A serious look at Pejar Dam CANBERRA
Toby Grundy
Until recently I had never really taken Pejar Dam seriously, because I had heard such negative reviews of the dam from a number of anglers. Even though it’s
plans to fish another dam fell through. Pejar was the only option nearby, and contained the species I wanted to target – rainbow trout. We arrived at the dam at 9am, and half an hour later I had dropped two large rainbow trout and caught my new PB. I realised very
Goulburn has all the usual amenities that you typically find in a larger rural town, such as petrol stations, cafes, restaurants and supermarkets. There’s also a great tackle shop, Tackle World Goulburn, where you can stock up on lures and get some really helpful advice
The fish hold in weed beds scattered throughout the dam. only about an hour’s drive from Canberra (my home town), I ignored the dam and focused my attention on any other fishery I could
quickly that sometimes reputation means absolutely nothing, and that even dams with the worst statuses are worth a crack.
You’ll need to spend a bit of time on the water so pack for a big session. find – all because of those stories of fishless days and hours spent on the water without even a touch. However, this all changed recently when my
FACILITIES Pejar Dam is located just outside the city of Goulburn, which is about an hour from Canberra and two hours from Sydney.
about fisheries in the area and how best to connect with big fish at Pejar. At the dam itself, there are toilets, plenty of parking and it’s very easy to launch as the dirt road winds its way close to the bank. You do need a fishing license as the dam is in NSW, and Pejar is an alpine waterway so a lifejacket must be worn at all times. There is mobile phone reception all the way around the dam. SPECIES Pejar Dam has been stocked with rainbow trout, brown trout and Australian bass. The rainbows and browns are seriously big and the bass are catching up fast. I sounded a number of trout that would have been over 70cm, and a few even larger fish. TECHNIQUES I first started using plastics for trout in the Eucumbene River and have usually done well on them, so I started with the same
The author with his new PB bow of 67cm. The trout here are big and fight well.
techniques that I apply at the Snowies. I got action straight away. There is a lot of bait at Pejar and it was very easy to spot this bait in the first few minutes and match the hatch. I used a 65mm Squidgy Wriggler (a similar size to the bait) in red rum rigged on a 1/8oz jighead. I then cast the lure out towards the edge of the weed beds near the dam wall and slow lifted the plastic towards the surface after I felt it hit the weed. I then let the lure drop again once it neared the surface. All three hook-ups came right at the top of the water column, with the largest trout of the day eating the lure at the kayak. For bass, I found large schools of 30-35cm fish in the deeper sections of the dam, and vertically jigged Ecogear ZX35s right in front of their nose. I couldn’t convince any to bite but I am sure that in the warmer months, these fish would respond well to this technique. THE KAYAK Pejar is a wide dam and there isn’t a lot of tight water,
Warren Adkins with a nice fish taken on the troll. necessity. There are scattered weed beds throughout the dam, and some are out in the middle of nowhere and deep with no other visible structure in sight. Without a sounder, finding these fertile holding grounds would be the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. I used the Lowrance Elite-7 Ti and marked a number of weed
The dam wall provides good fishing. so it is suited to larger, stable kayaks. I used my Native Slayer 13 (pedal) and it was perfect because it handled the chop with ease and has the added benefit of reverse, which meant that when I did hook a big trout I was able to keep the fish out in front of me at all times. I did witness a young bloke launch a small paddle kayak at the dam wall and he did struggle in the wind, eventually giving up after about 30 minutes. It is an unforgiving dam and doesn’t suit cheap craft. The other reason for bringing a larger yak is for the storage. The fish move around a lot, and finding them could mean several sweeps of the dam up and back, meaning you’ll need plenty of food and water and a place to keep it. THE SOUNDER This is the first dam I have visited during the two years of writing this column where I would say a good sounder is a
beds which I fished at various times during the day, which always had fish on them. LOCATIONS I recommend starting at the dam wall as it is close to the launch area. There were fish sitting along the rocks when we went through this spot in the morning and again in the afternoon. It is a bit more sheltered and there is plenty of bait in this area. There is also a good patch of half-sunken shrubs
just past the middle of the dam, and close by are several excellent weed beds which are worth a crack and where we hooked several good fish. TACKLE I took two outfits to Pejar but ended up only fishing one for the majority of the day. For plastics and blades, I used my Daiwa Harrier ultralight 1-3kg rod matched to a Daiwa Cerate 1000 spooled with 4lb fluorocarbon straight through. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting big trout and the first trout (67cm) pushed this outfit to its limits, but I had more hits on the light gear so I stuck with it. TIMING I fished Pejar in late July and had a great time. I sounded plenty of fish, fought and lost a few beasts and we landed some nice trout. So as a winter or early spring fishery, I can’t recommend it highly enough. That said, I intend to go there again in summer to try for some bass. CONCLUSION Pejar Dam is up there for me as one the most exciting kayak fisheries that I have come across. There are plenty of fish and it has something for everyone, with both native and introduced species on offer. This dam taught me to ignore the general consensus, and to never judge on reputation alone. If you’re thinking of making the trip, now is a great time to visit the dam and target some mammoth trout.
The best fishing came from areas like this, with two or three trout nearer the top hanging over a weed bed. SEPTEMBER 2018
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