# NSW south coast Bass



## craig450 (May 11, 2007)

Squidder called me up expressing he was keen to get his first Bass so we organised to meet at my house at 6am this morning, which was a good effort by Squidder considering he would have to leave home at 4am to make it in time :shock: He must have been really keen for a Bass :lol: 
We wasted no time and started the drive up the bumpy old dirt road to Shallow crossing, upon arrival we were greeted by glassy calm water with a light layer of fog.
Water temp was down considerably from last weekend, but i was still confident of getting at least a few fish between us.
After talking up how good the Bass fishing has been here lately i didnt want to dissapoint Squidder so i gave him 1st option to all of the good spots ive found on previous trips.
About 30mins into it, Squidder got a strike on the surface lure, bit didnt connect, then it came back for a 2nd swipe and found the hooks this time and he lands his first Bass!!!
Only a small one about 25cm, but a 1st is a 1st, size doesnt matter  









Shortly after i landed one a similar size, which turned out to be my only Bass for the day.









It got a little quiet after that, so we paddled a couple of klms further upstream and came to a set of rapids.
Squidder fired out a cast into the snags at the base of the rapids and was rewarded with another Bass about the same size as the others.
I tried to find a way up through the rapids without getting out of the yak (lazy, i know :lol: ) but just kept getting spun around and pushed back down, so we assisted each other to drag the yaks up through the rapids and found ourselves in a very fishy looking pool.
Again, Squidder fires out another perfect cast, right on the money and lands another Bass, didnt measure it but i estimate it to be 32-33cm, and very chunky, unfortunately i didnt get a photo with my camera.
We went further up until we came to a much bigger set of rapids which would have involved getting very wet to get past so we decided to stick around there for a while before heading back slowly.
I just said, "seems to have gone quiet" when i heard a big splash and a call of "Im on again mate!!", this one was taking a fair bit of line and a good bend in the rod suggested it was a much better fish.
Sure enough, in comes a very nice 39cm wild river Bass, and a PB for Squidder.









That was the last of the fish, the wind had really picked up and was blasting through the gully like a wind tunnel, so we headed back to the launch site so we could go get some lunch, we were off the water again at about midday.

Tried a bit of beach fishing in the afternoon, but were a bit too early for the incoming tide, i got one good strike which took off and busted me off shortly after but neither of us had any luck there.

Congrats to Squidder for his first few Bass!!!theres nothing like landing a new species.


----------



## Marty (Mar 18, 2007)

good work on the Bass Craig and Squidder. Iwent up there the other week it looked so fishy but the water was freezing , I managed a few surface hits but nothing hooked up  
Did you go upstream or down Craig , trying to work out which rapids you had trouble getting thru , with no rain and a early morning high tide  , couldnt imagine the ones upstream running too hard 
congrats on your first and PB bass Squidder, you are now officially addicted to bass fishing for life


----------



## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Craig nice to read your little sojourn upstream found Jason a lovely first bass, a special moment to share with any mate and glad it happened before the season shuts down for winter....by the way are EPs on through winter??

Congrats Jason they are very addictive buggers to target ;-)


----------



## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Congrats Jason. By the look of it the px45 won for you. Getting tempted to buy a few of those


----------



## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWc+ngFQAAAzXgAAQQAEIgBAgL+f+ICAASIp4iepvVNAeSYhE9Q0CYCGaEIyZAK1VbSyrzVFAM6T2cumcCCTeNThsYt7mhQm8z+wlCjYxIKYgQpLqaMVANpxpWHRdyRThQkM+ngFQ


----------



## craig450 (May 11, 2007)

Thanks for the replies everyone 

Marty, the rapids we came to were a couple of klms upstream from the furthest point we got to when i went up there with you and Phil. I was suprised at the amount of flow, they werent a big set of rapids, but the water was flowing down through only one area about 1m wide then into a small pool where it was swirling around which made it reasonably strong to paddle against, coming back down was fun though :lol:

Patwah, the weather turned a fair bit after lunch, the wind really picked up and was quite cold and some big dark clouds rolled in but didnt bring any rain. While we were on the beach it was a bit uncomfortable.

Dodge, im not too sure about EP's in winter, i have read that they congregate around mouths of creeks and rivers to spawn during winter but im not too sure if they will still hit a lure. At the moment they seem to be a more reliable catch than bream and bass, if anything i think they are being a bit more aggressive now than during the warmer months so ill see how it goes as it gets colder.

Peril, i highly recommend getting a few Px's, for me its been the most versatile surface lure ive used so far. It seems to take Bream, Bass, EP, Whiting, Tailor and Flatties reguarly. Ive got 4 different colours and all of them have been as successful as each other so it must just be there action and rattle that attract the fish, they are definately my "go to" lure at the moment.

Red, it was a great experience to see him get a few Bass, should have seen the grin he wore for the rest of the day!! :lol:


----------



## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

Nice work guys,

Glad you got onto a ripper, you were a good patient on Friday Jason!

Why didnt you use the Hopper Popper? <lol>










PS - No more bulk billing, your Medicare card was declined...


----------



## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

That's handy hopper popper stopper you have there Jason.


----------



## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

ah-ha! The mysterious Squidder returns....good to see that you're still alive Jason old mate, however you seem to have grown a nasty fungus on your chin and top lip since the last time I saw you..

nice work on the bass, and looks like a bloody beautiful location too!


----------



## pescado (May 17, 2007)

Nice boys.

Craig, mate you caught more fish than i did over the weekend! Read somewhere recently that EP's keep smacking surface lures even moreso in winter. Dont know if its true but sounds promising for Bumbo creek (as long as you dont get lost up there ;-) )


----------



## craig450 (May 11, 2007)

pescado said:


> Nice boys.
> 
> Craig, mate you caught more fish than i did over the weekend! Read somewhere recently that EP's keep smacking surface lures even moreso in winter. Dont know if its true but sounds promising for Bumbo creek (as long as you dont get lost up there ;-) )


That does sound promising, thanks for the info mate  
:lol: Just remember next time we go to Bumbo, go straight, DONT TURN LEFT on your way back :lol: :lol:


----------



## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

Ah Craig, you make me weep. I should have headed to Shallow Crossing rather than Wagonga. Great report, and good photos of Bass induced smiling (as is always the case). Gotta love 'em  . Maybe next summer....


----------



## afloat (May 19, 2008)

Fellas - where is shallow crossing? I have found the location of the shallow crossing state forest but is the actual crossing where the dirt road (dotted red) below crosses the clyde river?


----------



## craig450 (May 11, 2007)

afloat said:


> Fellas - where is shallow crossing? I have found the location of the shallow crossing state forest but is the actual crossing where the dirt road (dotted red) below crosses the clyde river?


Thats the one mate, theres a small launch spot on both sides of the crossing.


----------



## afloat (May 19, 2008)

Cheers mate!


----------

