# NSW - Tallowa - hold the corn



## premium (Nov 23, 2011)

Tallowa Dam - Despite living a pissy 40-min drive away from the place, until saturday I'd only ever been there as a sight-seer. With a forecast for iffy breezes on saturday, I decided to hit up tallowa and look for some bass, and some of the mythical lure eating carp (I wasn't entirely convinced - i still packed 4 tins of corn).

Up and on the road soon after 4, for the drive through kangaroo valley - considering the pre-dawn start I was on the lookout for skippy von crashy, but wombats won the animal count by a tally of 7 to 1.

there was plenty of action at the dam wall when I arrived, one of the campers informed me that the fishing was "red hot"... on the water soon after 5, I made my way across the dam into wall into the southwester arm...

On my 3rd cast into the first snag, my little R2Sea Buggi Pop was inhaled and it was game on! Fortunately the bass went for the deep water, and a nice fish of 27cm was netted.

She was quickly released - i figured "if they're on like this -there'll be plenty more - and they'll be bigger ones!" Well i was kind of right - there were plenty more, but only small ones. 
I had landed 6 more bass by 6 - not a bad result considering my first kayak bass had been but half an hour earlier!

around 6.30 the surface bit had shut up shop so i tied on a chubby/jackall thing and went for a troll - picked up a few small bass trolling the margins, and also had a close encounter with a lovely lizard - unfortunately the light wasn't great, but you get the idea.










Soon after, as I was unhooking another small bass, the sun came out and the scenery came into view, and i began to channel a bit of darryl kerrigan, wistfully enjoying being the only human in sight...
"How's the sere..." Rustle Rustle... 
My Serenity had ruined the serenity of a decent sized red-bellied black snake on the bank - and there was no "i'll just nip back up the bank and wait for you to cruise on..." he was angry, and preceeded to charge down the bank and into the water not more than a metre from the arse end of my yak!!
needless to say, I pinned the ears back and gunned it out of there quicker than you can say "ST Turbo Fins", and didnt feel safe for at least 50 metres.










As the heart calmed i resumed trolling, and short time later - WHACK, the stories of Tallowa's lure eating carp turned real before my eyes..
from there on the little chubby worked magic right along the banks of the lake, picking up Carp and bass on the troll - and even extracting a few bass when cast into some snags and shallow areas. The camera got a workout too:














































Highlight was a decent carp, around 60cm, which took some getting in on 4lb line. 
I ran into my first batch of other humans around 9, however most of the fishy action had dried up, and I was off the water at 10.

All up, a great trip, first bass from the yak, first carp, good weather, plenty of serenity - and some fertilser for the vegies.
Ya can't ask for much more than that!
(except maybe some good recipes which include creamed corn or corn kernels)


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## Kahuna (Aug 9, 2010)

Nice spot and good fishing to boot.

The red belly inicident would have been 'interesting'. Thank goodness for ST Turbo fins :lol:


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## bunsen (Jan 2, 2009)

Kv snakes definitely have a bad attitude. Good work on the bass, I've never caught one over 25cm there, but the numbers make up for size.


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## BigPete68 (Oct 7, 2012)

Nice report...... Had my own "serenity" moment a few weeks back. Kickn along in the Outback enjoying a late Arvo troll in Lake Hume when I noticed a decent sized stick about to run down the side of the Yak. Lent over to push it away just in time to see said yellow belly black stick lift its head clear of the water and stare me down. Turbo Fins and big rudder.... Awesome investment.


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## badmotorfinger (Mar 15, 2010)

Why is it that people always say snakes are more scared of us than we are of them?

Were the humans of any size - keep any?


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Enjoyed your report Premium. I bit more excitement than the usual fishing report.

