North Coast bass tips

It doesn’t take a lot to fire me up to go fishing. And when we’re talking about chasing bass, it’s even easier – just the sound of buzzing cicadas, warm weather and the promise of a light afternoon breeze and I’m as good as there.

I recently watched Dave Seaman’s Wild River Bass DVD, which captures virtually every appealing aspect that bass fishing has to offer. The combination of picturesque waterways and large, cantankerous bass are part of the reason I moved to the North Coast and when the warm weather arrives, I make sure I spend plenty of balmy evenings well above the tidal influence.

For many years I fished the Central Coast, mainly in the small tributaries that feed the Brisbane Water and Tuggerah Lakes systems. These creeks, while quite pretty and containing a reasonable number of bass, never really held good numbers of large fish. You’d pin the odd kilo fish but the majority were around 200-400g. Even the more remote systems on the Upper Hunter seemed to contain large numbers of small fish.

While much of the North Coast isn’t exactly pristine country (though there are some spectacular pockets if you’re prepared to explore), there are enough safe havens for the bass to reach a good average size...