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Troys Trips & Tips, Grafton (2026)

15/07/2025

I fished the DUO International sponsored Charltons Fishing Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments round at Moogarah Dam last weekend. Pre-fish was rewarding in that I got a few really nice bass including my longest PB at 54cm to the tip, however while I knew the good fish were there and that I could get them on jerk baits, I couldn’t really get onto a reliable pattern and felt I was relying too much on luck which proved to be the case.
Saturday mornings session didn't go well as i didn’t weigh a fish at all, dropping the only opportunity I got due to a rookie error in that my drag wasn’t set properly and the fish throwing the hooks in the w**d after a screaming run. Session 2 only got 1 bite for 1 reasonable fish and session 3 on Sunday just 2 bites for 1 small one.

Still, it was a great weekend continuing to learn and one day maybe I can gain some consistency. Congrats to Braeden Thorne on the win and for big bass. Big thanks to Paul and Karen Allwood and their support crew for running these great events and looking after us all with dinner and desert.

Onto another new dam for me in a few weeks, Wuruma Dam. Heard great things about this dam, hoping to get a day trip in next weekend for a look before the comp in 3 weeks.

14/05/2025

So I managed a couple pre fish trips before the Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments
Charltons Fishing Single Series Round 4 held at Cania Dam. There were plenty of fish about but finding the bigger models and getting them to eat proved to be the challenge. I managed to put a plan together that I thought would hold up to 3 sessions but unfortunately only session 1 went to plan.

The first part of the plan was to get 2 quick good ones off an edge that seemed reliable in the morning for at least 2 fish and generally replenishing throughout the day. That worked well Session 1, I dropped the first 2 bites in the first 10 mins that had me a tad rattled but I persevered and got another 2 decent bites that stuck but had me 30 min late to my second spot to which I arrived and got into a couple non upgrades right away before landing 1 of the good ones I knew to be in there and allowing an upgrade. Unfortunately I only picked up the smaller models there after but put a decent bag together that had me up near the pointy end after session 1.

Session 2 was down hill, the edge didnt replenish like it did in pre fish and so didn’t produce, the second spot didn’t handle the morning pressure and didn’t fire at all and my 2 “small bays” back up day spots both had boats in them. I decided to hit some edges I knew had smaller fish but only boated 1 legal and so found myself in 6th after session 2.

Session 3 was a disaster, nothing worked out and I didn’t boat a legal fish.

I did manage plenty of togas in the lead up and during the comp, I’ve never caught so many togas before, 1 bay I caught 4 for 4 casts and while enjoyable in pre fish, very frustrating during the comp.

My edge bite was primarily suspended jerk baits hard up on the edge with the main catcher being the 100mm Berkley Fishing Titan S in Char Orange Pearl, its a shallow diver that managed to skim over the top of the w**d beds well. I had a bit of luck with the deeper diving 79 Jackall Squirrel in Brown Dog the week before but after breaking the bibs on both in pre fish I switched to a 120mm Berkley Fishing Titan D in Gold Rush for my deeper runs and got my 2nd biggest bass for the comp. I did also get a few in pre fish on a Berkley Fishing Breamz 38D in Jelly Prawn.

The bigger fish I was catching leading up to and in the comp were caught on plastics, I was running a 3/8 jig head with a cut down 3” Berkley Powerbait Nemesis Paddle Tail in Blue Shiner Gold and this one claimed my best fish over the 3 weeks which was unfortunately in Pre-fish. My thinking is that the heavier paddle tail on the heaver jig head meant the bait was stirring up little puffs of mud as it was dredged along the bottom. I was also throwing a 1/4 jig head with a cut down Slider in Deer John as my alternate plastic which claimed more fish but smaller models.

Congrats to all the place getters on putting together 3 decent sessions which saw some really good bass weighed in. Big thanks to sponsors Swel Outdoor Solutions and Charltons Fishing for their truly generous support of the series with some awesome prizes given away, and thanks to Paul & Karen and Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments for running another great event. Look forward to seeing everyone at Charltons Fishing Singles Series Round 5 at BP Dam supported by Planet 72 Icecreamery.

