Winter bass

When I came home from Europe the plan was to lock myself in my room and not emerge until this bloody thesis was written, but on Sunday I finally hit the wall. I decided a break was in order to recharge the batteries, so I went fishing. I gave my mate Ash a call (he’s also losing his mind trying to write a thesis) and a few hours later we were at our destination – a river in West Gippsland, where we were hoping to snag a winter bass or two:

We immediately made our way to a stretch of river where we’d had all the action on a previous trip here:

It looked a lot different to the last time we were here (this is the same stretch of river it back in March):

And this rotting deer carcass wasn't here last time:

But it still felt pretty fishy (Luna and Lando approved anyway):

I started flicking around a chubby and second cast, I had a hit. The hooks didn’t stick but this gave us confidence that the fish were around, and a few casts later my hooks held true. This fish took me straight into the snags but after a bit of fancy rod work, he was safely on the bank:

A nice little bass around the 30cm mark – not a bad start:

Unfortunately, things quickly went downhill. Next cast I threw my chubby into a tree:

And this set the tone for the next couple of hours, as we spent the majority of our time either swimming for snagged lures (It was bloody cold) or fighting our way through the maze of willows to retrieve wayward casts (spot my mate Ash):

After disturbing every good snag in this stretch of the river, we decided to do a bit of exploring further downstream and after a lot of bush bashing (the poor puppers were zonked by the end of it):

 We eventually we came to this lovely spot:

This part of the river was wide and deep and although it didn’t feel quite as bassy as the previous sections, we decided to have a flick anyway. And it didn’t take long before I came up solid:

A cute little redfin – a bit of a surprise, but a welcome one nonetheless. And a few casts later, I caught another:

We continued flicking in this area for a few more follows from tiny reddies, but when nothing more substantial made an appearance we decided to head back. Ash went ahead to the car while I decided to have one last flick at a likely looking snag that I’d seen earlier (I just can’t help myself):

I threw a perfect cast under an overhanging willow and after a couple of twitches, my lure was absolutely belted. I knew straight away that this was a better fish and after a brutal fight that involved a lot of luck on my behalf, I landed this beauty:

I didn’t have a measure on me but she would have been around the 40cm mark, and in great condition. Not a bad way to finish off the trip:

By this stage the sun was starting to dip below the horizon, so after meeting up with an incredulous Ash (he was spewing he didn't hang around for one last flick too), we threw the dogs in the car:

And made our way home. It had been a cracker trip (despite all the casting disasters) and exactly what I needed to refresh the brain before some long hours of writing – now to stop procrastinating and get to work.

Cheers!