The pre dawn light, the stiff sou west breeze, the pounding of the surf, the grey skies, the 10 blokes standing around shivering with hands in pockets kicking the loose gravel around the car park; yep sounds like CCFR has an outing on today!

Departing Bateau Bay with Scott Chaney at 5.00 am for a 6.00am tee time at Swansea we headed up the Old Pacific Hwy anxiously watching the sky as dawn ever so slowly bought the day to life. To our surprise we were heading towards clear skies and a somewhat calmer day than the rubbish that Huey had dished us up the day before with some 90mm of rain at home and 30 knot winds.

Arriving earlier than expected at 5.40am we found Bob and Dave already there which from what I have heard was a little unusual to say the least. Mick from Cessnock was the next to arrive along with Mac which completed the flotilla for the day. After much discussion and the wind abating as the sun rose we launched at about 6.30am and headed west, no one was going east today!

Scotty and I headed straight to Wangi and working on the theory there should be some shelter in the lee of the hill and the rain from the Saturday should have muddied the water a little, we should be hooked up in no time. Ha, so much for that idea, although we had protection, the water was crystal clear and all we could see were razor clams and an occie! We spent about an hour flogging a dead horse and high tailed it back into the channel to do a few drifts over the sand flats.

This time we sighted fish in a couple of deep holes hard in against a grassy bank and proceeded to throw everything we had at them and all to no avail. It was shaping up as a day that was not going to provide much in the line of fish and after a couple of hours drifting and casting the sand banks and drop offs for only a couple of half hearted taps and a few silver flashes as fish sped across the sand bars, we headed back under the bridge and into Half Moon Bay to find both Bob and Dave, Cessnock Mick and Steve Bunney also trying their luck around the moored boats. After half an hour or so getting in each other’s way we called it quits and headed for the ramp and the lunch time BBQ to find a few others had arrived over the course of the morning and had about as much success as Scott and I!

So the only fish caught for the day was a tailor by Bob, at least is was of legal size, the rest of us just ended up being cold and hungry. Thankfully the BBQ and post mortem chat is always a highlight and makes the early morning start worth it. I just keep telling myself it’s good for the character and catching fish is a bonus!

No photos sorry, it was one of those days!!!