Guest Testimonials

The drive from Sydney to Kempsey was uneventful and then we made our way west and I must admit the drive along the Macleay river from Bellbrook was enough to get this salt water fisho excited at the thought of throwing a few lures around.

By the time we pulled up at the entrance to Bass Lodge it was just before dark, we unloaded the car in record time and did not even enter the lodge, said hello to our hosts Dave and Mike and as we were rigging up they made the comment “you boys must be keen” headed straight down to one of the many streams that flow into the river to try and catch my first Bass before dark.

After a short stroll through some truly magnificent looking country we found a small pool that looked very very fishy, 3 casts later with a small diving lure and bang “I’m up I yelled” I was very surprised at the fight these fish had in them, and before long I had my first Bass on the bank with a grin from ear to ear, by this time it was getting dark and we decided to head back have a BBQ a few beers and work out the plan of attack for tomorrow.

We returned to Bass Lodge and I was amazed at the size and quality of the lodge, and it reminded me of when I lived in Canada of all the beautiful log cabins made from cedar at the foot of the lakes, Bass  lodge is  pure heaven and comes highly recommended. We cranked up the BBQ and quizzed Dave and Mike on where we should fish tomorrow and picked there brain about the lodge and its surroundings. We then retired to the spa with a few cold beers and it wasn’t long before I was in a very comfortable bed with the alarm set and ready to spend a whole day exploring and fishing.

Its amazing when the alarm goes off for work I hit the snooze 3, maybe 4 times, when the alarm goes off for fishing I’m up in a instant, its still dark a cup off coffee and back to the same stream as yesterday, I was total amazement and the magnificent country we were walking through as the sun came up over the hills, and not another person insight, how good is this place! We ventured further with the idea of walking up stream and fishing on the way back, well that didn’t happen, as only a fisho would know you just cant walk past a good fishing spot and what was supposed to be a couple of hours fishing turned into about 8 with some great 45+cm Bass being pulled from the some beautiful water, and there is a special felling about releasing these magnificent Big Bass to fight another day.

We headed back and I was amazed at how much distance we covered while fishing, back to the lodge for some lunch and then decided to head east to a place called 5 mile creek which comes with a guarantee from Dave of big Bass.

5 mile creek did not disappoint, well it did in a way, and being busted off second cast by a  massive fish was both disappointing and exciting at the same time, and it happened more than once, some of these fish must have been well over 55cm judging by how hard they ran and the amount of line they pulled. We still landed plenty of quality fish and I must say I have never had the pleasure of fishing in such amazing surroundings.

The next 2 days were spent tossing both hard bodies and soft plastic lures in and around this magnificent waterway catching and releasing what must have been well over 40 fish and did not see 1 other fisherman the whole time. And all this and we did not even use the canoes provided at the lodge for fishing the Macleay river itself, we spent all our time walking the creeks, the mighty Macleay will be done next time, believe me there will be a next time as this salt water fisho is now addicted to fresh water fishing and cant wait to hit Bass lodge again and fish the main river and would even like to the nearby dams and Styx river for some local trout.

Again thanks to our hosts Dave and Mike for the local knowledge and the hospitality they provided us. The Bass Lodge comes highly recommended even if you’re not a fisherman you will be as amazed as I was at the service the Bass Lodge provides set in some of the most beautiful country I have had the pleasure of visiting.

Evan Hulme.