Well folks the time is here. The winter equinox has passed and the days are slowly getting longer again. The frosts are a little krispier and that magical end of winter bite begins for the impoundment Yellowbelly.

This is the time of year my mates and I like to fish for the big ones. It seems the smaller yellows are still a little sleepy but the bigger ones are ready to suck in a large lure or two.

We got on the water on at sunup and it was freezing. Redfin have taken over Burrendong in near plague proportions and I had 8 before Bob even parked the car and got back to the boat. We played with them for a while untill we could see properly then we set off to our favourite stretch.

We trolled for about 2 hours and didn't get a touch except from the occasional largish redfin. Then we went upwind of my favourite cliff face and drifted along it casting to the wall. About half way along we let ourselves drift into the top of a tree that was protruding from the water and actually ended up in a good position. We hammered that wall letting our Kokoda lipless cranks sink a little deeper each cast. Then on about the 20th cast my gold Kokoda got smashed on the drop. I knew it was a good size. After a few good runs on 8 pound line the big lady yellowbelly surfaced over near the wall and gave up. That's a horse i yelled and bob couldn't stop laughing. She went into the net first go and came on board for some pics. I only had my phone so the pics are a bit grainy. She went 62cm and I doubt they get any bigger than that without getting a massive gut on them. It was a massive and oh so solid fish. I was quite happy to go home as my day couldn't get any better I was sure. We let her go and we got another 2 large yellows but they were still small compared to this one.

Dicko..

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