Canberra

CANBERRA Toby Grundy

The weather is warming up here in the ACT and that can only mean one thing for us Aussie bass tragics: it is time to head to the South Coast and walk the creeks that flow into the Clyde River. LOCAL LAKES

The fishing on Lake Burley Griffin has been a bit hit-and-miss over the last few weeks. While there have been some great yellas caught right around Kurrajong Point, there have only been a few good-sized redfin landed, and most of these fish were caught along the edges of the concrete Although there have been plenty of carp caught by bait anglers using bread and corn, and also by lure fishos using grub-tail plastics around the edges at Greenway, there haven’t been too many golden perch caught. Those who have caught yellas have either been fishing the deeper areas of the lake or targeting the pylons at the bridge. Small spinnerbaits are the best lure to use in this location at this time of year, but vibes and blades are also worth a crack, especially when slow rolled deep along the edges of the spillway. The Ecogear ZX blade is always worth casting if everything else fails. By using a hop-andpause retrieve, sometimes it is possible to coax a reddie

Lake Ginninderra is starting to fish well.

I’ve been chasing bass for many years now and always look forward to the October bass bite. While the fishing is not always as red hot as it is in the summer months, I tend to catch bigger fish and more often than not, I don’t see another angler for days at a time. The recent weather events will play a part but I’m hoping this bass season will be a truly memorable one, and if you are a Canberra fisho who has always wanted to chase bass, now is the time. Pack a few small divers, surface lures and plastics, and head up into one of the creeks along the Clyde River and get casting. walls behind the yacht club. We have had a lot of rain and this has meant that the lake hasn’t properly settled for some time. If we get a run of warm days with little or no rain, LBG should really start to fire up, and there will be plenty of action in close for shore-based anglers. TN50s worked slow around the edges on windy days will be go-to lure over the coming weeks, and once the really hot weather sets in, I’ll switch to small grub-tail plastics and focus my attention on the deeper drop-offs near Lady Denman Drive.

The action on Lake Tuggeranong has been slow. Bass season has started.

is a good way to trigger a reaction bite from a chasing golden perch or redfin.

Now is the time to start targeting golden perch with vibes and blades.

school into feeding.

Lake Ginninderra is on the improve. It had been a pretty slow start to spring on the lake but the larger golden perch are starting to hit lures. A wriggler-style plastic in the 65-80mm size range rigged on a 1/8oz jighead is the best choice if you’re fishing the edge of the weed. There are also plenty of redfin on the chew around the edges, and the concrete wall near the college is one of best spots to cast for a reddie in the late afternoon sun. For those with a yak or boat, head towards the dam wall and cast towards the rocks and work a small diver along the middle of the water column.

Yerrabi Pond is worth a mention as the yellas are hitting lures right now. Small shallow-running divers in darker colours are the best choice, as these lures swim along the top 60cm or so of the water column, thus avoiding the weed. A short quick wind followed by a long pause SURROUNDS

At the time of writing, Googong Dam is at 100% capacity and has been full for a while now. This means that the dam has settled, the water is clear and the fishing is good. There are redfin hunting along the shallow margins of the dam near the entrance to Shannon’s Inlet, and golden perch are hitting lures off the points near Bradleys. The middle of the dam is providing excellent deepwater jigging opportunities for huge yellas, but the redfin are yet to hit surface lures. Once this starts happening, the dam will go into overdrive and golden perch will hit lures with abandon.

Lots of anglers focus their efforts around the drains at the top of the pond, but there are plenty of other spots to try like the pylons under the bridge. Googong goldens love a plastic beetlespin presentation.