Little Moonee Creek Working Bee – March 2012

With only 10 members out of 40 turning up to the working bee at noon on Sunday we were always going to have our work cut out for us. The grounds required a lot of attention and the facilitites also needed work. After a quick tour of the grounds by Rob Harwood we split into groups and took on different tasks around the park. John Robertson, Jim Hollett and Richard Hassall went to work with the chainsaw clearing the casting platforms of shrubbery while Dave Witham and Rob took an early dip to clean the fish tank. 

Trent Morson and Mick Dillon took to the grassed areas with brush cutters and Stickerman attacked the casting practice area and the walking track around the main dam with his trusty mower. Meanwhile Col Breese cleaned up around the main biuldings and weeded the top pond while yours truly got sutck into removing the blackberry that had started to take hold around the main dam.

By 2pm we had made some good inroads to the main dam but Rob and Dave were struggling with the fish tank. The cleaning tools weren’t really doing the job and Dave had sprung a leak (in his waders). Not to mention he had lost the BBQ scaper which had been pressed into service as an improvised glass cleaner.

We all adjourned for lunch, enjoying a sausage sizzle and a drink before heading down to the main dam for a fish. Dave had thrown a few pieces of bread in to see if there was any activity and was met with massive swirls and chomps as fish eagerly took the offerings. We had soon rigged up and first casts were all that was required to hook a fish. I landed the first bass quickly followed by Dave with another and then a silver perch. All were taken on bread flies.

Richard was next onto fish with a good-sized silver. Fish were busting up where there was bread but they soon became wary and the catch-rate slowed. Those who weren’t fishing bread flies were having no luck at all. With members spread around the lake it became apparent that the end nearest the buildings was holding the majority of the fish. This may have had something to do with the fact that the owner of the park comes down regularly to feed the fish at this end. No prizes for guessing what he fed them.

The fishing at this end continued all afternoon. The fish still eagerly took the bread but they became increasingly harder to catch, often refusing a floating bread fly but taking all bread off the surface around it. A few fish were caught on the odd nymph and woolly bugger but the majority were taken on bread flies. Luckily we had a supply of bread left over from lunch to get them berlied up. Dave, Col and I managed a fish each from the silver perch pond but once again after the fist few catches the fish became very wary and no more were caught.

By 5.30pm we had all congregated to the active end of the main dam, each one of us eagerly casting our bread fly to the dozens of surface splashes. Every now and then a cheer could be heard as someone hooked another fish. I gave it away a 6.30 with the fish still smashing the berly – I had a dinner to attend.

Three species were caught on the day – bass, silver perch and golden perch. The bass averaged about 20cm in length with the odd larger specimen to about 35cm while the silver perch were all about 30-35cm. All pulled well on our light gear and everyone caught fish. Ample reward for the hard work put in earlier.