After paddling up the lake I found a school of fish near the motorsport park and it was a fish a cast! The conditions were perfect for the drop shop with virtually no wind meaning for once I could keep the kayak pretty stationary. I just wish I'd had more worms with me or could get them to stay on the hook for longer... The ones I'm using are from our compost bin meaning they're very spidly (but clearly tasty!) and the moment they come into contact with any weed, they have a tendency to come off the hook.

Maybe some imitation ones are worth a try?!

The good news is that there doesn't seem to be as much weed around and there are channels forming which makes it easier to locate the fish. However they continue to be at the top end, I've literally not had a bite at the south end for weeks now...

Sadly the boat traffic was crazy, I guess to be expected on a long weekend. But do they have to come that close and buzz every bay?! I was the only damn kayaker on the whole water! You know they're close when you can spot what brand of beer they're drinking 😳

Apart from the relentlessly ski boat activity, it was a beaut arvo on the water with a handful of fish and a stunning sunset 👍

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!