Lake St Clair - November 2012

Lake St Clair by Chris Bannnerman

Date: 18-19 November 2012

Having not been to St Clair for a few seasons now I was happy to accept El Presidente's offer to tag along with him for the weekend. With fishing and camping gear packed into the Royal Kluger we headed up the freeway just after midday. Our first destination was Lake Liddell to test some new rods and reels Dave had recently received. The conditions weren't the best with a brisk breeze making all but the eastern shore fishable so that's where we headed - beggars can't be choosers. Drifting along the shoreline we saw a few fish but only one seemed to like Dav's fly and it behaved more like a pelagic than a carp. The 5wt line nearly sung through the water as the fish headed deeper then taking a sharp left turn headed parallel to the bank. Dave was down to the backing in no time and a desire not to break the 5 weight meant that he had to let the fish have its head for the time being. Eventually he worked it back to the boat with care and we netted a nice (roughly) 10lb fish.

With our time up at Liddell we headed back to the ramp, trailered the boat and headed down the highway to SIngleton and up to St Clair. The guys had avoided the madness at the camp ground and pitched their camp up the road in a council culvert. After setting up Dave and I headed back down to the camp ground to launch the boat while the rest of the group headed off on foot to fish the banks. With the boat launched Dave bought it around to the camp while I returned with car and joined him. A few minutes later we were at the mouth of the river checking with the guys on the bank as to their succes and casting amongst the snags. It was a popular location with a number of trollers, lure and bait chuckers. The odd thing was that no one was having much success, but in true Fly Rodders fashion we persevered and just on dusk Dave felt a solid weight on his line. It wasn't the usual mad dash for cover of a bass but it was heavy. Eventually we got some colour and the fish revealed itself as a silver perch - and a big one at that. Boated it measured in at 54cm. Needless to say, Dave was pretty pleased with himself.

We fished on into dark amongst the drowned trees along the river's edge. Suddenly Dave's line went tight and his rod bent over. With a grunt he put some quick pressure on the fish but it had already reached the safety of the snags and the line came up slack minus his fly. A cast or two later and I felt a similar weight on my line but I managed to keep this one out of the snags and we soon boated a nice bass around th 30cm mark. A few casts later and another hit then a hookup and I landed my second fish for the evening. By the time we had landed the second fish it was nearing 8pm and after a half hour or so of unremarkable fishing we decided to call it a night and head back to camp for dinner. Mooring the boat below the camp site we clambered up the rocky hillside to find everyone else back at camp and preparing for dinner. With dinner taken care of we settled back around the camp fire for a chat and a laugh before retiring for the evening around midnight.

After a restless night's sleep I awoke to the sound of rain drops on the tent. Poking my head out I could see storm clouds to north and decided it was time to pack up before things got any wetter. Luckily the storms didn't eventuate and after a cuppa and a quick breakfast we headed out again to see what we could tempt out of the depths of the lake. Drifting along some likely looking egdes we felt some small taps on the lines but nothing hooked up and we soon moved onto another fishy looking location. By now the sun was appearing and we were greeted with a magnificent looking morning.

Following not far behind us along a bank of drowned trees we soon heard a cheer of success as Brook lifted into a nice bass. We tried all sorts of flies with little success and soon decided to pull the pin as we both had to be back on the Coast by lunch. Back at the camp we picked up the car and headed back to the camp grounds to retrieve the boat before heading back down the freeway to the Central Coast. We all had an enjoyable weekend even though the bass weren't as cooperative as we'd hoped. But that's fishing and there's always next time.

Swansea - September 2012

Trip Reports

Swansea Salmon by Len Verrenkamp

Date: 16 September 2012

“Swansea here we come” was the cry as a darkish Bateau Bay was departed at 5.00am last Sunday morning. Why 5.00am when it’s only 40 min to Swansea for a 6.30am start? Well someone who shall remain unnamed decided keeping the boat at work (Wyong) would free up some space in our ever increasing car park of a driveway (kids and cars) which is just fine until I forget to take the boat home when a fishing trip is imminent, thankfully this time it’s on the way and a slight detour to grab the boat, pack, check fuel, oil etc was not too dramatic. Arriving at the ramp the sun had risen on a near perfect day with little breeze and a relatively calm but rolling ocean, the line up at the ramp confirming sun shine and boats go hand in hand. Who was it said? There is NOTHING--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats! A quick chat with the boys (I am not naming people as there were so many, you know if you were there or not) had the non boater allocations sorted, launching commenced and Stickerman wandered in late as usual without his boat, immediately picked on the new guys Luke and Lachlan and said in his usual diplomatic way “I’m with #@$% you”!!! With everyone launched and Richard the seal catcher (I will elaborate later) on board with me we met up with a mate of mine Brett on his Jet ski who has just caught the fly fishing bug and headed out to Moon island to terrorise the local Salmon population.

