Christmas is coming so the weekends are crazy busy meaning the usual 48 hours off from the world is kinda spoken for and time for getting out on the bike is becoming scarce. But weekday rides are ok right?! Luckily for me, it looks like a couple of other riders in the group were also keen to get out as while I was typing 'is anyone free for a ride this Friday...' into WhatsApp Matt posted the exact same message! Much smaller group this time, Matt on his new Husqvarna and Ronnie on his KTM were the only riders available so we set a plan to meet around 6.30/7 at Elimbah and hit the trails.

I've done a couple of rides up at the Glasshouse Mountains and some trails are becoming familiar. But today was going to be all new as Ronnie had covered a different area on a ride with another group the previous week. The first section was very sandy, something I'm still getting used to and then it was off into single trails. The good thing was there was very little tarmac and this was the usual single track, sandy, muddy, whipping-through-the-trees riding that I love the Glasshouse Mountains for.

Then things got a little tougher... Ronnie had warned us that the next section was probably the toughest bit and he wasn't wrong: a steep descent down a hill track covered in ruts with loads of loose gravel... Not a lot of traction and slippery as all hell! I managed to get down most of it but had to walk the bike down a section as I was terrified of stacking the bike. Despite my slow pace, I did manage to slip the front wheel bring the back around to wallop me on the legs and down the DRZ went... Not too bad, easy enough to get back up, limp down the last bit and then catch up with the fellas back on the trails.

After that, the next couple of sections were all fantastic culminating in the excellent 'Rattlesnake Track', so called due to it's twisty nature. This was something else and probably some of the best riding I've experienced. It's not fast, but it's definitely fast paced! It's all enclosed single track with either sand, mud or pine needles. There are loads of twists through the trees (thank you Barkbusters for saving my knuckles on more than one occasion!), whoops, corners - we were flying along and loving every second.

Having done a bit of research into the track, it turns out that it might actually be intended to be for mountain bikes?! Can't quite imagine doing it under pedal power, far better on a dirt bike.

Once we were out of that track it was a short hop up to the big red car park for a breather and then off again to try out another new (to me) trail. Which is when I came unstuck for the second time of the day, again on a steep descent... I don't know what it is, getting up hills isn't a problem but going down them is becoming my nemesis, especially if there's rutts. The hill in question wasn't actually too bad, and maybe if I'd just gone for it I would've made it no problems - but as it stood, I slightly panicked, tried to walk the bike down a particularly steep bit of slippery as rock and yup, the front wheel slipped and down the bike went.

This one was tricky as the bike was on an incline - if I picked it up, it'd just run away and I wouldn't be able to stop it, meaning a bigger (and potentially damaging crash below). So I waited for the fellas to double back and luckily Matt came to my rescue. Between the two of us, we managed to get the bike upright and limp it down the hill with the engine off, using the clutch as a brake. Thinking about it, that was my mistake and why I ended up with a downed bike. If I'd used the clutch/brake technique I probably would have made it down by myself?!​

On we went and by this time, things were heating up... We were getting onto 10.30ish which doesn't sound early but when you've got up at 5am, rode for 45 minutes up the highway and then done 3 and half hours zipping around single tracks it begins to take its toll... But we were all keen as mustard and off we went again, this time hitting a single track known to us as 'The clergyman's Track' after it was shown to Matt and Luke on another ride by a couple of dirt biking clergymen! I only recognised it halfway through as we were doing it in reverse, the giveaway being a fallen tree that was tricky to get around last time but was a breeze in reverse.

At the end of that one, we were pretty beat but again our enthusiasm got the better of us and we headed to one more track which I call the 'Burnt out car track' (can you guess why?!). We'd done this on a previous ride when it was heavily overgrown and it's got a few challenges, mainly getting over and under fallen trees but there wasn't anything too tricky.

We were doing fine but decided to stop after a tree hop and have a breather which is when it all went to shit for me...

