Hawkesbury River - July 2007

Broken Bay - Hawkesbury River

Date: July 2007

It was a cold and breezy 8:30am Winter's day start at Patonga boat ramp. We ended up, after sickness and maybe's, with 5 boats. For those members who were too crook to attend, you have our sympathy - you picked a good day to stay in bed. Dan and Pete were the first in the water and immediately headed seaward, while Jimmy (in his waders) helped the rest of us launch our boats. No sooner had I parked my car than Pete phoned to tell me that Dan's boat had broken down near Lion Island and they needed a tow. Stick and Rodger decided to head out and make sure they were okay and I followed to tow them back in while Max Gear joined Bob and headed off upstream to fish the rail bridge. Once we'd towed Dan back, Pete joined my boat while Dan stayed on dry ground and fished the beach with Rob Harwood who had turned up while we were away. Pete and I decided we'd try for Estuary Perch so like most of the others headed up river, followed by Stickerman and Rodger. Only Col Breese varied, opting to try Pittwater instead. And this payed off, hooking two salmon and landing one about 5lb. Out of the rest of us only Bob and Max caught fish, 2 bream to 36cm and a tailor (a new species for Max). One o'clock saw us all back at the ramp for the traditional barbeque lunch. By 2pm the WSW breeze had dropped, the temperature had risen 10° and the sees had backed off a bit. Once again trying contiions made things challenging but "that's fishin'".