Stottles
15-02-2009, 01:03 PM
Now my fathers been helping run the Bulahdelah bass bash for the past 15 years or so, however this year was the first time I've entered into the comp. First of all ill cover some of the ground rules for the comp just to remove any confusion during the post.
1. All fish need to be alive and in good health in order to get Weighed in for the comp. They are then released back into the river to live to fight another day.
2. A weigh in station was positioned at the boat ramp on the Myall river, just under the bridge into Bulahdelah .
3. Comp Started 6am(i think) Saturday morning and ended Sunday morning at 11am. All fisho's wanting to weigh in a catch must get to the weigh in before 11am.
After a cruisie 2 hour drive Friday afternoon (I'm located on the central coast) we arrived at my fathers house where we got all the gear we'd need for the weekend. After heading down to the river and setting up camp (drinking coldies and pitching the tints) we decided to get our gear ready for the following morning. Woke at around 5am Saturday morning (slightly intoxicated) and headed out to begin our trip. The next few hours consisted of some solid bass fishing, cruising the banks, getting surface strikes, climbing trees that some how managed to catch my lure :P Didnt land any fish but missed a few strikes and seeing how it was my first experience fishing for bass i was stoked i didnt loose any lures. :)
After returning to camp for some breakie, we decided to head out after some bream seeing how the bass arent as productive during the middle of the day. Due to the fact we weren't catching anything legal and it was incredibly hot we returned to camp to save ourselfs from getting even more sun burnt then we already where. After dodging a goanna i decided the have a little nap, (beers + sun = sleepy) then it was back on for the bass. The current leader had a solid bass at 1.11kg and failing to land any fish, my Saturday ended around 8pm.
Sunday morning was nice and quite with an eerie cloud of fog slowly crawling its way up the river, perfect time to land that winning fish. After swapping a few lures i finally hooked my first bass. The little bugger scared the crap out of me, wasn't expecting a hit at the time as my lure was halfway to the boat and not realizing just how hard hitting bass can be. After a fight lasting a few minutes and getting the fish right to the side of the boat, *pop*he spat the hooks, bugger! Not long after that, i hooked another, and managed to land him after a solid fight. Wasn't an overly large bass at 36cm but a good fish none the less. A few minutes of admiring how beautiful a fish they are i released my first bass back under the log i had ripped him out of.
At around noon Sunday we made our way down to the Bulahdelah bowling club where the presentation was to take place. Now i cant remember any names of the winners but the guy who won had a 1.43kg Bass. He also won the Biggest 'other' fish category with a nice flatty close to 2kg. With over $3000 dollars in prizes a good time was had by all.
The categories for the comp where as follows, with the top 3 getting prizes;
Juniors
Juniors Biggest Bream
Juniors Biggest Eel
Juniors Biggest Bass
Adults
Biggest Bass
Biggest Other
Biggest Bream
Prizes not handed out the the top fishermen in these categories are put towards a raffle for everyone who was registered within the comp. All prizes are sponsored and all proceeds go towards stocking the river with more bass fingerlings.
All in all it was an awesome weekend, and a fun time was had by most, except a local boy who ended up getting a lure buried in his scalp, after a quick trip to the hospital tho he was stitched up and back fishing in no time.
The Bulahdelah Bass Bash is a great outing for experienced fisho's, beginners, familys and singles. It occurs on a yearly basis during the first 'full' weekend in February. All are welcome to attend and entree fee is $10, if anyone has any questions please feel free to send me a message and ill answer all that i can.
Hope you enjoyed my little story, nearly as much as i did catchin them bass :)
Cheers
Stottles
1. All fish need to be alive and in good health in order to get Weighed in for the comp. They are then released back into the river to live to fight another day.
2. A weigh in station was positioned at the boat ramp on the Myall river, just under the bridge into Bulahdelah .
3. Comp Started 6am(i think) Saturday morning and ended Sunday morning at 11am. All fisho's wanting to weigh in a catch must get to the weigh in before 11am.
After a cruisie 2 hour drive Friday afternoon (I'm located on the central coast) we arrived at my fathers house where we got all the gear we'd need for the weekend. After heading down to the river and setting up camp (drinking coldies and pitching the tints) we decided to get our gear ready for the following morning. Woke at around 5am Saturday morning (slightly intoxicated) and headed out to begin our trip. The next few hours consisted of some solid bass fishing, cruising the banks, getting surface strikes, climbing trees that some how managed to catch my lure :P Didnt land any fish but missed a few strikes and seeing how it was my first experience fishing for bass i was stoked i didnt loose any lures. :)
After returning to camp for some breakie, we decided to head out after some bream seeing how the bass arent as productive during the middle of the day. Due to the fact we weren't catching anything legal and it was incredibly hot we returned to camp to save ourselfs from getting even more sun burnt then we already where. After dodging a goanna i decided the have a little nap, (beers + sun = sleepy) then it was back on for the bass. The current leader had a solid bass at 1.11kg and failing to land any fish, my Saturday ended around 8pm.
Sunday morning was nice and quite with an eerie cloud of fog slowly crawling its way up the river, perfect time to land that winning fish. After swapping a few lures i finally hooked my first bass. The little bugger scared the crap out of me, wasn't expecting a hit at the time as my lure was halfway to the boat and not realizing just how hard hitting bass can be. After a fight lasting a few minutes and getting the fish right to the side of the boat, *pop*he spat the hooks, bugger! Not long after that, i hooked another, and managed to land him after a solid fight. Wasn't an overly large bass at 36cm but a good fish none the less. A few minutes of admiring how beautiful a fish they are i released my first bass back under the log i had ripped him out of.
At around noon Sunday we made our way down to the Bulahdelah bowling club where the presentation was to take place. Now i cant remember any names of the winners but the guy who won had a 1.43kg Bass. He also won the Biggest 'other' fish category with a nice flatty close to 2kg. With over $3000 dollars in prizes a good time was had by all.
The categories for the comp where as follows, with the top 3 getting prizes;
Juniors
Juniors Biggest Bream
Juniors Biggest Eel
Juniors Biggest Bass
Adults
Biggest Bass
Biggest Other
Biggest Bream
Prizes not handed out the the top fishermen in these categories are put towards a raffle for everyone who was registered within the comp. All prizes are sponsored and all proceeds go towards stocking the river with more bass fingerlings.
All in all it was an awesome weekend, and a fun time was had by most, except a local boy who ended up getting a lure buried in his scalp, after a quick trip to the hospital tho he was stitched up and back fishing in no time.
The Bulahdelah Bass Bash is a great outing for experienced fisho's, beginners, familys and singles. It occurs on a yearly basis during the first 'full' weekend in February. All are welcome to attend and entree fee is $10, if anyone has any questions please feel free to send me a message and ill answer all that i can.
Hope you enjoyed my little story, nearly as much as i did catchin them bass :)
Cheers
Stottles