11/02/2025

Fished the first event for 2025 Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments Charltons Fishing Singles Series Round 1 at Borumba Dam over the weekend. Borumba Dam is a picturesque dam with spectacular views all over the dam and being quiet local to me just out of Imbil, I cant believe I had never fished it until a couple weeks ago when I did a pre-fish.

The pre-fish was quite easy for me on the edges early using chatters/rumblers and a couple schools for later in the morning with Berkley Fishing Australia Pro Tech TitanD Jerk Baits which left me quite confident for the comp bagging quite a few nice sized fish.

On the Friday pre-fish before the comp however I was a little jaded due to my edges not producing at all and the schools being quite difficult which I suspect maybe due to the 2 degree temp drop over the past 2-3 weeks from all the rain. I did find later in the session that small plastics got a bit of interest, so day 1 found me switching things up, deciding to skip the edges as there were 37 competing boats on the dam and I stowed the reaction baits focusing on plastics, namely Rapala Crush City Suspects on 1/4oz jig head. This ended badly with the morning session only boating 1 small sized fish but also a couple good quality missed opportunities that you just cant afford in a comp setting. That aside, I did find the bite heating up right at the finish time of session 1 so went into session 2 feeling a bit more optimistic and bagged 2 good ones including an upgrade within 25 min before they went quiet again. Moved onto my other school later in session 2 and cycled through a couple upgrades before boating my bigger fish for the event from an isolated group all on plastics.

Day 2 session 3 I was a little sceptical as the mornings just weren’t working for me and the boat pressure would surely be starting to take its toll. I hit the schools again with no joy so moved around a lot more, searching for the isolated groups and found myself in the deeper water hitting small groups in tops of trees using the same plastics but on beetle spins helicoptering them onto the fish and retrieving them through using Live Scope, something I haven’t really done much of before and managed to bag a good one but couldn’t get my second. I feel I understand my live scope a lot better after my session 3 opening up a new to me technique, so taking that as a big win for me and 19th from 47 Adult competitors wasn’t too shabby.

Congratulations to all the winners and a big thanks to Paul & Karen Allwood for everything they do, running great comps cooking a great feed including the spectacular deserts and also to Your Outdoor Experience, Charltons Fishing, hideup and ALL the sponsors for the Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments events. Looking forward to Charltons Fishing Singles Series Round 2 at Maroon Dam.

27/11/2024

So we finished up the Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments Single Rounds for 2024 over the weekend with the Grand Final held at Cania Dam situated in the very scenic Cania Gorge. I finished up with 6th place which was a bitter sweet result considering I was 3rd after the first 2 rounds on Sat dropping the ball Sunday and ending up 20 grams out of the money and 150 grams off big bass..

I managed a pre-fish a couple weeks prior and thought I would have a nice quiet few days fishing the dam pretty much to myself, but unbeknownst to me there was a local annual family fishing comp on that weekend with something like 70-80 boats and some boats with up to 4-5 fishermen, so its fair to say given that the dam is quite small and at 20% capacity, it was very busy and the fish got hammered. I did manage to find good fish on 2 edges at the bottom of the dam and some not so reliable average fish up the top of the dam in the timbers, they were partial to cut down Keitech Easy Shiners & Swing Impact Fats on 1/6 and 1/8 jig heads and 6lb leader. I also managed to reliably get rats from a few shallow schools vertically gulp grubbing, again on tiny jig heads and light leader, so the plan was to try get 2 decent fish off those 2 edges at the bottom of the dam over all 3 sessions and if need be fill any gaps with rats from the schools and or the timbers if desperate.

