Episode 550: Best Spring Bass Fishing Spots With Keeghan Painter

Keeghan’s Tips For Somerset Dam Bass

• Somerset Dam is one of the most challenging places that keeps you on your toes. In this system you’re constantly trying to figure out where the bass are and what they’re doing. It can be a tough storage to fish just because of the amount of fishing pressure it receives.
• Because of the fishing pressure you need to use lots of different lures to find one the fish are not so familiar with. Keegan says you also need to be prepared to move around to find the fish.
• Sometimes exactly where you fish can change from hour to hour, so moving around to find the fish is really important. Where the fish can be found will depend on the time of day.
• On foggy mornings Keegan likes to start the morning on Kirkleigh flats, usually in 20-30 feet of water. By around 10 o’clock a place called Red Rock near the Wivenhoe end in 30ft of water seems to hold fish all year round Though for some reason they’re not found at Red Rock earlier in the day.
• For some reason when the bass are in the shallow water they tend to disperse and feed individually but later when they return to the deep water they school up. At these times you may get a hot bite for 30 minutes and then the fish disappear completely and can’t even be seen on the sounder.
• Usually during the spring months you’ll experience a deep bite at Somerset Dam but this year due to excessive rain the water levels are higher and shallow bites were more common, your fish being found in water four to ten feet deep.
• Halco Twisties in silver always fish well in Lake Somerset mostly in the 20g size but going to 30g sometimes for extra casting weight and allows you to target fish in deeper water. The Norries Wasabi Spoon is another good option and can be switched between casting and vertical jigging because of its great fluttering action.
• A 2 1/2 inch Z Man slim swimz is also good lure for Lake Somerset on a half or 5/8 ounce jig head. The heavier jig head allows the angler to keep the lure deeper in the water and allows the lure to be worked faster if needed. The baby bass colour is a favourite, as is motor oil. Slow rolling the lure at whatever depth the fish are hanging is the trick.

Lake Borumba Fishing Spots

• This is a great fishing spot all year round but in Spring all facets of the late come into play from deeper basins, humps in the deep, creek arms, timbered areas and so on. Its small size makes it easy to work out and gives anglers plenty of options.
• During spring there are often aggregations of bass in the deeper areas of the lake in preparation for spawning and the fish tend to be feisty and aggressive. You often find them on flats alongside old creek beds.
• In 2022 the heavy rainfall over the dry season has resulted in dirty water, which can cause the fish to move to the edges and feed in shallower water. Creek beds of 20-30 feet (maximum) depth adjacent to grassy banks and points are good areas to try in these conditions
• There are lots of shrimp and lots of bony bream in Lake Borumba. When the fish are feeding on shrimp a metal blade is often a great choice of lure. Bigger fish will be feeding on bony bream and can be targeted with soft plastics or jerkbaits to mimic the baitfish.
• There is often a great edge bite in Borumba during spring when the water warms and the redclaw start to get active. This is the perfect time to fish jigs using a 7’6” Okuma rod and heavy line (20lb braid and 20lb leader). Jigs are weedless and can be cast into the gnarliest, heaviest cover. A 1/2 oz Jig Pro jig with a Z-Man TRD Craw trailer is a great option worked along rock walls or heavy timber. It’s a super finesse technique that is all about feeling the weight of the jig and the fish.
• Chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, blades and spoons all have a place in Borumba during spring as the fish can be shallow or deep.

Cania Dam Bass Fishing

• This is a scenic dam system and is appealing because you can take bass both shallow and deep. Heading right up into the headwaters of Three Moon Creek and throwing reaction baits such as chatterbaits can be effective. Also, in this area throwing bent minnows or cicadas beneath shag trees can be an effective strategy.
• In deeper water, such as around the dam wall it can be effective to switch to blades and jigs and fish vertically, looking for creek beds, especially if they have flats alongside them.
• It’s worth spending a lot of time scanning and sounding, looking for fish. There is no point making casts if you can’t see fish. That said, live sonar has changed things a little because Keeghan has now experienced situations where he hasn’t seen fish on sidescan but they have appeared and taken lures when he’s made exploratory casts. On the live sonar these fish can be seen coming off the bottom despite not being visible on the sidescan.
• The creeks and headwaters can be great places to fish because there are always resident fish that stay in these areas even when most fish have headed to the deeper water. These fish are usually big, and they are not getting hammered by anglers who are focussed on the big schools in the basin.

Lakes St Clair And Glenbawn

• Keeghan has had great success on Glenbawn by doing the opposite of what you’d expect! Barren banks with no structure or weedbeds have produced quality fish in extremely shallow water in full sun during the brightest part of the day.
• In spring these lakes go well on very heavy jigs, fished amongst thick cover in 15-20 feet of water. The jig bite in Glenbawn is a little different to most other systems, bass will either follow it or smash it. Often the jig will be taken on the drop, but other times you may need to work it through the structure with rod lifts and the fish will follow it well out of the cover and take it when you’re about to crank the lure back for another cast.
• Heavy line and leader (20/20 lb) on baitcast gear is required for jig fishing the structure. Fish need to be muscled out on a locked drag and even on 20/20 you will often get bricked. If a fish gets into structure don’t be too quick to break them off – they can often be extracted either by muscling from different angles or by free spooling and allowing them to swim out.
• It’s worth having surface lures in your kit at Glenbawn and St Clair during spring. Buzzbaits and River2Sea Whopper Ploppers are great for this because they have a noisy, quick action and slender profile across the water surface. If the water level has risen rapidly the big bass are often feeding on mice whose nests have been inundated.

Maroon Dam Bass Fishing

• This is a small lake with heaps of weed and heaps of timber and is a brilliant surface bite and jerkbait lake. The grassy banks and weed beds also fish very well.
• In spring Keeghan would suggest starting with a jerkbait, whilst in summer the topwater bite is better as the water is warmer.
• The smaller size Daiwa Double Clutch is a great lure for this type of fishing and is perfect to cast along shallow rocky shorelines and among timbered areas. There are few bonies in Maroon, but there are smaller, more slender baitfish and the Double Clutch has a profile that matches this food source.
• It’s important when fishing a suspending jerkbait to rip in short pulses with a pause and a bit of slack line between twitches. The pauses are necessary for the lure to get the characteristic side to side action of a jerkbait but vary the duration of the pauses as the bass seem to have different preferences on different days.