Fishing Australia

I must have flown along the east coast 500 times now, but even with a birds eye view there is always something you miss…you know, those special little nooks and crannys that you never knew were there yet beg to be explored.

The Macleay Valley is one such place, it has passed under my fishing radar many times, but the day had finally come to see what the whispers from die fishing friends were all about.

This flight path was a couple of hundred kilometers inland from the coast line which made the valley easy to spot as the little Qantas link plane approached Armidale in the north eastern corner of NSW. The series of gorges are spectacular by any standard: the vast flat New England Table Land area drops away abruptly with a sharp vertical lip that eventually levels out as it disappears into a haze of blue timber. It’s the rivers that cut this scene and the fish that live there were responsible for luring me in: the mighty Australian Bass.

Our host Dave Thompson picked us up and took us on a guided tour as we made tracks for his famed “Bass Lodge” somewhere in the depths of the distant valley.

The start of the drive was interesting: the table lands of the New England Area were amazingly green compared to the rest of the NSW, much of which is still affected by one of the worst droughts on record. Even though rainfall figures are down in this area, there is still a heck of a lot more water about than elsewhere, and with the tablelands being well over a thousand meters above sea level, there exists some cold running rivers with understandably good trout fishing. Dave pointed out numerous trout streams we crossed while driving along the aptly named Waterfall Way but my crew and I had come to film a special on bass, so focus was required.

Before we descended into the valley proper a brief detour revealed a big surprise: Wollomombi Falls.

At some 220 meters these are the second highest falls in Australia, but you won’t find that in a high school text book-if you can I was skipping class that day… At any rate you don’t often hear about these breathtaking falls and the Gorges that stand around them like silent but imposing body guards.

I was really feeling like ‘are you kidding me-these are on par with some of the grand scenery of the Kimberley!’. And for a fishy eye they revealed to us with some of their local secrets straight up.

You see Trout, including the tiniest of fry, cannot drop over the falls without getting battered. And the odd one that does survive is typically met by the veracious bass, which, lucky for the trout, can’t negotiate up the falls.

The valleys intimidating yet attractive escarpment really is the great divide of the introduced trout and the native Australian Bass in that area.

Cascading vigorously down next to the foamy white Wollomombi Falls was the equally impressive Chandler Falls, which in comparison was running a coffee colored brown. These are just two of a dozen rivers that crash steeply into the main MacLeay River below.

Good bass fishing in the MacLeay can be found when not too much water has fallen on the on the tablelands, a result of which means the river level will rise and this can put the bass off the bite. It also makes 4WD crossings on the main river impossible Furthermore, the cool water from the top can suddenly drop water temps in the valley below, and this can shut the bite down.

But it was only the Chandler that had a localized storm, so the MacLeay was at a nice standard summer flow of around one metre. This meant was that we could cross anywhere which creates lots of extra options, but note that bass inhabit all the feeder creeks, and rarely are all of these flowing dirty or hard at the same time.

Basically there is almost always some good bass fishing on offer, more than you could squeeze into a lifetime in fact.

Next week I pick up my adventure into a bass heaven, a must read for Australian Bass and adventure lovers alike.

Rob Paxevanos