Australian Bass
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The Australian bass is a catadromous species that migrates to the river mouths in autumn to spawn. These are an incredibly hardy fish capable of surviving in water temperatures from 0degrees to 40 degrees Celsius. In spring the pswned fish travel back upstream into the forested pools of the ranges and often into smaller tributaries – in fact this is often where you find the biggest fish. A real monster in the wild is around 50cms 😮 Good sized average wild fish are around 30-35 cms. They eat off the top and particularly like terrestrials such as cicadas and grasshoppers, but they live right in tight to the snags and bankside vegetation – they are shy and love their deep cover. They are also very powerful and will head straight back into that cover. We use 6 weight rods most of the time. They’re also a real sucker for a deep fished fly such as a woolly bugger.
This trip was one we took in the summer of ’05 – ’06 – Dave Anderson, Gordon Low and myself. It was a four day trip down the Macleay river. We travelled in floatboats like those Dave Inks designed and sells (the very best remote area boat money can buy – they fold down into a backpack and can carry 400lbs) – amazing craft – made in New Zealand. We took a fourth boat for our main gear and took turns towing it.
This trip was at the height of our last terrible drought and in a week between Christmas and New Years eve the river fell 45cms – that was when we were there. The temperature each day was around 40 degrees and the fish were lethargic or non existant, probably hiding deep in the shade. We did manage some fish however. It was great trip in spite of the hardship – we covered around 30 kilometers of river and had to drag the boats for many miles in places where we would normally be in fear of capsizing in rapids or being swept into dense bankside cover. We were barely talking to each other at the end of it but the first cold beer sorted that out. Must do it again in a better season – maybe this summer.
Pics and commentary here are from Dave Anderson and myself.
The bottom of the branches here indicates the normal water level. You would usually negotiate this situation by going around the trees but there was no way around and we had to go under.
Large sections of the river were like this.
But there were still plenty of huge pools. Unfortunately this fantastic looking bit of water produced no fish because the water was so warm.
Lowy’s ( The big rig ) fly box, his Dahlbergs are deadly.
Morsie cooling off in the 100 deg. heat.
The big rig makes a big cast in the morning.
A good bass on a foam lizard fly.
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
Morsie on a short pool near the end of the trip.
Nursing the boats through a narrow spot.
Another long walk between pools.
Working out the next place to camp.
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
But cicadas are top of the food pile for topwater fishing. In a good summer the decibel level of the sound these things make can drive you almost insane, its almost industrial.
Dahlbergs remain the fly of choice most of the time.
But mini gurglers work well too.
As do Chernobyl ant variations.
Great fly fishing report! I thoroughly enjoyed it and thanks for the adventure!!! Great photography as well.
But wait there’s more !
( freee set of steak knives at the endwww.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
Oh yes, the infamous “one that got away” lol.. Great thing that an awesome catch was also captured by camera as the photographic chronicle of that lost hookup could really hurt more with out it
A close up of the foam lizard fly.
Some more natural flies.
This is the start of the trip, you can see how wild the country is.
Happy campers before we set off, this would have been a great time for the big fella to notice the river was 18 inches low and we were about to drag the rafts for the next four days..
This is the last afternoon, only a few miles to go till pick-up.
This was the hardest section to drag the boats through and it went on for 300 or 400 yards..
The look on Morsies face says it all really.
Despite the hardships and heat and really only one good days fishing it’s still one of the best fishing trips I’ve ever been on..
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
Awesome pics and commentary guys! Thanks!
Thats another fish I’m just going to have to try and meet now! ::) 🙂
Morsie you’ve got to stop standing next to the tall timber mate! 😉 I’m sure you weren’t that size when I last saw you?!!
Have to agree about those boats! They really are awesome and not only can they do low flows and be backpacked but they handle grade 3 rapids pretty easily too!
Beautiful fish!Yeah I second that. Â Great pictures, thanks for sharing. Â I like the wing material on the second fly to the right in the naturals picture. Â Do you happen to know what it is? Â
That’s a foam cicada fly made for trout in New Zealand – I’ll try to get some details for you.
I got them in a few sizes from the Creel Tackle store in Turangi.
http://www.nzfishing.com/Accommodation/TPAccom/CreelLodge/TPCreelLodge.htmThey work well on Jungle Perch as well..
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
Zach,
They are an Australian native species, Macquaria novemaculeata. Endemic to the eastern seaboard of Australia and their range stretches from southern queensland down to south eastern Victoria (about 2000km). They have had a hard time of it in their natural environment although alot has been done recently to help improve stocks. As Morsie says they migrate from the fresh water down to the estaurine environment to spawn and damming/weirs damaged stocks in some rivers. In queensland they are now stocked into lakes as and have really taken to these environments.
As you can see by the photos they love a big fly on the surface.
Mat
Nice!
I might have missed it but are those a different species of bass? Â They look like smallmouth bass but they are big smallmouths!
Zach
Zach,
Australian Bass speak the same language as American Bass, but tend not to be as fat, loud and heavily armed…www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
These guys didn’t mind the hot weather. This is a BIG goanna or monitor lizard – its around 6 feet long and we didn’t get too close it  because the last thing you want is one of these things climbing into an inflatable boat!
This was a situation I might never see again in a lifetime. The bass hooked up here was cruising the shallow “flats” in the forground. I was so amazed to see it I didn’t even lift the camera to record the hookup that happened right in front of me. The fish charged a dahlberg from 10 feet away and promptly headed for cover on the far side. One of those situations you replay in you mind for years – and kick yourself.
This was the fish.
The favoured wing material for cicadas is found in flower shops – Its the shimmery ribon material they use to wrap up bunches of presentation flowers.
Morsie
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