Moogerah 2,3,4 Jan

[NormC]

A breif report on my first Moogerah trip. In a word.......... RAIN.

Not enough to make much difference to the dam level, but it rained most of the time we were there. I put the boat in on Tuesday afternoon for a brief session after setting up camp. This took a bit longer than usual as it was our first trip with the fold up aluminium trailer along for the tinnie (which we carry on the Hilux roof and tow the camper trailer). Very windy. Picked up a couple of small bass. Both released

On Wednesday it rained just about all day. Had a relaxing day reading and drinking coffee, but I got a bit restless about mid afternoon and went out anyway. Five or six small bass and a monster turtle! All released. Lucky I had the 'Drizabone' with me.

We were leaving on Thursday (today), but I went out for a morning fish to see if I could improve my position. No rain for the first hour or so, then it poured. Stayed out anyway. Just two bass again, both around 300mm and released.

All the fish except two were caught on SPs. The other two were on small hard bodies. Tried bibless rattlers and briefly a spinnerbait, but no joy.

As reported before, the main boat ramp is pretty much unusable. Large rocks in front of the ramp and the end of the concrete is 10m or so out of the water. A rough gravel ramp has been established about 200m to the right (looking at the water)of the main ramp. This ramp is quite good, but a guy got bogged on it trying to get his ski boat out. He sat there and spun all four wheels and made a mess. Another guy came down and towed him out. Good on him, but to celebrate, he did half a dozen doughnuts on the soft black soil on the ramp approaches. Real smart people. I was out in the middle of the dam watching this nonesense. The ramp is still usable with care and with a couple of days of sunshine, it will be fine.

The other turkey award goes to the bloke who put in red claw pots. They were in less than 2 metres of water, but with 25 metre ropes. I hooked a nice bass and ended up tangled around one of the ropes about 20 metres from the float. Not happy Jan.

Apart from all this, we had a great time. It's great to get away for a couple of days.

There is some good structure to cast around up the 'river' upstream from the dam. Mostly pretty shallow and a few stumps just under the surface to avoid, but worth a look for some interest.

Also, just out from the gravel ramp, there is a mound of rocks or something. Deep all round it, but it gets as shallow as 3 ft in one place. Picked up a few fish casting plastics around it, but all pretty small.

The big dissapointment of of the trip is that my wife still hasn't caught a bass on a lure. She has caught a couple on shrimp in the Hinze, but I'm trying to get her into lure fishing. Because of the rain, she only came out once though. Not dedicated (or silly) enough to go out in the rain.

Sorry, no pics. I kept saying 'when I get a big one, I'll take a pic, but it never happened.

[bdowdy]

was oping to get there this sat but doesnt look good, hope things clear up before sat cheers bdowdy.

[bdm56]

Good to hear you made it out there and found everything ok.

And yes it seems to mostly rain or threaten when I'm out there lately.

At least you caught a couple of fish so it wasn't all bad, there's always next time

[wrip109]

I was out there a week ago, in between the rain. A guy used the gravel ramp but then left his four wheel drive on the ramp complete with his trailer still in the water. When he decided that he had finished fishing he put his boat back on the trailer and left, oblivious to the others who could not use the ramp while he was out.

While I was there it was like fishing in a washing machine due to the many skiers. Who said they are not allowed out when the water is so low?

Phil

[thepato]

Unfortunately I've seen a few people leave their trailers in the water at Moogerah at the main launching areas. When you have a 2 wheel drive there are only one or two places to launch. These idiots are too lazy or stupid to move their vehicles forward 10 meters. It's alright if they stay away from the main launching zones then no-one would care.