A book of codes has disappeared from Moogerah Dam and with it more than 300 anglers have lost the right to fish the lake at dawn and dusk.
Moogerah is much loved by many in the fishing and boating community but its two public boat ramps are behind boom gates.
When those gates were installed several years ago by the manager of the caravan park which sits beside the ramps, he came to an arrangement with anglers to allow them access to the water outside of his operating hours.
But when the lease for the park was awarded to new management earlier this year, that “gentlemen’s agreement” extinguished.
The issue came to a head last month when two Boonah fishermen claimed that they were threatened with being locked in behind the boomgates overnight or “banned from the lake” if they were not out of AG Muller Park by its closing time.
John ‘Jappy’ Lawrance and John Gilbert said that they had been among a group of more than 300 fishermen who paid permits (SIPS) that stocked Moogerah with bass, perch and cod.
They claimed that the caravan park’s previous owner gave them individual codes to pass the boom gate in exchange for their details and a commitment to good behaviour.
The fishermen said that council brokered the deal which was a win for all parties.
But the Scenic Rim Regional Council denied knowledge of such an arrangement.
Since then, the park’s former manager Ben Mason and several other fishermen have confirmed Mr Lawrance and Mr Gilbert’s account.
Mr Mason said it was “crazy and not right” the anglers were now being denied access to the water at the prime fishing hours of dawn and dusk.
“From our management point of view we needed the boom gates to provide control for the campers,” he said.
But when he realised those gates prevented public access to the water, Mr Mason said he saw it was the “right thing” to come to an arrangement.
He said he asked anglers who wanted access to show him their SIPS licence and fill out a form. He kept more than 300 of the forms in a folder.
“If it was just for fishing or lake access, we would generate them a pin, so long as they didn't break any rules or didn't sneak in to camp for free,” he said.
“In all the years we had it going, I think we had one pin we had to cancel for doing the wrong thing.”
Mr Mason said he made the arrangement clear to council staff during the handover.
“I showed them the folder, I left the folder there with all the pins and all the information in it explaining what it was and I said: ‘you really need to keep this going’.”
Maroon Moogerah Fish Management Association president Steve Franz also questioned council’s claims of being ignorant of the deal.
“Council is saying they have no record of it,” Mr Franz said.
“Hugh Dunne was managing [Property and Operations] at Scenic Rim Regional Council and he was at the meeting.”
“I was there when we reached an agreement about pin numbers.”
Despite Mr Mason and Mr Franz’ accounts, council is sticking to its guns.
"Council has no further comment in relation to the previous management of Lake Moogerah Caravan Park,” it said in a statement.
“The hours of use for day visitors is set by Seqwater based around access to the lake and the public's safety, and council supports and respects this."
Council’s stance has been described as “bullying” by some fishermen, who claim they do not have the right to bar public access to the ramps.
Darryl Freiberg grew up on a dairy at the top end of Moogerah. His family was bought out and their land inundated when the dam was built in the 1960s.
When he came of age, Mr Freiberg moved to Boonah, became a house painter and raised a family.
But he always returned to Moogerah and was often on the water at first light.
“It’s beautiful in the early morning and you stand a better chance of catching a couple of feeds,” he said.
He said he was angered by Mr Lawrance’s claims the park manager threatened to lock him in overnight if he wasn’t past the boomgates by 6pm.
“Goodness gracious, we don't live in Russia do we?”
Mr Franz also said he’d met his best success around dawn.
“It took me 20 years before I caught my first bass bigger than 50 centimeters,” he said.
“About 2012 I took a friend fishing out there on a boat for his first time. I caught a 53cm bass and he pulled in a 51cm as his first fish.”
“Some people wait a lifetime for a 50cm bass, and he did it on the first fish.”
“That's what I like about Moogerah, it's the unknown.”
For now though, that is an apt description of the future of early morning bass fishing on Moogerah: unknown.