Walk in bass fish from the bank mid October 15th and 23rd

Looking down into a snag that produced three fish on a previous trip fishing from the opposite bank

Remnant sub tropical rainforest hugs the bank in parts

A flathead "lie" at the tip of a sand bank pointing into the incoming tide (my size 9 footprint beside)

The carapace of a shrimp - one of the bass's food source

This corner screams bass on a better tide

The lay down log that a fish rocketted out from under to hit the surface walker lure right by the rootball on the left

The corner the fish below came from

The prey minnow - closest thing I had to a mullet

The walk in from the north side 15/10/2011

A local river that produced one of my first wild bass this season beckons to be explored further with access only across private property in use to raise beef cattle. One day I may get the kayak in there but as I don't own a 4wd this would entail a long drag in to reach the water. Surface luring is by far the preferred method but only worth the effort if you get in early so after the peak morning "bite" blades and diving hard bodied minnows like Ecogear SX48 and the similar lures in the 40 to 60 mm range are the preferred choice. The river has tonnes of likely structure to cast at with many laydown logs across and in the water. Prime spots are snags in or near bends in the river or whereever bait moving up or down the river (most likely mullet) get concentrated and have to pass close to the structure. This upper section of the river although totally fresh is still tidally affected with the tide reaching this region roughly 1 3/4 hours after the mouth tide. I think the incoming is best with tides above 1.65 metres preferred otherwise the snags don't have enough water over them and the bass retreat deeper in less accessible positions. My visit on the 15th coincided with a 1.65 tide at the mouth at 9.45 am and after heading in at 5.30 am I was fishing by 6.30 at this stage the tide was just starting to push up unfortunately bringing alot of surface crap in the form of leaves making using surface walking lures like the Scumdog a bit of a pain. I set up the video camera in a tree over looking the snag and proceeded to raise one sizable fish twice flashing on the lure then another fish taking the lure but pulled the hooks on what must have been lightly hooked. By now I think they wised up as I had hung up three lures on the snag making it an expensive morning and discounted the idea of swimming downstream from a likely entry point to retrieve them after being told about the bull sharks in there !!!! I moved downstream to a spot Adam and myself had fished last time and dropped some half hearted hits on the lures. Things were promising as mullet were everywhere and every no and then erupted on the surface obviously being chased by bass. I decided to tie on a diving minnow close to the mullet profile and plug the thin sticky snags on the opposite bank in the corner of the river. Two casts in and I'm on to a nice bass. The lure just fell out as I picked the fish up so was a bit lucky. A couple of casts later and I lose the lure to the sticks. On goes an Ecogear SX48 and successfully lose that to the sticks on the other side of the "hole" DAMN !!! I then lose another lure that's 6 this morning AAARRRGGHHHH !!!! I move further downstream and come across this great looking lay down log and on the 2nd pass over the log with the Gladiator Kozami 60 top walker it gets mauled by a bass at least 40 cm long that rockets up from under the near side of the log pulling the lure down loading the rod then all went limp - up came the lure -How the hell he didn't feel the two trebles I'll never know. Being a bit peeved not hooking the fish and losing the lures I decide to head back to the 2nd spot and retrieve my lures by going swimming. I set the video camera up after stripping down to my jocks and start to walk in the water -  ankle deep I guto out and decide being chewed by a bully not worth the lures - convenient excuse I admit. #########A follow up walkin trip from the other side open up alot more castable spots but unfortunately the tide was nearing the bottom of the outgoing and most snags were all exposed. It was a good recon mission though showing how much potential water there was. The yak has to get in here at the top of the tide coinciding with the early morning. On the to do list. Cheers PAT.