Trip Reports
Swansea
Date:
August 2008

It was the kind of morning you’d rather stay in your warm, cosy bed; cold, wet and windy. The venue had been moved from Pittwater due to adverse weather, to Swansea. The latter offered some protection for the smaller vessels in our fleet. Col Breese, Chris Bannerman, Ken Colmer, Mac Lyall and Richard Hassall launched with Peter Frere, Murray Keating and Steve Tizard acting first mates. Rob Harwood had only recently vacated a hospital bed so his decision, made in driving rain and howling wind, to call discretion the better part of valour was a wise one. Some tactful questioning from Steve elicited that salmon action had been encountered almost directly opposite the ramp. Our club members, rugged individualists to a man, decided to poke their noses out from the breakwall instead and pursue the large flocks of Shearwaters resting peacefully on the slight swell. They must have had a gut-ful of us approaching and waking them up. There were no fish there and eventually the penny dropped and everyone traipsed back to, you guessed it, the very place first indicated.

The wind had abated somewhat and a quick peek over the side with polarised goggs had yours truly yelling and trying to tie a new leader in world record time. The salmon were still in place and in abundance. They were zooming about in large schools in only 1- 1.2m of water. There followed a frustrating time as the fish were all around the boat but couldn’t be hooked. No such problems for Ken, whose “long-line” cast proved very effective if somewhat nauseating. After about the 200th lap around Mac’s boat he pleaded with Ken to go the other way as we were getting dizzy! The wind kept blowing with periods that seemed to herald a storm, the dark clouds in the west adding weight to the argument.

I finally found the fly to do the job. I had been experiencing trouble in getting to the depth required. In 1m this sounds mad I know but the wind and tide conspired to keep my best offerings too high; and the sambos weren’t looking up that day. An epoxy minnow changed that and an approx. 60cm fish hook up was fun while it lasted. The 8lb tippet popped and that was that. Col dropped 3 similar fish on 6lb while Murray too felt the heart break of a lost fish. All members persevered in at times bloody awful conditions and should be commended for just turning up.

In the end it was the smell of Ken’s efforts with the Barbie that called Mac and I in. The others refused to say die untill well after midday, by which time the fish had well and truly buggered off. Ken and his controversial methods won the day with 5 fish boated, the best at 65cm. All agreed the location had huge potential with many different scenarios ; flats, off shore and the hot water out-lets to name a few. The boat ramp was first class. Set in it’s own protected “harbour” it made launching and retrieval a breeze. Swansea hasn’t seen the last of the “ fly boys“, not by a long cast, err.. shot!