Lake Cania Queensland Australia

[keljad]

On the weekend before last, myself and a group of the boys headed up to Cania Dam to chase some Saratoga and Australian Bass.

We spent a weekend up there at the Cania Dam Tourist Park which offered us awesome accomodation and hospitality during our stay. There is plenty to do for all the family, and I highly reccomend ths as the place to stay if you wish to have a weekend away. See the weblink for the full range of activities and ammenities. http://www.caniagorge.com.au/index.asp

Cania Dam is stocked with the highly sought after Australian Bass, but is famous for its surface fishing action for the iconic Saratoga. As I have never caught a Saratoga, I was biting at the bit to get me some toga action.

Unlike many surface action fishing destinations, one does not have to be up at the crack of dawn to get amongst the action. Cania Dam Bass and Toga will happily take surface lures all day long. The main surface lures that we were using was the Rapala Skitter Pops in the green and Brown Frog Patterns. The technique is extremely simple - cast in as close as you can to the bank, any further than a foot out from the shoreline will result in no fish. Let it sit for a few seconds, and then retrieve with 10cm twitches creating as much popping noise as you can on the surface. Make sure you put a few pauses in the retrieve just to mix things up, and once you are about 5m out from the shoreline, just crank it back in. Do not waste your time surface fishing the midwater as the fish are holding up close. I caught my first toga of around 45cm in this way. ( sorry, no photo as I only got it on video camera and still waiting on the stills)

The other main lure we were using was a TT Lures Vortex Spinnrbait in the purple colour. This was the lure of choice for all sub surface activity, and was the main lure responsible for all the Bass catches. Spinner baits are one of the most versatile lures around. You can cast and retrieve them, fish them at any depth you like. Troll them, Jig them, and fish them in amongst any timber. Due to the upturned single hook, they are extremely hard to snag. You dont have to any fancy retrieve with a spinnerbait, just a slow constant wind will suffice most of the time.

The fishing was pretty hard all weekend, with a strong northerly blowing the whole time, conditions were not the best. I managed 4 Bass and 1 toga, but for the group of 5 fishing, there were in excess of 30 fish caught including a prize 80cm saratoga by Robbie wells.