Snottygobble Sojurn

Might have to rename the blue boat - Trout Reaper

Since reading a story in a fishing magazine over a year ago about catching black bream and rainbow trout on the same lure in the same spot on the Donnelly River https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/donnelly-boat-landing   in southern WA, my mate John and I had planned a couple of days swaging and fishing to test the story.

Plan was to head off after the school holidays and before the winter rains – so the date was set for mid February.

We camped at Snottygobble (yep weird name – apparently a type of tree with a cold?) camp ground which is about 5km from the boat ramp. There are eleven designated camp areas, most are small areas suitable for tents with tables and fireplaces and there is a basic camp kitchen area and two long drop dunnies. A bonus is the fact that Carey Brook runs just behind the campground and has two easy access tracks to the clean running water – great for a wash after a hard days fishing.

The Donnelly River at this location runs about 10km from the boat ramp the ocean. At this time the entrance was not open and the backed up water level was high and the water almost fresh. It’s a pretty pristine river - narrow at the ramp, opening up to a wider area near the ocean. There are some substantial “shacks” down near the river mouth with some of them having lots of glass, lawns, water, SAT TV, and solar wind generators.

29cm - bugger!

We fished pretty hard for the two morning and afternoon sessions (almost - my mate had a sleep-in on the last morning) that we were camped for a result of around a dozen bream AND three trout on the same lures and location – yep the story in the fishing mag was true – one of the few spots in Australia where bream and trout are located together.

I hooked a decent 50cm trout and after it jumped twice realised this was no black bream.

Snottygobble camp is an easy 170km drive from home so I will definitely be heading there again to chase the elusive 50cm black bream, one of those jumping trout and try and locate a live and growing Snottygobble.

Short video is HERE