Todays session was a complete rerun of last week minus the gale force winds! I hit the water at the same time, around 8ish, investigated the same spots and caught one fish from the exact same spot as last week. I didn't get a knock or a tap anywhere else, it's almost as if all the fish apart from this one lonely bass have been removed from the reservoir...

As it was I was relying on the spot in question to come up with the goods, I'd say it's been the only reliable banker spot on the entire water since I started fishing at Enoggera. I'd had a couple of experimental casts and received what felt like a gentle hit on the retrieve. I stuck with it, finally changing lure colour and position and then got an absolute winner of a cast right on the edge of the lily pads...

And sure enough off it went! Not a big fish but a fish to save me from the dreaded blank. I'm not sure what's going on at the moment but Enoggera Reservoir is fishing hard... One fish does make a session I guess but it's not a lot to show for 3 or so hours worth of casting, especially when you know that there's a lot of fish in there.

Maybe its winter, maybe its the weather, maybe its the water clarity (we haven't had a huge amount of rain but the water level is up and there's a brown tinge to it...) but it might be a good time to put the bass fishing on hold for a couple of weeks and investigate some sea fishing... Watch this space!

And guess what? It was windy as all hell... Seriously, white tipped waves, the kayak being hurled around all over the place, casting virtually impossible and to top it all it was bloody freezing! Why oh why did I listen to the forecast?! Although I enjoyed my session Bream bashing at Nudgee yesterday the conditions would've been perfect for lure fishing on the res!

Although it was difficult I did manage one bass from a spot that rarely lets me down. I somehow managed a perfect cast, right on the edge of the lilies and as I muttered 'that cast deserves a fish' off it went. As normal no monster (there are some in Enoggera but they're few are far between) but as it was a blank saver, I wasn't complaining.

I spent 3 hours in total bobbing around before I called it - the wind was kinda ruining things for me so I headed home and wrote some blog posts! Not a bad way to start the weekend?!

My plan was to get some jobs out of the way in the morning and then head to Nudgee to arrive around 10.30am and fish the incoming tide. As expected, there wasn't anyone fishing on the jetty as the water was too shallow but looking up the beach there appeared to be six or so anglers dotted along the water towards the river mouth...

Finding a spot was a little tricky but I managed to position myself between the groups of anglers and set about casting out. The plan was to have one rod static, fishing on the bottom with a simple sinker rig and baited with raw chicken soaked in soy sauce and garlic while I buzzed a lure around to see if I could locate any flathead.

I'd noticed on my walk down that nobody was catching anything which was a bit of a worry so it was a real surprise when the static rod busted off before I'd done the 2nd cast on the lure rod! Sadly this one came off (why am I always unprepared for the 1st bite?!) but I wasted no time in getting the rod out again and sure enough, after a minute or so in the water off it went - a nice size bream which are always a blast on light gear.

As is quite often the way at Nudgee it went quiet after that 1st fish so I kept moving up and down the bank eventually settling on a point at the river mouth. And then it was a case of rinse and repeat, landing around 5 or so quality bream over the next couple of hours.

I'd like to point out that at this time there was absolutely no wind.. In fact, it was probably the calmest wind free session I've ever done at Nudgee as even on a calm day, the wind is usually pretty strong. So much for the weather prediction?!

I spent the last 40 minutes or so at the end of the session fishing off the jetty as the tide had come in quite a bit by then and although I had tons of nibbles I only managed another 3 tiddlers for my effort.

So a nice couple of hours fishing! I've not been to Nudgee for a while now, mainly due to my current obsession with kayak fishing so it was great to get a bend in the rod somewhere different and show the locals how its done (I didn't see anyone else land a fish while I was there...). The really interesting thing for me was that although I'd gotten less bites that I usually do at the jetty, the fish were of a much bigger size and when the bites came, they really went for it. I think on the next session out I maybe trying the river mouth again...

With each session at Enoggera Reservoir getting better and better I was chomping at the bit to get out on the water again. But as it gets dark in Brisbane at around 5pm now its morning sessions only and this was to be a short one - I had max three hours... The weather was spot on, warm, very light winds and only a slight ripple on the water, it was looking good for a bite!

As always, the temptation was to head straight to the previous sessions 'hot spot​' but I had a quick cast around on my paddle out to get my casting eye in. And amazingly, I got my 1st knock on the 3rd cast to some margin lily pads just around the corner opposite the damn wall. And then on the next cast, it was fish on! My favourite kind of bite, the bass took the lure virtually at the kayak which always gets the heart racing.

I gave it 20 or so more casts but with no takers, it was on around the next corner. With such early success, I figured it would be worth having a cast at another likely looking spot and BANG, another cracking bite!

And that really set the theme of the next hour or so's fishing! Every time I hit a new spot, I got a bite - just the one, despite trying the same areas I couldn't get more than one fish but that was fine as the bass were clearly spread out along the margins and more than happy to hit a lure.