Now, Salmon fishing at Swansea consists of two approaches: The theory of the first one is to watch for birds working the surface, try and gauge the direction the school is heading, possibly what they are feeding on, match the hatch so to speak and motor over in the boat in stealth mode so as not to send the school down deep and fire off some casts in the general salmon direction. Reality tends to be very different!!!! The second approach which is for the less faint hearted amongst us is to motor in as close to the rocks and breaking bommies as you dare, present your fly into the zone and strip like hell, for the skipper all the time whilst watching the swells, the rocks, the boat position, your mate, casting and trying to catch fish. You may have noticed I was quite a distance out from the rocks because I am no hero, the benefit I guess is it also encourages learning to cast a respectable distance. Richard and I chose the get close to the rocks option and within a few casts he was onto a nice fish, at least a 10 minuter was the call as the fight progressed and being the first fish of the day the decks were cleared and net readied as we were both keen to get the boat off the mark, at about the 11min 23 sec mark a 55 cm fish was netted and happy snaps taken before releasing the fish and back into the rocks we went.

At this point I admit I was struggling with the close in option we had chosen, however as the morning progressed and with Richards encouragement and the fact just about everyone else was catching fish I got a good feel for how and where the waves would form and break and ventured closer in with each drift. On about the sixth drift I watched four hungry salmon break from the pack and chase my fly, thankfully the one that won the race latched onto my fly and stayed there for a good 15 minutes until skilfully netted by Richard with a borrowed net (mine broke on Richards third fish). The fish was a ripper, measured in at 69cm, was my first Salmon on fly and I was stoked to say the least.

Almost on the next drift Richard hooked up on another fish and after some aerobatics it headed deep, quite deep actually and quite fast by the way Richard was losing line, we would have called it for a kingie had we not already seen it on the surface and next thing it was heading for the surface again, however this time the struggling salmon had caught the attention of a good sized seal and both came out of the water, the salmon in the seal’s mouth and Richards fly line flailing in the air. For a moment I think Richard thought he was in with a chance of landing the seal then reality kicked in, the line went slack, the seal smiled wryly as it removed the body of the salmon with one bite and left Richard to wind the head back to the boat. A funnier sight I have not seen in a while!

After that sort of excitement the next couple of fish were relatively pedestrian, the seal had had his fill and buggered off and as things quietened down a bit more we motored around fishing and watching to see who was hooking up regularly, Bob and Dave seemed to have the bommie drift nailed with a few double hook-ups, Mal had installed his Zimmer frame in Chris’s boat and was doing his best to keep Chris out of it, Geoff hit the lake instead and nailed a trevally or two, however the whiting and bream were not so obliging and we did see Sticker very generously instructing Luke and young Lochie on the fine art of losing fish, I guess that was the least he could do as he was in their boat! So another great morning came to a close with the much anticipated BBQ after the early start, a soft drink and information sharing on what worked and what didn’t, the clubs compulsory rule of life jackets for all was well received and from what I saw had 100% participation so well done to all.

Lake St Clair - August 2012

Lake St Clair by Len Verrenkamp

Date: 18-19 August 2012

A most anticipated trip for the club members, Lake St Claire and it's trophy bass are just far enough away to warrant an overnight stay if your not a morning person. For me staying overnight was an easy decision to make, cruise up Saturday afternoon, have a quiet fish for a couple of hours and then sit around the bush tele and spin a few yarns in preparation for Sundays club outing. Saturday morning dawned clear and cold, a quick look at the weather map confirmed the one thing that is still reliable as far as the weather is concerned - Westerlies still blow in August - and today looked like it would be a howler. With the ute packed the night before and the kids sport over, the desired 2pm departure was a piece of cake and I hit the F3 by 2.15 pm. 'Bloody ute needs a wheel alignment' were my first thoughts, then the penny dropped, the wind outside would blow a brown dog off a chain. Virtually the whole trip was spent steering into the wind and turning right just past Singleton for the final leg out to St Clair only exacerbated the problem. A message on the way from Mac that the main camping area was too exposed to camp due to the wind reaffirmed my decision to set up bed in the back of the ute was a good one, no flapping tent to keep me awake all night! The fist glimpse of St Clair as you crest the first real hill on the drive out is always an eye opener. Today was no different, the lake was a silver shimmering mass of wind waves and not a boat to be seen. A quick lap of the main camp ground confirmed it was still blowing like buggery from the West and the few hardy campers there did not look at all comfortable.

