The Entrance - February 2005

The Entrance @ Night

Date: February 2005

Well I'm beginning to think we should change our name to the Central Coast Storm Chasers. After the January outing gave us first hand experience at beach fishing in a storm, I wasn't all that surprised to find inclement weather on the day of The Entrance trip. But it couldn't be worse than the beach trip, could it? Leaving my house at Niagara Park in dry weather I was amazed to find it bucketing down a few km up the road at Ourimbah. 'A good start' I thought, 'but I'm on the road (or what I could see of it) anyway, so I may as well continue and see which other silly buggers had bothered to turn up at the meeting place.' Luckily I wasn't the only one, finding Steve, Ken and Gary Kent already enjoying an afternoon tea in relatively dry conditions at The Entrance. Ivan soon appeared followed by Dave and Browny, and a quick phone call told us the Jimmy was also heading up to join us. While Ivan and I waited to help Jimmy launch, the others put in and were soon up at the bridge. No sooner had they departed than dark clouds rolled up from the south and lightning could be seen behind the trees. Jimmy arrived and we sheltered in the vehicles while a downpour drenched everything. It soon cleared so we decided to launch and go see what it was like on the water. Well I don't think I've fished in much windier conditions. My 6wt looked like it was fully loaded on a cast before I had even moved to draw the line out, and passing showers meant we had to either manoeuvre about 10 metres out from the bridge to sit in it's rain shadow or get very wet. At least there was no lightning to be seen now, even though out west it looked decidedly nasty. Dave was into the first fish, a flatty, but we knew the fishing wouldn't get hot until later in the evening. At least we were getting plenty of practice casting in strong winds. A few minutes later Dave was into a big fish. In fact it looked like it might spool him. Browny rushed to get the motor started and the anchor in before following it towards Ken and Steve where it looked as though it might run around the anchor rope. Steve got their anchor in and the fish soon headed towards us with what looked like the same intention. Ivan soon had our anchor in and Dave and Browny were off heading out towards the channel and the open ocean! It was a monster of a fish and Dave had a good bend in his rod but wasn't making much headway. After about ten minutes the fish headed back towards the bridge, where, in the shallow water, they managed to identify it - a big ray. Damn, we hoped it was either the mother of all flathead or a small jew. The ray managed to take the boys down towards the lake for a hundred metres or so, and kept them busy for another ten minutes before Dave's patience ran out and the leader broke. Soon after, Bob, Hamish and Gerryn arrived in Bob's punt. They were already wet just traveling the half kilometre from the boat ramp, so it was going to be a fun night. Ivan was soon into a flathead and some small tailor had appeared chasing prawns or baitfish on the surface, but the wind had changed to a westerly and that nasty looking weather was looking worse on the far side of the lake. We knew it would reach us eventually, but for now the conditions weren't too bad - the wind had dropped off and there was no sign of rain. By about 8.30 the fish had come on the bite and we were getting some decent bumps and takes, all the while watching a spectacular lightning show in the western sky. Some poor sods were getting a caning over there. In the dark it was hard to say where the storm was as it approached, but we knew it was getting closer by the way the lights on the distant shore were slowly fading in the rain. By 9pm Ivan and I had landed 10 fish between us and lost a few more, so we decided to call it quits and hopefully beat the approaching storm. Dave, Browny, Ken, Steve, Jimmy and Gary had all headed back and catching up with them at the boat ramp they all reported similar success. As we trailered the boats a few big drops of rain started to fall and by the time we were ready to depart the storm had arrived. Another enjoyable trip for the Central Coast Storm Chasers ... er ... Fly Rodders.