on orders over $125With all the recent floods, rains and wind, many anglers in the Bundaberg area are looking for alternate places to go fishing. One option is the Isis Impoundment - Lake Gregory.
Although this is a freshwater lake, saltwater anglers can have a lot of fun here if they change their fishing tactics and tackle. The bass that have been stocked in the lake are a great sport or fighting fish.
Although it is a small lake, it can be hard to fish, but by knowing what to look for it can be any easy and fun task.
The main features of the dam are points leading into bays and weedy edges as well as the isolated weed patches in the middle of the dam. These are the places we'd target for bass. The main basin of the dam can hold large schools of bass also, and the key is to use a fish finder to locate the schools and then target them with lures.
Most anglers these days have a soft plastics outfit suitable for bream fishing. This also can double as a great bass fishing outfit.
For those who don't have an outfit, usually a 7' graphite rod, a 2500 size reel loaded with 6lb braided line, and usually a 10lb leader will do the job. It would also pay to have a few lures suitable for bass. Anglers should at least have one bladed lure, one Jackall-type lure, a Spinnerbait and/or a handful of soft plastics that mimic small bait fish.
The bass can be caught almost anytime during the day, but fishing at different times requires different lures. Early morning and late evening is a good time to use surface lures, and during the day we prefer to use the blades, Jackalls and Spinnerbaits.
Now to the fishing - we try to target the weed edges by casting along the weed edge, not to the weed edge. By doing this, we cover a lot more area where the bass usually frequent, as the fish usually hunt up and down the weed edges during the day for their food. If you were to cast to the weed edges, the lure doesn't stay in the strike zone for long enough. The same happens for the clumps of weed in the middle of the dam - cast around them, rather than to them.
Now, to catch bass in the middle of the dam, find the fish on the fishfinder first, then cast or jig your Jackalls or bladed lures over the schools of bass and a slow, steady retrieve back to the boat should ensure a strike.
By using these methods we have successfully caught bass up to 53cm. Pound for pound, these are one the best fighting around and are a lot of fun.
So, next time the weather stops you going to your favourite spot, think outside the square and try something different.
Till next time,
Tim Mulhall
Green Acorn