Discovering new grounds of the Oxley River, Murwillumbah

Recently I was asked to join some fellow kayak anglers on one of the streams they have fished with success.

Never fished this waterway before we organised a time and place to meet, which I unfortunately missed due to sleeping in (sorry guys!)but once I got into gear I was on the water 50mins later launching from a causeway which crossed the Oxley River the waterway I was to fish. Due to the 1hour difference in launch times I missed my fellow anglers and decided to fish my way upstream to try and meet up with them.

Well making my way upstream I discovered that this waterway was quite similar to one I usually fish such as the Wilson River upstream from Lismore. But it was quite shallow along the majority of the stream and there were many portages between pools.

The water was very cold and a cool breeze was blowing in from the South West so bass captures were not expected to be high, so the trip became a recon for future trips.

Working my way upstream I ran into a few large rocks so repairing the torn fins and slightly bent masts on my MirageDrive.

Eventually I recieved a hit and hookup from underneath a spectacular on my ever productive Atomic Hardz Shad which pulled from the hooks.

Upon reaching a time halfway point I came across a pool in the eddy of the stream littered with logs and tree stumps, in a secluded corner of this pool my lure was immediately taken savagely as a nice bass of 32cm became caught around my rudder and numerous logs in the pool.

Releasing the fish I peddaled over to the area where it came from and found it was less than 40cm deep! Surprising seeing most bass which are caught are found in deep shadowy areas of pools/streams.

After catching this fish my MirageDrive became irreparably field damaged (unable to repair in the field) and to use it required my to remove one fin and use the remainder as the primary propulsion. Using the MirageDrive like this causes the kayak to rock from side to side due to the swinging fin below.

Sick of the rocking motion I removed the drive and began my agonisingly slow paddle back to the launch ramp (some 3 1/2km away) with my measuring board (it is attached to a piece of wood about 50cmx15cm) because I negated to bring my paddle along.

3 hours later I made it to 500m from the launch ramp and found a paddle laying on the bank with an abandoned fibreglass kayak, so thanking my lucky stars I borrowed the paddle and paddled the ramaining 500m with relaxation.

Thanks to Silver_19 for inviting me to fish the Oxley River even though we didnt meet.