Patonga - May 2012

Patonga - Broken Bay by David Witham

Date: 20 May 2012

The lead up to this outing was the usual intense set up of people, boats etc etc, but this time we were thrown a curly one at the last minute. The ramp we usually utilise for these outing on the harbour was out of action until June. This meant we either had to find another suitable ramp or change the location of the outing. Given the original ramp was out of action as was the ramp at Rose Bay we decided that the best move was to try somewhere else as the other ramps on the harbour were going to be rather busy. Chris and I discussed the options which were Swansea or Patonga. Given the June or July outting and the outing in September are likely to be at Swansea we settled on the Patonga option. That meant it was closer to home and there had been reports of fish in Brokan Bay and Pittwater so we were hopeful of a good day. Much tooing and froing in terms of boaters and non-boaters and the day had arrived. Meeting time at the ramp was 06:30 and I arrived to find Garry Kent and Steve Tizard preparing their boat and gear and Scott Chaney and Mal Holden awaiting their vessels. Richard Hassal and John Roberts along with Mac and Peter Frere had already launched and were well on their way to their fishing destinations. I was next to drop the boat in, followed by Garry and Steve and Len, Jimmy and Scott. Mal and I settled down to face the cold trip across Broken Bay and into Pittwater.

The water was calm, not too big a swell rolling through and a light southerly wind blowing, but it was cold! We didn't see any surface action the whole way down to Scottland Island and stopped from time to time to have a cast at some deep fish that were showing on the sounder, but a nil result. We tried all the usual haunts in Pittwater for naught and decided to go and try around West Head as the wind started to pick up. We had a few casts at the headland and I managed a small yakka but that was all the action we saw. We headed back out to Broken Bay and we did the pass of Lion Island and then back down towards Patonga. Again not a thing to be seen. As we headed towards Patonga we noticed some birds working the water, but very intermittent. We motored closer and just sat to watch for a while. We eventually saw a few splashes and got a little closer to them. Frigates was the call. They would come up for a few seconds and then move off and then come up again 300 metres away. It was going to be impossible to follow them so we sat and drifted and let them come to us. It wasn't long before that happened and Mal had managed to hook one which gave a solid tussle and was landed just as Steve and Garry had pulled up to us and Richard and John joined in too. The fish were hard and that was the only frigate we managed to actually hook. We continued to move around and headed to the bays opposite Patonga. Garry and Steve had been working one bay and Garry had managed to land a small salmon.

We put in a few casts there just to see if anything was lurking and after a while I managed to hook up and the fish took off quite quickly.... love that rooster tail that you get when your line screams through the water. After a short tussle we had a fish circling around the boat down deep. A bit more pressure applied and the fish was hoisted into the boat. A nice little Mac Tuna which was photographed and returned to fight another day. A few more casts along that shore also produced a small pike before it was time to pull up stumps and head back to the ramp for the BBQ. On the way back we threw a few clousers around in serach of any flathead along the beach at Patonga, but came up empty. Everyone was back by 12:30 and ready for the usual club BBQ and to exchange some stories. There were a number of fish caught and the species list covered frigates, pike, silver trevally, mac tuna, tailor and yakkas. Not a bad day given the conditions with that southerly wind and the threat of rain. Thanks to all the guys for making it an enjoyable day.