A Morning on the River

Andrew Wily phoned just before Christmas to let me know he’d just bought a Takacat inflatable and would I like to join him for a bass trip the day after Boxing Day. Are the Kennedys gun shy?? We arrived at the upper Colo River Bridge around 8:30 AM on a beautiful morning. The boat very easy to pump up:

Andrew had been following River Heights online and figured we had enough water for the clearance needed, to operate an 8HP outboard. So that’s what we started with:

All started well but after a few hundred metres the river was obviously too shallow. A quick run back to the car, where we swapped the petrol outboard for an electric. Back up the river where the technique was, moor the boat in knee deep water and wade. Casting lures under trees and next to the bank, sometimes casting into only a foot of water - and hooking up. We started out small:

Note how fast the current was. The fish got bigger and better:

Then it started getting crazy. Firstly, Andrew was tracking the local weather online and let me know that a heavy storm in the upper Colo catchment meant a flood was coming. And, as we moved upstream, we found hundreds of people had decided to visit the river too. In this pic, you can see the dark water rising - and the crowds:

When we got back to our launch point the sandbar was covered in dozens of thongs. Some of which washed away, in the rising water. Today, Andrew sent me a chart showing how fast the water came up:

A shame the day was cut short. Keen to do it all again soon and big thanks to Andrew for arranging
Andrew Hestelow

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