My week started with the wrong kind of bang when I did myself a bit of a mischief sliding my ute off a track at work in the rain coming to rest with my passenger door against a tree and smashing the window :( but not willing to swag it, I sucked it up and took the ute anyway, but not the start I was hoping for.. Fridays pre-fish went well, got a really nice fish off 1 of my spots early with plenty of stock sitting in a small school near by, the schooling fish weren’t biting, in fact they were super skittish, but every now and again 1 would break away and go up onto the shallow ledge to feed and they were the ones I was chasing. My second spot the fish had unfortunately cleared out so only had 1 edge for good fish which was a worry. The other schooling small fish were still around in their spots and still taking gulps so the back up was still good. Decided to hunt around looking for more options but did myself another mischief bouncing my remote foot pedal off the deck into the drink, a $500+ mischief so got the sulks on a bit after that and not long later called it a day so I could dig up my hand remote, charge its batteries and make sure I had it working for the comp.

Day 1 session 1 started well, bagged a 1.61kg fish in the first 30min off that ledge but from there it went down hill, the fish just weren’t replenishing up onto the ledge and so couldn’t bag another fish despite missing a cracker bite off a nearby edge an hour later and nothing more for hours so with 45min to go in session 1, I decided to resort to the back up all be it too late, to try get a rat from the schools but the sized buggers wouldn’t bite and so only weighed in the 1 good fish.

Day 1 session 2 my spot still wouldn’t produce so scrapped that and hit the schools to try secure at least 2 rats then go searching for some bigger ones up the timber. Had to sift through the rats a bit, catching quite a few under size fish to eventually secure a couple sized rats in the live well and as I searched around for some bigger ones I spotted a cracker on the live scope in 8ft of water so quietly moved in to target it and you beauty it ate the Berkley Fishing Gulp Grub and I put it in the live well. Needless to say I didn’t make it up the timbers as I searched around for another good one but alas, it didn’t come. I was sitting in 3rd position at the end of day 1.

Day 2 session 3 the plan was to test my 2 edges but not waste too much time if they didn’t come and unfortunately they didn’t play the game so I hit the schools to try secure at least 2 rats and hoped to spy another good one. After sifting through some undersized rats for a couple hours I finally got a sized one and banked that, then not long later I hooked up to a cracker fish on the trusty Keitech - Australia Swing Impact casting up into 5-6ft of water, It peeled plenty of line, didn't surface but showed some silver flashes a few times getting me just a tad excited before eventually coming into view only to present as a nice Saratoga…. Damn it. 1 sized fish for session 3 just wasn’t enough to keep me in the money but scored some prizes for my troubles.

Big thanks to Karen & Paul Allwood for putting on another great event as per usual, cant wait to get back into it next year and do a complete season with Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments Single Rounds. Also have to thank all the sponsors, you guys are legends.

Swel Outdoor Solutions
hideup
Bassman Spinnerbaits (Official)
Gatton Brewing & Outdoors
Planet 72 Icecreamery
Keitech - Australia
Pearly Haze Designs
Atomic
Charltons Fishing
Lowrance
Your Outdoor Experience
Bass Cat Boats
Wilson Fishing
Jackall Australia
Daiwa Australia
EJ TODD

16/10/2024

Bit slow getting this up as been soo busy and really this round was one to forget for me but you take the good with the bad I guess.

Pre-fish for Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments Hideup Singles Round Clarence River a couple weeks earlier found plenty fish but struggled to find decent size fish and so come comp weekend, I was still unsure as to whether I go up or down to find the better models.

Fridays pre-fish I left my spots alone and tried some new water in atrocious conditions chasing the elusive larger models, it bucketed down and blew its ass off all day and only managed a couple smaller fish.

Sat was crappy weather yet again but put a plan together to go get my bag on a reliable spot for medium sized fish that turned out not so reliable but eventually after churning through a few small ones over a few spots I had a mediocre bag an hour before first weigh in cut off and decided to submit them only to find my live well tube had come out in the rough conditions and I had accidentally killed my fish. Cant say I handled that too well but after some choice words and a little sulk I got back into it and managed to catch a fish in the final 30 mins and submit 1 fish.