Setting off again, Matt and Ronnie headed off and I swung myself onto the bike putting my right foot down... into thin air and then sand which then led to completely over balancing and down the went the bike for the third time this ride! Now I initially laughed this off seeing the funny side in overballencing but that laughter soon turned to a little bit of panic when I discovered I couldn't get the bike upright. A combination of ending up in a bush leaving me with very little room to maneuver and the fact every time I attempted to pick up the bike it slipped forward in the sand left me puffing and panting and to be honest, beginning to freak out... I just didn't have the physical strength to pick the damn thing up!

Now what I should've done is calm down, not panic and think the situation through. We were on a single track with one way in and out. The fellas knew that I'd be on that track and would figure out I was somewhere between them and where we stopped so it was only a matter of time before they came back and helped me out...

Then I spotted Ronnie through the trees, he'd come back to check on me - only to not notice me in the bush, turn back around and speed off! No! I was totally stuck. I tried calling Matt but there was no coverage on the phone which only added to my mental stress.

I quickly realised there was no way I was getting the bike up so wasting what strength I had left was pointless and would only lead to me either hurting myself or guzzling even more of my dwindling water supply. And off course they came back - Matt, my saviour for the seconds time this ride appeared through the trees, helped me get the bike up and off we went again. Really, it wasn't a problem, I should've just sat in the shade and waited... but panic does funny things to your brain.

Looking back, I think the main problem was I'd pushed myself harder than I can handle. By 10.30/11ish I was done. The early start, the heat and the constant concentration of riding the technical single tracks had left me feeling far more fatigued than I'd realised. In addition, I'd pretty much drunk the 2.5 litres of water in my camelbak as well as the backup bottle I carry on the bike leaving me not only thirsty but with nothing to hydrate with.

To be honest, the whole thing left me pretty shaken. Since I started riding offroad I've always had an awareness that a potentially bad accident could easily happen at any time and it seemed ridiculous that a life threatening situation could have resulted from me overbalancing on a stationary bike!

So lesson learnt: carry more water, say when you're done (there's no shame in it!) and if you have a down, sit tight, wait for the cavalry and try not to panic!

I took the rest of the ride ridiculously easy. The other fellas steamed off but I took it very slow and steady back to the car park. After saying our goodbyes, I headed to the Big Fish servo, aired up the tires, fueled up and drank a couple of litres of water - I was that dehydrated that my leg muscles were cramping!

Streaming down the highway back to Brisbane I mulled over the ride. There had been some amazing times, the 'Rattlesnake Track' being the absolute highlight - tracks like that are the reason I was so desperate to get into dirt biking! But I will be practicing picking up the bike in the garden, trying to get more physically fit to build my stamina and definitely trying to figure out how to store a bigger backup water bottle on the bike.

Check out the ride on Relive - you'll notice the 'Rattlesnake Track' at the 17 second mark ;)

My heart sank when I checked my phone in the morning. A mate on Facebook who was heading up for a day session had messaged me saying that he'd ditched the whole thing and gone to Henleaze lake instead as Bagwood was rammed! Apparently, there were 5 people with 2 rods each fishing in the swim I'd had on my 1st session... Mental. A whole load of angling pressure, I could only imagine the fish were huddled up in a scared shoal desperately trying to avoid lines, bait and hooks!

But luckily for me, when I arrived at 2.30pm the lake virtually deserted! The swim from my 1st session was taken, as was the point swim by the bridge but luckily for me, the bailiffs swim on the other side nearest the club house was empty! Winner, I got round there with a bag and a bucket to secure the swim and got the rest of the gear round from the car.

The first job was to clean up the litter - what a bloody awful mess! Empty cans, bottles, plastic bags, all kinds of crap were littered up and down the bank and in the water... Seriously, if you cant clean up behind yourself you don't deserve to fish!

Second job was to get the spod mix done - really simple but very carpy: hemp, different size pellets, sweet corn, chickpeas, tinned tuna and chopped boiles - nothing unusual, but all food they love.

