As you may have noticed, March has very much been Kayaking month and I've been hitting Enoggera Reservoir hard to hone my lure fishing skills and work out what the buzz about fishing for Australian Bass is all about.

The sessions haven't exactly been prolific... But after six or so outings on the water I've gradually been getting the hang of things, learning to spot the likely areas, get my casting accuracy on point and along the way I've been lucky enough to get a number of bites and fish per session (apart from the previous blank which we won't talk about!).

Today was no exception, the going was hard and the fish very twitchy - maybe due to the windy conditions? I'd headed to a likely looking spot I'd fished on previous visits which although hadn't produced a fish, had resulted in a solid knock on the last session and just screamed that it should do a bite...

And luckily for me it did! This fish was at least twice the size of anything I've caught to date and gave me a really good run around in the kayak - the bite was like steam train! The other great thing was this was on a lure I'd not caught on before, namely the Rapala Rap-V Blade 'Bud'.

Luckily I'd recently picked up a landing net otherwise I think it would've been a struggle to get it safely in the kayak... I've no idea on the weight/length but it was a solid chunky fish, defo larger than legal size (although of course it went back, strictly catch-and-release for these fish so someone else can enjoy catching them).

Apart a couple of missed bites, the rest of the session past without any more fish - but I think you'd agree this 'beast' more than made up for it?!

After a tough month of so fishing today felt very, very different. There was a bit of warm in the sun, for once there wasn't any wind and I was straight into some fish at the first spot I tried. 'Toga Point' has always been good to me and today was no different, with a couple of fish a piece on both the lure and worm rod. These winter fish are in such great condition, I'm guessing due to feeding up for winter and spawning and although the takes aren't as blistering as they are in the warmer months the weights are quite something.

I spent a good hour or so at toga point, working either side of the weed bed that comes out from the point and I was literally having the best time. But eventually the bites dried up so I decided to head up the lake to 'Fence Bay' and again, I was immediately into fish. This was quite something, getting this amount of action around the edges after so many weeks of having to fish deeper open water was just amazing.

Sadly the famous 'Kurwongbah wind' had kicked in so after a couple more smallish fish I decided to head up to 'Kangaroo Point' where a very strong breeze was blowing me rapidly from left to right. It was worth battling though as there were fish holding up in the bay and if I could get the kayak position right I could drift right across them and get multiple hits. It really is one of my favourite spots on the lake and I managed yet more decent sized bass.

This was turning out to be quite a session! After an hour or so battling the wind at 'Kangaroo Point' it was time to move on again. The plan was to paddle over to the bay in front of the big house and let the wind blow me slowly down the lake. I'd not had much from this spot so it was a real surprise when the lure ripped off on the 2nd cast!

That was the only bite from that spot and the wind rapidly pushed me down into a new spot around the corner from 'Stag Bay'. I managed a number of small bass from this new spot and learnt a thing or two about the area. Plenty of weed as normal for Kurwongbah but there were some great clear spots. Defo an area that requires more investigation...

Having so much consistent action in each spot had meant time was marching on so I decided to have one more go at 'Fence Bay' (which produced yet more fish!) and another go at 'Toga Point' (which also produced yet more fish!) before making my way back to the landing stage.

Just an amazing day on the water! I was made up, one of the best sessions so far at Lake Kurwongbah with a handful off big fish and loads of backup smaller ones - happy days.

I was blessed with lovely flat calm conditions this time which was a welcome relief as its been windy as all hell of late which makes kayak fishing a real challenge!

The day started well, with my first hit (but sadly not a fish...) on a soft plastic. I've been watching a lot of videos from Pukka1963 on YouTube and he's been cleaning up of late with plastics, namely the Gulp 'grubs' so it it was defo worth giving them a go. After that encouraging initial hit, I was really expecting some more action on the plastics but it was actually the worms and Rapal Rap-V blades that once again produced all the fish. I'll defo be returning to soft plastics sometime soon but it's hard to ignore such a winning combo.

I had to work hard for every bite and didn't score anything of any massive size but what amazed me was the amount of fish around the edges rather than out in deeper water. It's hard to believe, but maybe the winter pattern is over?!

So first up I'd like to give full credit to Peter Jung at @PTPFishing for teaching me this set up. He has an excellent video linked below where he talks about how he sets up his lures for weedless fishing from his kayak.

If you're looking for info on fishing from a kayak around the Brisbane area, his YouTube channel is well worth checking out. He's given me loads of advice and really helped me catch my first Australian Bass from Enoggera Reservoir.

So first things first, you're going to need some Rapala Rap-V Blade Fishing Lures. The best source I've found so far is the HookedOnline fishing store, either on eBay or via their website. The lures are currently $14.95 a pop including free shipping which is a bargain. The store is located at Jacobs Well so postage was super quick, I had my lures in a couple of days.

The good news is that they also sell the other kit you need, namely some size 4 circle hooks, some size 6 circle hooks and some size 2 split rings. Another item that's worth it's weight in gold is some split ring pliers, I picked some Jarvis Walker Pro Series ones from Anaconda​ for all of $10.

Once you've got all your kit, it's a case of removing the double and treble hooks that come with the lure, fitting the split rings the top and base and then threading on the hooks.

The advice from Peter is to use a size 4 for the front hook and a size 6 for the back, reason being that the the front hook is the one that generally picks up the fish so it's worth upping the size.

The end result looks great! And it works too, it fishes really well when casting tight to the lily pads (I've lost count of the amount of times I thought I'd get snagged up and the lure just pulls through) and the hook up rate I've had when I've got a bite has been 100%.

After the success of my previous session where I landed my first Australian Bass (and lost a bloody monster!) I wasted no time and pretty much headed straight to the latest 'hot spot'. And it didn't disappoint, after half an hour of casting around I had my first bite and a plump Enoggera Bass was in the kayak. Having had one, I figured it couldn't hurt to keep casting and after working the shore line for another 20 minutes I had my second strike of the afternoon. Pretty stunning, I really wasn't expecting to have two in such a short space of time. Sadly the fish jumped from my hand before I managed to get a picture - so you'll just have to believe me on that one!

However at the point the bites dried up. The weather however didn't dry up... There'd been some rumblings of thunder over my shoulder and when I spun the kayak around to check out the sky I was greeted with boiling black clouds.

Time to beat it for home! As I paddled hard down the reservoir the first drops of rain had begun to fall and by the time I'd made it back to the car all hell had let loose. Luckily I managed to get the kayak loaded before the deluge started...

So not bad! A couple of hours on the water, a couple of fish and some more well spent time in the kayak - happy days!