bent1
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Registered: 01-2005
Location: Bruny Island Tasmania
Posts: 122
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Prowling Craigbourne Dam
Hi Guys, after being inspired by a couple of the sportsfish tasmania boy's Craigbourne exploits i figured i should get up there and give it a lash while there were still some salmon in there. What i was hoping for even more was a brook trout of any size as i was yet to catch one. I ended up with 4 small brookies for the day which was sweet, definately a high point for me to get a new species.
I had 14 salmon strikes in the 7 hours i was there and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I had been fishing for around 15 minutes when i hooked up and quickly landed a smaller fish around the 2.5kg mark. I decided to keep this one and chucked it in the esky i had in the tankwell of the yak.
My next strike was a ball tearer and after a 5 or so minute tussle i had a BIG salmon? Brown? at the net. I stuck the net in its face and it swam right through the net tearing a big hole in it. The lure got tangled in the cotton mesh on the way through and i reckon you could of heard me swearing back at Hobart.
I re-rigged and wondered how i was gunna land my next fish without a net. I soon hooked back up to one around the 2.5kg mark, got it in to the yak before it jumped back out of the yak. This ended up happening a total of 5 times with all the fish around the 2.5kg mark.
By this stage i really had the s##ts and decided it was a good time to hit the shore and have some breakfast. While unloading my crap from inside the front hatch i discovered that i had my small gaff still in there. I thought stuff the no gaffing trout or salmon rule and went back for more.
I ended up keeping 4 salmon, 1 at around 9-10 pounds and 3 around the 2.5kg mark. I intentionally released 4 more salmon with 3 being the normal size 2.5kg and one nice fish again around the 9lb mark.
By now i was thinking my luck was on the improve but it wasn't. While trolling parallel to the timber i had a big strike which screamed into the trees and started boiling on the surface. I didn't see exactley how big it was but its tail was bigger than the two 9 pounders. It ended poping the line before i could get in there with the gaff and my second lure of the day was gone.
I tied on the last one the same that i had and went for a troll up the other end of the dam. I had only travelled around 1/2 km when i lost my lure to a deep water snag. By this stage i though stuff it i am going home to my vodka bottle. I pulled in to shore and got a dude to snap couple of pics of me in the yak with the biggest salmon. After telling him how to use the auto focus and take a pic, he took a couple of pics (or so he told me). I get home and upload the pics to the puter and the silly pecker didn't end up taking them. All i can assume is that he either made a geniune mistake and thought he took them or he was being a wanker and didn't take them on purpose.
I ended the day with 4 salmon kept, 4 salmon intentionally released and 6 salmon un-intentionally released. The 4 brookies that i released were all small with fork lengths beween 26-32cm. I also culled 2 redfin around the 30cm mark.
I am jacked because i didn't put much effort in to taking any pics myself so i only ended up with some pretty crappy pics. I will post them anyway on the new web site when it is rocking.
It was windy and choppy and again the prowler keeps on amazing me. No hull slap, a big pussy cat to steer/parallel drift along structure , low vis khaki which i think was the reason why more fish hit the deck of the prowler than any of the other boats there today and when you paddle hard to come home man she gets up and boogies. What a boat.
Catch ya Bent
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"Katana" OK Prowler XT
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26/Aug/2005, 11:15 pm
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yaker
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Location: Brisbane
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Re: Prowling Craigbourne Dam
Great report Bent. Just gotta love catching a new species regardless of whether they're a keeper or not (a 32cm fork-length Brookie sounds okay to me - what's the limit?). I remember reading about Brookies years ago when the were introduced and going to be "the next big thing" but they didn't seem to acclimatise like Browns and Rainbows and I got to believe they were a rarity, but it seems they've established in some places.
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27/Aug/2005, 12:14 am
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bent1
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Registered: 01-2005
Location: Bruny Island Tasmania
Posts: 122
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Re: Prowling Craigbourne Dam
Hi Tony, mate the legal size is 25cm overall length of which all of these were, but i had around 15kg of Atlantics from the 4 i kept, and intentionally released another 4 which would also of had a total bag weight of around 15kg so i was happy to let the little chappies go. There is one dam down here that has brookies over 3kg with the occasional 10 pound fish recorded.The IFS (inland fishing service) stocks a few dams heavily with novelty fish such as XOS rainbows, brookies and the atlantics. They recently released a few 20+ pound trophy browns into craigbourne which was what i was hunting for.I can email anyone some pics if they are interested of yesterdays fish.
Catch ya Bent
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"Katana" OK Prowler XT
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27/Aug/2005, 2:00 pm
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PoddyMullet
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Registered: 12-2004
Location: Melbourne VIC
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Re: Prowling Craigbourne Dam
G Day bent, I've been keeping an eye on the sportsfish posts and noticed Craigbourne Dam is really firing with some awesome fish and sessions. I've never been there but was wondering if it's always been stocked the way it seems to have been recently, or is it that that sportfish blokes are fishing it more regularly now? Good job on brookies and atlantics, if I was taking home a grand bag of salmon like that the stuff ups would fade pretty quickly 
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Perception Swing & Dagger Drifter II. Wouldn't one yak be enough?
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27/Aug/2005, 4:08 pm
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bent1
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Registered: 01-2005
Location: Bruny Island Tasmania
Posts: 122
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Re: Prowling Craigbourne Dam
Hi Poddy, mate the IFS has taken a pro active approach to falling numbers of inland fishing licences and have heavily stocked a few waterways close to the large populations. they satrted this towards the end of last season. They have also relocated some huge browns from lake cresent in to craigbourne with a few of them 20+ pounds. Are you still moving down here dude as it is going off in a major way.
Catch ya Bent
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"Katana" OK Prowler XT
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27/Aug/2005, 6:19 pm
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