Travelling along a few more kays I found the guys set up on the side of the road in a smallish level area that at least had some trees to offer a wind break, and room for at least another car and boat. Already set up in a variety of positions were Col, Dave, Richard, Murray, Greg , Mick, Brownie and Mr Trips (Mac). There were tents and swags tied to boats, cars and the fence and anything else that might provide an anchor point as the chosen spot was not conducive to driving tent pegs into the concrete like surface, sleeping in the back of the ute is looking really good now! A few of the guys were heading down for a fish so due to the light on shore breeze I left the long wand in the ute and took a walk down with Col to try and gleen a few tips on casting into the wind and generally catching Bass. ( I may have mentioned I caught an EP on my first outing, however no Bass as yet). A most informative hour was spent watching and listening to Col, however no fish were forthcoming and as I was the only clown with shorts on I headed back to camp to warm up a bit. Slowly the guys filtered back with most reporting a fish or three, with Richard and Murray cleaning up so to speak, (since writing Murray has fessed up to the fact he possibly caught the same fish 11 times!!!!). With camp fires lit and chairs positioned we settled in for a few drinks, a lot of laughs and some of Brownies gems on life in general made for an entertaining evening.

Sunday dawned bright and almost calm conditions compared to the previous day, a few more guys arrived and after a quick brekkie and we all hit the water, some in boats and some on foot. Trent and I decided on the boat and hit the water heading towards the dam wall to find some structure and shelter from the now abating wind. Fishing the eastern shore we motored through some of the fishiest looking water I have seen, casting into the bank (working on yesterday's theory the fish would be in close) and stripping back to the boat, after a couple of hours, a few fly changes and no results we found a likely looking piece of bank and parked the boat to walk and cast for a while. An eel tailed cattie cruising around a partly submerged log caught my eye and provided some excitement and the loss of a couple of flies (to the log), but no fish. I guess we walked and cast for about an hour for no result and as it was getting close to lunch we headed back stopping at another couple of likely looking spots for a cast, again drawing a blank. Arriving back at camp lunch was well underway and most of the guys had returned, with the weather almost perfect by now and very few fish caught for the morning it was a classic case of nice weather does not equal good catches especially when compared to the previous day. After a couple of bacon and egg rolls and a drink most of us called it a day, packed up and headed home whilst a few others went out for an afternoon session. Thanks again to Mac for organizing the trip and considering the late camp venue change it all went pretty smoothly, I guess with the club in it's 11th year there is not much that crops up that causes any real hassles which is a credit to all involved.

Off The Rocks - July 2012

Off The Rocks II by Chris Bannerman

Date: 15 July 2012

Another cold clear morning greeted us as we assembled at the Lizzie Bay shops. This time we had Mal Holden, Big Bob, Mac Lyall, Uncle Ken, John the vet, Col Breese, Richard Hassall and Jimmy Hyatt. And as per the last episode we split up and headed to the fishing spots. I decided to do the beach walk again - I had success last time, why mess with the formula? Once again Stickerman joined us out on the rocks. The sea was decidely less angry this morning and we hadn't fished long before Mal had a bream on. The rest of us fished in eager anticipation of the tight line . . . . but nothing happened.

We all shifted around a bit further, Mal and I deciding to go right around to the Bung where there appeared to be some suitable wash. In the mean time the vet had nailed his first fish - a scoffell. Below the Bung we tried various washes without success. The sea seemed to be dropping and a big school of salmon teased us just offshore. On numerous occaisions we removed our sink tip and changed fly only to re-rig with a bread fly when the school moved further away.

By late morning we had little to show for our efforts so we headed back to see how the rest had faired. John had managed another scoffel and a small drummer so he was happy as we had a last few casts and finished off the berley before heading back to the car park. With extra crowds at the picnic tables and BBQ this time, we met the guys who had fished the ladders back where they parked and headed back to Elizabeth Bay shops for the club barby in the nearby park. The wind had risen during the morning and most of us huddled behind Kens Cruiser as we exchanged fishing reports. The boys at the ladders had had more success than us this time with a number of fish being caught by everyone.

