Off The Rocks June 2015

Off the Rocks - June 2015

Swansea - May 2015

Swansea Salmon

May 2015

Another day above ground, another Central Coast Fly Rodders outing. They seem to come around so quickly these days, must be getting old. I woke early, well before the dawn. Was it excitement or an itchy casting arm? Not sure, but I never seem to sleep before an outing. Could be the anticipation, the thought of failure, or that trophy fish; who knows, I’m sure we all experience it. The weather hadn't been too kind yesterday - southerly winds and heavy rain. Not what I would call ideal but fortunately the forecast for today was much better, plus we had a great response for the outing with 8-9 boats expected to turn up. Our expectations were high.

Dave and I had ventured up the week before for a pre-fish and had one of those days you just don’t forget. Today we arrived at the ramp early. It felt like ground hog day. 6:30 am start and a few guys were already there - obviously as keen as we were. We dropped the Hornet in, it slid off the trailer as if it were keener to get out there than we were. Cracking job on the trailer Lennie, and by the way, nice of you to take my boat for a run.

We planned to head out to Salts Bay and look for any bird activity which in turn would hopefully lead us to the fish, although I must say the weather conditions were average and we both felt that some sun on the water would be a bonus. As Dave poked the nose of the Hornet out through the other side of the Swansea Bridge and pushed the throttle to maximum, the Merc Four Stroke was humming along at a cracking pace, although the wind chill was something I could have done without.

As I looked towards the horizon I could see the sun trying its best to poke its head out over Moon Island. Rays of sunlight filtering through the islands weathered imperfections reminded me of a small child waking from his sleep, arms stretching, looking up out of his bed wondering what the day might bring.

Bird Island is on the southern side of Swansea Bar. It is a magnet for many species of sea birds that jostle for protection between the cracks and crevices of the island that has been weathered and beaten from thousands of years of constant impact from the diverse weather conditions and heavy seas that it experiences. With this island also comes protection for many types of bait fish, which in turn attract many types of predators - various sea birds plus our interest, Salmon, Tailor, Kings and Tuna. The food chain continues on, sharks, dolphins and of course as many club members will testify, the occasional hungry seal. Our target fish was the Australian Salmon, a fantastic Australian sportfish that is highly underrated. Pound for pound you will go a long way to find a better fighting fish that is so accessible.

We ventured out to the front of Salts Bay. The swell was up and it didn’t look too inviting off Bird Island - a run out tide, a reasonable swell and the punt style hull of the Hornet not ideal in these conditions. Fresh cloud cover had defused any of the suns warming rays so we decided to stay inside as we were both fairly confident the fish would start to feed shortly. I threaded the intermediate through the guides of one of Dave’s nine weights. Can't talk highly enough about these rods, we have put them through Hell and they are still going strong. Do yourself a favour check them out on the Hooked On Flies website. I tied up a 5ft leader of 40 lb flurocarbon, 2½ft of 20 lb flurocarbon & 2½ft of 12 lb flurocarbon tippet. Owies loop knot to one of Dave’s Salmon Candies and I was ready to go.

We motored up and down the channel searching but were a little surprised that there was no surface activity inside the bay. It was only early so we decided to have a brew and gather our thoughts while waiting for the tide to pick up. There were plenty of boats searching but no one seemed to be hooking up and we agreed that the fish were probably down deep, searching, waiting for some baitfish to ambush. Dave decided to put a Chartreuse and White Clouser on to get to the bottom and it worked a treat. Within minutes Dave was on, flyline screeching as it was wrenched through the guides of the nine weight. I dropped a cast to the right of where Dave had hooked up, I paused then one long strip and flyline was ripped from my fingers. Finally relief, we were both hooked up and they were both solid fish, nothing could wipe the smiles off our faces. We had forgotten about the cold as both fish were landed. We took some quick photos and off they shot like green missiles into the deeper water.

