The Entrance - February 2012

Trip Reports

The Entrance @ Night

Date: 18 February 2012

4pm start, stiff sou Easter blowing, overcast with storms threatening, from what I have read of previous trips this was standard weather procedure for The Entrance outing. Let me introduce myself first, my name is Len Verrenkamp, I have lived and fished on the coast for over 30 yrs and until this trip had never used a fly rod apart from a few casting sessions in the car park at work over the last week in preparation for the night. Let me tell you now, standing on a concrete slab where there are no rod holders, outboard motor or seats etc for your fly line to snag on is a totally different environment to standing in the back of a 14' tinny with a bloke you have never met before trying to learn to cast, learn a new language and not clouser the skipper! Pardon the pun, but this was a sink or swim scenario, in the end neither of us ended up in the drink, some fish were caught (yes I nailed an EP on my first outing) and I had a ball, not so sure on Chris, he had 3 cans of what looked like coke in the first hour and I am sure they were not because he was thirsty. With around ten boats and twenty fly fishers turning up for the evening it was an excellent roll up. After dinner was organised (KFC for all and sundry) boats were launched and most headed towards the bridge with a few venturing up the north west channel to fish around the islands (all sounds very exotic doesn't it).

From my observations the night was an outstanding success, the storms stayed away, the wind dropped off to a gentle breeze and conditions appeared to be pretty good, the water clarity left a little to be desired making sight fishing almost impossible so lots of casting and stripping was required. The KFC was procured and delivered to each boat (great effort Bob), some shuffling of positions continued until dark when life jackets were donned and everyone settled in for the evening with the odd holler breaking the relative quiet indicating a netted or lost fish. Species wise Tailor seemed to make up a fair majority of the catch with a good smattering of Flatties thrown in to around 45 cm, I heard of a couple of Bream being caught and also some Mullet, oh and did I mention the two EP's caught by Chris and myself! I did not hear of any Whiting being caught, however they will certainly be a focus for me on the next trip as they are often around in good numbers in late summer. What a refreshing experience it was to fish with the club, the fact it was not a competition and there is no kill and grill mentality made for a great first trip for me, thanks to all.