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 rock 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!