Second session fell apart when I changed my plans in a panic and didn’t catch a sized fish all arvo while managing to break the tips on 2 rods trying to vertically fish a school in crazy rough conditions. When I got back to camp my gazebo had also collapsed just adding to what was already a day to forget.

Sunday was a new day, the weather was at least dry and I decided to just run up a shallow creek out of the wind and away from everyone to focus on some surface and jig fishing which I hadn’t done much of. Managed to get 3 decent fish 1 of which was an upgrade and lost another nice one having a peaceful enjoyable days fishing. Bumped into a platypus too which was pretty cool to watch.

Didn’t manage any pics on the comp so included a couple from the pre-fish a couple weeks earlier.

Hide Up 150's and 400's accounted for a large proportion of my fish but also got a few on Beetle Spin with Berkley Fishing Gulp Paddle Shads cut down, Ecogear Australia ZX Blades and on the Sunday using Daiwa Australia Bait Ju**ie Kikker Curly and Bassman Spinnerbaits (Official) skirted jig with Gulp Crabby trailer.

Focus now is on Cania Dam Singles Grand Final late November.

Thanks to Paul & Karen Allwood for running another great event and putting on a good feed...

27/09/2024

What a miserable day for a pre-fish

11/09/2024

Had the Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments Round 6 Swel Outdoor Solutions Singles at Somerset last weekend. Pre-fish confirmed there were lots of rats and large unreliable 3kg models getting around the main basin (although i didn’t manage to boat any) or smaller 1-2kg more reliable models up river so I committed to the long run up river only to find overnight wind had blown floating w**d all over my bank and I couldn’t manage to get any fish off it. So I hit my back up banks also with a lot of w**d and only managed 1 fish for session 1.
Session 2 I decided to work the main basin only to find I had Livescope issues and decided to do an update on the water rendering all my sounders out of action for about an hour only to find that it seems I have done an internal compass on the LiveScope transducer and now need a new transducer. A bit rattled I couldn’t find my groove and donuted session 2.
After some reflection over night and a chat with Steve Deer I decided to slow things down, hit my back up bank up river and picked it a part nice and slowly to get my bag with an upgrade which lead to eventually taking out 20th of 35. Congrats to all the place getters including Paul Aldous taking out the win with some crackers and thanks to Paul & Karen Allwood for running another great event. Bring on the Clarence in a couple weeks.

01/09/2024

Rounds 5 & 6 of the Australian Bass Tournaments 2024 13 Fishing Australia BASS Pro Series was done and dusted over the past week at Somerset and Wivenhoe. While these dams are not too far from where I live, I haven’t fished them much as the few times I've been, it tends to be a struggle and this time was no different. I did however beat my PB twice on Wivenhoe this trip so that was a plus.

Somerset was a straight up struggle for me, they just weren’t biting much in the comp hours due to being an arvo bite (well at least for me anyways). Some were lucky enough to find a bite window I guess as the ABT biggest bag and biggest fish fell this comp with some absolute stonkers hitting the decks of a lucky few, but many double donuts were had so I was happy to at least avoid that. Was also sad to see that a tourist drowned just out from our camp on Day 1 while we were out fishing causing a few dramas on the dam while a truck also caught on fire up the road causing to traffic problems for some.

Wivenhoe pre-fish I managed a fish I didn’t weigh or measure as I was too busy trying to hide it from other competitors, but it was close to 2kg and was definitely a PB for me and with plenty of them showing up on the sounder albeit scattered, I went into day 1 relatively confident of a decent bag. Unfortunately maybe due to the wind change overnight, the fish thinned out on day 1 and seemed to have lock jaw and I couldn’t manage a fish, dropping the only hookup/bite I had for the day. Day 2 was similar for me however with the wind swinging back around late morning I found some active fish but only managed to get 1 to bite before having to head back, but it did weigh in at a respectable 1.895kg. I have managed to qualify for the ABT Grand Final down in NSW at Lake St Claire next month, but having little exp on that dam, with so much going on at home including a warranty battle with Ford Motor Company due to my 2020 Ford Ranger having major engine problems and parked up 200km away and with other more local tournaments on around the same time, I think I'm going to miss it.

