THE rain had been beating down incessantly for several days. Stalling my departure for St Georges Basin for the Flathead Classic run by Basin Lure & Fly Club.
This would be my third year fishing this event with great mate and past editor of Fishing World magazine, Jim Harnwell.
This year was to be special for a few reasons, the foremost being that after the event we were embarking on a road trip. The trip had been planned by Jim; we would head down the south coast, eventually crossing the Victorian border and into some big black bream country, fishing hidden and remote locations that Jim knew of, or had been told about by his extensive base of contacts.
This was to be Jim and my last fishing trip together before he took on his new 9 to 5 job with NSW DPI Fisheries.
The rising rivers had put paid to the idea of chasing a few golden perch in the waterways that I would cross heading east to the coast. Even when I reached the trout-rich country of the Great Dividing Range, the streams there were flowing hard and high. Add to this the sleeting rain and the idea of a trout fish was also passed over.
Pulling up at Goulburn’s water supply I entertained the thought of a trout and bass fish here. I grabbed my 6wt fly rod and opened the door to be met with strong blustery winds tinged with medium rain. I had a quick walk along the edge then quickly got back into the car thinking that a quiet gully on the eastern side of the mountains would be out of the wind. The rain I could deal with, and hopefully the bass could too, although low pressure and good bass fishing rarely go hand in hand.
The old logging track was now blocked with fallen timber, so I parked the car and quickly set about getting some bass gear ready.
Fly gear or spin gear (or as my fly fishing only buddies refer to as “sin gear”)? I settled on spin gear and rigged up my 1-3 kg Abu Vanguard, mated with a Patriarch XT spooled with 6 lb Nanofil and tipped with a 4 lb Sensei fluorocarbon.
I had spent a few hours Google Earth plotting a few exit and entry points on this small creek. The idea was to walk downstream for a while, then fish back towards the car, eventually going well above the car and walking back through the thick scrub using the hand held GPS .
The green band of trees on Google Earth that fringed the creek turned out to be like rainforest trees and the floor under this canopy was rigged with “wait a while” vines that certainly lived up to their name. On breaking through to the creek I found it to be flowing well but beautifully clear although tannin stained.
I stopped and removed a few leeches before starting to fish. The salt in my socks had prevented leeches from gaining access to my feet, but where I was pushing through the undergrowth a few had attached themselves to my upper body. The anticoagulant the leeches had injected into me was working well, with blood flowing freely attracting myriad bush flies once they were removed.
I had brought only a few lures with me as I was really keen to try some small micro mini spinnerbaits made by Edgecrusher Lures.
If the blades didn’t work then I also carried a stash of Berkley Fat Dogs and Puppy Dogs in both shallow and deep running as a back up. These would also be my go-to bream lures later in the trip.
After a few follows and tentative taps, it was when I hit the deeper pools and fished the small micro mini spinner baits “on the drop” that it all came together.
Cast, flip the bail and hold a tight line as the mini spun its way down into the depths. The bass were smashing these on the drop and the first fish was caught while I balanced on a slippery mossy log. Deciding on quick release rather than a picture may have saved me from an unintended dip, although the drizzly rain had me pretty well wet to the bone now anyway.
Next cast up along the log and I was hooked up again to another good fish. I worked my way along the log until I could land the fish and take a quick photo.
Not having a ruler I marked the fish against the rod and measured this when I got back at the car. These fish were going as high as 42 cm; great fish for a small stream.
Next cast and the mini landed in under a tree at the back of a log. It was smashed before it could hit the bottom but failed to hook up. Several more casts to the same area yielded no result.
Next pool up and a long cast hard up to the bank and under a tree saw another bass hit the lure, then the line went loose. I wound hard thinking I had missed the fish but it powered downstream into the tangle of logs that I had just fished.
It was only a matter of a few seconds and the rubbing of the Nanofil on the logs spelt disaster and the line, leader, lure and fish departed.
Upgrading the leader to 6lb and connecting it with a 50 turn fg knot, I tied on another micro mini red spinnerbait. In the next tangle of logs this lure was smashed. Three fish from the one lot of logs made the bank and two others made enquiries. It was absolutely insane fishing!
The misting rain and the darkening sky eventually forced me to leave this “bass heaven” creek and walk out into the scrub above, where I turned on my GPS to get directions back to my vehicle hidden deep in the undergrowth.
It was here I soon found out that thick forest canopies don’t let a GPS read satellites easily in the sky. The hand held couldn’t make contact and gave me a message that I was in a poor reception area.
Making sure the setting sun was at my back I made my way east again to cut the logging track and followed this back to my car.
I am sure I will make it back to this slice of heaven in the next couple of months. What a pleasure to walk such a pristine creek with no rubbish along the banks, no footprints in the sand and pools full of big hungry bass!
