3 May 2006

Neil and I arranged to meet up at 8am at the Blue Boys pub for one of their Bellybuster breakfasts before tackling Bewl for the day. Neil, being Neil underestimated the traffic though and was not going to make it until 9am, so I had the Bellybuster and he had to make do with a Little Chef effort en route.

The forecast was good and bad. Nice sunny weather, but the cloud cover we hoped for was almost non-existent and getting thinner by the hour. The wind was from the south and only about 6mph.

We were both convinced buzzers would be the order of the day and anchored up about 100 metres out of Bramble Bay. After half an hour of not seeing any movement, a cloud covered the sun for about 10 minutes, coinciding with a sudden spate of rises about 50 metres further out, so we up-anchored and motored in a circle around them.

We had barely settled in, when Neil had a fish on. Great, some sport at last. This took one of his buzzers and we stayed in that spot for another hour, but with nothing to show for it, except a half pound perch which took my size 10 black buzzer about 18ft down.

First perch Farm and Oast Houses near Beaume's Point

We then moved to Chingley Point and started a drift towards the dam. A couple were anchored right on the point and we saw the lady take a fish on a very fast retrieve. This decided us to change to intermediate lines and fish damsels and cormorants on the point and a mixture of small nymphs on the droppers. We both had a fish take on a very slow retrieve, but failed to connect.

Heading for Chingley Point

Another boat drifted behind us with a chap casting ahead and stripping back with a lightning fast roly-poly retrieve. He had a fish on the drift and another 2 after anchoring up at the corner of the dam.

We anchored up for a while a bit further out, but could not connect with anything, so decided to try a drift from Ferry Point straight over to the other side of Hook Straight.

During the drift, I felt one fish take very cautiously, but again failed to hook it.

By the time we reached the other side, we opted to take a break and have a picnic just to the east of Ferry Point. The sun had been shining almost without interruption all day, fine for a picnic, but making the fishing hard. I remembered to bring the Kelly kettle, water, milk, cups and all the food, but forgot the tea bags, typical. We had other drinks fortunately. It was a very pleasant way to spend an hour re-assessing life and tactics and watching a succession of fine looking females walking by with their dogs.

Fine place for a picnic

Neil fancied having a look at Dunsters Bay, so we drifted down the centre, out of range of a couple of bank anglers.

I had another perch in Dunsters before we moved on to Rosemary Lane.

We only had one drift here as the water looked very dirty and we saw and felt no sign of fish. The complete dearth of bank anglers also told its tale.

By now we were both getting a bit despondent. May should be a great month for fish, but we felt the bright sun wasn’t helping. Surface activity was almost non-existent, so we tried anchoring up just outside Bryants Inlet and trying the buzzers again. Getting no offers whatsoever, Neil switched to an intermediate line and I stuck with the floater, but put on a cormorant, ptn and hares ear. It made no difference, so we moved over to Bramble Bay again, passing a couple of anglers stripping lures by the cages and getting some success.

Anchoring off the bay, I put a large gold ribbed hares ear I’d tied earlier in the week on the point and added a ptn and bibio on the droppers.

Afternoon was turning into evening by now and as the sun dipped behind the clouds on the horizon fish began to show on the surface chasing the few buzzers hatching.

I had a fish take twice and still miss the hook. Another did it the same, before I finally managed to hook a third. It did fight well and was nice and slim.

Shortly after I had another fish which came in quite easily. This time it was a brown trout, covered in the most exquisite purple and vermillion spots. Neither Neil nor I had every seen anything like it.

Pretty looking brownie

By now we were both getting plenty of takes and either missing them or losing the fish after being on for a few seconds. Eventually I did hook and land another rainbow before things went quiet again and we elected to pack up for the day.

Back at the boat yard Bob Barden the warden asked how we got on. It seems most people had a hard day. I’ll just have to go again soon, there must be a bonanza day coming up.