Sunday 27th December

On Sunday 27th December, Marty and Paul met up with Dale Quant from Rodzilla Adventure Fishing Tackle as well as a few mates and hit the newly opened section of the North Pine Dam. For those you of that are not aware. This dam located north of Brisbane’s CBD has recently had a section of the dam opened up to Kayak Fishing. (A SIPS Permit is required to fish this dam and can be obtained here).

This was our first time hitting this dam. Usually we prefer to target Australian Bass in the skinny waters around Gold Coast, Logan and Tweed areas. However, we gave it a crack and we are glad we did.

First, we paddled west and managed to find 2 schools of fish sitting just off a point. Sitting at about 6m in 5-8m of water Paul managed to pull out the first fish of the day. Unfortunately it was a Eel Tailed Catfish.

Paul was using his new Garmin Striker 5CV to locate the fish. While I took my Deeper Pro+ sonar for its first spin. It was a fantastic little unit. We caught the below screenshots.

North Pine Dam Bass School - Pauls Garmin Striker 5CV

North Pine Dam Bass School - Deeper Pro+ Sounder

We persisted with dropping lots of different types or lures right on top of the school until it paid off. Marty picked up a small bass on a Seaknight 60mm Vib.

The wind started to kick in and we decided to relocate. On our way to the next spot we flicked out some deep cranks and trolled. We all landed some solid bass ranging from 32 – 54cm between us all.

Dale with his local knowledge knew where the fish would most likely be and demonstrated this by catching two 50cm+ Australian Bass. The biggest going 54cm.

Paul managed to capture a tagged Australian Bass which was a great. Paul noted down the tag number and headed over to Suntag.org.au to log the catch. We later found out that the fish had been caught 8 months early and grown approx 4 cm in length.

Marty managed to catch two bass trolling a Seaknight Crank bait diving at a depth of 5-6m. one was 32cm and the other 36cm.

The weather conditions for the day started off fantastic the water was like glass. However, around 8.30 – 9.00am the wind picked up to about 15knots and we had a wet paddle back to the boat ramp. All and all we had a fantastic day.