After a few more casts we both hooked fish but failed to stay connected, so we headed back up towards the bridge. We noticed some nervous water off the edge of the channel, then suddenly a school of baitfish exploded, they were being seriously harassed by some huge Salmon, not a great life being a baitfish. Dave laid out a nice cast just ahead of them and only managed a few strips then, as Bunny would say, #### BINGO!, his 9 weight buckled. Dave groaned, I’m sure it was excitement but it sounded like he was in pain. Not being one to stand back and watch and never being much of a spectator I laid out a cast, I waited for the intermediate to sink, one strip, and I was on. After a tough battle we landed both fish, Dave’s was a cracking fish, well over the 4kg mark, I think it gave the magic 10lb mark a nudge. As we fought the fish we noticed the tidal flow had increased dramatically which was due to the heavily scoured bottom and the funnelling effect of the tide as the lake narrows towards the bridge. This in turn creates pressure waves, which I imagine would have any small bait fish in trouble. I have to say you could never tire of this type of fishing - big fish in shallow water, huge tidal flow, it certainly tests you.

We commented on how the fish seemed to be much more acrobatic when feeding inside the lake and we guessed it has to do with the fact it is very shallow in certain areas and the only way to go is up. You have to love seeing a big salmon in the air with one of Dave’s Salmon Candies hanging out of its mouth.

Suddenly the salmon erupted again, smashing schools of bait fish on the surface a few hundred meters from the boat. Dave set the Minn Kota to overdrive and we were on the fish in a flash. They were feeding on the edge of the channel pushing the baitfish towards the shallows and then ambushing them as they were sucked back out to the edge of the colour change by the tidal current. We cast simultaneously and another double hook up. Could this be any better? They say "any day above ground is a good day", but really, does it get any better? With all the commotion, boats arrived from everywhere and several of the guys in the club were hooked up. There was a plethora of boats connected to airborne salmon doing their best to dislodge hooks, flies, lures and whatever else they managed to have hanging from their mouths. Unfortunately several boats decided it was a good idea to motor right through the middle of school which spooked the fish and they went down yet again, annoying to say the least, so we decided to head back out towards the mouth of the lake.

We noticed Kenny was into a nice fish, looked like he had it under control, pretty sure he might have caught a few in his day. Another nice Salmon was boated. We commented that the fish would occasionally free jump, they were quite patchy now, so the plan was to cast close to where the fish had breached. We were only in few metres of water so we only needed to let the fly sink for a few seconds, then we would strip the fly in almost to the boat, pausing occasionally to let the fly sink. A quicker strip once the retrieve got closer to the boat seemed to be their undoing, but once the fish realised they were hooked most the line on the deck disappeared and we were battling to control another angry Australian Salmon. I have to say a Nine weight is the ideal weapon for these fish as they are dogged fighters and you need to put some hurt on them or you will be hooked up too long, thus limiting your chances of more fish. 

As we continued to search, we had noticed plenty of the boys from the club hooked up. Col was into a nice fish, smiles were flowing as another salmon made it to the boat and was quickly released. Col had also managed a nice trevally earlier, a welcome bonus when things were slow. We then decided to follow the fish, as the bait schools were small and becoming very patchy. This technique proved fruitful as we managed to pick up a few more good fish. Craig and Mal were landing some really nice fish and several other club members were doing the same. Stickerman’s boat was sussing out a couple of bust ups as we motored past and Bunney’s new boat was christened in more ways than one, not sure what Muz was up to but both were smiling. Is that what a Half Cabin is for?

The bite seemed to die down as the tide slowed. Dave spotted a huge school of Salmon mooching in the shallows, in less than 2 metres of water. Nirvana maybe, but no, it didn’t matter what flies we threw at them they were just not interested. They were waiting for the tide and it appeared that the old adage "No Run No Fun" was proving correct. We continued to search but the fish were tough. We managed to hook a few more fish, some were boated and some managed to throw the flies, but getting the "Eat" was still very cool.

The morning had gone so quickly and it was time to head back to the Ramp. As we motored up the channel I was sad the day was ending. We both commented how healthy the lake was, the clarity of the water failed to hide the expansive sand flats and weed beds that, in time will encourage us to come back again and try our luck on a different species. The club had planned its usual BBQ for 12.30pm and as we retrieved the boat several club members turned up. There was plenty of laughter and banter going on, so it was a sign everyone had a good time. Unfortunately we were unable to stay for the BBQ but I’m sure there were some great stories discussed over some of Macs famous sausage sandwiches. Wish we were able to stay, but family committments ruled that out. Anyway, let’s hope the next outing continues in the same vane, seems like everyone had a crackin' day.

So get out there and fish hard, 'cause you are a long time dead.

