lake for sale and going cheap...!

Well I wish I had more to write for this addition and thought I would too as we were fishing a club double header match the last weekend here (both sat and sun go towards the club league)

Plus it was be fished on what was one of the most fairest venues I have seen here in Australia yet and it use to be pretty consistent with the weights too...not big weights but matches were always close and you had to work a little to catch fish....also a few different methods could produce fish

It's part of a complex of lakes belonging to a regatta and rowing center and is almost the same depth in all the pegs...You could fish the slider for mainly goldfish and carp, feeder long or short range and the pole from 10 mts out also for carp but it would also produce a few catfish and bass . Last year I had done well of this venue with all top 2 finishes and a win by aiming for carp on the feeder but also had a few kgs of catfish on the pole while feeding the feeder line for the first couple of hours...however the start of this years league saw me return with 2 blanks along with 3/4 of the anglers from our first club matches fished here last September....Surely it had to be better this time round.........even thou the conditions were not the best with very little wind

The weather had also gone somewhat cooler had night here although unlike Shaun in the pic it seems I still have to climatise myself to an Aussie winter...I have yet to find it cold here at all...Shaun wouldn't move for me to take the pic as he wanted to stay warm in the sun before the all in...he drew a peg in the shade of some trees....I think he needs to go back to where ever it is he is from in the north of the UK for a real winter to toughen him up a bit

My plans were kept simple for both days....1 feeder line at 25 to 30 mts and also a slider to fish just off the bottom also on this line for the gold fish if they were around, another long range feeder rig at about 60 mts and then drop 3 or 4 balls of groundbait with some chopped worm and maggot for the catfish at 11 mt but also 1 ball and some corn at 13 to 14 mts in case a carp or two came in with the cat or bass feeding activity

Activity........right........ok now I have a pond in my garden where I live here and it has more fish activity in it and more fish also than what all of us put together here this weekend total....in fact I was almost tempted to take out my top 2 when I got home, but the missues wouldn't let me fish for the pets......16 anglers on sat and four caught, the winner had 3 fish for 10 kgs, and 19 fished sun and 6 caught, winner had 4 fish for 7 kgs....It was so bad that a smelt, (aussie native fish..correction ...native pair of eyes) if you got one was worth 5th place points in the league as you would need 200 of them to weigh an oz , the rules say if you catch one its classed as the last weight for points....despite trying every other method and bait I could to catch a fish I couldn't be bothered to resort spending half an hour chasing one those those pair of eyes around forcing it to choke on a single maggot and blanked both days once again...had I been in contention for a place in the club champs my old scratching gear would have came out but to be honest after doing 9 hours already with out a bite I just couldn't be bothered.....I am not sure if its cormorants that have finished off this venue here or the fisheries have netted and clean out the "non native" carp in order to let those wonderful "native" fish thrive but to be honest i ain't going to be back here in a hurry again....I think it will be dropped of the club venues for a bit now too

I suppose you could say it's still a very consistent venue.......now almost everyone Blanks.....!

With that weekend over and no match last week I had to get out last week to catch some fish again and also had an opportunity to meet another ex pat from the UK that had moved here recently...We met up with Yorkie again back at the new lake I had fished last month and I had wanted to fish closer to the island to see what it was like....also as "Brummie" Paul who moved here hadn't got his gear over yet we had offered to get him fishing with some borrowed bits n bobs to help his with drawls from fishing....despite the flat calm conditions we had had plenty of fish although you can notice the cooler nights starting to affect the fish in the line of bites and having to cut back feed, plus all my fish came to small pieces of worm and that is a sure sign of the "winter" not far away here...I also forgot my camera this time but will stick it in my box from now on as there will prob be a few more knock ups now

This weekend we have the final leg of our teams of three match and its on a different venue here so will take some pics and then the following Thursday we're off the Finley (6 hrs south) for a 2 day inter state teams of 4 match on a newly found venue here....its a huge irrigation canal the runs from one lake 150 km across the plains and is (hope not to jinx it) stuffed with carp...I have gone there for session a good few weeks back and done good but my mate Alan Woods has been there a few times since and also had had plenty of fish and all good average size so hopefully some big weights will be coming out that weekend

Finley canal.....

and maybe even a few fish in the net too.....for a change......!