This year for Easter we decided to head down to Lake Conjola for a week of camping and fishing with friends. We arrived on Saturday and spent our first afternoon setting up camp and having a few beers. We’d chosen to stay at Holiday Haven due to its easy access to a boat ramp, the lake, and the beach. And let’s be honest, because we booked so late and this was one of the few options still available! That being said, it was a cracker! Absolutely perfect for us. I highly recommend it and I’ll definitely head back there at some stage.
The campsite was clean and well maintained, and the kids loved the friendly kangaroos, abundance of possums, and the large sand dunes that they got to slide down on their bodyboards and kayaks. Green Island Beach was also a firm favourite to walk to at low tide. The playground was great, and the reception sold ice-creams and bait so we were also covered there. The only real downside is that there is no access to fuel without driving for 15 odd minutes, but it’s easy enough to bring a weeks worth of boat fuel with you.
Day 1: The Gale and the Comfort Zone
Paul and I took the tinny out for our first fish on Sunday afternoon. The wind had been howling for 24 hours and, when I woke up, I’d had a good laugh at Paul and his family who were massively exposed having lost half of their flysheet to the overnight gale.
Being the super prepared man I am, I’d done very little research on the area. We were planning to mostly bait fish, which is well out of my fly fishing and lure fishing comfort zone. Our plan was to explore the lake for a while, before settling into our first spot. Since we launched into Myrtle Gully, we were in a relatively shallow section of the waterway. Thankfully it wasn’t that hard to chug up to Lake Conjola or across to Berringer Lake (even at the 5-knot speed limit) if we wanted to fish deeper water.
After exploring for 20 odd minutes we tucked in behind an island, mostly to get out of the wind. Our chosen island had some oyster racks running parallel to it, which I was hoping would hold a few fish. The water was no more than 2 meters deep, and the wind blew us perfectly between the island and the oyster racks.
Paul had come prepared with a few sand worms, and wanted to target some sand whiting. I’d bought some squid from the camp shop, and was hoping to hook into a decent flathead. Paul was obviously the wiser of us, as he quickly hooked into a decent whiting. Not to be outdone, I hooked into one a few casts later. We did the drift a few more times, and landed a few more whiting, before calling it quits and heading back to camp to cook up our catch.
Day 2 & 3: Doing the Homework
Day 2 saw us being slightly more prepared. I’d done a little more research overnight and found some potential spots in Lake Conjola and Lake Berringer.
We tried Lake Conjola first, which meant cruising 15 minutes up Myrtle Gully to the lake entrance. The wind had thankfully died down, and we chose a slow drift that took us along the drop-off between the gully and the lake. Fishing was slightly better, and we managed a variety of species including bream and tailor, although none of them were particularly large. We then headed over to Berringer Lake where we picked up a few small flathead while the sun set. All in all a good session, and I did lose one large flathead never to be seen again!
Day 3 was slow. We opted for a shorter session after a long day on the beach with the kids. Having less time we headed straight for Berringer Lake, hoping to find the big flathead I’d dropped the day before. Sadly, it was not to be, and all we managed were a few small flathead before calling it quits.
Day 4: Making Pigs of Ourselves
Day 4 was where it was at! I managed to convince Paul to get out of bed early to fish a morning session rather than another afternoon session. This proved to be only slightly successful as he dragged himself from his tent at 9am, a couple of hours after my proposed 7am start.
We got straight onto the water and headed for Lake Conjola. At first, fishing was slow. There was almost no wind which meant we weren’t drifting and covering ground. And without a fish finder to spot structure, bobbing over bad spots wasn’t useful.
And then I spotted pelagics chasing baitfish in the distance! I quickly rigged up a second rod with a lure and threw it out. Almost immediately I hooked into a large tailor. Sadly I dropped it at the boat, but I was straight back into another on the next cast. We moved a little closer and made absolute pigs of ourselves until the school vanished.
After that, it went quiet again. I managed to pick up a decent bream on bait, but it was nearing midday and the fishing was definitely slowing. So we called it a day and headed back to the boat ramp to spend the remainder of the holiday with family.
