Berley Trail - June 2003

Breley Trail Fly

June 2003

An early, cold winter start greeted me as I put the boat onto the towbar and headed off to the boat ramp at Terrigal Haven. Meeting time: 6.15am, Outing: Berley Trail Fishing, Starters: 4 Boats, 9 members and a heap of berley!

Everyone was ready to go, with boats in the water and loaded up by just before 7am. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, but the swell that had been non-existent the previous few days was on the way up and was already pushing two to three feet.

We headed out around the Haven, past the Skillion and it didn't take long for Bob, Hamish and Matt to spot a huge school of salmon working in close to the rocks between North Avoca and the Skillion. Now I know we were supposed to be berley trail fishing, but a school of salmon working the baitfish in easy casting distance, well, you just don't turn your nose up at that sort of opportunity. So I picked up the eight weight, I rigged it up already to go just in case whilst I was waiting for everyone else at the ramp, gave it a good cast and within seconds of my first strip I was on! Whoo Hoo…. This feels like a good fish I said to Chris, and it was. It lept clear of the water and it was a ripper of a fish to start the day with. 

Chris kept casting whilst I played this fish out and in no time we had a double hookup. Both of us playing good sized salmon back to the boat. A couple of photos and Chris returned his to the water, mine was kept for Chris to try his first salmon.

Back to business and again within a couple of casts I was on. I looked around and between the three boats fishing the salmon, five of us were hooked up, including John Humphries with his first ever Aussie Salmon on fly.

The wind was picking up and blowing from the WSW and making it a bit bumpy as you drifted wide. We continued fishing and I landed another salmon before the swell got the better of me and I started my very own berley trail made up of the breakfast I had before I left home. It was great leaning over the side of the boat whilst my fellow anglers yelled in support. Things like…."Hey Dave, do the fish answer back?" and "Dave, you looking for fish mate"….. Thanks for your help fellas. 

Anyway after wiping my mouth I was straight back into it and within a few casts had yet another salmon crawl all over my fly. This was an unbelievable session and the fish were all of good size. They were so willing that they were hitting the fly while it just sat there sinking. I ended the day with 4 good salmon, Chris got one, Big Bob landed four also and we all missed numerous hits and dropped a few fish.

Wozza and Ross persevered with their berley exploits (after all that is what we were supposed to be doing!) and managed two cowanyoung and a couple of misses. A good morning all up, even getting sick didn't turn me off too much!

Carp-O-Rama - May 2003

Carp-O-Rama

May 2003

Another Carp-o-rama was upon us, and the rain we had copped over the past weeks had a few people nervous about the conditions at Liddell. There wasn't too much to worry about as Singleton and Liddell had received very little of the downpours we experienced on the coast. So the usual Friday and Saturday run around had us organized with about 10 folks ready to do battle with the old swamp trout.

We agreed to meet at 06:00 at the MacDonalds at Singleton so we could have some breakfast and show the folks that have never been to Liddell the way to the recreation area. As is usually the case the final group of fishos rolled in at about 6:30 and we sat down for a quick bite to eat, we would have had tea and coffee except they had run out! Uh oh this was not a good start. Even worse the wind was starting to howl from the South West. It was cold but the sun was starting to shine through.

We headed up the New England and took the turn into Liddell recreation area where we met up with Brett Aley. The wind was getting very gusty and there were some clouds starting to come into view. The lake was well down on the last time we were here with most of the boat ramp high and dry and just a thin strip of concrete down to the water.

I reversed the car down the ramp and slid the hornet into the water. Brett moved the boat away from the ramp to allow the others to launch. Problem with that was that I now had to walk to the boat which was about 3 metres from the shore. Not a big deal until I stepped into some mud that was about a foot deep, and was soaked up to my knees. Wait…. The day gets better!

We all headed off looking for some protection from the wind. Brett and I found a bay that looked to be out of the wind and proceeded to walk the banks to sight fish. Bugger me, more mud and the type that sticks to your boots and just gets thicker and thicker……. Back to plan B and into the boat. We used the electric to move slowly down the shoreline looking for fish. The wind had picked up and now to add salt to the wounds the clouds had started rolling in. It became almost impossible to see the fish and more often than not they'd be spooked before we got to see them.

We struggled on for about 30 minutes and noted an abundance of freshwater eels of about 4 - 5 feet in length, they wouldn't touch our flies though. We decided to go and see what the other guys were up to and found them setting up ready to berley with bread. We all anchored in a row and the berley trail was started.