Thanks to Ben Hay for being my camp mate and sounding board for ideas, congrats to all the place getters and well done to all those that found them and got them to bite, it was a frustrating and difficult couple of comps for me and had me questioning my sanity at times, even seeing my sounder in my sleep lol, but strangely enough as soon as I got home I was missing it and looking forward to doing it all again next weekend fishing the Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments Singles Round 6 at Somerset Dam Sponsored by Swel Outdoor Solutions .

18/07/2024

Had an awesome time leading up to and the weekend fishing the Tiaro singles round of my first Queensland Freshwater Fishing Tournaments. I had never fished the Mary river up until a few weeks before the comp when I did some pre-fishing and caught fish each time, i just couldn’t manage to crack a pattern for the bigger models so went in thinking they may not come, however they did come (not into my boat however) which left me sitting around mid field at comps end. Jerk baits got my bigger fish while beetle spin, blades and ice jigs accounted for bag fillers.

Looking forward to making this stretch of river a regular haunt from now on and planning more stays at the River Run Farm Stay and Camping as it was an awesome spot with its own boat ramp, power, toilets, showers and an awesome camp kitchen. I highly recommend.

A shout out to A1Roadworthys and Mechanical for sponsoring the round and a big thanks to Paul and Karren for the effort they put into running the comp including cooking dinner Sat night and putting on an awesome desert made up of a selection of home made cheesecakes.

A job well done to Renz for the win with bags containing single fish that bettered my bags.

25/06/2024

Seems good old quality product and service is a bit of a rarity these days, in some cases it's not even a case of choice regarding purchasing a quality product, it sometimes just isn't an available option. Well the other month I broke my Leatherman Charge Multitool, Ive had my Charge for over 20 years and it's been a great reliable tool. I pondered over sending it in for a warranty claim (has 25 year warranty), just seemed a little off sending it in for a claim after 20 odd years of good service. Anyways I did send it in and within a week I had a brand new replacement Leatherman Charge sent back, no fuss what so ever, they have even been upgraded too so better than the old one.

So if you are in the market for a Multitool, I cannot recommend these guys enough, and the Charge is my favourite too, it has a bunch of useful features for the avid handyman, camper, fisherman, shooter, looking forward to another 20+ years of good service.

05/05/2024

Love the vertical bite on BP, makes it easy for the kids to whack em. Not huge fish but must have laded a few hundred fish over the past few sessions. Ice Jigs and Blades were and still are the go to.

19/04/2024

So its been a very busy 3 weeks with an Easter week long pre-fish for the ABT Clarence & Richmond Rivers followed by the Kilkivan Great Horse Ride Leah & I are involved with organising then straight onto the ABT Comps on the rivers.

Clarence - Easter pre-fish for the Clarence was focussed on down stream not cracking any real reliable pattern other than the Ferries that ended up being ruled out of bounds for the comp so I went into the comp with no real plan other than to try my luck up stream hitting deep water rocky edges with cranks. I found 2 banks, 1 with numbers but small and 1 i pulled a 43cm off, so went into the comp planning on bagging out on the smaller ones then upgrading on bank 2. Both days I bagged out on bank 1 but bank 2 didnt deliver any upgrades so settled for a 9th place 1 spot out of the money.

Richmond - Easter pre-fish on the Richmond was limited to 1 day and was no good only managing 3 bites working the Wilson River. Going into the comp was pretty much same as Clarence, no real plan at all. I decided to go way upstream on the Richmond that turned out to be a big mistake and so went down stream late in the arvo for an hour to get a nice mid 40’s out of a drain. Day 1 hit that drain and my Nonnie pulled a fish before it shut down, we then hit deep water rocky edges to grind out a bag for my Bonnie and 4 for myself. Day 2 was similar but got my bag to end up mid field.

So far for the series sitting 9th for the AOY with Somerset and Wivenhoe to come in a few months. Time to get down to those dams and try figure something out.

Troys Trips & Tips