Clarrie’s a class act

As I loaded my gear in the back of my car at 3am I was seriously questioning my sanity. I had got back from work only a few hours earlier and it had felt as if my head had barely hit the pillow when the alarm went off.

I headed up the highway towards Murwillumbah where I picked up good friend Tony Zann. We were going to meet fellow fisho Steve Blayney at the boat ramp on Clarrie Hall Dam for an early morning bass session.

When we arrived at the dam and saw the first rays of daybreak clawing their way across the sky, I knew exactly why I had dragged my weary body out of bed!

Steve headed over to one of the nearby points and we all rigged up surface lures, hoping to make the most of the calm conditions. We started casting to the edges of the banks of lilies and right up in the shallows.

We heard the odd bass hitting the surface and this heightened our anticipation, expecting every twitch of the lures to bring a smashing surface strike.

The bass were feeding on tiny insects that could be seen traversing the surface but the fish kept refusing our offerings until Tony started the ball rolling. We all heard the hit when it came and spun around to see his little topwater disappear into a foamy hole.

His light spin rod was redlining as he piled on the pressure to keep the fish from burying him in the abundant lily pads...