Every time the bites tailed off, I moved on letting the gentle breeze carry me slowly all along the right hand margin of the reservoir. I was even getting hits from spots I'd never consider casting to, definitely smaller fish nibbling the tail of the lure but to get this much activity and action was amazing.

And then as quickly as the action started, it completely stopped... It was almost like all the fish disappeared from the area and despite working the margin again, I couldn't get a knock...

The sun was full in the sky by now and maybe that was the cause of the fish leaving the area as the margins were now in dappled sunshine? Thinking this might be the case and that they'd headed for deeper water I decided to hit the pads at the far end of the reservoir where I'd had so much luck on previous sessions. But it wasn't to be, I tried the exact same tactic of letting the wind drift me through the pads casting as I went but despite clipping the edge of the lilies I couldn't raise a bite.

So it ended up being a weird but hugely enjoyable session! To get seven fish in an hour (one jumped the kayak before I could get a snap!) was amazing and it was just so strange how the fishing turned off as quickly as it turned on. If I'd been fishing for silvers in the UK, I'd say it was due to a predator such as a pike or perch moving into the area but I can't think of anything swimming in the reservoir (other than bigger bass!) who may have scared them all away...

Lets see what the next session brings!

Even with it getting colder (well... cold for Queensland!) and being outside of the school holidays it was really tough to find a campground that met my requirements for a good night away, namely a toilet (I know right?!), firepit with a bag of wood and fishing. Bushywood at Woodfordskilake fits the bill and this was to be a return trip for me as this was the first place I ever motocamped.

After an excellent sesion Bass fishing up at Enoggera Reservoir in the morning I headed home, loaded up the bike and got on the road. The route is amazing, through Samford Village, onto Dayboro then up over the hills to woodford via Mnt Mee. One day I really want to do the trip offroad traveling through the forest but I'll save that for when I've a bit more confidence!

I got to Woodford around 4ish, headed to the campsite and dumped the gear before returning to the Woolies in town to get supplies for the evening. The plan was to do a steak and mushrooms on the new camping grill I'd picked up so a quick stomp around the supermarket and a trip to the bottle shop for some beers and I was back at my spot by the lake just in time to see the moon rise.

It was completely unplanned but my trip coincided with a full moon (maybe thats why the fishing had been so good earlier in the day?!) and it was stunning to see it rise behind the waterskiing lake. With the tent up and the bike sorted out, the only thing left was to get the fire going. Bushy had supplied a big bag of wood for $20 and my spot overlooking the lake had a perfect firepit ring already set up. I'd scanned the area before leaving for the shops and it looked like previous campers had nabbed all the pine cones... Luckily for me I'd spotted a heap of them on the driveway so I had 10 or so in my pannier.

Pine cones make the most amazing fire starters and in no time I had a decent blaze going. So I grabbed a beer, sat back in my camping chair and watched the moon gracefully travel up into the sky. Not bad, not bad at all.

After a couple of hours of constantly feeding the fire I had a good pile of glowing coles so it was time to break out the camping grill. I've been hunting for something to cook over the fire with for a while now as part of the motocamping experience for me is eating well. Noodles, pasta, tuna fish innacan all have their place but if I'm going to spend a night under the stars, I'd rather having something tasty and less carby! After investigating various different options I found a foldable camping grill on Amazon and decided to give it a go. It has two different levels and I decided to use the lower level, positioning it near to the fire and raking hot coles underneath.

Steak on and sizzling away, there was just enough room to fit a large mushroom on the side of the grill - it was looking good! As I wasn't entirely sure of the heat coming off the coles I gave it a couple of minutes each side and then sliced a corner off to check the 'doneness' and as it was looking bang on, I tore off a bit of turkish bread, popped the steak in between and... It was perfect, probably one of the best steaks I'd had in a long long time!

So the evening was spent working my way through steak, a couple of beers and a movie under the stars. It was chilly but I'd built the fire up to a good size and that kept me warm until around midnight when I decided to call it a night.

Even though its winter the sun was up by 5.30 and as my spot wasn't in the shade I was up and about early to investigate the fishing options. From what I've been told, there are plenty of tilapia in the lake and I'd come armed with corn and bread to target them. But it was quickly apparent that the weed had really come up since my last visit and after an hour or so of being wiped out I decided to give it a miss. There are two types of weed in the lake, one if which is the brown floating stuff and as the wind got up it was just moving back and forth up the lake making fishing virtually impossible...

I had a shower, packed down around 10ish and got back on the road home. Another fantastic night under the stars, the camping grill had worked a treat, all my gear had performed perfectly and I guess the only down point was the lack of fishing - but having caught loads of bass up at Enoggera in the morning, I wasn't grumbling!