Travel just over an hour inland from the Sunshine Coast and you reach Lake Borumba. It’s a serene, picturesque part of South East Queensland, and a fishing mecca.
The lake is well-stocked with Australian bass as well as saratoga and yellow belly. The bass dominate, with the last recorded number at 45,000.
During the cooler months, the fish species here tend to slow down a bit, but they don’t shut down altogether — nor should your fishing. It’s just about refining your technique to try and entice that bite.
In winter, bass tend to school up, mimicking their spawning behaviour. So the secret is to find the schooling fish, work out which way they’re travelling and start targeting those areas. They’re also hanging around the bottom (as opposed to summer when they tend to be around the mid-waters) so a heavy jig head is recommended. On that jig head, our pick of lures: the new three-inch Berkley Nemesis.
“With any lighter jig heads, if you wind, it comes off the bottom too fast and you’re out of that bite zone,” said Callum Munro of Untapped Fishing Expeditions. “So once it’s pretty much hit the bottom, I like to do a quick little shake, and then all you’re going to do is five or six slow winds… once it’s probably tracked too far off the bottom, you want to free-spool it, make it go back to the bottom.”
Cal also advises to mix things up a bit when it comes to the winding speed in winter.
“Usually slow, but honestly, if you can mix it up–especially when the fish shut down–try and draw a reaction out of the fish,” Cal said.
When it comes to bass skill and knowledge, Callum is your man. He’s fished all over the world, and Lake Borumba is one of his favourite fishing spots!
To fish on Lake Borumba, you will need a stock empowerment permit, which is easy enough to obtain online. Stock up on your gear at your local BCF store.