Chris Bannerman wasted no time and landed and small swampie for a photo and a quick release. It was pretty quiet even with the berley so another move was attempted. We tried blind casting to the fish around the weedbeds nearer the boat ramp, but the wind was just too strong and had us drifting across the beds before you could even get a cast out. Bob, Chris, Brownie, Gordon and Matt, decided to berley up again in the protection of the power station and that produced a few more fish and a first fish on fly for John Cunningham.

Justin, Brett and I tried our luck again at sight fishing, but again the elements beat us. The rain started to fall, lightly at first, so Justin and I decided enough torture and headed back to the ramp. On the way back to the ramp my outboard decided it had done enough and just stopped dead. A bit of drifting and a few attempts to get it started and we were back at the ramp. Justin pulled his boat out and the heavens opened. Everyone headed back to the ramp and started packing up.

Not our best ever day at Liddell and the weather was less than helpful, but the fact that some of the guys got fish and in one case their first ever makes is still worthwhile. We'll be back again….. maybe in summer?

Dora Creek

Dora Creek - Bream

April 2003

This trip was supposed to be a Newcastle Harbour Pelagics outing, but due to the 4 -5 ft swell and the lack of fish around we went for plan B. As none of us had fished Dora Creek before we decided that we would see what it had to offer on the bream front.

We met at the Dora Creek boat ramp at about 7am and most of the guys headed up the creek towards the F3 bridge to fish the snags. I waited around for one of our members who was supposed to be coming and just fished near the ramp so I could see them arrive. At 8am I decided to go up stream.

As I headed upstream I passed Ross Anderson who reported no fish at that point. I soon met up with Wozza and Ivan just before the road bridge and they also reported zero fish or hits. The place just looked very very fishy and the tide was good, but nothing to report from that section of the river.

We all headed back towards the Dora Creek township and fished the strip down to the rail bridge. Chris Martin reported a nice 30+ cm fish and jimmy Hyatt had caught a small tailor. Things were looking up. I fished that strip pretty hard without a take. A few hits but no hookups. 

By now the wind was starting to get up and I moved under the bridge and back towards the ramp. My electric motor started to play up so I had to stop and fix one of the battery terminals. Once I got it going I headed down towards the moored boats near the ramp to find Ivan and Wozza fishing around the boats and wharves. Wozza had landed 3 bream around the one boat and Ivan was casting frantically to catch up.

Alas he didn't and neither did I. It was a quiet day on the fish front.

Big Bob had fished the Creek the night before and landed 14 fish. Just goes to show that when they are on they are on!

Paterson River - March 2003

Paterson River Bass

March 2003

Sunday morning, end of daylight savings, saw us traveling up the F3 freeway towards Hexham for our meeting place. The meeting time was 05:30 to give us time to get to the boat ramp on the Paterson River for sun up. Chris Bannerman, Chris Martin, Steve Tizard and myself arrived at Stockmans before the allotted time and decided we'd have some breakfast whilst we waited for none other than Big Bob and his wife Anne.

The food was good and Bob arrived about 10 after 6….close but no cigar Bob. We headed up through Maitland and turned off towards the little township of Paterson. A 15 minute trek saw us at the ramp ready to launch.

The three boats were slid into the water, cars parked, rods rigged and flies at the ready. We started to move slowly downstream and fished the snags as the sun came up. Steve and I used surface flies to start with and it didn't take long for the first fish to hit my deer hair fly. It was only a small bass of about 23cm, but it was a promising start to the day.

We continued targeting the snags and as with this sort of fishing it didn't take me long to get a fly caught in a willow tree as I tried to get under the overhanging branches. Unfortunately as I tried to flick the fly clear of the branches a loud crack was heard and my 2 piece 8 weight Struddy was now a 3 piece. Not happy Jan! 

Steve continued to fish whilst I put the 3 piece away and got my 6/7 weight backup out, rigged it up and was ready to start again.

Big Bob came past and hadn't had a hit at this stage. He was fishing deeper flies trying to entice one of the bigger fish out of their little hiding places. The two Chris's hadn't had a touch either and I got the feeling the day was gonna be tough on the fish front.

We all decided to move a 3kms down the river to see if our luck would improve. Steve and I continued with the surface and no hits in about and hour of flicking saw us all head upstream past the town of Paterson.