BTW, the scenery looks stunning. Is that in the Canberra area, or higher up in the mountains?

trev


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## cobrat (Sep 18, 2008)

How good is Tallowa? Took 3 5 y olds on an overnight trip there with three dads . No fish but memories of a lifetime


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Great reporting Rowan - so good that you scored some action from Tallowa's lure eating mud suckers. That last photo is a cracker 

My garden is powered by carp this summer and is going gangbusters - you will definitely enjoy the benefits of fishing for fertiliser.


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## Brez (Mar 2, 2012)

Nice report  that dam has been really going off with the bigger bass in the last month or so , maybe because the fish lift is working well for a change ;-) its always good to see any carp getting knocked on the head too


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## premium (Nov 23, 2011)

Squidder said:


> My garden is powered by carp this summer and is going gangbusters - you will definitely enjoy the benefits of fishing for fertiliser.


Yeah i saw your post - that's what gave me the idea - I had some zuchinnis that were finishing up - now have some Basil, Brocolli, spinach and capsicums feeding on carp. What Veggies do you grow on your carp?



kayakone said:


> BTW, the scenery looks stunning. Is that in the Canberra area, or higher up in the mountains?
> trev


Cheers Trev, Tallowa is in Kangaroo Valley, between the Southern Highlands (Bowral/Moss Vale) and Nowra on the Coast - it's North of Canberra, probably about halfway from Canberra to Sydney (Canberra people - feel free to correct this!).

I've lived here for over 2 years and i'm absolutely kicking myself that this was my first time on the water there - as gee Said, absolutely paradise.


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## brant78 (Jun 24, 2012)

Great stuff.

I concur on the carp being great for vegies. I buried 10 in one long bed and it is far and away the best of the lot. Amazing corn, beans, pumpkin you name it. The others are not doing as well. 
Sibbo can also attest to this. So message for everyone! Take them home and bury them in your garden.

Hot tip though, make sure you don't have dogs that can bust into your vegie bed and dig them up. I was driving up my street with the window down and was complaining about road kill smell. I got to my door and it was rank. yes my dogs had strewn them all over my lawn and it was foul. I'm a vet and can take many smelly things, but this was the worst ever. Damn dogs! They were free to a good home and were soon to be again. And no the green dream didn't come out but it was contemplated!! :lol:


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## premium (Nov 23, 2011)

Brant, i'm with you on the smell, i caught mine sat morning and dug them in sunday morning - i was almost digging in some extra fertiliser with them...

Another good thing about the south coast - Cow Manure is 4 bucks a bag off the side of the road, and having dug a stack of that in when i was preparing my veggie beds a few months ago, i've now got a Grape tomato bush that's well over 2m and still wants to grow, despite me pinching out every new shoot i can find...

here's what i pulled off it in 10 mins this morning, and I only got through about half the bush.









now i'm slightly worried - what the hell am I going to get when I mix this potent poo with carp??


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## premium (Nov 23, 2011)

badmotorfinger said:


> Were the humans of any size - keep any?


One decent size, one undersize/borderline.
I showed them my chubby but couldn't get a bite... must have spooked them.


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## Sibbo (Aug 11, 2012)

brant78 said:


> I concur on the carp being great for vegies. I buried 10 in one long bed and it is far and away the best of the lot. Amazing corn, beans, pumpkin you name it. The others are not doing as well.
> Sibbo can also attest to this. So message for everyone! Take them home and bury them in your garden.


Carp are awesome for the garden. I only had about 10 spread across my six beds last year and it went gangbusters. From under 20sq m of beds I would have had over 100kgs of toms (biggest toms hit 530 g's), 10-15kg+ of beans, 30-50kg of pumpkin just to name a few. Pic from Last year mid season -









This year I have extended and increased the carp. Things are looking very promising!  Without trying to high jack the thread - keen to have a bbq serving only yak caught fish and carp powered veg. Interest from canberra folk??? Maybe later this month or early feb? Could even marry it up with a carve your own rod from Bamboo fish off for carp in nerang pool on LBG?


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## brant78 (Jun 24, 2012)

I'm in.


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

...how far above should I plant the corn I used to catch the carp?


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