Nepean River Bass - November 2014

Nepean River Bass

November 2014

This trip was postponed from the previous weekend due to the water skiing, but as it turned out the weather was far better! The forecast was for mid to high 30s on the Saturday and into the 40s on the Sunday, so the plan was to fish late Saturday and early morning Sunday in order to be off the water by 11 before the heat took hold.

Brownie and I headed off about 12ish on Saturday for the run down to Tench Reserve at Penrith to meet up with Shayne, Murray and Col. Richard was to join us later in the afternoon. We got to the ramp about 2 after a stop for some lunch and launched the boat straight away. We met up with Shayne and he launched the small tinnie he was fishing out for the evening and we headed up to the gorge, past all the water ski boats and into some quieter water. We met Murray and Col on our way out of the ramp so all 3 boats headed into the rocky shorelines to target some bass. 

We motored up past the narrows and a fair way up into the gorge until we came across a weed barrier and decided we’d start fishing from that back down towards the narrows. I was fishing a gurgler and Brownie opted to go sub-surface so we could see what was the better option. It didn’t take long for me to start getting hits from some small bass and I quickly converted a few into fish. Brownie wasn’t connecting with too many which surprised both of us given the sun was still high in the sky. We both ended up fishing gurglers and landed about 8 – 10 small bass which are always fun on surface flies.

There were plenty of small herring harassing our flies to, but too small to hook on our gurglers. I spotted a few carp too along the edges and some of them were quite large…. You see their lips before you see the rest of the fish. We didn’t bother trying for them and we were both fishing surface flies and couldn’t be bothered changing over.

As the afternoon wore on we moved back through the narrows and down past the ramp towards the rail bridge where we planned on fishing into the dark. There is a lot more cover there for the fish, with sunken trees and a lot of reeds and bush right down to the water. By this time the ski boats had gone and we pretty much had the river to ourselves. A few more fish on surface and plenty of mullet doing their best aerial displays out in the middle. Brownie and I shifted to the other side of the river to fish the shadows and a nice cast into the timber saw me get smashed off the surface and straight back towards the tangled branches of a fallen tree. A few hard strips and some rod movement saw me get the fish clear of the danger zone for a short fight that saw the fish stay deep but at least out towards the middle of the river. It wasn’t long before a 38cm Nepean bass was netted, measured photographed and returned to fight another day. The fish was tagged, but it was so dirty that we couldn’t read the code on it. First time I have caught a tagged fish, but it does show that the fish are pretty hardy!

A couple more small fish and a few lost flies in the timber due to the dark meant it was time to leave and head to Brownie’s brothers’ place to camp for the night. A good BBQ saw us munching down on steak sandwiches and the usual banter. It was midnight before we hit the hay and the plan was to be up again at 4:30 to get out to Windsor as close to sun up as possible.

04:30 rolled around very quickly and we were up, packing up, moving boats and off to the ramp at Windsor. Seems a lot of people had the same idea as there were many boats there already. We got onto the water and started motoring up stream to the terraces. We fished the shadows, but it was relatively quiet. A few surface hits as few fish on surface and sub-surface and a nice fish for Shayne and the heat started to hit by 9. 

We tried a few more spots and it was the same story and then all of a sudden it went quiet on the bass front. The herring were starting to jump by this time, which I am told is a sign of the heat. We tied on some small dry flies and started chasing the herring. We caught a lot of them and they are fun to watch as they compete for the dry fly on the surface. By 10:30 we were starting to feel the heat so we meandered back to the ramp. As we got to the road bridge we saw heaps of herring jumping so we tied to the pylon in the shade and picked up a few more herring on the 3 weight. By this time there was a speedboat race going on and we had to wait until that was stopped to allow us to get to the ramp.

Back at the ramp about 11 and it was stifling hot. The ramp was extremely busy with all lanes taken with people putting in their speedboats for a day on the water…. Good luck to them I thought. We got the boat out and headed up to the carpark to get everything packed for the trip home. The carpark was so full that there were trailers parked all the way up the road to the town! Hate to see what the ramp is like later in the day!!

We headed off and were home by 12 and I checked the temp at Windsor…. 44.2 degrees!!

A good trip. A bit quieter by Nepean standards, but we all got fish and had fun as always. Seems the average size of the fish is slowly declining in the Nepean, but on a positive at least there are plenty of smaller fish to grow and become targets in the future.

