It took a while, but we returned to Lake Bonney for four days of fishing bliss.
I thought i would prepare more bait this time, to see if i could reduce the amount of small fish in our swim and increase the chances of a larger specimen. In the week leading to the trip, i had mixed 20kg of soaked chicken feed with breadcrumb and hand rolled into small 20mm balls which would give me around 50kg of bait ready to feed in. At our chosen area, It was possible to wade out to around the 60m mark with the waders on, which is what i did. I dropped a marker float, walked back another 10m or so and put in a full bucket of the rolled bait to get the action started.
Action was quick off the mark with my first capture within the hour.
Agy was off the mark too shortly after with his first fish.
Action was then slow through the afternoon with only 3 or 4 fish each caught before we both caught a turtle each so i waded out and put another bucket of bait in. We called it a night and hit the sleeping bags.
Rods were re-baited and cast back out at first light. It had been a cold night with temperatures down into single figures and the wind had been blustery all night. Within seconds of casting out we had action, with Agy catching the first fish of the morning.
Quickly followed by a fish of my own.
Many more were caught on through the day with the average size being around 10 - 12lb mark.
Day three and the action was as good as the previous day with lots of good sized fish followed by Agy's best fish of the session at 17lb 8oz, a new personal best.
And not to be outdone, i slipped the landing net under this nice specimen.
We also had some friendly visits from a rat during our time on the bank.
He was very busy around our swim each day picking up small pieces of bait, and we could here him getting very close at night.
And before we knew it, was the last day and was time to pack away and come home. i had to make it back for the malls-ballers steemit meet-up in Adelaide. A great relaxing time was had and it now looks like Agy doesn't need any more coaching from me, he can hold his own on the bank - also the average size of the fish had definitely increased with my new baiting approach although i could have done with twice as much bait. Thanks for joining me on my latest trip, see you on the bank :)