patterson river/lakes 22/05

[geoff321]

So I recently got back into fishing and spent 40 hours at patto river over a fortnight. Have caught numerous toad fish each session and other unwanted species.

I remember fishing here, few years ago before all the construction work and the vessel that has been parked at the mouth of the river ever since. We would atleast catch plenty off Bream even on the most quiet nights, now it seems like the river is dead.

Bait: Prawns
Soft plastics: gulp prawn and jerk minnow

[JoshW]

It's a pretty tough fishery mate, some people have it figured out but not many. If you can get a yak or small boat inside the lakes themselves you'll have a much better chance.

[cobby]

Has as much to do with rainfall and other factors as it does underwater construction and dredging. Probably more so at patto which is a p**** of a joint

[geoff321]

reason i stopped fishing patto was the dredging in the first place. I felt that soon as the dredging began years ago, my catch rate at that particular area was slowly diminishing. I notice this even inside the first flood gate, we used to average 10-30 bream a night and it started declining after the dredging began until I eventually stopped fishing in patto altogether. This was atleast 10 years ago, when the legal size of bream was still 26cm.

[Dredger]

It's been dredged for over 40 years, has to be.

[geoff321]

The big boats at the mouth didnt rock up until few years ago. I feel that has drastically affected the fishing in the lake.

[Broomstick]

It's definitely not dead!

[samwastaken]

I went past yesterday and fished off the bank past the last of the boat ramps. Caught 3 bream (30-35cm) within 2 hours - all released. I haven't fished there for a while so unsure if it's regular or I just had luck. I did have to burley hard but that's normal for bream.