matuka
15-04-2004, 09:39 AM
Fished Maroon yesterday (Tuesday April 13). Magnificent weather and best of all - only one ski boat on the dam. As I was launching I noticed how peaceful and quiet it was. Spoke to a woman at the ramp and enquired if she had been catching any. She replied that they hadn’t been fishing – they were water skiing but their boat had broken down. Trying hard to hide my glee I commiserated with her and headed down the dam praising Allah, the universe, the fishing gods and any other deity who may have had a hand in such good fortune coming my way. The world was good, only one ski boat and it had broken down!
Unfortunately the gods were not pleased with this attitude and decided to visit a plague upon me. Within half an hour the dam was alive with ski boats and jet skis. A houseful of skiers came down the hill from Pointro, another mob came out of the camping area and a group of jet skiers set up tents right on the water’s edge down around the nursery flat.
From then on it was constant noise and regularly being bounced around by the wakes of these buzzing pests.
At one stage I was casting flies to the bank along the Pointro flat when a boat pulling three skiers screamed through between me and the shore. I was no more than 25 yards from the bank with a line in the water! When I signalled my displeasure the driver and his horde of passengers gave me the two-finger salute and yelled lots of apparently nasty greetings. Fortunately their boat was so noisy I didn’t get to hear the details so my tender feelings and self-esteem remain intact.
Seriously though, someone is going to get killed at this dam soon if these idiots aren’t pulled into line. Not only do they ruin every one else’s enjoyment of such a beautiful place they are just plain dangerous in the way they drive their boats. On one previous trip I had a ski boat going flat out come within 5 metres of me when I was in a canoe. When I was there three weeks ago, and again last night, there were ski boats on the water after dark racing up and down with no lights on.
As for the fishing – it was very hard to find any significant schools on the sounder. When they were located they weren’t interested in any of the methods tried (flies, spinner baits, soft plastics, hard bodies). This wasn’t surprising given all the noise and the fact that the fish have been congregating and feeding in the shallows over recent weeks. Just on dark managed a couple of 38cm fish on Dahlbergs cast very close to the shore.
Obviously this sort of commotion has been going on all over Easter and will probably continue until the school holidays are over. So if really enjoy the sound of screaming engines, the adrenalin of close misses, the company of total morons and some really hard fishing, I’d be heading for Maroon in the near future.
Regards
Matuka
Unfortunately the gods were not pleased with this attitude and decided to visit a plague upon me. Within half an hour the dam was alive with ski boats and jet skis. A houseful of skiers came down the hill from Pointro, another mob came out of the camping area and a group of jet skiers set up tents right on the water’s edge down around the nursery flat.
From then on it was constant noise and regularly being bounced around by the wakes of these buzzing pests.
At one stage I was casting flies to the bank along the Pointro flat when a boat pulling three skiers screamed through between me and the shore. I was no more than 25 yards from the bank with a line in the water! When I signalled my displeasure the driver and his horde of passengers gave me the two-finger salute and yelled lots of apparently nasty greetings. Fortunately their boat was so noisy I didn’t get to hear the details so my tender feelings and self-esteem remain intact.
Seriously though, someone is going to get killed at this dam soon if these idiots aren’t pulled into line. Not only do they ruin every one else’s enjoyment of such a beautiful place they are just plain dangerous in the way they drive their boats. On one previous trip I had a ski boat going flat out come within 5 metres of me when I was in a canoe. When I was there three weeks ago, and again last night, there were ski boats on the water after dark racing up and down with no lights on.
As for the fishing – it was very hard to find any significant schools on the sounder. When they were located they weren’t interested in any of the methods tried (flies, spinner baits, soft plastics, hard bodies). This wasn’t surprising given all the noise and the fact that the fish have been congregating and feeding in the shallows over recent weeks. Just on dark managed a couple of 38cm fish on Dahlbergs cast very close to the shore.
Obviously this sort of commotion has been going on all over Easter and will probably continue until the school holidays are over. So if really enjoy the sound of screaming engines, the adrenalin of close misses, the company of total morons and some really hard fishing, I’d be heading for Maroon in the near future.
Regards
Matuka