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Mudgee Region Report – November 2007 Windamere Dam Mudgee Region Report – December 2007 Windamere Dam Dunn’s Swamp Middle Cudgegong Lower Cudgegong Other:

▲TopMudgee Region Report – November 2007

Brought to you by www.fishntrips.com.au

▲TopWindamere Dam

The fishing started tough at Windamere at the start of the month with high winds making some days complete right-offs. As the month continued the wind dropped just in time as the series of annual sportfishing tournaments were held at Windamere. The quality and amount of fish being caught really is a testament to it’s reputation as one of the best native only freshwater impoundments in NSW and really does prove that it is the home of the yellowbelly.

Over a period of 5 weeks there was a tournament on every weekend with some of the best anglers from all over Australia as well as local anglers giving it a flogging. Even with this immense fishing pressure that dam is still producing quality fish. Matt Kurtz and I went out for a quick fish on Sunday arvo and nailed 4, dropped another 2 at the boat and missed several others. And this was in the heat of the day at 3pm! If anyone has been contemplating a fish they are really on fire now. For the record we caught ours on black Jackall and Kokoda lures.

Pub Challenge - Round 4 of the Fish N Trips Fishing Club and Pub Challenge was sponsored by Tooheys and held at Windamere last Sunday. The event was well attended by over 70 anglers from 5 different teams including newcomers the Globe Hotel from Rylstone.

25 fish were caught for tournament including some absolute rippers. Once again the Mad Pommy from Gulgong showed up his Aussie counterparts measuring in the equal longest and equal second longest fish.

Kelly Webb was awarded the best fishing story for the tournament. Whilst soaking a few worms Kell hooked and pulled up a Jackall lure that had been snagged and lost underwater. She proceeded to tie the lure and caught a fish with it. Are you sure those rums didn’t influence that story Kel?

The Lue Hotel still managed to dominate the numbers for the tournament even though half their team was away at a wedding at the coast. The Federal Hotel team produced a strong showing at the event and their results improved accordingly.

Competition virgins the Globe Hotel fished well even though most of their team was AWOL and avoided the toilet seat award.

The Court House hotel took out the toilet seat award for the competition with a dismal performance. Of the 2 boats that turned up for the Court House, 1 boat lost the lure they had borrowed off Beer Rat on the second cast and decided to call it a day and the other boat managed to catch and release a yellowbelly but lost their catch card overboard.

The competition was based on the cumulative total of each teams lengths of fish caught.

Results:
1 – Gulgong Fishing Club: 701.5 meters (Fish N Trips Shield)
2- Lue Hotel: 254.5 meters
3 – Federal hotel: 206.5 meters
4 – Globe Hotel: .56 meters
5 – Court House Hotel: 0 meters (Toilet Seat Award)

Longest Fish: Kev Handy (tie) Mad Pommy: 59cm
Second Longest fish: Joel Leonard (Tie) Mad Pommy: 58cm
Smallest Fish: Steve Cannane: 40.5cm
Most Fish: Dave Papworth: 3 fish

After the presentation the thirsty fisherman managed to polish off the keg fairly quickly and set about stating their intentions for the next competitions. Horse from the Lue Hotel stated ‘It’s 1 all for us and Gulogng, now the Trophys coming home back to Lue!’. There was also talk of poaching Gulgong strike weapon: The Mad Pom with the offer of a professional fishing contract.

Speical thanks must go to Tooheys for sponsoring the event as well as Horse from the Lue Hotel, Tim from the Gulgong Fishing Club, Brett from Courthouse for their donations toward the food and beverages for the presentation and Dean Warner for butchering the meat.

▲TopMudgee Region Report – December 2007

Brought to you by www.fishntrips.com.au

▲TopWindamere Dam

Welcome Cod Season - The Murray Cod fishing season re-opened on the Saturday with new rules in force. Murray Cod now need to be a minimum of 55cm to be legally kept. The fishing reports indicate a good number of fish were caught, which is not surprising considering the amount of cod that were being caught accidentally during the closed season. The opening weekend however belonged to Adrian Reynolds who when trolling a Black Jackall lure past a tree at Windamere thought he had gotten snagged only to have an 83cm cod start tugging on his line. It was great capture and good to see there are still some big fish lurking in the Windamere Waters.

Not 1 week later and Joel Leonard ducked out for a quick fish at Windamere on Friday arvo and stopped by the shop to grab a few lures. I suggested a Mudspin Twin Spin (which have been accounting for their fair share of cod) and he headed out to the dam. A quick flick and boom the big girl hit it and fought hard. Joel said it took 20 minutes to land, weighed 46 pounds and measured 104cm. A nice effort!

