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Proserpine Revisited.
After
out last trip to the Peter Faust Dam at Proserpine, we were keen to go
back and try for some of those outsize Barra that call the Dam home. My
crew consisted of Ross Paton and myself, Dave “Lumpy” Milson was towing
his boat down with Peter Mowat as his off-sider and to top the convoy of
Alister ”Grub” Mcyntre and his very lovely partner “Hero” towed their
boat down.
A couple of days before we were to leave the heavens opened up and it
poured down, flooding Brisvegas and causing havoc all up the East Coast.
So now it was the on again, off again trip, it was to wet, no it wasn’t.
Ross rang up saying the road was over a Bowen, so it was off, then in
the finish we said stuff it, if the lake is not firing we will fish
Shute Harbor.
So off we went, all catching up with everybody on the way, we missed the
big rain at Alligator Creek but sure enough the road was over at Bowen.
It was only surface water and didn’t give us much trouble, It was scary
going over a bridge and seeing a dry river bed one side and a wall of
water coming down on the other. All the creeks and rivers from Bowen
onwards were raging torrents, a couple more inch’s and we might not get
home.
Anyway we made it to the “GunnaGo Caravan Park, run by Clive and Beth
who will look after you. They are so helpful there, we like to fish till
8.30pm and then eat no trouble for them. They made us great home cooked
meals, so big you couldn’t jump over them! At one sitting Lumpy and my
self (both renown “Trenchermen’) were the only one’s to finish!
As Ross pulled into the park, I could here a scrunching sound as he
slowly moved in. That didn’t sound good, sure enough the bearings were
stuffed, it looked like it was going to be one of those trips for me!
Luckily “Grub” had a spare set, so out with the jacks and tools and they
were into it. I say they, as Lumpy and I looked on, as if to say, ”We
are guides we don’t fix trailors”! ”Do you know how to fix them “says I
to the Big Fella”, yeah, I do but they have the job under control and
anyway I don’t want to get grease on my hands”. It sounded like a plan
to me, so we started to put our rods together and get ready for the
afternoon’s fish!
It wasn’t long before we were on the water and flogging the water to
foam. Last time we fished the Dam it was a full moon, this time it was a
new moon, I was keen to see how that effected the fishing, not that I’m
big on moons, I wouldn’t let the wrong moon stop me from fishing! We
went straight over to the weed beds that had fished well for us last
time, the water level had dropped marginally so we were hoping for some
good results.
We stayed pretty much together so if one boat found the fish we could
all get a piece of the action. Ross was soon into a fish, not a great
size, but was taking line off at a rate of knots. Apparently Ross had
the drag backed of, as his theory was that if a big fish took of it
wouldn’t snap the line and we could chase it! Yeah-right Ross; the
timber was stacked up like “nine pins”! But to his credit he managed to
boat it, 75cm was all, but a nice solid fish. I could hear Lumpy and
Peter going off, they also boated a couple, all about the same size and
Lumpy had jumped one off. Grub and Hero zeroed in on the noise but
didn’t have much luck. Hero had jumped a couple of nice fish off, so a
quiet session for the first.
Next morning we are up at “Sparrow Fart” and back out on the Dam, I can
tell you we flogged every fallen tree, upright tree, weed bed, etc.
etc., but not as fish boated between the three boats. I knew we were in
trouble when I saw all the local guides trolling, not a good sign! Lumpy
and Peter decided to get some Z’s after a quick swim, Grub invited Ross
and I for a tourist drive over to Dingo Beach, Airlie Beach and Shute
Harbour. Dingo Beach wasn’t much but Airlie Beach was full on, wall to
wall bikini clad back packers! And as for Shute Harbour that is on my
next place to fish list, the watercolor there is amazing.
Time for the last evening session, of the weekend. We decided to fish
the weed beds again, at least there were fish there, albeit under 1m.
Well the session was much the same as the morning, slow as, time for a
tactical change. We had found some weed beds over by the dam wall and on
the western Bank (I think its western!), Lumpy headed for the wall, we
decide to fish in a small inlet on that western bank, it had a nice drop
off and the weed was still alive. Grub decided to troll that same bank
and see if he could do any good. We gave it a good hour, tried a few
lure changes and then gave it away deciding to catch up with Grub and
see what the trolling produced.
As we got closer, we could see Hero signaling us with the torch and
waving us in, this didn’t look good, Grub is not exactly in the best of
health at the moment but we needn’t have worried. Grub had been battling
a 1070m fish from a depth of 23ft and was stuffed plus he didn’t have a
landing net, God only knows how he was going to get it in the boat, the
comfort lift definitely wasn’t going to work! Not to fear, Ross has it
in my net, a quick pick and the big girl was off into the deep.
I had been marking fish on my sounder but they were pretty deep but we
decided to give it a go, trolling is not my preferred method of fishing.
We fished about two boat lengths away from Grub and just as well we did,
I had just gone over two fish and was hoping for a hook up, when we hear
Grub “shout I’m on here”. We decided to hang around and watch the action
as nothing much else was happening. Well, Grub is into a “Horse”, its
towing him all over the dam. He’s pumping and winding, blowing like a
steam train! Were shouting “Make it Jump”, and other helpful comments.
All jokes aside, the theory is that they tire quicker if they jump a
lot, making it easier to land, the down side to that theory is they also
spit a lot of lures!
After about 30 minutes she is at the side of the boat and what a big
fish, I’m not much of a guess-er but she would have weighed
50-60lb!There was no way it was going in to Grubs boat, he’s looking for
an oxygen tent right about now. So I lifted her into mine, Ross was
amazed at the size, I should think so she measured 1220m and seemed that
much deep. Grub was having trouble even lifting her for the pics; there
was camera, lights action, all over the place. Nice work Grub! She soon
swam off into the depths and we decided to head for another of Beth’s
magnificent home cooked meals.
I would like to tell you that the final morning session was ok but it
wasn’t. Lumpy and Peter headed for Shute Harbor (they were staying an
extra day), Grub and I decided to head north and have an easy run home.
The best for our boat was the 74cm Ross boated, Lumpy’s best was 85cm
with a couple around the 70 cm and Grub killed us with the two fish at
1070cm and 1220cm.”I’ll be back”!
Jim (Jimbo)
Lee - www.un-reel-sportsfishing-adventures.com.au
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