A cracker of a bass season

While sitting around watching all that flooding rain over Autumn and Winter, the only thing that kept me sane was knowing that Spring and Summer would turn on some of the best bass fishing we had seen in years, and it hasn't disappointed.

All the tributaries of the Clarence are producing plenty of big fish. y first bass session this year yielded my best wild fish in many a year, 49.5cm fork length and as fat as a pup. hank goodness it was not over 50cm or would not have left me anything to aspire to!

Some of my customers have produced a few over the magic 50cm fork length as well, with ABT regular Paul Gillespie catching his PB fish of just on 54cm.

The Clarence Gorge has been producing cricket-score numbers for the past couple of months and if this dry Spring continues, by the time you read this the bass will have dropped back out of he Gorge and started to spread out back down the river.

The Weather Bureau has forecast a long, dry Summer and if that means steamy afternoons and evenings casting surface lures up a snag-laden creek, I say bring it on!

ith all that Winter rain, the Ebor region is looking its best for many years and it is shaping up to be the finest trout season this century. I know I am going to be torn between the fishing in the upper and lower catchments and I can't possibly fit it all in over a weekend, so I might have to ask the oss for a day off here and there mid-week.

There is some surprisingly great trout fishing to be had in the Ebor region.

est place to start is the Dutton rout atchery. The guys there are behind the stockings and can point you in the right direction. The class of fish we encountered late last season has me salivating for the upcoming one. he little taste of the fly fishing on offer up there last Autumn rivalled anything I had in a decade of fishing Monaro region.

I know that is a big statement but even the best-travelled trouty would have been shocked at the size of the brown trout up there.

Small economies like the Ebor region need the revenue derived from trout so trout should be stocked for no other reason than recreational fishing and the tourist dollar.

With pressure coming from some quarters to eradicate ‘ferals’ out of our national parks, never before in history have these areas needed our presence more than right now!

The whiting on poppers phenomenon has shown no signs of slowing. hey have already turned up in huge numbers and all the sandy spits and shallow weed beds from the mouth of the river to Lawrence are producing plenty of fish.

Popping for whiting certainly has no age barrier, either. I think I sell as many clear poppers to retirees as to the younger generation, especially when they find out it can be a more efficient method than bait at catching a feed of these tasty little battlers.

November is the best month without doubt to chase school mulloway in the Clarence.

ith clean saltwater now pushing up above Grafton, the fish will be spread out between the river mouth and Brushgrove, with the deeper rocky points and reefs around Maclean being the pick.

Offshore fishing can be at its toughest in November.

he winds play a huge part as we enter north-easterly/southerly change Summer pattern for the next few months. s a result, offshore water temperatures can vary by anything up to a couple of degrees from one day to the next. or the best results, plan to get offshore as soon as conditions allow after a southerly, when the water will be warmer and clearer and the East Australia Current flowing closer to shore. The cold water produced by onshore patterns can also have an effect on river fishing. ll that cold water pushing upstream certainly puts the brakes on whiting on surface lures

For all the latest info call in and see us at Big River Bait & Tackle, 16 River Street, Maclean, or phone us on 02 6645 1834. Country service with city prices.

 

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