After that I went for a wander with the spod bucket to have a bait up and see if I could spot any fish. One thing that's taking a bit of getting used to on the longer sessions is not rushing - I'm so used to having really limited time that the priority is to get a rod in the water as quickly as possible. On the longer sessions, I'm trying to slow down, think about what I'm doing, watching the water and coming up with a plan of attack. Wandering around with a bucket dropping a bit of bait here and there means you get to 'know' the lake better, set potential traps and have a chat with anyone else who's fishing - very civilised!

The water level is really, really low at the moment meaning that the margins are incredibly shallow, maybe a ft or two at most. Walking down the bank to my right towards the pipes that go under the bridge to where I fished on my 1st session, I could see some fish mootching along the edge. Once I got down to the pipes, a couple of fish had turned into 15 or so just hanging around as close to the edge as they could. There's a couple of overhanging shrubs and small trees around the pipes and the fish were definitely using these as a bit of cover. Interesting. I decided to bait up in front of the pipes so not to spook them and leave them to the freebies for a bit.

The water on the other side of the bridge still had 4 anglers on it with rods out. I could see a couple of fish in the margins and some just under the surface in the middle. I had a quick chat with the lads in the far bank swim and they'd not had anything out as yet but were in the process of setting up a floater rod. The point swim had a couple of anglers in it, one of which hooked into a fish as I walked past - a good sign?!

By the time I'd got back to my swim, I was really hot - the weather was warm and sunny meaning I could stay in shorts and a t-shirt! And I started to see fish showing out in front of me, both in the margins near the tree to the left and in open water. Thankfully, I'd bought a bag of doggy mixers - a real after thought, they'd been thrown in the car at the last minute!

A couple of catapult pouches went out and the fish really responded. Soon I had a group of 10 or so fish all competing for the mixers and I let them slurp up the freebees for 20 or so minutes before I introduced a bait: a Enterprise Tackle mini mixer on a long length of Korda Kruiser Control line to a size 8 hook. It took a good hour or so to get my 1st bite: a really slow take, I don't think the fish realised it was hooked! It felt quite small until it got into the edge when it went off like a train and put up a good account of itself before it slipped into the net.

A nice mirror of around 15lb, a cracking start to the session! I never thought I'd be able to pick a fish off the surface at Bagwood as I'd assumed the fish would be far too cautious to take a floating bait so this was a real bonus!

I spent another hour or so trying to snag another fish but as the sun started to dip the fish moved off. Time to get the marker out and suss out the swim: based on what I'd seen so far, the tree to the left was a definite spot (clouds of slit had been coming up all afternoon from the spod mix I'd put in earlier) and the pipes to the right still held fish but I was interested to see what the point in front of me had to offer. It seemed a bit deeper out there, 7 to 11ft from a shallow margin out to the fountain. After a bit of leading around, it appeared that bank dipped off to a shelf about 6ft from the bank so I clipped up to that spot and got some spod mix out. The tree spot was shallow and an easy cast at a clipped up 8 rods lengths. The pipes were a easy walk down the bank and a drop-in would see the lead close to the margins. Handfuls of spod mix on both spots and it was job done!

Even though I'd been keeping an eye on the sun, I'd forgotten how quickly it disappears this time of year... it got dark really quick! Trying to set a bivy up in the near darkness is a pain, especially when another bloody pole broke on me (the 4th since owning this tent!). I got there in the end and finally had everything set for the night by around 8pm. A bit of dinner and a couple of casts and I was thinking about turning in for the night...

I'd opted to put the rods left under the tree and right to the pipes to begin with and it wasn't until 11ish that I got my 1st run which really surprised me! I thought with the amount of fish I'd seen the action would be thick and fast but in hindsight, I think the fish move out into open water and start patrolling the margins once they know most of the anglers have left for the day...

