Swansea January 2013

Trip Reports

Swansea Pelagics by Chris Bannerman

Date: 20 January 2013

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. That pretty much sums up the January outing. Saturday morning I'd decided to replace the hubs and bearings on my boat trailer (after our President's recent side-of-freeway repair) and by early afternoon it had started to rain. I knew if it continued, I'd be unable to get the boat off our front lawn as the slope is so steep even my 4WD would struggle on the wet grass and the boss wouldn't be happy with the front lawn torn up, no matter how much fun I had in the process. In the end an executive decision was made and I arranged to get a ride with Richard. By the morning it had rained continuously all night and as I packed the club BBQ and food into the car along with my gear I briefly toyed with the idea of pulling the pin. But I had the BBQ and people were relying on me - how could I let them down. So up the freeway I trundled, the rain eased up and I thought for a moment that it might be okay. Then, as I descended into Swansea, the clouds closed in and it resorted to heavy drizzle. At the boat ramp I found Bob and Dave De Luca, who were debating on whether it was actually worth even launching. When Bob considers not launching you know it's not good. But as Garry and Steve turned up we decided it would be still worth a go so we donned the wet weather gear and off we went into the wild grey yonder. Once away from the boat ramp and down the channel towards Moon Island the weather actually improved a little, even though the ramp, Swansea and the hills behind were still covered in grey cotton wool. We spotted some splashes on the surface and were quickly casting but to no avail. Casting in and around the surf of Moon Island didn't offer anything either and we briefly followed some birds feeding on the surface. In the end we finished up back at Moon Island casting at a school of yakkas porpoising on the surface but they weren't interested in anything we threw at them. Some jiggers were pulling up small kingies from below these yakkas but the only way we could get them was to harl. By lunch time Steven and Garry had had enough and departed, and the rest of us returned to the ramp where it was still raining. It was too wet to have the BBQ so we repaired to the golden arches for something that resembled food before heading home to dry out.