▲TopDunn’s Swamp

Dunn’s Swamp has been firing over the last week or so. Bruce Marshall of Wollemi Afloat River Cruises and Canoe Hire reports captures of up to 15 fish in a session. Lures are working well as are spinnerbaits. Students on a Mudgee High excursion got in on the action during the week and landed countless yella’s and a few cod. A number of people reported good captures. I headed up their on Saturday and fished mid-morning and caught a few including a nice cod. The best thing about Dunn’s Swamp is once it gets too hot you can just strip off and go for a swim!

▲TopMiddle Cudgegong

With a lot of rain in the Region recently the Cudgegong has been running high and fairly discoloured for most of the month. Although there have been fish caught, and good fish at that, I suspect the fishing will really heat up when the water clears a little more.

▲TopLower Cudgegong

Wilbetree and Belinfante fishing well for cod - Word on the street is that both Wilbetree and Belinfante bridges have been fishing well for all species of late; cod, redfin, carp and yellowbelly.

▲TopOther:

Mudspin Lures bagging heaps - The locally made mudspin lures (Which are available from Mudgee Camping World) have been catching fish all over. I have ahd customers in reporting they are catching everything from 5 pound trout to 49cm bass! And that’s just the celta style spinners. The spinnerbaits have been accounting for more than their fair share of Windamere Yella’s.

One very scared angler - It’s not very often that a fisherman finds himself in such a predicament when he is out fishing that his life flashes before his eyes, but this very scenario reportedly happened to Glen Kurtz when he was out fishing with friends the other day. After a very productive couple of hours fishing at Windamere Dam Glen and his friends had landed several very respectable yellowbelly. However one angler in the group, Jay (who is usually the first to catch the fish) had not caught a single fish. This combined with some light hearted banter from other members of the fishing party, including constant reminders about how even the girls that were fishing had all managed to catch a fish, had young Jay a little on edge. Showing the true form of a good angler Jay stuck to his guns and quietly kept tossing his lure out confident that the big one was lurking close by…then BANG! He was on to a fish that was easily the biggest of the day. Jay fought the fish for close to 5 minutes before the monster finally surfaced and gave Jay the chance to secure his prize. Under Jays direction, Glen worked his way down to the water to a position where he could net a fish. Now netting a fish can be a much harder task than many people realize, especially for the beginner fisherman, but most people realize that the fish is actually supposed to go inside the net. Now whether Glen had overlooked this fact or simply froze at the sight of the monster fish I cannot tell you, but one thing is for sure, when Glen pushed the net against the side of the fish knocking the lure out of it’s mouth and setting it free, he glanced toward Jay and I guarantee you his life flashed before his eyes…..

Yet Another Peter Orr Story - Now I have made plenty of bad decisions in my time, but seriously who would send your 8 year old son fishing with Peter Orr??? let alone when there are severe weather warnings on the radio. But with a little persuasion and a promise that there would adults supervising the 2 kids and Peter, two of the bravest mothers I have ever met sent their sons off to battle the elements only to have them return with stories of fish caught… and also a touch of mild hypothermia. It was evident when we arrived at the boat launching area that it would be a tough days fishing. Gale force winds and white caps are usually a good indicator. The second indicator was Peter jagging a treble hook into his finger as he went to start the motor for the first time. But with a little blood as no deterrent, the group set off for an afternoons fishing. 2 minutes boat ramp and Peter pulls along side with the news he has forgotten the frying pan. With 5 hungry mouths and 20 sausages this would not cut it and Pete was ordered to return to fetch it. And then the rain hit. Not that nice drizzle rain, but he kind of rain that stings your face when a 40hp motor is on the plane. As predicted the fishing was tough at first and after an hour it was decided that a little lunch to warm the insides was in order. “Where’s the frying pan?”, “I um forgot it, but don’t worry I got a shovel”. Now after the obvious questions such as, what has that shovel been used for? And is that a lead based paint? And some politician like deflected answers from Peter the hungry fisherman reluctantly ate their shovel cooked sausages. After all, the shovel was clean, we washed it in the blue-green algae water. With frostbite not withstanding it was agreed that another 20 minutes fishing was in order before the reluctant return. The two boats split to try their luck. Now our boat slow trolled a flooded but steep bank and landed a nice fish of 60cm which we slipped into the live well. After fishing for another few minutes we decided that we should show the two young boys at least one fish for the outing. On arrival at Peter’s boat we were greeted with a smiling Peter (looking like bantam chicken with his chest puffed out) holding a fish of around 40cm. With him full of advice we sat there for a good 5 minutes listening to how we should have been fishing and how good the beer was going to taste that we owed him for the bet. That was until we pulled our fish out and suggested maybe we should measure them side by side. “oh no” were the only words he muttered as he kicked the boat into gear and headed for the ramp..cold, wet and dejected.