Swansea - September 2009

Swansea

Date: Sunday, 20 September 2009

Forecast: Mostly Sunny, late shower Wind, NW to NE, light to moderate; Temp, Air 25, Water 18 Tide, High, 9.03am Low,2.48am ; Sea, 1m on a 1m swell; Barometer, 1013, rising

Once more into the breach dear friends, once more; Thus spake Shakespeare. And so once more we launched from Blacksmiths. We have come up [ almost ] dry here on the 3 previous occasions since we adopted this venue & yet Captains Ken Colmer, Damian Webber, Chris Bannerman, Rob Harwood, Andrew Waters, Gary Kent, Roy Browne, Barry French, Neal Williamson, Bob Williams & Richard Hassall toed the mark, ably supported by Bosuns Jake Browne, Jimmy Hyatt, John Roberts, Steve Bunney, Max Gear, John Robertson, Pete Frere, Paul McGrath & our wandering embezzler, oops, treasurer, Steve Tizard. For once conditions were in our favour & so it was straight out to Moon Island where large schools of Salmon could be seen on the surface. It was a sight some members hadn’t witnessed before; a patch of ocean 10 to 20 metres wide & nearly 10 metres deep black with fish. The sound they made as they mouthed the surface was equally memorable, something akin to a very fast running stream & quite loud. Needless to say the odd case of Buck Fever was experienced. Who hooked up first isn’t known nor does it matter. People lost count of the number of double hook ups such was the intensity of the fishing. Once hooked these Salmon quickly showed they were of a class not seen in recent years & those without 20lb tippets found themselves working overtime just to see colour. Rob & I in the dashing “Dora D” each spent 30mins to boat fish due to the lighter lines we used. I had started off with 10lb, which survived contact with the enemy for all of 3 seconds. I then moved up to 14lb, which was all Rob & I had at hand. This too lost fish, so it was a harsh lesson learned in the school of hard knocks. Speaking of hard knocks, how about the bruised knuckles inflicted by spinning handles when Mr Sambo decided he wasn’t quite ready to say hello? But who cares. It was a picture perfect day with b-all swell, the fish were co-operative [ for once ] & it could have been worse. I could have broken a rod. Like Ken, Jimmy, Sticker & The Rabbit. The other person to break a rod was Big Bob, in a hurry to bring one fish in so he could catch another. As the old ones told us; Haste makes waste. I tell you these fish were serious & more than capable of exposing weaknesses in gear or knot tying. They were also capable of raising the [almost] dead. Well Jimmy Hyatt & Brownie’s lad Jake certainly looked it but a bit of Salmon therapy worked wonders & had both casting to & fighting fish that were only slightly less green around the gills than they were. Stuff of champions. Less inspiring was the lack of boat handling skills or fishing etiquette displayed by some water-bourn boneheads who repeatedly; 1.trolled through the middle of the school, 2.positioned themselves between people waiting for the school to arrive & the fish, almost running over bright green [are they blind?] fly lines, 3.roaring right up the edge of the advancing school then wondering where all the fish went. And remember, their vote in the next state election is worth the same as yours or mine. However it was very satisfying to note the capture rate of fly v the rest was very much in our favour so for once instant Karma was working it’s spell on the oh so stupid. Despite this we soldiered on, some of us catching as many as 14 Salmon, a few bagged 5 or so while some like yours truly only managed to boat one. JR landed one using a 6wt then went up a couple of notches to something more suitable as did Paul who started the day with a 7wt. Damo even managed to snag 3 species, with a Yakka & a Silver Trevally to add to his bag of Salmon. Due to the aforementioned boating idiocy the school ended up getting smaller & smaller as well as more nervous as the day progressed. As the tide dropped the swell became more noticeable & by lunchtime we felt we had definitely had the best of it. So it was back to the ramp & a well-earned hot snag & onion sanger. The conversation was animated to say the least & all concerned agreed it was one of the best trips ever. One tip mentioned is worth repeating. Due to the repeated casting with heavier lines rod lengths’ may have come loose causing the rod to break near the join. A touch of the ‘Buck’ doesn’t help as details like checking your rod is tightly joined are easily forgotten in the excitement of the chase. Apart from that this is one trip that will be very hard to beat