a quick bite and i hit the road for another 30min to the first spot. being the middle of the day I wasn't expecting much (correctly it turned out) but the water looked super fishy. Wasted a good 20 min trying to retrieve a snagged spinnerbait before deciding that it was going to be surface lures for the rest of the session. Got 200m upriver from the access point before i found myself taking pics instead of fishing so i turned around and headed to the car.
second spot looked similar to the first, but the river here had more slow pools and was a tad wider to boot. i was working over a snag when i heard a boof just outta sight downstream. hurried over to the next pool and i could see fading ripples and a few bubbles marking the spot. criss crossed the area with cast after cast but the response was zero. then a wayward cast found an overhanging fallen tree. check out the pic below. for some sense of scale, the point where it first forks is 6'1" from the ground (i'm 6'2") and the lure was just to the right of the bridge pylon. I jumped up and started to shimmy out, realising only too late that 4 billion ants had already had the same idea. Lucky me they weren't the big ones but i had a few uncomfortable minutes trying to keep my balance, hold my line and retrieve my lure while being swarmed.
While i was doing this, ol mate let off another boof right where i had been fishing before. got my lure back and feet on solid ground asap, but I must have spooked him because i heard not a peep after. took the opportunity to change lures and tied on a brand new pompadour. had a couple of casts into the run between this pool and the next and was turning around to move on when there was an almighty boof right in the bubble trail of the lure 5m from the bank. scared the crap outta me. No further response from this fish either.
the third pool had a medium log sitting in the middle of it on a slight angle out of the water. 5th cast went the other side of it and current took my line into the angle. slow retrieve right up to the log and paused and got thumped off the surface. it was a real "chunky" sound, no big splash, the fish really was just eating. the fight was nothing to speak of, fish being small and really skinnny and me fishing heavy. he was really nicely marked though and pics don't do him justice. only one photo outta the water, and he swam away no worries.
I walked a bit further but turned around once i ran into a few escaped sheep grazing by the banks. Spotted this on the way back which was a little sad
the sun was starting to get low so I drove back to shepp for some food and hightailed it down to murchison to try the spot recommended by the Tackle World boys. I left it a bit late, and arrived just on last light. Although it was dark, the moon gave enough light to see that this is a ripper spot that I'll be visiting again. Spent a couple of hours here for no sign and drove home.
All in all a great day. Although the only fish was undersized, it was cool to get him while exploring new water that i had found on google maps. thanks for reading, and thanks to all that helped me with locations. Though i didn't try any of the suggestions i was given, I'm super keen to get back up there and have another go
Niroj :victory:
