Page 78 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing mag

The extraordinarily talented and equally modest freshwater maestro Kevin Clark hooked up while looking for cold weather golden perch during a visit to Queensland. Note the Garmin side-scan sonar, a brilliant piece of fishfinding technology for locating schooling goldens.
CWinter gold makes the effort worthwhile
ONTRARY to can make a world of was warmer, if only by what a few of difference to angling two degrees.
my good friends success. A comment to my
Fishing for Sport
by NEIL SCHULTZ
from southern states I recall a couple of wife, “If there was only
tease me about, we do actually experience winter here in Queens- land.
in local waters.
Those frosty morn-
sonable chances of suc- cess on their mid-sized angling target species, namely golden perch.
trips that highlight this principal, both were to barramundi lakes in cool weather.
going to be one fish caught in the lake that afternoon it was likely to be from that bay” proved prophetic, with not one but three cruis- ing barramundi finding our lures irresistible.
Mornings with ice on the ground and the car windscreen are proof positive that it does indeed get cold in the sunshine State, particu- larly in inland areas.
ings almost invariably evolve into gloriously warm and windless days, perfect for a fish- ing session on one of the numerous lakes in southern Queensland.
Numbers caught will be nowhere near those that can be expected in the hot spring bite, but the average size of winter goldens can cer- tainly make the effort worthwhile.
August is the worst month to be trying to catch barra regardless of location, but we had stopped at Lake Awoonga to break the drive home from the tropics.
The other obvious example of the effects of slight differences in water temperature on winter lakes was during another barra trip, with freshwater fishing leg- end and all-round nice bloke Kevin Clark.
My local stomping grounds around the Lockyer Valley see winter minimums of five degrees below freezing every win- ter, but happily that doesn’t put a halt to angling opportunities
That there is a reliable winter bass fishery in the impounded waters east of the Great Di- viding Range has been common knowledge for at least three decades.
Before we delve into the specifics of gold- en perch behaviour, an overview of the prin- cipals of cold weather angling for freshwater natives may be helpful.
Having the boat in tow, it made sense to go for a look around the lake if for no other reason than to flush the salt from Hinchinbrook channel from the rig.
Caught on a B65UD Boomerang while trolling from the Hobie kayak, this fish was almost pure white. Golden perch can range from this colour to virtually black depending on water clarity.
Fish will also either become inactive when water temperature drops with passing cold fronts, or seek out warmer pockets within their home range.
Here we could see garfish chasing insects emerging from after- noon hatching, and checking the sounder read-out confirmed our theory that the water
That the weather had turned to custard in the form of an unseason- al cold front within an hour of launching the boat, did nothing to lessen my resolve.
Page 78 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, July 2020
A couple of degrees difference in water temperature in winter
* continued P79 www.bnb shing.com.au
Fortunately, for those who fish the western lakes, there exist rea-
Regardless of the sea- son, predatory species will be found some- where close to their pri- mary food source.
Having checked out a couple of my most reliable spots to find them devoid of any fish life, we idled around into a shallow bay with breeze blowing into it and afternoon sun on the water.
I had promised Kev that I would put him onto a forty-pound bar- ramundi during a long weekend trip, and I was willing to lose sleep and blood if it was required to avoid disappointing the kindly gentleman.