Trip Reports |
| Lake St Clair by Chris Bannnerman |
Date:
18-19 November 2012 |
Having not been to St Clair for a few seasons now I was happy to accept El Presidente's offer to tag along with him for the weekend. With fishing and camping gear packed into the Royal Kluger we headed up the freeway just after midday. Our first destination was Lake Liddell to test some new rods and reels Dave had recently received. The conditions weren't the best with a brisk breeze making all but the eastern shore fishable so that's where we headed - beggars can't be choosers.
Drifting along the shoreline we saw a few fish but only one seemed to like Dav's fly and it behaved more like a pelagic than a carp. The 5wt line nearly sung through the water as the fish headed deeper then taking a sharp left turn headed parallel to the bank. Dave was down to the backing in no time and a desire not to break the 5 weight meant that he had to let the fish have its head for the time being. Eventually he worked it back to the boat with care and we netted a nice (roughly) 10lb fish.
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With our time up at Liddell we headed back to the ramp, trailered the boat and headed down the highway to SIngleton and up to St Clair. The guys had avoided the madness at the camp ground and pitched their camp up the road in a council culvert.
After setting up Dave and I headed back down to the camp ground to launch the boat while the rest of the group headed off on foot to fish the banks. With the boat launched Dave bought it around to the camp while I returned with car and joined him. A few minutes later we were at the mouth of the river checking with the guys on the bank as to their succes and casting amongst the snags. It was a popular location with a number of trollers, lure and bait chuckers. The odd thing was that no one was having much success, but in true Fly Rodders fashion we persevered and just on dusk Dave felt a solid weight on his line. It wasn't the usual mad dash for cover of a bass but it was heavy. Eventually we got some colour and the fish revealed itself as a silver perch - and a big one at that. Boated it measured in at 54cm. Needless to say, Dave was pretty pleased with himself. |
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We fished on into dark amongst the drowned trees along the river's edge. Suddenly Dave's line went tight and his rod bent over. With a grunt he put some quick pressure on the fish but it had already reached the safety of the snags and the line came up slack minus his fly. A cast or two later and I felt a similar weight on my line but I managed to keep this one out of the snags and we soon boated a nice bass around th 30cm mark. A few casts later and another hit then a hookup and I landed my second fish for the evening.
By the time we had landed the second fish it was nearing 8pm and after a half hour or so of unremarkable fishing we decided to call it a night and head back to camp for dinner. Mooring the boat below the camp site we clambered up the rocky hillside to find everyone else back at camp and preparing for dinner. With dinner taken care of we settled back around the camp fire for a chat and a laugh before retiring for the evening around midnight.
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After a restless night's sleep I awoke to the sound of rain drops on the tent. Poking my head out I could see storm clouds to north and decided it was time to pack up before things got any wetter. Luckily the storms didn't eventuate and after a cuppa and a quick breakfast we headed out again to see what we could tempt out of the depths of the lake.
Drifting along some likely looking egdes we felt some small taps on the lines but nothing hooked up and we soon moved onto another fishy looking location. By now the sun was appearing and we were greeted with a magnificent looking morning. |
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Following not far behind us along a bank of drowned trees we soon heard a cheer of success as Brook lifted into a nice bass. We tried all sorts of flies with little success and soon decided to pull the pin as we both had to be back on the Coast by lunch.
Back at the camp we picked up the car and headed back to the camp grounds to retrieve the boat before heading back down the freeway to the Central Coast.
We all had an enjoyable weekend even though the bass weren't as cooperative as we'd hoped. But that's fishing and there's always next time.
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