All in all a pleasant morning in good company even if the fishing wasn't hot. But it is good to get back into the rock fishing - it's been too long between drinks.

Off The Rocks - June 2012

Trip Reports

Off The Rocks by Chris Bannerman

Date: 17 June 2012

With cold clear skies 12 fly fishermen met in the dark at Elizabeth Bay shops. There were no hushed tones. If we had to be up at this ungodly hour then why shouldn't everyone else? It was decided - half to Frazers Beach to cover the north side of The Bung and half (the crazy half) to head down into no-man's land below the ladders. I nominated for the sane half having never tried being sane before. After much driving to and fro, stopping, looking at the sun rising, trying to climb down a cliff with Bob hobbling behind we finally ended up at Frazers Beach with Sticker and Bunny. We being Steve Tizard, myself, Big Bob, John the vet, Craig and Terry Whitter.

With a casual stroll along the beach and around the rocks we soon found Sticker and Bunny. They had been there about 20 minutes before us (we spent a bit of time watching the sunrise - very romantic) but hadn't started fishing. Why? Well the ocean had something to do with it. It was big. A bit too big. But the good news was it was dropping as we rigged up and soon we were out spewing berley into the water (no Ivan wasn't with us) followed by our best bread imitations. It was time for some piscatorial action. Shame the fish weren't let in on that bit of information.

We fished for a bit. I watched the rocks a bit further around and gave the vet a nod. Off we headed with our rods, buckets, bread and berley chuckers to deposit ourselves on a nice little ledge with plenty of white water at our feet. Chuck in a bit of berley and now it was time for some piscatorial action . . . . . . or maybe not. But, as they say, perserverance pays off and finally John hooked into a fish and landed his first trevally on fly. And it was a thumper too, measuring in around 50cm. And it wasn't long before I managed a similar sized blurter. Mine took me into the weed and I thought I'd lost him. But I gave him some slack and he just swam straight out and he was up on the surface before he knew it. All this fish catching attracted a bit of attention and some blow flies soon hung around. We didn't mind, we had runs on the board and could afford to relax a little. But it wasn't to be as my line tightened and I was into a second blurter which was soon landed and returned to the briny.

By now the sea had become a little angrier and we were copping a few waves across the ledge which were starting to cause some concern. Finally John, Craig and I decided we'd had enough and headed back around to the rest of the guys. No one else had even had a nibble and watching the sea rise it wasn't long before everyone had decided it was becoming unsafe and time to head for the safety of the Club BBQ. As we trudged back across the rocks to the beach we were joined by a helicopter. Flying low it gave us a close inspection before heading off. Odd, that's never happened before. We continued on, back to the car park and up to the nearby BBQ and tables. Soon another chopper appeared, and another. We were starting to get a little concerned. Somebody was obviously in trouble. It wasn't long before the Westpac chopper landed in a grassly clearing not far away, so in my official capacity as club sticky beak . . . er secretary I checked with the official-looking officials to let them know where we'd been and that no one was in trouble down that way. At this stage we were told that 3 people had gone in and a full blow search was in progress.

Once the insane group turned up we had a leisurely lunch and watched the rescue efforts. It wasn't until we returned home that we learned of the full extent of the tragedy.

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.

Peter Morse Casting Days - April 2012

Casting Class

Date: 28/29 April 2012

DAY 1

The much anticipated casting days finally arrived and quite a number of keen Central Coast Fly Rodders plus a couple of people who are now CCFR members were poised to take part in the first ever Peter Morse Casting days for the club. The first day, Saturday the 28th was dedicated to basic casting techniques and breaking down the basics of what makes a good cast. We started about 9am and the 12 anglers were rigged up and ready to go. Peter started by explaining the 5 key elements of a cast. No matter what type of cast you do you need all 5 elements to have the best possible cast. The 5 we covered were: • Straight Line Path – Peter explained what happens if the rod tip takes other than a straight line path. • Stroke length – ensuring that the length of the stroke you make varies on how much line you have out. Many of us have very fixed stroke lengths that vary little when we cast. • Slack Line – basically a slack line = no tension which = a poor cast with no distance or tight loops. • Acceleration – Provides the tip speed you need to shoot the line – the acceleration must be smooth and not jerking just like when you accelerate in the car. • Pause – another area many of us forget. You need to pause on the back cast and the forward cast.

