Sunday Session

Well the initial plan to go chase some gummies went out the window with the doggies taking the NAB cup last night and some small celebrations that were held. The backup plan and brownie point earner kicked in and it was time for a family Sunday drive. Time to check out the Loddon, up around Bridgewater and see how it's looking.

The car was quickly loaded and a couple of rods thrown in along with the mini x strapped to the roof, a few snacks to keep the tribe preoccupied and we were on the road. Along the way we made a few little detours to check out a couple of the reservoirs and some side streams. Unfortunately pretty much all of the feeder streams are non existent and despite the heavy rainfall last week little has found it's way to the reservoirs, plenty of farmer's dams looking healthy though so another decent downpour and that may change. Laanecoorie is holding a bit of water, 12% and talking to a local caravan park resident is fishing fairly well, but what that means is anyone's guess, wasn't much for conversation. Cairn Curran and Tullaroop are around 5% and looking fairly said compared to days gone by.

Back in the car and on the way to Bridgwater the tribe's stomachs were rumbling so first stop was some food and a session below the bridge, we stopped off to grab some pies and sausage rolls and were greeted by the option b small town milk bar owner, the grump ( always seems to be one of two kinds; either incredibly polite, helpful and friendly or, the grump, I'm yet to meet an in-between, everything's just okay type at a country milk bar) We made our way down to the river with our grudgingly supplied pastries and had the pleasure of watching a couple of skiers running their laps (anyone remotely connected to kayaking would know of our undying love of all things ski, jetski and wake creating related). To be fair it is a designated ski area with lanes, ramps and slaloms set up, but still...

After chucking a few lures along the bank we decided to head above the bridge to the "historic swimming area" where we dropped the kayak in and tossed around a few plastics and spinner baits. The fishing was pretty quiet (dead) so the boys amused themselves in the kayak. While I walked the bank for a few minutes playing with a new surface lure I'd gotten, with the boys complaints and growling at each other as one got splashed, dunked or poked with a paddle ringing in my ears I had one last cast in mind before heading back to deal with the usual chaos of two kids and one kayak. Being the middle of the day I hadn't really expected much if any action on a surface lure and was really just trying it out to see how it's action was, so I was taken completely by surprise when the water behind the lure disappeared and a roughly 50cm cod rolled over and managed to dodge every treble on the lure. I fired countless casts back into the area for no joy, but seeing even a smallish cod smash the surface like that has certainly got me hooked on the whole surface lure bug. The trip ended with no fish landed but it's an area I'll be sure to return to with a serious fishing plan in the near future. On a side note I never did manage to sort the two kids one kayak issue out, normally there's no problem but I have the feeling they're getting to that point of needing one each, at least that's what I'm telling the wife...