Lake Moondarra, August 2011
Words and Pics by Ward Nicholas
I had the pleasure of fly fishing Lake Moondarra near Mt Isa during August, 2011. The event was run by the Mt Isa Fish Stocking Group, and was a catch and release fly fishing only event. There were 22 anglers involved and the team from the MIFSG where very helpful in directing anglers to a reasonable place to fish.
As I did not have a boat I was fishing along the shore line. The first morning I was directed by Keith to the shore beside the dam wall itself. This seemed like a good place to start as before the event began I noticed a school of fish being pushed to the surface and birds where feeding on them. This I was thinking was indicating that larger fish (barra) where feeding and pushing the bait up! I used my 8wt with an intermediate head and starting working the banks. As this was a deep drop and little back casting room I went to roll casting and what I call window casting (Finding a hole in the scrub behind and forward cast into the hole over the land and then back casting into the water), this allowed me to get a good coverage of the water. From this approach and using a yellow over white clouser I managed to land a nice legal fork tailed catfish (one of the targeted species). I worked this area for about 4 hrs and then a Brad from the MIFSG took me to a secret spot. Here we chatted about what the group does and how well the barra are doing in the dam. We fished this area until late in the afternoon and noticed some barra working and Brad had a hook but no success. I did find a nice croc of about 2-3metres and she seemed happy the first 2 times I disturbed her but by the third she just sat in the water and watched as I walked by. I thought it would be best to not go that way again!
I did find another nice fork tailed catfish that was sitting behind a clump of weed. This one was a bit harder to land but I worked the fish around weed bed took the photo and returned him to the deep. We drove back to Mt Isa for a quiet night before getting up early for a start in a different location. I went for a walk around the dam stopping and fishing what appeared to be good areas for holding fish but no luck. I enjoyed the day but noticed that the wind had gotten up and cooled the lake down, so I went back to the Black Rock Picnic area for the weigh in. As it turned out only a couple of fish were caught so my 2 where very handy at the weigh in. Thanks to George and the crew from the MT Isa Fish Stocking Group for a great weekend.
As I did not have a boat I was fishing along the shore line. The first morning I was directed by Keith to the shore beside the dam wall itself. This seemed like a good place to start as before the event began I noticed a school of fish being pushed to the surface and birds where feeding on them. This I was thinking was indicating that larger fish (barra) where feeding and pushing the bait up! I used my 8wt with an intermediate head and starting working the banks. As this was a deep drop and little back casting room I went to roll casting and what I call window casting (Finding a hole in the scrub behind and forward cast into the hole over the land and then back casting into the water), this allowed me to get a good coverage of the water. From this approach and using a yellow over white clouser I managed to land a nice legal fork tailed catfish (one of the targeted species). I worked this area for about 4 hrs and then a Brad from the MIFSG took me to a secret spot. Here we chatted about what the group does and how well the barra are doing in the dam. We fished this area until late in the afternoon and noticed some barra working and Brad had a hook but no success. I did find a nice croc of about 2-3metres and she seemed happy the first 2 times I disturbed her but by the third she just sat in the water and watched as I walked by. I thought it would be best to not go that way again!
I did find another nice fork tailed catfish that was sitting behind a clump of weed. This one was a bit harder to land but I worked the fish around weed bed took the photo and returned him to the deep. We drove back to Mt Isa for a quiet night before getting up early for a start in a different location. I went for a walk around the dam stopping and fishing what appeared to be good areas for holding fish but no luck. I enjoyed the day but noticed that the wind had gotten up and cooled the lake down, so I went back to the Black Rock Picnic area for the weigh in. As it turned out only a couple of fish were caught so my 2 where very handy at the weigh in. Thanks to George and the crew from the MT Isa Fish Stocking Group for a great weekend.
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