Yabbies at Menindee lakes

turners travels

check this out

there has been a lot of rain this year up menidee way I have not been up there for 12 months so cannot say what fishing is like now

as i said to another chap check out the old railway bridge just out of town follow the railway line past the pool it goes back to another era at menidee where paddle steamers came down that way and the bridge would open up there is a information placard there

some thing you do not see much and some thing different you might even try fishing there you never know your luck

We have been up and down the Murray and Darling quite a bit over the last couple of years and the only fish we have seen caught were Carp. We even had a local fishing club camp next to us at Yarrawonga early this year. 11 fishermen and only Carp was caught over 3 days.
I saw a guy put nets in just below the main dam wall at Menindee last year and he got a few yabbies. Another guy got some out of a dam near Curlwaa a couple of weeks ago. Cheers, Bob

A fun way to catch yabbies is with a hand line. Either string or fishing line. For bait either pork or beef works well. No hook, just tie a chunk of meat on. A chunk about 50mm (2 inches) long and about 25mm (1 inch) thick. Throw it out and keep the line slack. You will feel when the yabby takes it. They will slowly drag the bait to their hole. Then just gently pull it in. The yabby will not let go until right at the edge. As soon as you see the yabby in the shallows, scoop it up with a small landing net.

Yellow belly bait...worm ! Earth worms that is. You can readily buy small tubs of worms for a few $. You can use lures if you want, but worms are the go. Use a rig like you would for bream but with a mid length hook so that you can slide the worm onto the hook shank. A hook with bait holder barbs is good.

Carp...Australia is one of only a very few countries that do not eat carp. Brief history... A joint Government and I believe German company venture went wrong. They wanted to grow carp for food in Vic. It rained, the river flooded, the carp ponds got flooded and the carp got out...It was big dollars involved on both sides, it was in the 10's of millions and their carp stock had just been flushed out. Word spread and people in their thousands headed south to get the carp. That is why the carp appeared to spread across the country so fast...People were taking them home to stock dams and creeks for their own food supply.

The Gov and the Germans went into panic mode. They still wanted their carp ponds to work...or they would lose 10's of millions of dollars. If people had their own dams and creeks stocked with carp, then the business venture would fail. So they put out a propaganda story telling people that carp was no good to eat...It worked...In fact it worked so well, that they convinced an entire nation that carp was no good...The story worked so well, that no one wanted to eat carp anymore and the business venture failed cos no one wanted to buy the carp... They were doomed either way !

Most councils have information for people that want to grow their own carp. They often have recipes and other useful tips. Or if you are really interested, just google carp fishing UK.

Hi Rob
I was up at Menindee in May this year and a mate and myself caught 4 Yellow Belly.
It was the first fish of any sort I had caught in 50 years so they are there.

We only fished the last hour before sundown and we were just below one of the regulators on the Darling. We used shrimp live bait which we caught in nets about an hour or two before we began fishing.

We have been advised that the fish bite best when the river is running as they go off the bite when the river levels begin to fall.

Note that we caught more carp (6 or 8) than we did Yellow Belly so you have to cast out toward the middle of the stream otherwise all you will get near the bank is carp.

Cheers, Bruce.

PS. the Yellow Belly was bloody lovely too.

Thanks everyone for your replies.
I'll let you all know how we go, maybe post our first blog.
Mmmmmmmm, Can taste the yabbies and Yellow Bellies now.