Whitehall Float Outing......

[BassNinjaV]

Ok so here is the full story of the Saturday trip to Whitehall.........

It all started Fri eve getting ready with all my equipment.....Float Tube - Check.. Rods - Check.. Lures/Cranks/Jigs - Check.. Wetsuit/flippers - Check...

My buddy (Ed) came over and we sorted through some stuff in the preparation for the 6.30 departure. We woke on Sat Morning to some heavy winds and open skies knowing that the rain was going to make an appearance shortly. We set off not knowing who was going to join us on that side. At bout 6.45 I received a text from Henco saying they are on their way so it gave us some hope that we wouldn’t be the only 2 on the water. 7.30 came and we arrived at the Whitehall to see Henco and buddy suiting up and ready to launch…


Things were looking great…Not too much wind that side and no rain yet. We suited up and joined the other 2 on the water. Water clarity was not to great..bout half a meter at most and the water temp was in the region of 14 degrees…..but none the less we were determined to make the most of it.
About an hour into the float we saw Henco and buddy (who was floating in PT sorts)n start making their way back to the launching spot…I can only think it was due to the cold water that they left.

Ed and myself persevered on with not much action…Heavy Rain and wind started making its appearance and we thought that would be the end of the day…but I live to the motto…Never give up…don’t think we had a single hit till just past 11am. As we made our way into the one corner with a lot of overhanging trees and some grass Ed got a solid hit and run but was unfortunate as it wrapped him in the timber and snapped off. All that did however strike up a bit of excitement for us and some hope… we were fishing weightless senco’s and light mojo rigged senco’s. I had casted a few crank baits and creature baits but to no success. I then changed over to a finesse bumble bee colour jig and started skipping it under all the heavy cover… at 11:14am Boom first fish was on(in the 600g region)….big smiles as now I did not blank…



We struggled along trying diff patterns and rigs under and over all the structure we could find but the wind just seemed to be getting stronger and the rain would move on then hit then move on etc… finally at just after 12:15 Ed got hit hard again on a slight rock face…we could see it was a solid fish but then lost it along with his whole senco…this meaning the fish was not hooked so we had a chance at hooking him again. Ed rigged up again as I fished the surroundings but nothing took again so we assumed it had moved on. I casted a few other patterns in the area in hope it wound take something new…finally at 12:30 I took out my trusty Junebug Senco(rigged bit diff)…casted it against the rock face over some little bush and just left it…almost 40sec later I lifted the rod tip slightly…it felt as if I was stuck..not happy..all of a sudden my rod tip slowly pulled down again…STRIKE…….ON… a definite keeper..gave me a solid fight and Ed and I knew it was a good fish. A solid 1.65kg was in my net and the claims were definitely heard in the area..


We were now all smiles but still wanted to get some more as Ed needed to get his count up.. we paddle further down (well actually just got blown down) to where some lily pads were. Ed casted over lily pads thru some cover and just left his line a bit…one twitch…BAM…Ed was on..pulled the fish thru some rough cover but did land it, a nice Healthy +-800g largie.. All too happy now as our trip was now worth it..


We fought on thru the rough conditions moving from one side to the other to try avoid to winds…

In the end we made our way to the end of the dam and only 5 fish to our name…sun came out and we just sat back and embraced it with a nice warm cuppa coffee….YES I took a flask with… we then decided it was time to make our way back to the starting point as it was now 3 o’clock and we really could feel our feet any more… along the way back we fished the opposite side stopping at the odd spot.. I decided to put a junebug spinner bait on and Ed fished a baby bass finesse worm… I landed another 2 on route back. We finally reached the launching spot at 17:00….that happens to be as the skies cleared and the wind stopped…haha…

In total we bagged 7 fish between 600g and the Biggest of 1.65kg… we were tied, sore, cold and hungry but in the end we had an epic day on the water….

:blue-biggrin:

[dreamfish]

Great report BassNinjaV! Well done on sticking it out...commitment is! :blue-cool:

[Ernst]

very nice report thanks

[Roy]

Well done guys who said bass cant be caught in crappy cold weather :blue-biggrin:

I spoke to Ed this morning seems he is still shivering from the cold lol :blue-biggrin:

[BassNinjaV]

yes...it was so so cold.......couldnt feel my feet till late that eve....

[Smiley]

Nice work boys! Bloody cold weekend to be fishing! Respect!!

[Navrik]

Great report and awesome pictures. Thanks guys!

[Homer]

Well done guys. I reckon it's going to be tough to beat you ous in die coming Kickboat trail

[bigbassboy]

great report vaughn and nice fishies!

now i really wish i went!

[BassNinjaV]

it was an awesome day......

[Frogstar]

nice report back guys

[Ninja]

Tnx for the great report back "Ninja" :blue-biggrin:

Awesome pictures!