After the discussion on the top 5 elements and a demonstration on the right way to use them vs the wrong way by Peter, it was time for each of us to come forward and demonstrate our normal casting style (or lack of). I was first up and it was amazing to see Peter analyse a cast and come up with corrections so quickly. Like many of us I tended to over power the cast and therefore end up with tailing loops on the final cast. Peter showed me how to let the rod do the work and use those pauses in the right place to generate the power. We one by one went through this process and Peter gave constructive feedback and areas to focus on to each of us. We had a quick break for morning tea and then headed out onto the field for some practice of the points Peter had shared with us. Peter walked around to each of us to see how we were progressing and gave advice on tweaks such as wrist position, acceleration and managing the line. By the end of day 1 we were all much improved on where we started and not only that were all feeling pretty good about the fact that our effort level had dropped and we were probably casting better than we were with far less effort which in turn equates to a much more pleasant casting experience without throwing a shoulder. Lunchtime was upon us so we headed to the corner shop for a quick bite to eat and then across to Little Mooney Creek to put into practice what we had learnt that morning. We met up with Chris, Rob, Col, Jeff, Brooke and Abby and set things up for the BBQ that night and then headed to the dam to have a fish. Chris had been there for a little while casting furiously for a nil result, so I sidled up beside him and started casting my little black bead headed bugger and before long had landed a beautiful bass and all I could hear were a few expletives to my left 8^).

It was pretty quiet though for quite a while so I joined Brownie down at the Silver pond and Peter joined us shortly after. Again the fish were quiet, but Peter had changed flies to one of his secret (or not so now) flies and had managed to hook a nice little silver perch. It again went quiet and at the 4pm mark approached we all went back to the main dam in the hope that as the sun started to fall the fish would start to feed. We weren't disappointed and sure enough Col could be heard telling folk that he was on.... he landed quite a few fish on a Tom Jone and then a vampire pattern. Mal was also having some luck and landed a number of bass and a golden perch all of which are new species for him. Peter managed to get the trifecta and for the day had managed at least one of each species available. He was a happy man!

Brownie managed a nice little bass on a skull head vampire and I landed another couple on the woolly bugger before we decided to berley up for the last 30 mins before dinner. Once the berley hit the water it didn't take long for the big swirls and bloops to start as the fish came up to hammer the bread floating on the surface. It also didn't take long to see rods bending all around as people hooked up on these feeding fish.

Brooke hooked up but soon lost the fish as the fly had come off...... there were a few more hits on the surface for her but they just didn't hook up. We stopped for dinner which was beautifully prepared by our master chef Rob Harwood and consisted of snag, steak, corn, salad and bread. A great dinner and some great conversations. After dinner a few of the guys left to get home at a reasonable hour, and those that remained had a quick fish before packing up. I hooked another nice bass, but the fish of the day went to Brooke, who's persistence paid up with a very fine silver perch, a first for Brooke and she also made sure to mention that she had caught a silver before Joel.

We then went and packed up headed up to the shed for a cuppa and some carrot cake, thanks to Chris before all heading home for some sleep before day 2.

DAY 2

Day 2 saw us arrive at about 8am for an 8:30 start. It was a cool morning with a light breeze, but that was going to change!! The object of today was to learn some advanced casting techniques, taking the basics that we learnt the day before and then adding to them. We covered, roll casts, Oval Casts which everyone found extremely useful, casting into the wind or with the wind coming across your shoulder. We then took on mends of varying types. Again many of these ends will have a great bearing on our fishing and I am sure will get used a lot especially in flowing water or tidal creeks. The morning was littered with sharp showers of rain and a strong southerly breeze. Luckily we had a good spot that wasn't overly affected by the wind and we had Brownie who happens to have an RV Shade on his Patrol, so we had both things covered. Everyone that attended either or both days went away extremely happy with what they had learnt. It was great to see so much improvement in everyone's casting and some valuable new techniques to apply to running water, avoiding casting over fish, fishing in the wind and also shooting heads. My thanks to everyone that attended – Mal Holden, Rob Harwood, Roy Browne, Dave De Luca, Ivan Malby, Garry Kent, Ian Keuning, Mac Lyell, Aaron Fielder, Barry Bradfield, Scott Chaney, Joel Norman and Mick Dillon. A special thanks of course to Peter Morse for travelling up to run these sessions and doing a masterful job despite having a good dose of the flu. If you get the chance to do one of these tuition sessions with Peter I strongly recommend you take it. Peter is more than happy to come again next year for a refresher.