As it turned out, I had four in the 1st ten minutes of casting out! The action was slow and steady for the rest of the day and I had a grand time despite the conditions.

If you've not fished it, give it a go!

After a tough month of so fishing today felt very, very different. There was a bit of warm in the sun, for once there wasn't any wind and I was straight into some fish at the first spot I tried. 'Toga Point' has always been good to me and today was no different, with a couple of fish a piece on both the lure and worm rod. These winter fish are in such great condition, I'm guessing due to feeding up for winter and spawning and although the takes aren't as blistering as they are in the warmer months the weights are quite something.

I spent a good hour or so at toga point, working either side of the weed bed that comes out from the point and I was literally having the best time. But eventually the bites dried up so I decided to head up the lake to 'Fence Bay' and again, I was immediately into fish. This was quite something, getting this amount of action around the edges after so many weeks of having to fish deeper open water was just amazing.

Sadly the famous 'Kurwongbah wind' had kicked in so after a couple more smallish fish I decided to head up to 'Kangaroo Point' where a very strong breeze was blowing me rapidly from left to right. It was worth battling though as there were fish holding up in the bay and if I could get the kayak position right I could drift right across them and get multiple hits. It really is one of my favourite spots on the lake and I managed yet more decent sized bass.

This was turning out to be quite a session! After an hour or so battling the wind at 'Kangaroo Point' it was time to move on again. The plan was to paddle over to the bay in front of the big house and let the wind blow me slowly down the lake. I'd not had much from this spot so it was a real surprise when the lure ripped off on the 2nd cast!

That was the only bite from that spot and the wind rapidly pushed me down into a new spot around the corner from 'Stag Bay'. I managed a number of small bass from this new spot and learnt a thing or two about the area. Plenty of weed as normal for Kurwongbah but there were some great clear spots. Defo an area that requires more investigation...

Having so much consistent action in each spot had meant time was marching on so I decided to have one more go at 'Fence Bay' (which produced yet more fish!) and another go at 'Toga Point' (which also produced yet more fish!) before making my way back to the landing stage.

Just an amazing day on the water! I was made up, one of the best sessions so far at Lake Kurwongbah with a handful off big fish and loads of backup smaller ones - happy days.

I was blessed with lovely flat calm conditions this time which was a welcome relief as its been windy as all hell of late which makes kayak fishing a real challenge!

The day started well, with my first hit (but sadly not a fish...) on a soft plastic. I've been watching a lot of videos from Pukka1963 on YouTube and he's been cleaning up of late with plastics, namely the Gulp 'grubs' so it it was defo worth giving them a go. After that encouraging initial hit, I was really expecting some more action on the plastics but it was actually the worms and Rapal Rap-V blades that once again produced all the fish. I'll defo be returning to soft plastics sometime soon but it's hard to ignore such a winning combo.

I had to work hard for every bite and didn't score anything of any massive size but what amazed me was the amount of fish around the edges rather than out in deeper water. It's hard to believe, but maybe the winter pattern is over?!

The weather was looking on point all week and although Friday was set to be sunny it was going to be pretty windy around mid morning. I haven't yet figured out how much the wind affects the fishing at Lake Kurwongbah asbwater temperature and current all play their part. But aside from that it can make keeping stationary in the kayak a complete nightmare! The main challenge is remembering the spot you got a bite from so you can revisit it for another go as if there's one bass, the chances are there'll be more hanging around. I'm wondering if some home made h-block markers are the go?!

So I decided to arrive early and make the most of the calm conditions and weirdly, I couldn't buy a bite! The water was like a mill pond, the sun low in the sky, it all looked perfect but either there weren't any bass around or they just weren't interested - which really surprised me as in past sessions they'd got onto the worms literally in minutes. It's situations like this that a sounder would be an invaluable bit of kit...

