Well after close to a 6 year hiatus & change of plans we made the 1750km haul up to Lake Kinchant - This was going to be something different - new deccy (Dave) a barra newby & fishing out of the Barcrusher ( not exactly the right boat for fishing a weedy barra dam ) but hey - I was back.
we were prewarned that fishing was quite tough but I still had some confidence that we'd do alright
Set up camp reasonably quickly & decided to go for a quick flick ( no idea where to go & the lay of the land) ....... went straight to the hollowbellies & missed a bite before jumping off 3 ....... guess I was a bit rusty before landing an 88cm fish
Pulled the pin after a couple of hours & went back to camp for a few bevies & to catch up with a couple of old mates who were also there.
Next day was a bit of a reccy to try to get a feel for the place & it was certainly different to what I had experienced on previous trips - most of my happy hunting holes were either lily beds or heavily weeded ...... this was a whole new kettle of fish . There was some nice clear water in some of the bays - so it was going to be alright for spotting fish.
As it turned out - it was a real grind - Davey lost his barra virginity in the first 24 hrs & we were basically getting only 1 fish per session & the odd missed or jumped fish . Camp fire discussions put this down to being quite cool ( water temps low 26s) & a constant cool SE wind) .
The other boys did have a couple of multiple fish sessions - though they fished pretty hard with 4am starts & late finishes ........ Me I didn't want to break my new deckie & let him get some sleep .
So we did have some highlights ...... Dave landed a 90cm fish - before we lost total power ( rookie error) requiring a tow back to camp . I did manage a few fish during daylight hours on old school stiffies . Landed one at camp on surface.
As usual - there were some boat issues - leccy stopped working & we had to bypass the breakers / charges to get running again . . The new HDS 16 & 12 Live sounders draw a heck of a lot of power - particularly when using active target - learnt the hard way when left the isolator on both .... LiFfePO4 - just shut down.
A small dam like kinchant & you just dont get the charge into the batteries over a few days of fishing ( need to recharge the batteries every couple of days). Then we had a blocked tell tail which gave us an overheating issue - the boys tried to clear it back at camp to no avail (funny thing was that I asked Davey the next day as we were packing up where were they trying to unblock ....... they were not clearing the tell tale but the little exhaust outlet next to it - I should have watched what they were doing ..... took me 15 mins to do once I got home.
With regards to Active target - We landed 3 of the 9 fish after spotting them in scout mode - cast & hook up. A dam like Kinchant with all of its weed & weed towers makes it difficult to use it effectively though our last session we did use it to watch a couple of barra chasing bait - very cool.
Anyhow that's about it ...... worth going for the trip (good company & nice to catch up with old mates ) - Would probably go back on a new moon rather than full moon - During our last morning I saw & counted 17 barra off one bank sitting in a meter of water digesting their meal from the night before .... .several I could have touched with my fishing rod . Not a lot of fish & a bit of a grind when compared to previous trips where we have landed up to16 fish in 1 session ..... I'll be back in 2023
Chris
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Originally Posted by NAGG
Well after close to a 6 year hiatus & change of plans we made the 1750km haul up to Lake Kinchant - This was going to be something different - new deccy (Dave) a barra newby & fishing out of the Barcrusher ( not exactly the right boat for fishing a weedy barra dam ) but hey - I was back.
Fish for a few hours & pull 40 amps ..... then you have a 5 min run ( less) & you are back at camp - not a chance in hell at putting even a few amps back into the batteries. 
