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 guess it's a combination of the terrible weather we've been having since Christmas in Southeast Queensland followed by the recent drop in temperature as we've begun moving into winter. Either way, the edge bites have pretty much dried up and that can mean only one thing: worms! Last year they proved to be an absolute blank saver and this year appears to be no different.

As today wasn't going to be a long session I headed straight up the lake to 'motorsport bay', pretty much the only location on the lake I've had semi consistent action in the last couple of sessions. There seems to be a channel in the weed that's been carved out by the ski boats and although it's only around 10 metres long and 3 metres wide, the fish seem to be happy to school up there.

This is were the sounder is an invaluable bit of kit as it allows you to 'see' were the weed starts and finishes along with showing the schools of fish. It didn't take long to find them, hugging the bottom in around 10 metres of water and true to form them were on the worms in seconds. The takes are blistering, the drop shot paternoster rig giving the most amazing hook holds in the top lip - it really is the best presentation for fishing directly down from the kayak.

As long as I could get a worm around the fish, my cheap-as-chips AliExpress bargain $40 telescopic rod and reel combo was screaming away with each fish buckling the rod right over (the tip is crazy soft, perfect for having a 'sleeper' rod out as it really absorbs the initial run).

What really surprised me though was I actually managed a couple of fish on a black soft plastic grub that I was casting around while waiting for the worm rod to roar off! It's the first time I've got fish on plastics at Kurwongbah so it was a bit of a bonus.

I left once the wind got up having had 7 or so fish with a couple lost which wasn't a bad result considering the conditions.

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!

Unusually for me, this was going to be an afternoon session at Lake Kurwongbah and with only 3 hours on my hands before sunset, I wasted no time paddling up the lake. A quick stop at 'Toga Point' didn't yield any fish so I quickly moved onto 'Fence Bay' and was rewarded with a cracking bass on the 1st cast! Luckily for me, there were a number of fish around including a quality 34cm bass.

All in all I picked off 5 decent fish in 6 casts, which was a bit of a result. I was fully expecting to pick up some more on my way back to the landing station but sadly there were no more takers, despite the conditions looking bang on. Perhaps Kurwongbah bass are morning rather than evening biters?! It was great to see the sun go down over the lake (makes a change from seeing it come up!) and I headed home a happy angler.

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!