The Australian bass are biting and we are NOT made of sugar.

My best mate and I had a trip to our favourite bass stream on Saturday 31st October 2015.

It was sprinkling rain the entire afternoon most of the evening, but as Bruce says, "We are not made of sugar!"  We ended up landing 16 fish between us, (I landed 6), and hooked probably twice that number.  All fish were carefully released to fight another day.  Our hooks are barbless, for easy release and to ensure minimal damage is inflicted on the fish.  You tend to lose a few that way, but it doesn't matter - we would never keep an Australian bass.  We were surprised and a bit sad to see two or three European carp cruising about.  They looked like massive bass at first sight.

Australian bass are FANTASTIC sport, and require structure and depth.  I have been chasing trout for so long that I was out of touch on where to cast at first, but it all came quickly back.  There is truly nothing like the sound of a strike of a surface lure at night.  You cast the lure out into the darkness, hopefully landing in the middle of the stream away from overhanging trees.  Let it sit there for twenty seconds or so; a stunned creature that has just accidentally ended up in the water.  Engage the bail arm and start the retrieve. Plip, plop, plip, plop, plip, plop S-M-A-S-H !

We were wading in the middle of the little stream, because the banks were private property and way too overgrown to walk.  It was surprisingly warm for the end of October and I was very comfortable in T-shirt and footy shorts.  I stepped on something in the late afternoon that wriggled like mad and then clawed at my bare legs.  I jumped a metre in the air at the time, as there should be NOTHING like that in our fresh water streams around Newcastle.  I'd just teased Bruce about Bull sharks in the long chest-deep sections we'd had to wade not long before.  There is no weir on this river and theoretically there was nothing to stop a Bull shark from swimming up this little tributary.  I'd guessed it was just karma and a very large long necked tortoise, and thought nothing more about it.

On the way back to the car, the likely culprit was revealed in my headtorch beam!  I was very surprised to almost step on a large adult Eastern water dragon sound asleep on the bottom in waist deep water.  I think that he got the bigger surprise when I leant down and grabbed him to show Bruce.  We had a good laugh and quickly returned him to the water.  What a story he'd have to tell his mates about the dark and storm night when the bright lights came !