Again we persisted with the surface flies and had fish come up for a look but no hookups. Chris Bannerman got a herring as we drove past them back towards the ramp. Steve and I continued to fish back to the ramp and I got another hookup on a better fish, but lost it before the boat. We were getting some great casting practice and placing some flies in some really fishy looking spots only to have them come back unscathed. I got a good cast in under a willow tree and was rewarded with another bass of about 25 cm. That was it. The wind picked up a bit and we decided to call it quits and go and get some lunch. The tally for the day was….. Big Bob 2 bass, the biggest going 26cm, Chris Bannerman 1 bass, 1 herring and Chris Martin 1 Bass.

An improvement on our last visit to the Paterson, but still plenty of room for improvement in both fish numbers and size.

Broken Bay Pelagics - January 2003

Broken Bay Pelagics

January 2003

It was Saturday afternoon, exchanging phone calls with Big Bob and discussing the ins and outs of tomorrow's outing. It was bloody hot about 45 degrees with a North Wester that would easily blow the top off a beer if you ventured out into it. The weather however was due to change overnight and guess what - not in our favour. Whilst the westerlies were going and the temperature was going to be in the mid to late twenties, it was the wind from the south that had us most concerned.

Sunday morning came around and looking out the front windows I noticed a distinct absence of wind. Excellent I thought as I wandered downstairs to ready myself for what I was hoping would be a good day with lot's of hard fighting fish. The aim was to meet at the Woy Woy ramp at 7am and go out from there.

I arrived at the ramp at 06:50 and met up with John Humphries who was keen to get a start. The other guys started rolling up shortly there after, and Brownie and Woz were already at it around Ettalong. The wind was up a little from the SE and hopes of a nice calm day were starting to fade. Big Bob finally arrived at 07:30ish (7 am Bob time!) and we were set to go. 

We all headed down to Ettalong to find Brownie, but were unable to see him and Woz turning the water to foam, so we decided to head out into Broken Bay.

The swell was up. The wind was up and the water was starting to get bumpy. We decided to go into Pittwater to see if there was any action in there and to get some protection from the wind. On the way Steve Tizard and I spotted some fish hitting the surface and went in pursuit of them. No hits, no takes and in no time the fish had disappeared. We kept a look out on our way into Pittwater, but alas, did not see them again.

We got into Pittwater and found it was just as lumpy as the wind had freshened and was blowing straight up the bay. Met up With Dean Hayes and Mick "Lefty" Munns who had been chasing Kings in around the moored boats. They saw them, they cast at 'em, but they didn't hook into 'em.

We decided to have a look for ourselves and headed in amongst the boats. Steve and I saw one fish hit the surface, but that was it. We tried along the wharves and casting in around the big boats, but all we managed was a juvenile leatherjacket that Steve hooked on a clouser. Never seen one on fly.....

With nothing doing in Pittwater and no sign of fish we headed back up into the bay. We touched base with Dean and his crew again and they said they had caught some tailor to about 500grams near Patonga, so we headed in that direction. We saw birds working a patch of fish and all proceeded to that point. A few casts and not a hit. A change of fly to a smaller clouser and a move of the boat back to the school and a few casts....a few hits but no takes. I could see the fish follow the fly...they weren't Tailor but salmon and something else that was too fast to get a good look at. Bonito perhaps? Another move and this time as we moved I had the fly in the water behind the boat and bang, something latched onto the fly. I held the line for a short time whilst I maneuvered the boat and the fish was off...Bugger!

Anyway we persisted for another 20 minutes and without a hook up between the 8 of us. The fish soon disappeared and we called it quits. We headed back to the calmness of Brisbane Waters and got a good soaking on the way back across the bay.

We met all the guys back at the ramp and swapped stories. They were all the same. Could see 'em, could cast at 'em, but buggered if we could hook 'em.

With the water temp up to about 23 degrees it won't be long before the bay hots up..... We'll be out there!!!

Thomson's Creek Dam - December 2002

Thomson's Creek Dam

December 2002

While recent reports indicated that the trout weren't really biting at Thommo's we decided to push on with the trip to see for ourselves what this fabled 'Trophy Trout Dam' had to offer. There were only two up to the expedition, Bob Beamish and myself. Neither of us had visited Thommo's before, but it's stories of big trout had us curious enough to make the trip.