Sydney Harbour Pelagic Chase - January 2014

Sydney Harbour Pelagic Chase

January 2014

The CCFR's first outing for the year was something a little different, a trip down the freeway to fish Sydney Harbour. There was a big build up to this outing, with reports coming thick and fast of how good the fishing was on the harbour this year. We had 10 keen starters set to meet at the ramp at 6am. The gates are supposed to close at night and re-open at dawn or there about. Gates? What gates? Yep there are no gates, so there were already boats launching when John Roberts and I arrived at 5:45 and some trailers that looked like they had been there all night.

Now let me tell you the ramp at Roseville is very busy! There were boats coming in at a steady rate, so we launched straight away and caught up with Richard and Craig. There is limited space to tie up and wait so it was decided that we leave and the other guys would catch up. I texted them to let them know that we had left rather than clog up the ramp and pontoon waiting.

John and I headed up through the Spit and up Middle Harbour. There was a bit of surface action so we stopped and had a few casts. Nothing doing and a lot of boat traffic meant it was time to keep moving. We rounded Middle Head and made our way toward some of the marker buoys and wedding cakes. A few casts and nothing. A couple of wayward casts saw John and I connected to the buoys and there goes another fly!

Some of the marker buoys had that many boats on them that you'd be lucky to land a kingy if you hooked one.....all those anchor ropes must be Kingfish heaven!

We kept moving around looking for surface action. There was the odd swirl here and there for us to cast at but nothing came of them. We headed back into Middle Harbour and fished around the naval base for a while, but again saw nothing. I moved back to where we had seen the surface swirls on our way out and there were a number of boats catching slimy mackeral and yakkas. John hadn't caught either species so I thought I'd let him have a go and see if he could connect. Sadly nothing doing. Mal called us to say there were some salmon working near Darling Harbour, so I started the motor and we made the long haul up the harbour to see if we could tempt the salmon that Mal said weren't playing the game.

The trip up the Harbour was pretty good with very few boats out and about. It was quite spectacular driving the boat past the Opera House and then under the Harbour Bridge. We got to the front of Goat Island and could see fish on the surface. We tied on appropriately sized candies and cast at them. No go. Not even a follow. The fish kept going down as the boat traffic started to pick up. They disappeared again and we went searching for them behind Goat Island. They came up again and there were a couple of other boats fishing for them. One on fly and the other spinning. No one was hooking up despite fish surrounding the boats from time to time.

The other fly fishing boat then hooked up. I changed down to a size 8 sparklebait and cast it out. A few strips and a fish came flying with its back out of the water to devour it. “I'm on” was the shout as the fish did several cartwheels in attempt to dislodge the fly. Now one thing I have learnt over the years is not to put too much pressure on salmon when using a size 8 hook. Let's face it they don't have big barbs or large gapes so easy does it equals more landed fish!

A short but aerobatic fight saw the first fish of the day hit the landing net and in full view of the Harbour Bridge. John kindly took a snap of me with the fish and the full coat hanger in the background. Gotta love that view!

We got talking to the guys in the other boat and the words “Gummy Minnow” were uttered. Now I don't usually bring many flies to an outing *cough cough*, so I pulled out a dozen or so gummy minnows and John had one in his box so we were set. We followed the fish around for a while and John hooked up.... the line sung as it slid through the guides of his rod. A short fight and John had the fish near the surface when a loud “crack” was heard and his rod broke. The busted section sliding down and no doubt smacking the fish in the face. 

The fish took off again and John did an awesome job of landing the fish on half a rod.

We followed the school as it moved around the bay and managed to land a few more fish each. Steve and Garry had joined us by this time but as we found when we first got there the fish were very fussy and fixated on the small bait affectionately known as eyes due to the fact that about all you can see of them in the water is their eyes. I whipped two gummies out and gave them to Steve and Garry to try. Unfortunately they ran out of time to get onto fish.

Now the trip up the Harbour wasn't too bad..... The trip back was a totally different story. The southerly wind had cut in as had the boat traffic. We passed everything from tall ships to naval ships and of course ferries! Those things throw out quite a swell. Mix the swell with the wind and it made for an uncomfortable and wet trip back to the ramp. It also meant we were late for lunch! No drama as I had the BBQ and the meat!!

We got back the ramp and it was rocking! Sooooo many boats. I think it took close to 40 mins to get out of the water. In the meantime Len and the boys had started the BBQ and got festivities underway. The stories of the day came thick and fast.

