▲TopMudgee Region Fishing Reports

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Mudgee Region Fishing Reports Windamere Dam Burrendong Dam Dunn’s Swamp Middle Cudgegong Lower Cudgegong Other News

▲TopWindamere Dam

The sport fishing really has started to quite down at Windamere. Don’t expect multiple fish days, but those who fish it regularly are still getting fish. A good sounder, and knowing how to use it will definitely be to your advantage. On the bait side of things, Paul Nelson has been bringing up countless catties at Windamere p to 74cm. The fish have been coming out of 10m of water and caught on worms. The silver Perch continue to take baits as well.

▲TopBurrendong Dam

The cod really are on at the moment. I received a photo from Dave Papworth of his brother Tim’s 4.8kg 70cm Murray Cod during the week. I know those Papworth boys have a few secret holes and they are keeping it that way… the never disclose too much information! True fisherman.

▲TopDunn’s Swamp

See the Fish N Trips Pub and Club Challenge Report at the end of this report. After many seasons of not one cod being caught, they have miraculously appeared and they are hitting with a vengeance. What’s even better to see is the range of sizes being caught. A stack in the 45 – 49cm range and also some big mammas over 70cm.

▲TopMiddle Cudgegong

The windy weather have been playing havoc with local fly-fisherman of late. Although plenty of trout have been spotted in the river, the wind has been sending the flies in the opposite direction! I did mange to get one client onto an absolute ripper of a rainbow on fly. Taking a bead head nymph fished under a royal wulf, the fish took around 5 minutes to land and swam away fine at the end of the battle.

▲TopLower Cudgegong

A was pleased to receive an email during the month from one very proud father, Adrian Johnson. After both he and his daughter Vanessa attended our Easter fishing clinic, they have been putting the new found skills to use every afternoon ridding the Cudgee of a few carp. They told me they know there must be a monster in there somewhere as one fish took the bait and was so big it snapped the line within seconds. Some new line on the reel and Vanessa had one on the bank. Well done!

▲TopOther News

The Centennial Social Angling Club has been resurrected after a 3 year dormant period. The major aim of the new version of the club is the organization of day and weekend trips away. These trips to include one to the coast and others to local fishing spots. Persons interested in this venture should enquire on telephone (02) 63741241 and ask for Barry Scoular.

Round 2 of the Fish N Trips Fishing Club and Pub Comp was held at Sunday on the picturesque Dunn’s Swamp. 3 teams battled it out for the title in Round 2 but it was the sheer number of competitors from the Lue Hotel team that earned them the victory in the final hour of play.

The rules for Round 2 were simple; each team to measure in as many legal sized live fish as they could catch, points were awarded for length and fish measured in dead were deducted 5 points. The first team to measure in a fish earned bonus 5 points for their team. The comp ran from 12 midday to 6pm.

The Lue Hotel, Court House Hotel and Federal Hotel battled it out for the honours. All teams were off to a good start with plenty of just undersized cod caught and released in the first few hours but no legal sized fish to get points on the board. The newcomers to the competition were the first to weigh in a fish at 2.10pm, a healthy yellowbelly at 51.5cm to earn the 5 point bonus but also lost 5 points as the fish could not be revived. This fish saw the Feddy take the lead, an honour which they held all the way until the final hour. The secret I am told were yabbies all the way from Moree. The Feddy were in the action again not long later losing an even bigger yellowbelly and a thumping silver perch.

By 3pm there had been 3 cod landed in the 45 to 47cm range and the action was heating up.

Junior Lue angler Jack Warner (who is rumored now to be under professional angling contract to the Lue Hotel) was once again the first from their team to weigh in a fish. After releasing an undersized cod jack pulled up tight on a 44.5cm Yellowbelly on a local Cudgee lure which was quickly measured and released alive.

Not long later the Court House Hotel team pulled up stumps for the day earning them the toilet seat award for the competition (previously held by Bec Neil’s Paragon Hotel team) for a total of 0 fish caught. Although they did claim to have lost a cod in the 70cm class.

The action stayed quite with a few undersized cod until the 5pm when the Lue Hotel brought in a flurry of fish. Blackie brought in a cod just over legal at 52cm (released) and a yella at 51.5cm (released) to give their team a handsome lead which was followed by a another 49cm fish for the Lue Team. Confident with their efforts the Lue headed back to headquarters for the presentation. The Federal Hotel releasing they had a meter and a half of fish to catch up also called it a day and headed back to the Lue for the presentation.

This is the point at which all die hard Mudgee anglers should take a long hard look at themselves. As not only did they let Lue retain the title but also give them bragging rights…… which I assure you they took full advantage of. They even erected a sign in the pub “Do Mudgee people know how to fish! If not lessons at Lue pub. $5 per lesson”. Which is a sentiment they could also be passed on to Kandos, Rylstone, Gulgong, Windeyer, etc…. anglers. It is now up to a rival challenger to take the title from Lue. In all fairness they deserved the win as they had the strongest numbers and were better anglers on the day. Well done Lue.

The next round will be held in the Spring and I invite all prospective pubs and clubs to have an input into an appropriate date/time and the style of competition so we can maximize numbers and therefore have a stronger competition.

Also big thank you to the National Parks and Wildlife Service for letting us hold the competition at Dunn’s Swamp in the Wollemi N.P.

Final Results:

• 1st – Lue Hotel (136 points)
• 2nd – Federal Hotel (46.5 points)
• 3rd – Court House Hotel (0 points)

The first Fish N Trips / Mudgee Camping World Easter School Holiday fishing clinics werr over the two Tuesdays in the school holidays. They were two great days with a big tour of a yabby farm by Peter Burns of Mudgee Yabbies where the kids learnt all aspects about yabbies, got their hands wet and also saw first hand CSIRO research with the ‘Super Yabbies’.

After collecting the bait, the group headed down to the river to put the bait to good use. After a quick lesson on threading the rods, tying knots, rigging, baits and casting, the line shit the water. After the initial excitement and tangles the anglers settled in to a peaceful afternoon. One older kid admitted he was ‘just glad to be out of the office’. After a patient wait the first fish of the afternoon was caught this caused some excitement. A bit more patience and the bites kept coming.

A big thanks to Peter Burns for the tour and also to Mudgee Camping World, their sponsorship meant all the kids headed home with a show bag (worthy of show bag pavilion at the Royal Easter Show) of tackle, instructional booklets and DVD’s.

Bluey