G'day fishos. Good to be back in the driver's seat again after a couple of weeks off, and thanks to Graeme "Willow" Wilson for filling my waders while I was away.
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The reason for my absence was that I snuck up to the Northern Territory to have another crack at the barra and all the other odds and sods you catch up that way. It was a blast!
We ended up with more than 270 barra and heaps of other delicious species, although a lot of the barra we caught were under the 550mm minimum.
Most barra were caught casting, a few on the troll and a couple on bait while the bulk of the other species were caught on bait.
Mud crabs have been scarce this year across the board. Whether that's related to a few poor wet seasons in the gulf, I'm not sure.
We didn't let the lack of crabs spoil a good time, but it certainly looks like the whole country needs a good drink from top to bottom.
Back home, it sounds like the Gone Fishing Day events were a great success last weekend.
This weekend, the Leigh Martin Marine Mercury Classic Lake Hume comp is on again, and with a few yellas showing up this season, it's shaping up really well.
Last year was one of the toughest yella seasons we've seen, so it'd be nice to see a few more this year. The organisation of this comp is great, that's a given - it's now just up to the weather gods and the fish to co-operate.
If you want to be involved, you have up until 10am today to register at the marquee at the Lake Hume Tourist Park.
The Dartmouth Ladies Classic is around the corner too, on November 15 and 16.
AT A GLANCE
Dartmouth (55.8) - Fished OK for most at the trolling comp last weekend without setting any records. Sounded like most fishos caught a few, but not many caught big numbers.
Fish were picked up at all depths again, so it's certainly worth taking a downrigger. If you haven't got one, now might be a good time to check 'em out leading into the warmer months.
Streams - are still fishing pretty well at the moment, but I reckon things will get pretty tough after Christmas unless we get a bit of rain. The next month or so is quite probably going to be the best part of the season, so might be an idea to have a crack sooner than later if you can.
Blowering (54.4) - Jamie Densley took his young bloke and father-in-law Graham Jans up to the lake last weekend with great success.
The boys landed three nice cod with Jamie's son landing a 97cm and Jansy catching a personal-best 1.025, as well as a 1.000 on the dot. Two on bait and one on lure I believe - well done fellas.
Quite a few other fishos are doing well on the cod up there too, particularly during the darker hours on bait.
Eucumbene (29.23) and Jindabyne (79.66) - have both slowed a little over the past week or two.
There's still some decent fish being caught, but it seems they're not jumping on our hooks like they're supposed to.
Tantangara (21.77) - fished really well in tough conditions last weekend, with some good numbers of fish being caught using all methods.
Bait from the bank, flicking lures from the bank and trolling all produced decent fish during blustery and snowy conditions. It's still accessible at the wall end at the moment.
Lake Hume (39.98 per cent) - has been pretty good of late, no world-beating bags but the yellas have certainly shown up in better numbers this year compared to last.
Trolling McGraths, double deeps and other small minnow lures that get between 3-6m seems to be the go, and you'll also have every chance of catching a cod as by-catch.
Lots of cod are showing up and they're in unbelievable nick too. The cod season's closed until December, so you can't keep them. But they're fun to catch and it's great to see them thriving.
Bait around any sort of structure, trees, drop-offs and rocky points is also producing fish, with heaps of small reddies about and the yellas also having a go.
The Murray - below Albury has been pretty good too, with a few nice yellas and the odd good by-catch cod showing up. Gun Albury fisho Aaron Dickson has been pulling a few yellas using plastics and bait, so the river's worth a crack even if it is a tad high. There's an occasional trout being picked up on both bait and lure too.
Khancoban - has been a bit patchy of late, with one crew up there for four days with daily catches being 0, 0, 14 and 0. Not sure what turned them on day three, but that's fishing I suppose.
Kel, Glen and Jamo Smith headed up that direction last weekend too and managed five nice fish trolling on a cold Tumut ponds on Saturday arvo/Sunday morning on 7cm Rapalas.