At least 2 broken rods for the day. A number of broken fly lines and of course lost flies. Fish tally – Col Breese managed a few bonito out of Middle Harbour, just off Balmoral. Garry Kent managed a small Kingfish. John and I managed 3 salmon each. Mal “dropped it” Holden managed to shake off two kingfish and a salmon for the morning.....Damn good effort that!

It was a fun day regardless of how the fishing was. It's always nice to get out on the harbour and enjoy something a little different. The Fairy Penguins and Dolphins were also a spectacular sight so close to a major city. Thanks to Col, Len, Mal, Richard, Craig, Steve and Garry for coming along and for the great conversation over lunch. By the way the steaks were excellent and something that might become a regular feature of club BBQs as they take next to no time to cook!

The Prince of Pejar - October 2013

October 2013

A sight to behold was the Prince of Pejar. Clad in the ceremonial finery of his ancient religion he strode triumphantly into the room of his most cherished peers and declared:

"the day is mine, and you's can all go get ######!"

Well, so much for a dignified and humble end to the day's fishing. Although the rest of us were certainly humbled after our first evening at Pejar. With widespread caddis fly activity and fish clearly rising we at first thought it would be simply a matter of time before we all landed fish. How wrong we were. Even our Pommy trout experts were left fishless and wondering what was going on.

Only one stood out. The Prince of Pejar. With a silvering mane and copper whiskers The Prince cast out his chosen fly only to tuck his rod under his arm, remove a fly box from his pocket and casually peruse its contents. Selecting a fly and placing it between his teeth he then proceeded to strip his line in. One, two, three strips and the electric shock of a big angry fish on the end of his line startled The Prince, almost causing him to swallow the fly in his mouth. The fish tried every trick in the book to rid itself of the unwanted meal, but The Prince had his measure and a 3lb silver torpedo was soon laying on the grassy bank beside him. With a religious zeal not seen since the Inquisition the fish was dispatched and The Prince returned from the hunt victoriously displaying his vanquished quarry.

Well that's the romanticised version of the story. The version told was quite simply unrepeatable and certainly unprintable.

Most of us arrived at Gundowringa homestead late on Friday afternoon. I had hitched a ride with Col Breese and after picking up John Robb at Tascott we dodged the bushfires and road closures on the Hume Motorway (now memorably rebadged the M31), made our way up the Crookwell Road and onto the property of Jeff Prell – 5000 acres of rolling green hills with the Wollondilly running through it. The Prells have been in this area since 1901, running Corriedale sheep for over 100 years with their skills in sheep farming proudly displayed on the walls of the shearers’ quarters – our new home for the next few days. Jeff came down to meet us soon after we arrived. A quietly spoken chap he was keen for us to fish his dams and shared his many years of fly fishing experience and extensive historical knowledge of the local area.

Steve Tizard and I decided to head over to Pejar Dam to take a closer look at the inviting view we had passed on the way up to Gundowringa. There were plenty of tracks around the western lake shore so we explored the small bays and rocky points at the top end where the Wollondilly flowed in, finally deciding to fish a small bay around 6pm.

The conditions were perfect. The wind dropped and a caddis fly hatch was in full swing so we rigged up and waited for the rises to start. After half an hour of no surface fish activity at all and the sun setting I changed to a Bushy’s Horror to see if I could elicit a response, but by 8pm we had seen no fish whatsoever and decided to head back for a late dinner.

Back at the shearer’s quarters most of us had assembled for dinner. Stories of no fish abounded, the only difference being that at Jeff’s two farm dams there were plenty of rises to the same caddis fly hatch we had experienced. Then Sticker strode in. It was obvious that he had caught a fish and proudly presented a solid rainbow of around 2lb. No doubt we would soon hear of his experience and sure enough we were given a blow by blow account of the fish he caught AND the one he dropped while trying to send everyone a photo of the specimen he had just landed..

We had an enjoyable evening around the fire swapping stories and having a laugh before retiring to bed around midnight.

Those of us keen were up at 5am the next morning, and after a quick cuppa headed down to the farm dams to even up our tallies with Sticker’s. A cold calm morning looked perfect and we tried a range of flies on both lakes. A few fish were spotted rising, I even watched a large snout stick a couple of inches out of the water to take something on the surface. Changing to a beetle pattern I spent the next hour drifting my fly across the smaller dam without any response but by about 9 the breeze had picked up and we headed back for a coffee and morning tea.

