The Isis Balancing Storage is fishing well at the moment, which is to be expected at this time of year. There has been a notable trend for the bigger bass to hang right in the weed beds, and extracting them can be a little difficult and provides a bit of drama for lucky anglers.

Tim Stenhuis from Salty’s Tackle in Bundaberg has been hitting the lake recently, and his most successful tactic has been to cast jighead-rigged Silver Fox Squidgies into the weed edges and slowly work them out into the clearer water. The fish have been dashing out of the weed cover, nailing the lure and dashing back for the weed. When this happens you need to hang on tight and do everything to keep the big bass (up to 48cm) out of the weed or there will be trouble.

Surface lures have been producing some good fish along the edges early in the morning and later in the evening. Surface stickbaits and poppers have been good and Tim’s favourite lure has been the Zip’N’Ziggy, a small surface walker.

Monduran was fishing well until southeast winds starting blowing with a vengeance, as the tropical cyclone approached our northern shores. As I write this, everyone is hoping for a bit of rain to come down south and put some water into Monduran, and also to cool the water temperature around the edges.

The warmer edge water has seen the barra move into deeper water and anglers are now trolling lures like Killalure Barra Baits along the tree edges to target their fish. There are still plenty of metre-plus barra there for the catching, but you need to have a solid work ethic, especially if you plan on casting lures all day.

As February advances, I’d expect the fishing in Monduran to stabilise and become more consistent. If the rains do fall, expect the barra to move into the edges in the following weeks. If this happens, you can have some real fun casting lures. Remember to keep the lures moving very slowly in the shallows.

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