It's been tough fishing of late in South East Queensland - a combination of blistering temperatures followed by torrential rain has meant pretty much all the fishable dams are over capacity and spilling... All of which has really shut the fishing down. Lake Maroon was no different but we were desperate for a new challenge and a different place to sling a lure around.

We arrived around 6am and headed out on the water, the first spot being just up from the boat ramp. There was a lot of commotion around the margins with what looked like bass picking off insects and that coupled with me getting a hit pretty much on my first cast from a suspected spangled perch really got us excited!

But after 20 minutes and nothing to show for our efforts we moved on... Which is when I got my first taste of the benefits of boat fishing: you can get places real quick! We were across the lake in what seemed like seconds and up and fishing the next spot in no time at all.

But despite everything looking bang on for a bite, we both really struggled. I managed to pick off one small bass and Peter managed a number of small spangled perch but that was it for 5 or so hours of fishing.

Lake Maroon sure is a beautiful place and we'll defo be making a return when the fishing improves. But for now, things on the bass front are beyond tough!

Peter from PTPFishing very kindly offered to take me to his 'Local' river spot for this session (we're keeping quiet about the exact location so as to not annoy the locals...) and despite the bad conditions we had high hopes. The theory was sound, with the dams spilling there should be fish that have gone over the wall in the river system waiting and hungry...

We were on the water just after sunrise and spent the first couple of hours exploring the structure and lower reaches of the river before heading upstream. The scenery was amazing and it was a real treat to fish such a wild venue with constantly changing banks, depths and all manner of snags to throw a lure at.

We wrapped up after 5 or so hours having explored the entire upstream stretch and although a paddle up the river was a fantastic experience, the fishing was (almost as expected) pretty poor. Peter managed a number of bream and a flathead before finally finding a bass but I struggled to buy a bite, landing just the one small bream.

Peter put together a video of the session, defo worth a watch:

It was great not to blank and my first taste of river fishing from a kayak left me wanting more... I think we'll just have to wait until 'prime' river conditions arrive and we'll give it another go!

The day started amazingly, with this stunning 50cm Golden Perch on the 3rd cast! Pretty nuts and certainly got us excited for the day ahead.

But sadly despite putting in the hard graft and really exploring the water, it proved a tough nut to crack... Peter managed a number of bass but far out, I couldn't buy a bite!

It was some 5 hours later that I got back in on the action with a couple of tiny bass!

It's an interesting water though and from what I've been told it can really kick off. I'll defo be back sometime soon but in the mean time, check out the video from PTPFishing of the same session:

I was on the water by 6am and as I had to be off by 11am so I wasted no time heading up the lake and around the corner to a productive spot. The first thing I remembered was how accurate you need to be with casting! Kurwongbah is pretty forgiving but Enoggera requires you to get that lure right on the edge if not in the lily pads to stand a chance of tempting a bass to come out and strike...

My first chance came surprisingly early with a fish grabbing at the lure as it hit the edges which sadly didn't result in a hook up. But it was a couple of casts later that I got my first decent hit. And what a fish it turned out to be, I've never seen a bass like this before - it was a deep as it was long and the tummy on it!

As usual with Enoggera, the spot went dead after that one fish so I began moving down the margin. This side of the lake has been by far the most productive to date and true to form I managed to pick off a number of fish including yet another weird one. This guy looked like he'd ran into a wall, defo a face only a mother could love!

Working down the margin continued to produce fish but the wind that had been gently blowing me along began to pick up and with limited time I decided to head over the lily pad rafts at the far end of the lake for a go. This are is great if the wind has got up as you can anchor yourself in a set of pads and cast around to the others with minimum disturbance. I swear that 9 times out of 10 you get a bass from under where the lily pads you're sat on rather than the ones you're casting too...

I managed to picked one more off from my favourite margin on the way back up the lake before calling it a day. So not a bad session! The fella right at the beginning was defo 'fish of the day' and it still puts a smile on my face when I think about him, just the weirdest looking bass ever!

If you're after some tips about how to fish Enoggera, check out the videos from PTPFishing on YouTube - Peter is a bit of a guru when it comes to this place, I wouldn't have caught half the fish if it wasn't for his advice!

Amazingly, despite it being the King's birthday long weekend I pretty much had the entire lake to myself! I guess with so many sporting activities going on, everyone was either otherwise engaged or (more likely!) had blistering hangovers... Lucky for for me the only sport I'm interested in is fishing!

With sunrise at 6.30am it wasn't a crazy early start and as predicted it was a nice sunny warm morning. It didn't take long to find some fish, good old 'Toga Point' producing a number of small bass pretty quickly. Interestingly no takers on the worm rod but that may have been explained by the amount of surface activity, the water was alive with all sorts of things jumping and showing.

Once the bites dried up, I headed onto 'Fence Bay' and again was rewarded with a small bass but sadly I have a feeling a couple of cormorants patrolling the water had put the fish on edge... So I didn't hang around and headed over the way to 'Stag Bay' where again it didn't take long to find some fish. Again, nothing big which was no bad thing as somehow my landing net had fallen out of the kayak when I paddled out of 'Fence Bay'.... Far out, lucky for me I'd put segments of pool noodle on the hoop so it was floating and easy to find again.

By this time the 'Kurwongbah wind' had kicked and my flat calm morning was gone. The fishing did improve though as I made my way along the bank, picking off a number of decent fish. I sometimes wonder if a bit of water movement and noise gets the fish fired up?

The other change was the appearance of a water ski boat... The wake from the boat coupled with the waves generated by the wind was making things a little harder so it was on again to my favourite spot, 'Kangaroo Point'. The fish were defo getting bigger and despite the wind increasingly getting on my nerves I was having a ball.

I stuck it out for a while longer before making my way back down the lake, stopping in at 'Toga Point' for a couple of fish before calling it a day in 'White Tree Bay', even managing to pick up a couple of fish during the outro for the video.

Time was marching on by now and as it was already 2pm I decided to call it a day. Such a cracking time on the water, it was interesting to see how the conditions changed the fishing and how things are changing with the seasons. Gotta love a good session at Kurwongbah!