Regrouping back at the shearer's quarters I teamed up with Dave, Sticker and Bunney and we headed down to Goulburn in search of redfin, a species many of us hadn't yet caught. We found Scott Chaney at Marsden Weir casting to some Koi Carp below the weir wall but conditions looked pretty average and while Sticker, Bunney and Scott tried further downstream on the Wollondilly, Dave and I headed into town for lunch before catching up with them on the river west of Goulburn. We then followed the Wollondilly westward up through Pomeroy. At every river crossing the water looked very poor with little or no flow. Eventually we headed back via Gouldburn to Gundowringa to prepare for the evening rise.

Reports back at the shearer's quarters were still of no fish caught and widespread poor conditions on the Wollondilly. Our only hope seemed to be this evening's rise on the farm dams. So we all headed down around 5pm and lined up around the dam's margins. Initially I tried a streamer on an intermediate line, hoping to get down to the bottom of the dam and emulate Sticker's success, but as the sun sank in the west and a few rises began to appear I changed to a midge pupa below a midge ball indicator in the hope that one of the two would induce a take. Still nothing and worse still the rises had ceased. Only David had any success with a take on his nymph but he failed to hook up and we heard his disappointment across the water. 

Time for another fly change as we were treated to a magnificent red sunset. In the dark I could see a few rises in the dam just near the cars, so I tied on a Craig's Nighttime and prospected around the bay. Surely a fish would at least have a go at my fly and sure enough the line went tight. I gave it a couple of seconds and lifted but there was no weight on the end of my line and the fly shot out of the water. It was looking like I had blown my one and only chance.

By now it was dark and everyone else looked like they were heading back to the cars. I reeled in my line and headed back to David's car and recounted my recent experience. David was happy to continue fishing and he, Richard and I fished the bay for a while longer. David too was met with frustration as a fish took his Craigs and he failed to hook up, and as the time was heading towards 8.30 we decided to call it a night and head back for a BBQ.

Another enjoyable evening around the fire, but this time there was no talk of an early rise. Most of us considered ourselves beaten and headed to bed with thoughts of a bit of a sleep in.

As it turned out, only Richard was keen enough to try again in the morning. Steve Tizard and I took a look at the hundred year old homestead and shearing shed before partaking of the club BBQ breakfast generously cooked by The Prince. 

Richard returned fishless and soon everyone was packed, ready to head back to civilsation. There wasn't even much talk of some exploratory fishing on the way home, though Col, Rob and I took an enjoyable detour up through Canyonleigh to inspect the Wollondilly further upstream. We saw some nice stretches of water, but every crossing of the river showed little or no flow and we soon rejoined the motorway and made our way home.

Despite the conditions everyone had a very enjoyable trip. The accommodation was very comfortable and company great as always. Whether we head back next year will probably depend on rain and river levels. Even considering that, I'm sure it won't be the last time the club stays at Gundowringa. Our thanks fro Murray for organising the trip - a great job as always. And to Jeff Prell for a great base camp and generous advice.

Lake St Clare 17 - 18 August 2013

Lake St Clare

By Len Verrenkamp

Why oh why do I do this to myself!!

Lake St Claire or Glennie's Creek Dam has to be one of the most inviting fresh water fisheries within two hrs drive of the Central Coast. The undulating countryside and clear country air always refreshes the mind and in August the westerlies and brisk temperatures remind you that Winter has not quite finished for the year. I probably should mention the fact that the lake holds some stonking bass as well, which is also another slight attraction for the traveling fisherperson.

Heading up there on the Saturday afternoon with the boat in tow a plan needed to be hatched to break my duck on bass on fly and to erase the memory of the blank I drew on a quick trip a couple of weeks previously. This time I had the goto fly which is Singleton Greg's buzzer, my casting has improved drastically since last years trip and the westerly wind, although ever present was not endangering any brown dogs on chains. With Murray and Richard both catching good fish a couple of weeks earlier confidence was high.

The Plan

The plan at hand was pretty simple, sound up some fish in a fly fishable depth of water, use a sinking line to get the fly down deep and strip back through the fish and wait for the hits. Probably not the most eloquent method, however this was my third trip and the thoughts of 50cm bass smashing my surface fly were a distant memory, I just needed to catch a bloody fish!

