THE plastic grub was being slow rolled up alongside of the standing timber when a small weight was felt, a slow wind and the rod tip started loading up. A gentle lift to set the hook and another battle ensued with a superb golden perch. The fish was lifted and coaxed from amongst the timber; I was ever careful not to put too much strain on the 6lb Sensei fluorocarbon leader.
Golden perch were seemingly everywhere amongst the trees. Some held a few fish, while others had what seemed a never ending number that would follow any hooked fish in a vain attempt to spawn with it.
Sidescan sounders really come into their own for locating fish amongst the trees and cut down on time spent on the hit and miss approach of fishing tree after tree until fish are located.
Plastics are probably the most used for this style of fishing but lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits or any style lure that can be dropped vertically to the bottom and retrieved back up close in amongst the timber will work.
Trolling can also be productive as we were to find out very soon after leaving the ramp.
Rod Allen with a Burrendong golden taken on the troll.
I had two guests fishing with me for two days at Burrendong Dam – Rod Allen and his partner Kim Nguyen. It turned out Rod had been real close mates with the legendary Top End angler, Col Cordingley, and had many stories to tell of fish caught and beers drunk with Cords on his beloved Daly River and other waterways.
Rod was really keen to catch his first golden perch but probably more so to see Kim get onto a few fish.
Knowing Kim had not done too much fishing I reckoned we should start off trolling to gets their first golden before doing some casting to the bank or slow rolling amongst the trees.
We had only travelled a couple of hundred of metres from the ramp when a heap of red arches tinged with yellow showed up on the sounder. This indicated golden perch which are noticeably different to the blue arches which indicate European carp.
One rod was rigged with a bibbed lure diving to around 15ft and the other with a bibless rattling lure. Fifty metres on from where we started and Kim had a startled look as her rod buckled violently and then a mile wide smile as she realised she was hooked to her first ever golden perch.
The fish was landed using an Environet and Kim was eager to don the gloves and get a happy snap of her first fish.
Kim Nguyen was very pleased about catching her first ever golden perch.
We hadn’t moved another twenty metres and Rod’s bibless lure was smashed too by one of the numerous red balls, ie golden perch, that were showing on the sounder.
The fishing remained much the same for the next two days with numerous goldens and a few redfin coming to the boat, although we rolled a few plastics and lures amongst the trees and caught fish. Rod and Kim had a preference for trolling, an easy and very successful way to take fish.
Rod related many trips with Cords down the Daly which involved a large esky fill with ice and beverages and days on end spent trolling up mega barra. I guess old habits die hard.
This golden took a liking to a home made bibbed deep diver.
At the end of the last day with Rod and Kim they both thanked me for a wonderful time. Rod also made the comment that they were the best two days of fishing in his life time, which made me wonder how two days of fishing for yellowbelly could surpass any of his previous fishing experiences!
As Rod and Kim left, my parents arrived at the dam and they were keen to fish the trees with plastics and bait.
We decided to troll the kilometre or so to the stand of trees and we picked up a few fish on the way.
Tied up amongst the drowned trees it took no time at all before we were into fish, the best coming into the boat was a beautiful 57cm fish.
Jack Smith with a solid 57cm golden taken amongst drowned trees.
Talking with other anglers we were hearing stories of 70 plus fish a day; a worker at the dam recounted a catch of 60 fish in a hour between three anglers. I must admit I raised my eyebrow at that one as a fish per minute is pretty intense stuff, one angler told of another angler catching 93 fish himself!
The old saying of never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn certainly rings true with some reports but others I can vouch for the authenticity of.
At the end of the day my mum and dad were thrilled with the exceptional fishing we had experienced for the day and the quality of the fish we had caught, an experience many anglers were having.
Windamere Dam is another dam that can fish well and this spring for some it has been brilliant and others it has been frustratingly hard.
It was these conditions that I met up with Joshua Hutchins and Juan Luis Del Carmen; both very experienced fly fishing anglers both keen to take their first golden perch on fly.
It at times can be easier to take fish on fly than lure as the fish here see so much traffic, so many lures and get pinged constantly by sounders that I reckon they do get shy.
The second bank we fished and I had two fish follow the brown fur fly zonker in: a male around 50cm and a female around 65cm.
Juan fished to these two fish but they didn’t come back … ten metres along and another golden slashed at the fly before turning and drifting back into the depths.
Josh now fished around where I had seen this fish and it wasn’t long before his 8-weight rod buckled and he was connected to a 60cm gold Windamere “football”.
A few metres to Josh’s left I had another fish follow the fly to the bank before it turned and swam back into the depths. Again, Juan fished to this fish but it could not be convinced to take a second look.
Catching natives on fly is a special experience.
While we were taking some pictures of Josh’s golden a dark shape cruised deep down; more typical of a Murray cod than a golden perch, it slid into view then out again just as quick.
We ended up seeing a few more dark shapes, had quite a few follows from golden perch and a few missed takes.
It was on one of the last banks we fished I had one of the dark shapes follow the fly right to the edge and I could now see that these cruising dark shapes were indeed Murray cod. This fish, not respecting the closed season, rushed forward and inhaled a gallon of water and turned the surface over as if a croc had just taken a pig from the bank! It was unsuccessful in nailing the fly, though, maybe it did realise that cod season doesn’t start until the 1st December!
At the end of the day we had landed three fish, sighted a dozen others and had a few takes and fished to some cruising goldfish. It was a hard day’s fishing but very fulfilling for Josh to have taken his first and second golden on fly. Unfortunately, Juan has to make another return trip to try again.
Anglers wanting to tangle with a golden perch should make the most of this spring as they are ravenously feeding now in the hope they can get a rise in water level to enable them to make an upstream run and release the millions of eggs they are carrying.
Social media reports are showing good catches from most impoundments where goldens are stocked, although some of the higher altitude dams will start later than the lower warmer ones. Ben Chifley Dam is typical of this, it catches water close to the Great Divide and as such is cooler than lower impoundments.
It has golden perch of a size that could make the Windamere whoppers blush and Murray cod to equal the giants of Copeton or Wyangala. Frustratingly, fish are hard to catch here consistently and is still to fire while others in the district are going off – water temps are a big factor in getting fish to get on the chew!
So get out there and give them a go, the exceptional spring fishing can slow down when the extremes of summer arrive!
