Impoundment Updates!

[-Pivot-]

As my trip for some impoundment fish comes closer as the christmas holidays is soon coming.
Just keen to see how well the impoundment fishing is at the moment. It seems like it calmed down a bit here. Not much action, even the tackleworld local's are saying it been quieter then usual.
Would love to hear updates on other dams. Apparently, Lake Monduran is VERY quiet.
If anyone is getting a few, wouldn't mine seeng a few photo's.just to get the ego pumping!
Right now it seems as though its gonna be a quiet trip!

[k.hutchby]

pivot
awoonga has been fishing on par with regular fish being caught within the 70-110cm range. the abt was no where near as good as last year, as the southerlies and decreased water temp (plus a mass of fishing pressure) shut many of the schools down. many of the fish caught in the comps have been taken on 110mm slickrigs, on the western side of the dam. also the 5" powermullets have been productive (but it is like chucking a house brick) with quick hops of the bottom. i got one on a frog the other afternoon up iveragh, and a couple on the magic swimmer sebile's (4"). same rule of thumb, just find a school sitting out wide on a wind blow bank and just keep casting and burning those plastics. the XR8's have been going ok in the shallower water. jason and myself fished it the other week for 7 fish in the first session and 13 in the next, so they are still there in numbers, just keep the lure in the water and you should be ok. hope this helps.

i have 275,000 fingerlings to put into awoonga and 130,000 into monduran in the next 2 weeks, so i gotta get all of the fishing in before then. the breram have been going off in the harbour at the moment all on surface and stick monnows.

forget monduran, it has been fishing like crap since january. the abt comp was won with 1 fish this weekend. cania has been firing, both with togas and bass, many of the bass schools have been very active, as soon as you can get one located, it moves 100 m away from the boat. the early morning edge bite is pretty awesome, we have been belting them on my homemade spinnerbaits. isis has been going off on the soft shell cicada's.

cheers kurt

[-Pivot-]

Thanks for the info Kurt.

Do you still release Jacks into Awoonga, or do you find that wthin a habitat that also includes Barramundi. Jack's, don't really stand much of a chance?

Cheers.

[k.hutchby]

yeah mate i still do. all production from our hatchery of mangrove jacks i allocate to awoonga. i will be spawning them in the next couple of weeks with the anticipated stocking to take place at the end of feb. i have rasied the number of jacks on our permit to 75,000, so hopefully like last year the full quota will be stocked. they are pretty stealthy animals from an early stage, they adapt to habitat reasonably quick. recaptures have been witnessed within the last 3 weeks of last years stocking (60,000), at 30 to 33cm, where a young kid was catching them in from of me hand over fist at the kalinda boat ramp on live shrimps.

cheers

[sammy]

do you just want barra dam or bass dam because borumba has been fishin the best i have ever seen it

[Eug]

i got back from monduran earlier this month, i agree it's very quiet. temp is down and has been raining for a few weeks now. in 4 days of fishing we had 2 big bust offs (all over in 1 second) and lost one boatside due to failed gear (daiwa sol is rubbish).

a few guys i know came back from there a little more recently and landed 2-3 around the 1m mark after 5-6 days of fishing.

likewise i've heard awoonga to be the pick, if this damn weather warms up i might head back up again.

cheers
eug

[k.hutchby]

couple from last night

[k.hutchby]

sorry fooked up, same fish, two more stinkers also (different fish), hate taking photo's out there, especially when you are followed around the dam as it is. all fish caught on plastics.

cheers
kurt

[Squidlipz]

Nice fish Kurt.

By the way, sounds to me like you need to get involved on that hazlewood pondage thread!!!

Maybe some professional commentry on stocking barra down south!!!

[Conehead]

Originally Posted by Eug

lost one boatside due to failed gear (daiwa sol is rubbish).
cheers
eug

why is the daiwa sol rubbish? and how did it fail?

[Squidlipz]

I was always of the opinion that SOL's were tuff reels.

Both my SOL 2000's have been to hell and back and are stilll going strong!

Originally Posted by EPhunt

Nice fish Kurt.

By the way, sounds to me like you need to get involved on that hazlewood pondage thread!!!

Maybe some professional commentry on stocking barra down south!!!

I second that lovin the sound of barra 2hrs drive from melbourne

[-Pivot-]

Good stuff Kurt.
Where did you land her? Awoonga or Monduran?

Also, Cali is going off incase you dont already know. The water seem fairly warm and it seems the barra are getting more active. So far in the last 3 days me and BPoppa caught 8 barra and 1 Sleepy cod.

Although they aren't the biggest (40 - 50cm). Still fun to catch. Dropped a dozen and missed a possible meter plus Barra.

It doesn't seem they want more of a certain lure or colour at all.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by Conehead

why is the daiwa sol rubbish? and how did it fail?

For reference it was a 3000 Sol. The folding handle snapped at the pin mid fight, the bail arm never fully flicks over now and the reel has never felt the same since. Anyway the missus eventually snapped the 30lb and lost a high 80s/low 90s fish. I now have an Certate 2500R-Custom and will always go for the machine cut handle. Will be going Hyper next.

Originally Posted by EPhunt

I was always of the opinion that SOL's were tuff reels.

Both my SOL 2000's have been to hell and back and are stilll going strong!

Going by your spool size I guess we are chasing different types of fish. Theoretically a 3000 Sol should have been sufficient for barra, but I guess they are strong fish and punch out much above their weight class. I'd like to know my gear does the same if the need ever arose again...

Cheers
Eug

[Sav02]

good mate of mine that guides at hervey hit lenthals the other day and killed it (it was last week before this rain though), put his clients on to 15 or so barra for the day, most between 60-80 but 2 of them just touched the meter mark, truck loads of bass there too