Saturday Afternoon

Arriving at around 3.00pm I found Col Breeze who had just returned from a long session and had had no success using a variety of methods. After a quick chat I headed to the ramp thinking, I have a plan, I have a plan! First point of call was straight across and slightly down the lake from the ramp to an area that has a shallow entry and then opens up nicely to some deeper water, sounding around there was evidence of fish in a couple of areas so out with the fly rod and into the fish. Two hours later and numerous moves around the lake and that bloody duck was still quacking!

Heading out to the camp with the boat back on the trailer Murray, Richard, Mick and Terry are already set up and off fishing. About 30min later Malcolm turned up and with it quite dark now we lit the camp fire and settled in with some refreshments to wait for the others to return and to discuss tactics for tomorrow's club fish. The boys returned with some success stories of better than a fish each which was welcome news for tomorrow's session.

Sunday - Club Outing Day

John Roberts and Col "Bags" Hession arrived early and we departed camp at 7.00am with our return and lunch booked in for 12.30pm. Most of the guys headed out to fish the shore whilst I drove back to the ramp and launched the boat again (I have a plan you know)! Heading up into the Carrowbrook arm this time I headed for some deep timber looking for fish on the sounder, again the fish are there, again I deploy my deep fishing tactics, again not a touch or tap, flies changed numerous times, down sized to a 6lb leader, varied retrieves and even harled under electric power and all to no avail! Cruised up into a couple of protected bays with natural, albeit dry water courses leading into them with rock walls and good structure and still not a sign of a fish to be seen.

With time marching on and lunch looking like being the highlight of the day for me I headed back to camp to find a few of the guys back and Malcolm Holden grinning like a Cheshire Cat after nailing his first bass on fly, and a 45 cm version at that. You might as well give up now Mal as anything else you catch bass wise will be a disappointment, LOL. John "the mini bus" Roberts arrived shortly after with a few anglers loaded in his ute and Richard and Murray looking quite comfortable in the back, although maybe for short distances only!

With the new club barby hot and ready to be christened we were instructed by Murray not to help as he's a little possessive when he has a bar-b-mate in his hand so we resorted to just offering verbal assistance until he relented and generously allowed us to slice the onions! Lunch was a winner and with Mal's Bass being the only fish for the day and now 54cm and growing we packed up and headed for home.

The Wrap Up

No fish for me
It's a great place but a tough fishery
The company was terrific as always
Will I go back, you betcha! I'm going to pluck that duck eventually..

Swansea January 2013

Trip Reports

Swansea Pelagics by Chris Bannerman

Date: 20 January 2013

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. That pretty much sums up the January outing. Saturday morning I'd decided to replace the hubs and bearings on my boat trailer (after our President's recent side-of-freeway repair) and by early afternoon it had started to rain. I knew if it continued, I'd be unable to get the boat off our front lawn as the slope is so steep even my 4WD would struggle on the wet grass and the boss wouldn't be happy with the front lawn torn up, no matter how much fun I had in the process. In the end an executive decision was made and I arranged to get a ride with Richard. By the morning it had rained continuously all night and as I packed the club BBQ and food into the car along with my gear I briefly toyed with the idea of pulling the pin. But I had the BBQ and people were relying on me - how could I let them down. So up the freeway I trundled, the rain eased up and I thought for a moment that it might be okay. Then, as I descended into Swansea, the clouds closed in and it resorted to heavy drizzle. At the boat ramp I found Bob and Dave De Luca, who were debating on whether it was actually worth even launching. When Bob considers not launching you know it's not good. But as Garry and Steve turned up we decided it would be still worth a go so we donned the wet weather gear and off we went into the wild grey yonder. Once away from the boat ramp and down the channel towards Moon Island the weather actually improved a little, even though the ramp, Swansea and the hills behind were still covered in grey cotton wool. We spotted some splashes on the surface and were quickly casting but to no avail. Casting in and around the surf of Moon Island didn't offer anything either and we briefly followed some birds feeding on the surface. In the end we finished up back at Moon Island casting at a school of yakkas porpoising on the surface but they weren't interested in anything we threw at them. Some jiggers were pulling up small kingies from below these yakkas but the only way we could get them was to harl. By lunch time Steven and Garry had had enough and departed, and the rest of us returned to the ramp where it was still raining. It was too wet to have the BBQ so we repaired to the golden arches for something that resembled food before heading home to dry out.