with John from Go Fishing

The start of the New Year and late January has been the start of the rainy season for the Gold Coast.
With construction of the new wall completed the water level for Hinze Dam has been sitting at around 48% up until late January when, after bucket loads of rain covering the entire Gold Coast, the water level has risen to 80% and is still filling (at time of writing).  This means new flooded ground for the Bass to hunt.

Also at the Dam, both boat ramps are now open (Eastern and Western side) making it much easier to launch boats, kayaks and canoes and they’ve been extended too! 

More water in the Dam means a bigger hunting ground! 
Bass, Yellow Belly, Saratoga, Silver Perch and Mary River Cod are all favourites, but more water also means more searching.  The newly flooded ground will fire early as the Bass and Saratoga will be up there looking for an easy meal.  Shallow Running Minnows and Crank Baits as well as Surface Lures will be a great lure to use on those freshly flooded flats.  Some stand out lures to cast around are the Atomic Crank 38’s in the mid diver, the Bream Shad 40’s in Mid, Marias Shallow Crack in 38mm and 45mm.  Also, Rapala has a 5cm Clackin’ Crank out that’s great for getting the attention of Bass.  If you would prefer to cast around surface lures then the Jitter Bug is a lure that not too many fish can refuse.  You also have Marias 55mm Walk The Dog lures and the Atomics have their Poppers and K9 Walkers (walk the dog lures) in 60mm and 80mm -these all work really well.

Fishing the points and deeper drop offs on the Dam are going to be a bit hard without a sounder but trolling deep divers that run in excess of 5 meters are good searching tools.  Once you find a few Bass and Yellow Belly hitting your lures you can cast Soft Plastics, Vibes and even Rattling Vibes at them.  People with a sounder, after finding some schooled Bass, start dropping Vibes into the school and see if they want to play.

The Maria 45mm Deep Diving Crank and Atomic 38mm Deep Crank are good lure to cast around once you’ve found Bass and Yellow Belly.  When trolling that deep water, Taylor Made Timber Lures have the Belly Busters that are a 5.5M diver and the Bloodhound which is a 4M diver.  The Rapala Group also have X-Rap Shad that are a 3.5M diver and Lucky Craft have their Flat Mini driver that runs around the 2M mark.  The Vibes that have been tested and proved are Eco Gear the ZX’s and VX’s all work well, Switchblades from TT Lures and Strike Pro Cyber Vibes are always a valuable lure for the Dam.  The Jackalls in the TN’s and the Jackall Mask Vib cast like a bullet and are a great searching tool.  The mask Vib in the 60 also comes in 12g, making it a bit easier to cast as well.