Fish of course! Despite feeling like absolute garbage when I woke up at 5am on Friday there was absolutely no question - I've been stuck at home for the best part of two weeks, I need some outside time, I need to go fishing.

Kurwongbah was the easy choice, I really needed a water way that didn't require a lot of brain power (I was experiencing the COVID fog...) and to be completely honest, everywhere is fishing so badly at the moment it seemed kinda pointless to put myself through a long drive somewhere new.

Despite BOM's prediction of 'light winds by mid morning' it was freezing cold and blowing a gale when I arrived at the late. Another bloody kick in the pants, I've literally been up every morning this week gazing at clear blue skies and completely still trees... But hey, what can you do?!

As with all the sessions over the last couple of months, it was incredibly tough going. The weed has receded a lot from it's absolutely crazy takeover but there's still a lot about which makes finding fishable water a challenge. I kept a keen eye on the sounder but it didn't reveal any fish until I got much further up the lake. Not surprisingly, the windy conditions weren't really ideal for worm fishing and the 5 bass I managed to scrape were all caught on the gangbanger g2 or the Rapala Rap-V Blade 'Halloween'. I only had one fish on the worms, an absolutely blistering take completely out of the blue along the bay near the dam wall.

I decided to call it a day around 2pm feeling pretty sorry for myself - 5 fish from around 6 hours of fishing is a pretty poor result! But it does give you an idea just how tough it is at the moment... And despite the wind it was glorious to be out on the water, it really lifted my spirits after the misery of the last month.

But I'm home now, still testing positive for COVID, still feeling like crap, still can't talk... Good golly, I hope this is over soon!

As you'll have seen from most of my blog posts and videos my main lure of choice has been the excellent Rapala Rap-V blade which has served me well at both Lake Kurwongbah and Enoggera Reservoir. But on recent sessions I had a feeling it wasn't getting down deep enough to where the fish were sitting. After a chat to the chaps at BCF about deep water fishing for bass, they suggested a much heavier lure in the form of the amusingly named 'Gangbanger G2', to be specific the 'Hot Bite Gangbanger G2 Jig Lure 20g Lickety Split'.​

Far out, this thing looks weird! But according to the blurb, it's:

• Ideal for fishing in impoundments
• Mimics a Bony Bream with its unique swimming action
• Rear weighted to improve casting distance and balance
• Bottom treble hook and top twin assist hooks to dig in
• Ideal for slow retrieve

All of those criteria matched exactly what I was after: according to the sounder, the fish were shoaled up in deeper open water and if I was going to have a chance in catching them I needed to get something down in front of them that had a slow enough retrieve that it had time to grab their attention.

A quick visit to Jason Ehrlich's YouTube channel to watch the aptly named 'How to use Gang Banger G2 Spoons to Catch Bass' and I was good to go.

As usual, it was a slow start... The lake was very calm with only one other kayaker on the water but it wasn't until I reached 'Toga Point' that I eventually found a group of fish. A worm bite quickly came and then out of the blue, I hooked a fish on the new lure! That was a bit of a result, both fish were smallish but it was a start.

And then the dreaded Kurwongbah wind got up... Pretty soon, there were white tips and ripples galore on the water which made keeping in the same spot virtually impossible. To add to my frustration, I somehow managed to completely lose sight of one of the H-Blocks I'd thrown out to mark my spot. It took me what seemed like an age to find it and if it hadn't have been for the eagles hovering and swooping on it I think I'd still be out there looking for it...

So I decided to move on up the lake and see if I could find a calm spot. The weed in 'Shed Bay' is still crazy thick and although some of the weed has receded in 'Kangaroo Point', both spots are still virtually unfishable. So I opted to head straight for the only reliable spot I've had in recent weeks, the margin towards the entrance to 'Motorsport Bay'. It wasn't easy, but I managed a couple of fish, two on the worms and another on the new lure. Again, pretty small but it was fish in the kayak which cheered me up.

And then from nowhere the wind got worse and dark clouds started to roll down the lake... Rain?! It wasn't forecast but then again, neither was the wind! It was time to beat a hasty retreet for home but luckily for me I spied a big group of fish just off the point at 'kangaroo Point' on my way and decided to have a few casts, keeping the lure close to the kayak and letting it rise and fall on the retrieve and... bang! Fish of the session! I've not got a measuring tape on the paddle at the moment, but I gave it a guesstimation of around 38cm. A top quality winter bass to wrap the day up.

By the time I got back to the launching area it was blowing a gale and I was soaked from a rain shower - but I'd caught fish in tough conditions using a new lure which put a big 'ol smile on my face! Fingers crossed the weather will hold for next week and I can give it another go.

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!

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:

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!