Not a huge fish by this lakes standards but very welcome! The take had come from the pipes and the fish had run straight towards me so the bite was a drop back rather than the usual screaming run. Only a short fight but loadsa fun ;)

I got the rod back out as quickly as possible and spent the next 1/2 hour being plagued by beeps... which could only mean one thing: bream! And sure enough one snotty.

Ah well, that's carp fishing?! Not bad I spose, I've read some reports of people fishing Bagwood and only pulling out bream. In the end, I got my head down and actually slept! Not a beep during the night and I woke up around 6.30am to a very quiet lake, not a movement and really grey over cast weather. It was much cooler and although rain was forecast, it did look a bit grim...

I got some breaky on and then went for a wander with the bucket on the hunt for the fish. Not a lot was going on down by the pipes but there were a group off fish along the margins on the point next to the golf course.

And then I found them... there must've been 20 or so sizeable fish all shoaled up in the far, far corner nearest the club house. There are a couple of bays there and unless you're a demon caster or have a bait boat, it's virtually impossible to reach the bays. Hiding behind a bush, I started to throw some spot mix and boiles in, only a bit at a time and in a few different spots. The fish dipped down and started to mop up the bait...

Excellent! I rushed back to my swim, got one rod out to the point and then started to think about how the hell I was going to get a bait into the far corner. In the end, I opted for casting to the bank past the tree to my left, putting the rod in the rests with the bait runner on and then walking the lead up the far bank. No easy feat! The lake is really soft clay and a lead gets 'plugged' a good 6 inches deep even on a light cast. I got there in the end though and once a rig was on the line, I chucked it between two shoals of fish. A handful of boiles went in and then I ran like the wind back to my swim.

Cheating? I'm not sure... Worth it? Oh yes!

I'd been back in the swim for around 3 minutes when the bobbin climbed to the rod, the freespool started churning (I was locked up pretty tight due to the distance) and the alarm started to scream! I struck into the run and instantly connected with the fish but realised that somehow, the line was caught in a bush on the left margin! Disaster... After a bit of yanking and pleading with the line, it pinged off the bush and I could start playing the fish. By this time, it'd taken quite a bit of line and had started to head for the other end of the lake - at which point the line appeared to plink, plink on some underwater obstacle and lock up solid! A bit of walking back with the clutch wound tight (don't want to snap a rod!) and the line came free... but no carp was on the end any more... Bugger, Bugger, Bugger!

But it was a run and that gave me hope! I went back through the casting malarkey again (a bit easier this time, think the adrenalin had kicked in) and got the bait back on the spot...

Took a while longer this time, 20 minutes or so but off it went like a train! This time when I struck the result was exactly what I wanted: the line went taught and I could already feel an angry lump on the end. It took a bit of steering as I was aware of the last runs foul up but slowly I managed to pump the fish towards me... A bit of a heart in the mouth moment when it made a dive for the pipe to my left but eventually it was in the net!

A cracking common at 19lb! Under the target weight but so, so good. I was pretty darn happy, to have not had a fish for a good 8 or so hours then to loose one was gutting - but this beasty made up for it!

Once he/she been slipped back, I took a wander round to see if the fish were still there and to have a bait up. Amazingly they were! Unfortunately for me, I spent the next hour plagued by a frap off on the cast, then line twist mangling my main line (need to get new line of the reels!). I somehow managed to get out to the spot again and was stunned when the rod ripped off yet again ;)

But no dice... A snapped hook link. Whatta bugger! One think I need to get in the habit off is getting fresh hook links on the line every 3 hours or so. On the next trip, I'm gonna have a good 15 or so rigs ready to go and swap them out more frequently I reckon.

The clock had been ticking and it was now rapidly approaching packing down time. I'd had a cracking 24hrs and it was a good feeling to have 'cracked' the water to some extent. I feel like I know it a bit better now, have target swims and areas to fish too and maybe, just maybe a 20lb+ maybe on the cards for my next trip?!