We left on the Saturday just before lunch so we could get to Singleton in time for a quick bite to eat on the way through and still give us plenty of time to set up camp and have an afternoon fish. We arrived at Liddell Recreation ground around 1pm and drove around until we spotted Joel and Brooke setting up camp with some help from Joel's daughter Abby. We pulled in alongside and set up our camp for the night. Joel headed off in search of firewood for the camp fire planned for that evening. He came back with only small pieces of timber, so once we had our camp set I launched the boat and headed across the lake to fish and find some better pieces of firewood.

It didn't take long to find fish and they were actively feeding on shrimp and you could see the odd fish sipping at the surface as a shrimp scurried away from it's predator. Yes pelagic carp. At one stage the carp were schooling like salmon, but weren't that easy to catch. I did manage to land a few and lost a few in the thick weed. After a few fish were landed Kate and I walked the banks looking for firewood. We did manage to find some good logs for the fire and we loaded the boat. There were a lot of carp carcasses scattered on the bank and we even found a snake skin that had been shed and remained in one piece.

We headed back to the camp and put the boat back on the trailer and were soon back at camp unloading the wood and then getting everything ready for dinner. Mick Dillon had arrived and set up his camp and was chest deep in water throwing a line. He soon hooked up on his first carp. Joel was knee deep just out from the camp site happily casting away, when a carp came up to the surface trying to suck down a shrimp... Joel expertly turned around and cast to the carp and he was on. Another first.

Len and his daughter Grace were next to arrive and set camp, followed by Trent and then Paul and Phoebe McGrath. It was starting to get dark, so we had some dinner and then Joel got the camp fire underway. Len had brought some wood along from some pallets and they made great long lasting fuel for the fire. We sat around the fire for a few hours exchanging yarns and getting to know each other. The kids toasted (burnt!) marshmallows and it was a fun night for all. We hit the tents around 22:30 ready for an earlyish start the next morning.

We woke at about 6am to a stunning morning. Very little wind and little bit of cloud cover and not too cold, unlike the days we usually get in May. After a quick breakfast, Paul, Phoebe, Kate and I launched the boat and headed off looking for a good place to fish. Our plan was to sight cast to fish along the banks and it wasn't long before we started seeing them. Seeing them wasn't the problem, seeing them in time to get a decent cast was and when you did getting them to turn around or chase the fly was a challenge. Eventually we hit pay dirt and Paul was hooked up to the first sight cast fish of the day. We meandered down a long bank and cast to a few fish and Paul had managed three before I even got a decent cast at one. Bob and Dave De Luca came over on their way down to Bob's special spot and we continued to move down the shoreline. We pulled up at a point and there were fish everywhere, just swimming around the weed beds in search of shrimp. It was difficult to get the ones close to the boat to take the fly, but we soon figured if we cast longer and slowly stripped back they would chase it and take the fly. It was fun watching your fly move and then see a shadow and then a rubbery white mouth open and suck in the fly...... strike.... on! This went on for quite some time and Paul managed 7 fish for the morning before he had to head home about 10:30.