And then as if someone had flicked a switch.. the wind sprung up! A lot earlier than BOM had predicated too, before I knew it the kayak was spinning in circles and I was finding it impossible to stay put. Having done 20 minutes at 'Toga Point' I'd had enough so I headed on down to 'Stag Bay' thinking there had to be some fish there. Sure enough, I managed to pick two small ones up on the lure allowing it to sink almost to the bottom before retrieving. But what really surprised me was that there was absolutely no interest at all on the worms.

Again, I'm not sure if there weren't fish around, or my presentation was off but something was up. I wasn't even getting any interest from the dreaded eels! One thing was that the wind was blowing to the south east, whereas on previous weeks where the wind had go up it'd been to the north west. It certainly wasn't a cool wind, I was plenty warm in the sunshine but maybe the chop on the water and the current direction had pushed the fish into new areas?

I stuck it out for a while, letting the wind drift me from the bay out into open water, thinking that being stealthy would trick the fish but no further joy. It was weird, the lake was fishing completely differently and I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do. After an hour of spinning in circles I headed around the corner further down the lake (still no name!) and tried the open water and despite picking up another small bass on the lure, I really wasn't 'feeling it'...

And by this point, I'm not going to lie, the wind was really, really beginning to piss me off!

It wasn't worth fighting it, so I let the wind blow me down the side of the lake towards the old boat ramp, casting as I went to see if anything was around. And then amazingly, I stumbled upon some decent fish! They seemed to be sitting in open water just outside a weed bed just off the point in front of the boat ramp and if I could get a lure in that spot, I could nab a bite. It wasn't easy as I needed to cast directly into the wind and constantly reposition the kayak but picking off some bites had completely turned my mood around. It was hard work but worth it for a couple of decent bass from a new area.

The bites did dry up, more than likely due to my splashing due to constantly having to reposition myself so a new plan was needed. I'd watched a video during the week from 'Skulldrag Industries' where a guy had great success fishing down by the dam wall and as it's an area that I'd not fished before, I decided it was worth a go. The other reason was I wondered if it would be out of the wind as despite it being a wide expanse of water, it would be sheltered by the curve of the lake and the trees.

But no dice - the wind was, if anything, worse by the dam wall! I gave it a go for a while but to be honest my heart really wasn't in it... I also realised that my kit wasn't up to the task, if I was going to stand a chance of catching a bass here I'd need something that swam a lot deeper or give trawling a go (which isn't really my thing...).

So another tough day... Rewarding, but tough. Winter bassing is a new challenge, I thought I'd cracked it with the worms but maybe I need to employ some different tactics or investment in a sounder to give me the edge in locating these Kurwongbah bass?!

There were two targets for the day: the first was to get the float rod out and get into some of the quality roach the lake has to offer and the second was to put a couple of feisty carp on the bank. Having had some monsters on the last trip, I was eager to have another go.

Kilcott is a very small venue, only an acre or so in size and with very limited swims so it's a good idea to arrive early to have the pick of the bunch. Having said that, pulling into the car park at 7am on the nose in the pitch black may have been a tad over enthusiastic... But the early bird catches the worm right?!

As it turned out, I had the place to myself for all but a couple of hours when two fellas arrived and fished the far bank over lunch time. As expected, the lake didn't fail to deliver and I had loads of carp on the bottom bait rod and some prime roach on the float.

Every so often the lake does throw up a surprise or two and this trip was no exception. The bottom bait rod had gone quiet and I'd repositioned it in a different swim with a small white popup on the hair. It'd been in the water for 15 minutes (a long time for Kilcott!) when it ripped off and a nice size scaly mirror came in. Not a monster by any means but a tip-top fish for this lake.

And the day wouldn't be complete without some surface fishing (yup, in January!) and I spent the last hours of the session plucking carp after carp out of the margins by my feet on bread and dog mixers.

It was a great session, one that restored my faith in fishing after having spent so many hours on the river.

I'll be back on the Avon next week, croc hunting again but for now, it feels great to have spent the day hauling them in!