landed the lure in the right place and there were many hoots and hollers as we racked up our bass tally which was well over a dozen quality fish each and hand-fulls of tiddlers.

I unfortunately had to leave them biting but Terry couldn't drag himself away, so he continued on downstream without me and managed another half a dozen or so. In fact the fishing was so good, Terry went back the next day for a repeat performance and again cleaned up, this time fishing cicada pattern lures.

With prime fishing like this so close to Sydney, it's a wonder that we didn't see anybody else out and about. I'm hoping that it's not too long before I get back to tangle with these feisty fish. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid