Cressbrook Dam

[Steve_Kanowski]

Hi everyone

Went up to Cressbrook last weekend for a club trip.Overcast and windy at times but managed 20 bass from 28cm to 41cm on fly by fishing the edges and points. Trolling and bait fishing proved absolutley fruitless for other members. Anyone contemplating a trip to Cressbrook will be pleased to know it is now permissable to leave your boat in the water overnight.
Cheers.

[Fitzy]

Hey that's good news Steve, thanks for the report.

[craigie]

G'day Steve,

I spent the weekend of Sept 1&2 up at Cressbrook and had a ball. The Saturday morning was a 4 hour Tuition/Charter with the local Guide Jason Ehrlich. He gave me the run down on the use of "Sliders" and where to fish them. Caught 29 Bass for the weekend(including the Charter) with the help of a mate, with the larger fish nudging the 40cm mark.
Two weeks earlier I was up there trolling every lure I had and did not even get a hit (same as some of your club members).

That's a top little Camping area, great to be able to leave our boats in the water overnight again.

As I live in Brisbane, I'm now faced with the Dilema of by passing Somerset Dam to drive on to Cressbrook ??? Life's tough !!!!!

Cheers
Craigie

[Steve_Kanowski]

What a tough choice,fished Somerset quite a bit lately,practicing for the Bass pro.Not catching the same numbers as at Cressbrook, but the size sure makes up for this. 5 fish in an hour one afternoon and 4 of them topped 50 cm. Took my brother there the following week and he caught his first fish ever on fly,a bass of 50cm on the dot, couldn,t get the smile off his face for days.

[The_Walrus]

Enjoy Sommerset while you can!!

No daily boating permits anymore, cheapest is a weekly? for $11.

A friend of mine spoke to some mid-level management of the water board and was told that they don't give a rat's ass about campers, tourists, boaters fishers etc..., are not interested in providing/maintaing any facillities and as they're a private company care even less about "social" obligation.

Presonally, I will not tick somerset or wivenhoe when I renew my SIP.

Luc

[Fitzy]

That's a your call Luc. Just so long as you've got a SIP permit you'll be fine. Just hope you go else where to kill any fish.

[WHITTO]

Hey Luc, Sounds like you don't do alot of fishing up at Somerset, I can tell you 4/5 years ago the amenities that are currently available to Campers Boaties and Fishers ect were not available, That does not sound like a board that give a Rats arse about amenities or maitenance. Whitto ???

[sav]

Hi Steve
Was up at Cressbrook with Craigie on 1/2 Sept. Never seen so much surface activity from the gar. Must be a billion of them in Cressbrook now - worse than rabbits.
Won't be long before the size of bass will consistently match Somerset with that much to eat in the dam.
The facilities were great but that didn't stop the almighty storm that kept most of us in the BBQ shelter till late at night.
See you there sometime
Sav

[Brian]

Hi,

That makes for an expensive outing to somerset if you only go there for a day on the water, not only talking fisherman here.

I know you can get a monthly / yearly boating permit which if you intend doing a few trips these would be more cost efficient. Not sure of the cost of these now. As for the amenities yes they have improved heaps and there has been a lot of other work around the kirkleagh foreshores over the past few years. A lot of money has been injected into the place and that has been overdue for many a year.

I have fished there for many years and i really enjoyed my times there, but it is disheartening to have rangers openly say they don't want fisherman on the dam and i've had that told to me on a number of occassions over the years, and i'm not the only one to be told that. Personlly i am somewhat disillusioned with the freshwater scene and have not ventured near the stuff very much at all in a couple of years now.

The managers of this place should be promoting this place to get more people to visit not drive them away. The place seems like it's just a money grabbing venture unless it has changed ??? Anyway for me i guess it's more the boating permit at this impoundment that keeps me away and while it is there i dare say i want be. There are plenty of other great impoundments in Sth East Qld to fish.

If memory serves me correct, currently somerset is the 3rd most fished place in Qld (fitz's you maybe able to correct me on that) not sure where it was say 5 years ago ??? and I will be interested to see where it is in a couple of years. I dare say there are changes coming to this place and i hope it is in the positive.

As for me well i just go to the salt and have been having a ball without the hassles of a permit for this a permit for that.

Alas i will be dropping the rig in some freshwater later this year hopefully this will get me back into fishing freshwater like i used to. I may even try over these school hols if my deckie is so inclined.

Yes i will have my SIP and well we release all my fish so no hassles with the kill factor. Still cannot work out why i gotta have a SIP when i release ALL my fish in freshwater. Easier to police i guess if everyone has one.

enough said

[Fitzy]

Brian,
Somerset is 4th according to a recent survey. Don't doubt it either after thamount of boats there yesterday.
There are some indications that SEQWCorp may drop the boating permit soon. It is worth noting that $30-40 000 is spent by the SWQWCorp annually on fish fingerling purchases, this will stop if the boating permit is stopped. Also note that skiers also need a boating permit & are thus paying for some of our fish.
Officially they are the biggest single contributor to fish stocking in SE Qld. (not trying to defend SEQWCorp)
They've spent 3 million on facitlies at Kirkleagh in the last few years.
With Kirkleagh being up for lease, there may be a whole new structure for things there. I can't see it being more restrictive. If I had the place I'd be trying to get as many as possible to come. #
I think that the boating permit should be scrapped, but we're going to end up with double the amount of skiers. Though I don't see a problem with paying a camping fee. If it was free we'd have thousands there lined up for free hot showers & using the Bar B Qs every night.

[lordy]

We got hit with the fee at Wivenhoe a couple of weeks ago. $11 is a lot to pay for 5 hours on the water, even split 2 ways. Given that we pay the SIP to stock it, and car rego to get there, petrol taxes, and boat taxes. To get pay for the right to fish an understocked dam on top of that is a bit rich.

Even the viability of collecting the cash is suspect.

They have to pay a staff member and a ranger to collect and police it, provide a boat, car and offices. So it must cost them at least $100K to collect the money.

Thats 9000 boaters at $11 per weekend. That would require 180 boats a week to launch (more if they have the $75/year ticket). When we were there on a beautiful sunny Sunday there was only one other boat there.

At least its a "job creation" scheme.

[Fitzy]

Hi JC,
Big W is always gonig to be understocked I'm affraid. It will however be a good place for those that are prepared to pay whatever fees & has some local knowlege.
I agree that fishos are way over taxed. Hope the boating fee for these lakes os abolished.
Try paying the fee that I have to for Tarcoola, $1500/annum for just Somerset. That hurts.

[Brian]

Well i knew they were up in top most visited location. My point was, to many persons it is not attractive with the boating permit, as it makes a expensive day trip.

As with the skiers i've really only had a couple of incident with them, and those two persons were rewarded with a visit to there campsite NO MORE HASSLES . As the BLOODY ranger at the time did not give a shit even when one of the acts was done in plan view and the ranger was STANDING NEXT TO ME. Had words of encouragement with him to.

As with ALL boaters on the water it needs to be policed and if you do the wrong thing GONE. People will soon get the message.

As for them being a big asset to the stocking fair enough and defend on that score no problems.

As for the lease i would love to take over the lease of kirkleagh camping area. I feel i could make that one of the best locations for many to visit and enjoy the place. But on past dealings with this management group they are WHY to restrictive on WAY to many things and it would not be a viable options to deal with them to make a living.

I don't have a problem with a camping fee but $10.00 per vehicle per night off season & $15.00 peak season is way to dear (unless that has changed ???) I wonder if the day fee is still there on long weekend etc $6.00. this alone can make it a dear day trip if you intend on dropping a rig on the water with $11.00 on top of that.

Fitz do you know what the numbers are that visit somerset each year ??? i'll take a stab 100.000. If only 50% (at 10.00)camp 1 night that's $500.000. I'm sure much more than that is raised from camping fee's. What i'm getting at is it is could be a much better location with less restrictions and with the RIGHT management in place i feel a lot more pepole would visit the place.

If anglers see less restrictions they will WANT to fish there as it's a top class venue more and more would tick the box on the SIPs permit, as i'm sure the place at the moment is losing people to other locations and the SIP funds is less for somerset.

[Fitzy]

Hi Brian,
I don't think there's any easy fix to the problem. I would also like to see the boating permit dropped. I didn't think you had to pay a daytrip pass if you were only boating & had a permit? Not sure as I've never been asked. I have an annual permit & just go straight in.
I know what you mean in regard to working within their requirements. Is a nightmare organising the Kirkleagh Klassic every year. That's why ended up leasing the whole area for the comp, makes thing a bit easier, yet more expensive.
These fees must not be too restrictive if Somerset attracts so many visitors at present. The potential for this place is enormous. I would also like to apply for the lease but am concerned about unworkable guidelines.

[The_Walrus]

That's a your call Luc. Just so long as you've got a SIP permit you'll be fine. Just hope you go else where to kill any fish.

Fitzy,

I have not killed a bass in at least 20+years.

In my local area, (Pine Rivers) I average 70 to 80 bass per season.

I have no problems the SIP, but I do have problems with the bloody minded attitude of the water board and sunwater especially since both these bodies were privatised. Both these set of idiots seem to firmly beleive that they're a lwas unto themselves.

Luc