8.01.11 Ewen Maddock Character building excercise

[yakfly]

After chatting to stocking group president Dave (Bracey) on friday afternoon about the postponement of the social day
it was decided to hit the dam early as long as it wasnt teeming down.A quick call on awakening to check that
the weather conditions were still Ok and I was soon on my way north.
Arriving there just before 6am we were greeted by the sight of a closed gate on the treatment plant road,but
shortly after 6 the gate opened and we headed down to the launch area.
We loaded up and pushed off and worked our way across to the "sheltered"southern side of the dam but you could have
been forgiven for thinking that there was no strong wind warning apparent for the area as both sides of the dam
were relatively calm.For the next hour or so we trolled along and Dave filled me in on the history and some of the favoured fishing areas
of the dam (nothing like local knowledge to point you in the right direction when it comes to fishing a relatively new spot) until we arrived
up near the Eco resort.As it gets extremely weedy in this area we headed back to where we had picked up some good structure in a bay about half way up.
I let Dave go on ahead as I worked some of the weed beds in the first bay with both the spin and fly outfits but it was all to no avail.
Dave was convinced there were fish holding on a bit of structure we had found on the way up and he covered the area with a drifting and
trolling pattern while I headed into the weed beds with the surface lures and flyrod before changing reels after half an hour of fruitless
endeavour and putting on a sinking line to see if I could hunt up a bass.We spied another hardy soul across the dam and soon
after StevenM called over to say hello before heading up the dam with lures in tow while we worked our way back down the dam towards
the spillway.The weather was kind and the wind stayed down apart from a rain squall that lasted all of 3 minutes as we worked the weed and reed beds
with our surface lures.
It had gone 9am and by now we had worked our way down to near the spillway still without success.I swapped back to a floating setup and worked
the edges for a while with a dahlberg diver.
The weather seemed to be closing in and after a chatting to fellow yakkers Braden (Kreel) and his wife Elizabeth as well as Steve we all headed
in to the launch site.
By the time Dave and I had loaded up and StevenM had "forced" me to have a cold gold while we debriefed for the day it was just on 12 and the
rain had finally started to belt down.
It had been a tough morning but it was good to be out on the water and I had learnt more about the dam thanks to Dave and Steve which should
auger well for the future.As I do most of fishing solo it was also nice to catch up with some fellow forum and stocking group members.
The stocking group is hoping to put some fingerlings in the next month so,Ill be back there soon.

[Bracey]

Nice report Dave,

A fish or two would have been nice though. I was quite confident especially knowing a fellow yakka caught 7 good bass in a session with two of them being 52cm during last week.

It'll happen one day, I've just gotta keep casting for that majic 50cm mark.

Dave

[yakfly]

well mate theres still 355 days left in the year . Ill be happy to break 30cm especially on fly. 

[StevenM]

Two daves

good catching up with you lads

a fish or 2 would have been a bonus

[yakfly]

same here Steve as they say its called fishing not catching.

[Bracey]

Like wise Steve,

Shame the weather was a bit wet when we caught up at the end of the day.

Great to finally meet you and put another face to a name.

Dave