Lake Proserpine

Lake Proserpine, sometimes called Peter Faust Dam, is located in the hills inland from the township of Proserpine in north Queensland. Its waters are contained by the Peter Faust Dam wall, and when these waters are released they flow to the townships and cane farms nearer the coast.

Located 120km north of Mackay, the road trip from Brisbane with a boat in tow takes about 16 hours. There is a big selection of accommodation options at Rockhampton, which is a handy place to break up the trip.

Once you reach Proserpine, supplies are easily obtained as the town is only 21km from the lake. The good oil on where the fish are biting can be gleaned at Proserpine Bait & Tackle, which is on the main highway at the town's edge.

Proprietor Lindsay Dobe runs a charter business on the lake and has a finger on the pulse on any given day of the week.

WHERE TO STAY
Only a kilometre from the ramp on the lake, Camp Kanga (run by the Lions Club) provides brilliant accommodation at an equally brilliant price. There are air-conditioned rooms or others with ceiling fans, and the charge for the latter is just $11 per person per night.

With barbecues and bathroom facilities there as well, why would you bother camping out? Basic personal items and good, hard ice is available from the camp's reception, and the closest available fuel is at Proserpine.

After suffering low water temperatures and wind during a visit in the summer of 2002, we were welcomed with daytime temperatures averaging 36C and very high humidity when we fished the lake a couple of months ago.

After talking with Lindsay at Proserpine Bait & Tackle, we fished the days before and after the full moon early in December - and although the conditions during the day turned out to be fairly oppressive, they were necessary to get the fish on the chew.

START EARLY
A typical day for us was to launch at around 5am and fish in the shallows around the edges of the lake, or out in the open near the dam wall. There's a no-go zone marked with buoys along the face of the wall to keep you out of strife.

When out in the open near the wall in the evenings, bait balls can be found on your sounder along with bigger fish signatures. For some reason the bait dissipated by 10pm, and with them went the big barra.

During our sorties in the shallows we caught fish in the evening and early morning, and we typically trolled in 1.5-2.5m of water. Lures must be run way back, and interestingly only two particular lures accounted for all but one of our fish on the trip. They were Halco's 125 RMG Scorpion in metallic gold with a one-metre-depth bib and Rapala's Barra Magnum 10 with medium-depth bib. This lure was also gold - which seems to be the best colour to use when fishing this system.

If you're fishing the wall, change to a deep-diving Scorpion. That said, I managed to elicit some good surface strikes trolling large poppers, but I couldn't stay attached.

HANG ON
People who think that impoundment barra are lethargic should think carefully before gearing up for a trip such as this. We had one-metre-plus barras at least two metres airborne on many occasions, and their strength and agility is as good as their saltwater brothers and sisters.

The power of these impoundment barra makes the mind boggle. My fishing partner John Lees was geared up with a stout Sabre rod and a Shimano Calcutta 400 with a top-shot of 150m of 50lb braid. He landed a 109cm fish with ease, but the next leviathan ripped off all the braid before the mono backing buried and jammed, breaking the 30lb string like cotton.

We lost another couple of big fish - one spooled a reel while another demolished a mate's lure.

For those who like to exercise their casting arm, there is a plethora of dead trees on the western side of the lake that will make your tacklebox look vacant in no time at all - if that's where the big fish are located.

Get your boat to the back of the sticks and fish in 1-2m of water with very heavy drags and extra-strong lures and hooks. These fish do not have to swim far at all to find sanctuary in the snags, so if you can pull a fish out of here better than 85cm, you've done well.

Your best chances for big fish, however, are out in the open, as the fish have very little to hang you up on. This should tip the odds back in your favour!

HOT TIPS FOR LAKE PROSERPINE