Paterson 22/5/13

So I had a few hours free today so Dad and I went and fished around Paterson.
We found a great stretch of river for testing lures, lots of different forms of cover and a small tributary outlet meeting under a bridge.

It was a great day out, a touch of rain but got to have a good look around and mapped out a few more potential fishing spots. Fishing mostly onto river sand and mud, we used yabbies, worms and grubs for bait and threw a few lures around. The yabbies were caught elsewhere and most weeks I get more for either bait or fish food. My pet bass love them and so do the wild ones, this one took a small one.

We took extra care with this one as it was possibly full of eggs and with breeding season starting soon it could of been an early bloomer. She hit hard on a great little lure made by Bob (Links to lurelovers.com, sign up and have a look around.) It swam off strongly and hopefully will make it to the estuarine waters before letting its eggs go.

The end of the day was spent at a spot I've fished before with mixed results but it is a lovely little spot that I will fish many more times. It is a fairly popular spot inside the town of Paterson and I've seen people swim and rope-swing there but there was nobody else around today and it made a quiet, peaceful afternoon. No fish were caught here this time but there was a lot of movement in the water and plenty to see. A few bites and a big hook up that I lost all added up but in the end I just scooped a few shrimp for my pet bass and a gudgeon for another tank.

 Hopefully I can get out again next week and put some more photos up.
I'll show off a few of my lures if I get a chance and a few other bits and pieces I have been saving for a rainy week.

I've added a contact form to this blog so if you want to ask anything feel free to email me.

Lake St Clair 1/5/2013

So this week I planned an early morning fishing trip with my Dad. He taught me most of what I know now and he is the reason I love fishing and the bush and can appreciate and enjoy it without destroying it. So thank you for everything you have taught me so far.
Alright so we left at 4am, got up there on daybreak and it was a beautiful morning. A bit of cloud cover, not really hot and the dam was sitting higher than when we were last there by about a metre.
I spotted a few wallabies on the hill behind us and I missed them with the camera but they were still a great sight.

We got into the fish early, with dad pulling in a nice little Bass about 30cm first up.

I got the biggest one at 41cm and between us we pulled out 6 Bass all 30cm+.

We had no luck on lures this time, but they were loving the grubs and garden worms.

I'd love nothing more than to spend every day doing this, but the real world doesn't let me.

Lake St Clair is still fishing great and is a beautiful spot. The water was clean, the fish were very healthy and are stocked frequently so I will definitely be back there again soon. I would love to get a Golden Perch as I haven't caught one yet so I will try to focus more on them next time.
The Singleton Tourism website says that the dam is stocked with Australian Bass, Golden Perch and Silver Perch. I am yet to hear of a silver coming of there but if it's stocked then I'm sure they have been caught. I will look further into this too.

I'll post next time I get out.

Cheers,
Andrew

A little bit more about me

I am currently studying Chemistry/Environmental Science at Newcastle University.
I am also applying to join some local volunteer groups such as Landcare, Waterwatch and the Newcastle Wetlands Centre to get out there and learn a bit more.
I am an active member of www.lurelovers.com and newcastlefishing.com/forums. If anybody wants to talk to me about this blog, I'm pretty reachable on either of those forums.
I have a few pet Bass which have been pretty great to learn from, and a bunch of other native fish which are pretty interesting.

I have every second weekend off from work now so I can hopefully get out camping and fishing more and update this blog more regularly.

Harvey, work shirt. - Andrew Parr

Local Photos

Hinton Bridge, Fishing in high water. - Andrew Parr

Paterson River, fishing clear day. - Andrew Parr

Paterson Tucker Park Tree - Andrew Parr

I haven't actually had much of a chance to get out lately as I'm back at uni and working a lot as well, but you expect a lot more from me soon! I finally have a few chances to get out fishing and will update as soon as I am back.
There has been a lot of rain and high water lately, In March especially with many thousands of fish dying in the lower Hunter River. There was a lot of news coverage (and a lot of terrible news coverage) with many people worried about the state of the river and fish stocks. The black water is a natural phenomena where nutrient rich flood waters run back into the river, causing a huge algae bloom which depletes the river of oxygen. In turn this kills many things in the river, the first to suffer being the largest predators as they have the highest oxygen intake.
This all sounds bad and locally it is, but the river itself will regenerate its lost oxygen and it already has. Its been over a month and there is no residue left and there are plenty of fish around. Bass breeding season will begin again soon so by next Bass fishing season the stocks should have returned to normal. With less predatory fish in that area (if you believe the stocks are diminished) more fry and eggs will survive, restocking the river system.
I will continue to fish upstream until seasons end, and there will still be plenty of good fishing in the dams after that.

Lake St Clair 29/12/12

As you can see it was a beautiful day up at Lake St Clair, in the hot hunter weather reaching 40 degrees. It was hot and humid and by the end I got a bit sunburnt but it was a great days fishing.
We got there about 1 in afternoon and scouted around a bit until we found this spot. There was a large sunken tree on one side, with a big weed bank running along the bank. Half shaded, half sun with a big deep hole in the middle. Honestly it looked a great spot with the best of everything you could hope for.
we pulled 7 bass, all over 30cm out of this spot with the largest about 42cm. Scott my cousin also got a large catfish at about 2pm.
This was a great spot and a great trip with plenty to look at and plenty to show for it.
The fish we caught were all healthy and all hit hard, hinting at a healthy system and plenty more good fishing trips to come!

Update

Hey everyone, I haven't been on this for a while now so I figured I'd update it as best I could.
So,
- I've got a new pet bass named Bruce and hes 35cm long.
- I've been fishing a lot, with mixed results. Lake St Clair proved to be the best session.
- I'm having a shot at making lures.
- I'm getting out and having fun!
I'll get the photos up as soon as possible