A most anticipated trip for the club members, Lake St Claire and it's trophy bass are just far enough away to warrant an overnight stay if your not a morning person. For me staying overnight was an easy decision to make, cruise up Saturday afternoon, have a quiet fish for a couple of hours and then sit around the bush tele and spin a few yarns in preparation for Sundays club outing.

Saturday morning dawned clear and cold, a quick look at the weather map confirmed the one thing that is still reliable as far as the weather is concerned - Westerlies still blow in August - and today looked like it would be a howler.

With the ute packed the night before and the kids sport over, the desired 2pm departure was a piece of cake and I hit the F3 by 2.15 pm.

'Bloody ute needs a wheel alignment' were my first thoughts, then the penny dropped, the wind outside would blow a brown dog off a chain. Virtually the whole trip was spent steering into the wind and turning right just past Singleton for the final leg out to St Clair only exacerbated the problem.

A message on the way from Mac that the main camping area was too exposed to camp due to the wind reaffirmed my decision to set up bed in the back of the ute was a good one, no flapping tent to keep me awake all night!

The fist glimpse of St Clair as you crest the first real hill on the drive out is always an eye opener. Today was no different, the lake was a silver shimmering mass of wind waves and not a boat to be seen. A quick lap of the main camp ground confirmed it was still blowing like buggery from the West and the few hardy campers there did not look at all comfortable.

Travelling along a few more kays I found the guys set up on the side of the road in a smallish level area that at least had some trees to offer a wind break, and room for at least another car and boat.
Already set up in a variety of positions were Col, Dave, Richard, Murray, Greg , Mick, Brownie and Mr Trips (Mac). There were tents and swags tied to boats, cars and the fence and anything else that might provide an anchor point as the chosen spot was not conducive to driving tent pegs into the concrete like surface, sleeping in the back of the ute is looking really good now!

A few of the guys were heading down for a fish so due to the light on shore breeze I left the long wand in the ute and took a walk down with Col to try and gleen a few tips on casting into the wind and generally catching Bass. ( I may have mentioned I caught an EP on my first outing, however no Bass as yet).

A most informative hour was spent watching and listening to Col, however no fish were forthcoming and as I was the only clown with shorts on I headed back to camp to warm up a bit.

Slowly the guys filtered back with most reporting a fish or three, with Richard and Murray cleaning up so to speak, (since writing Murray has fessed up to the fact he possibly caught the same fish 11 times!!!!).

With camp fires lit and chairs positioned we settled in for a few drinks, a lot of laughs and some of Brownies gems on life in general made for an entertaining evening.