Pedalling out onto a wind rippled dam surface of Clarrie Hall (Dam) I rigged my rods and organised my lures into a more comfortable setup. The slight breeze had kept the surface moving, so the plan was to fish the lily-pad edges of the secluded bays and inlets that dot the edge of the dam.

In the first bay I landed my first fish of 31.2cm on a black Arbogast Jitterbug retrieved along the edge of the lilies.



Working my way along the edge of the dam, something was busting up tailor style about 50m from the bank. The action of the mystery fish had caught my attention so I quickly rigged up a 3in Smelt shad soft plastic on a Betts jighead and cast out and over the fish swirls/surface strikes. Allowing the lure to sink about 2 feet I slowly retrieved it and came up tight with a very agro fish who upon hook-up steamed over to the nearby lily pads. Pulling it away and onboard it went 31.5cm, a very healthy fish.



One thing that surprised me while fishing Clarrie Hall was how frequently and how loud the surface strikes of feeding bass where as they smacked the insects from off the tops of the lilies. With such surface action happening around me I broke out the walkers and tried my hand at fishing a style of lure I don’t often use. No strikes or fish from these, so I chose a shallow diving Atomic Hardz Crank in Silver Shad (my current go-to lure).

First cast under an overhanging tree and I was on with a 28cm fish for the camera.



By now the breeze had eased off and the dam surface became glassy, the view to the north towards Mt Warning was very scenic, something that Clarrie Hall is well known for. With extensive lily pad banks, weed piles and even sections of standing timber Clarrie Hall has defiantly hooked me and I will be coming back, even just for a paddle.





Second cast a bit further along in an inlet and another fish but only about 20cm.



One of the biggest inlets I explored went for a far way into the hillside and I only came to a halt when the creek had become clogged by an immense amount of leaf litter (the sounder was showing a creek bed depth of 4m+.



It was about now that I realised that time was getting on and I had better start to turn around and head back to the launch site.

Along the way I picked up another 20cm fish that followed the lure all the way across the inlet and finally ate it, giving me something to do in the stifling heat. The temperature out on the dam was probably around 38°C, something I didn’t want to stay out all day for, so at around noon I tucked into some pre-made sandwiches and headed ‘home’ trolling a deep diving lure.