Departing the Central Coast around 2pm we made our way through the north western suburbs of Sydney and onto the Bell's Line Road. The weather was fine and a light breeze had sprung up as we reached Lithgow around 5pm. After a quick bite to eat at Big Bob's favourite restaurant we headed out past Wallerawang and down the gravel road towards Thomsons Creek Dam.

It was a quiet afternoon at the dam with only four other vehicles parked at the gates, one kilometre from the dam wall. The lack of numbers indicated to us that the fishing was not going to be easy this afternoon. Fires visible on the distance hills had left a pall of smoke hovering over the dam and the nearby Blue Mountains escarpment was but a dark shadow through the smoky haze. Donning our jackets and pulling on our waders we soon headed up along the road which would lead us to the eastern end of the kilometre-long dam wall.
With information gleaned from recent trips here by others we decided to go with the original plan and fish the western end of the wall near the spillway. This was the deeper part of the wall and trout had been taken here lately on black woolly buggers and similar flies. By now the breeze had risen and casting was tricky, but we persevered for and hour and a half trying numerous locations around the wall and spillway. But luck was not with us and there were no takes or rises

With the light falling we decided to head back to the eastern end of the wall. This was in the lee of a hill and should afford some wind-free fishing in the darkening conditions.
As we trudged back along the dam wall we noticed that a Christmas Beetle hatch had begun and we couldn't take three steps without being hit by the large and noisy insects. Hopefully the trout would be attracted by the hatch.

And they were. No sooner had the waters calmed in the lee of the hills than we saw rises and heard the familiar 'plop' of a surface take in the half light. While I fished the wall where I could see the rises, Bob moved around to the end of the wall 100m away and fished the small bay.

Despite our best attempts the trout were not even looking at our flies. I guess the hatch was keeping them occupied and we had nothing to match the beetles with their light brown wing cases, black heads and bright orange-red abdomens. By 8.30pm we had cast everything in our fly boxes to no avail. We gained a little comfort from the fact that other fly fishermen we spoke to were having similar dificulties. It was time to admit defeat and retreat back to the car. 

While I did not collect a beetle as a specimen, the image of it was clear in my mind as I arrived home at 2am and I could not resist but to sit down at my fly tying table and tie myself a Thomson's Creek Dam Christmas Beetle for next year when I return to Thommos.

Williams River Bass - October 2002

Williams River Bass

October 2002

A very foggy morning greeted us as we wound our way from Raymond Terrace northwest towards Clarence Town. It was 6am, and after and hour and a half of driving we were cruising quietly through the outskirts heading for the boat ramp. 

A quick check of our gear and mounting the electric, we then slid the boat into the water next to Dave Witham's able craft. Both boats were soon heading into the fog, crossing the river to try some fishy looking snags opposite the boat ramp while we waited for the others to arrive. Before we knew it Dave had hooked and landed a small bass. Wilbur's cheers echoed up and down the river as he boated it for photos. Small bass were hitting our poppers too, some taking 3 or 4 swipes at them before giving up. Unfortunately though, there were no further hookups.

In the mean time Gordon and Steve Tizzard had arrived with Bob Williams and Hamish not far behind. We discussed the day's plan while we waited for Bill Sonnenberg to arrive with his float tube and it wasn't long before we headed upstream investigating promising looking snags with a probing cast. 

By midday Brett and I had made our way above the Clarence Town bridge. The sun had burnt off the remaining fog and the day was turning out to be decidedly warm. After a bite to eat and a cool drink we continued working our way upstream looking for our first bass.
Although we had seen plenty of activity around our flies we had only managed to take a couple of herring in the morning's session. Both of us had hooked bass but for some reason unknown to us the flies were dropped shortly after.

We met Bob and Hamish heading back at around 1pm. They had reported catching 10 fish of varying size up to about 30cm from further upstream above the rock bar, so we decided to try the same part of the river to see if our luck couldn't improve. But it didn't. We must have been doing something wrong - wrong fly, wrong snags, wrong cast, striking too late, too early - who knows. 

With our confidence dwindling we started making our way back down towards the boat ramp. It was 2pm and the day had been a long one. A few last casts at some likely looking snags and finally!!! a bass. Not a large specimen as hoped mind you, but a bass none the less. Our confidence was reinvigorated and we eagerly sought out a few more snaggy areas to land another small bass before calling it quits for the day. 

All in all we had an enjoyable day, departing the boat ramp at around 3.30 as last man out.