“A Change of plans”
The Entrance,
Our plans to fish Pittwater and the Hawkesbury
river were thwarted thanks to a dramatic change for the worst in the weather
forecast.
New plans were hatched as wind n swell predictions were
poor and an open water outing was not an option.
Dave had put forward a change of venue , “The Entrance”
it was the safe and sensible option and all candidates agreed.
Climbing out of bed early Sunday we were greeted with
strong winds , and with the poor forecast things were not ideal , we knew we
would have a tough day ahead but we all agreed to make the effort, pulling up
to the entrance ramp a touch after 6 am we were greeted with an angry Lake ,strong
wind gusts , short chop , with pelicans and all types of seabirds struggling to
make headway into the wind whilst trying to keep up with a small school of
skittish baitfish that were in turn trying to find some form of cover across
the sand flats opposite the ramp.
The cold weather was something we certainly had not
expected. This feeling of a cold winter morning brought back thoughts of a
recent Blue mountains lake expedition and certainly not our initial thoughts of
the coming summer , bare feet , shorts and tees.
There had been massive change overnight , the wind was up
and temps were down .
On leaving the boat ramp we were fortunate to capture
some of the suns rays beaming out over North Entrance beach sand dunes, these
border the northern mouth of Tuggerah lake , and as we poked the nose of the
Renegade up the channel the suns rays enveloped us with a burst of much needed
warmth and childhood memories of a mothers arms keeping you warm on those cold
winter mornings came flooding back .
I must say it gave us a reassuring feeling that the first
taste of summer was on its way and thoughts of lazy days down the beach and in
the boat were no longer a distant memory .
I could feel it wouldn't be long before we would be making
the most of our summer days.
I must say it did provide us with some form of
encouragement,even though things were not that pretty in the main arm of the
lake .
Our plan was to fish the main channel where the dredge
had been working . Dave had a few good reports of fish being caught earlier in
the week and this was our only form of inspiration.
We were greeted with a main channel that was still badly
silted up around the bridge ,navigation was difficult especially in the the low
light , we fished this area for an hour or so in search of a some flathead with
no joy.
The conditions quickly deteriorated with very strong wind
gusts forcing us to go in search of some protection . Our earlier thoughts of
summer had been all but forgotten.
North Entrance channel was our choice ,we left Richard and
Tom fishing the bridge and it wasn’t long before we were both in the north
channel out of the wind.
We fished hard with weedless shrimp patterns and fish
masks but it appeared the weather change had shut most fish down. Dave decided
to berley up some mullet and bream but with no response we needed a change.
Dave suggested we fish the boat shed to get out of the
wind , berley up with bread, grab the 4 weights and give that a shot, it wasn’t
long before Dave had a school of mullet boiling on the surface, good call mate.
A floating bread fly and sinking dropper was the plan and
whilst the fish were difficult to hook
we managed 3 or 4 each , they were quite small but did give us some form of
enjoyment.
Jeff and Bunney turned up and we fished together for a while
but the wind was causing havoc with our boats and berley so the boys decided to
call it for the day, I must admit in the back of my mind I was thinking the
same.
Bunney mentioned he had to head home as there was a black
snake in his house ,we had other ideas about the type of snake it was 🤣
,i have to say there was plenty of laughter about our humorous comments .
Now as they left I'm sure Bunney was making a call to
Russell Coight for some tips on catching snakes and as he left we knew “ it was
time for him to hit the road”.🤣🤣
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| Quick Release Expert |
I commented to Dave that the wind appeared to have
dropped enough to try the channel south of the boat ramp , so we headed up
there ,the weed was now an issue and getting the fly down with out weeding up
was becoming quite frustrating, we persevered with our weedless offerings and
were managing to get the fly to the bottom on most occasions ,unfortunately
finding a flathead was proving a difficult proposition.
Finally Dave managed a nice Luderick on one of his shrimp
flies it was nice work and I
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| Highlight of the Day - Steak and onion rolls! |
'd have to say it was the fish of the day. This was a great capture considering the conditions, although i must say Dave needed some tips on handling and releasing Luderick,the laughter emanating from the boat had certainly lifted our spirits.
Dave was spiked several times as a very lively luderick
kicked and squirmed until finally it bounced over the side of the boat , sadly
it happened too quickly to get any footage.
We decided to call it day around 11.30 am and headed back
to the ramp for a well deserved steak sandwich and a cold drink. Ken managed to
land a nice tailor whilst fishing with Gary which was a great effort especially
in the conditions.
Richard and Tom also had a tough day but i have to say
they were not alone,so cold , so windy and shutdown fish.
Just let me say a great effort to all you guys who turned
up for the outing .
Lets hope our next trip provides us with much better
condition, more fish and certainly more participants and remember to Fish hard
or go home.
🐠🐠🐠
Brownie
