Off The Rocks
It had been over 3 years since we had managed to get a rock fishing outing off the ground, mostly due to weather or swell conditions on the weekends we had them booked in. This was the second attempt for this year and gladly the weather and swell were looking much better – well as good as we were going to get. The forecast was for a freezing morning and day with west to south-west winds and a swell of less than 2ft. The swell was the only worry as there may not have been enough wash with the tide pushing in.
Ten of the bravest CCFR members had their names on the list to fish in these conditions and the plan was to meet at Norah Head at 6:30 am. A lot of lead up work to prepare – flies to be tied, sink tips to be found of made, lines and leaders to be dusted off.
The morning came around and I met Brownie at Anaconda and we drove the 40 minutes to Norah Head arriving in the carpark about 6:10. Shortly after Murray, then Bob, Col etc and we were busily getting our gear together and loading our buckets with berley for the walk down to the rocks. On arrival the swell was small so we looked for positions where there was a bit of wash to help us hide our flies and there were a couple of likely looking points.
Brownie, Richard and I filled our buckets and proceeded to a point with a bit of a hole and a reef off it about 20 – 30m. In with some berley and it didn’t take long to see fish rising into the berley trail and not long before we started getting hits on our flies. Brownie the first to hook up on a smallish drummer, but the target species nonetheless. I hooked up next but dropped the fish in the fight and then hooked up again to a reasonable sized sweep.
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| Brownie with the first fish of the day |
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| The sweep were on the chew and not a bad size. |
Richard was next to hookup and we watched as his fish went parallel to the ledge and into the reef – goodbye fish and fly and better luck next time Richard.
As the tide was pushing in the spot we were fishing was starting to get water across it so we moved again, but not before another good sized sweep was pulled in by me.
We started the berley flow again in the new spot and straight away I started getting hit, but couldn’t hook up. A quick fly change to a smaller bread fly soon saw me landing a small drummer or piglet as I now call them. Still a drummer it was and it was returned to grow some more.
It wasn’t look until I heard Brownie screaming and I saw his rod bent over as he struggles to get this fish over the ledge and closer to his feet. A good hard fight that could have gone either way. I ran over to help Brownie land the fish and grabbed the leader and pulled the pig onto the rocks as the leader snapped. A lucky save. Brownie then hoisted a good 3kg of drummer as everyone cheered. A few photos and Brownie despatched the fish for a feed.
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| Brownie doing battle and below the end result. |
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| A well earned fish and a PB for Brownie |
Another sweep as the tide came up and it was starting to get quiet. Time to head back to the carpark for some bacon and eggs and to catch up with everyone on their successes. Matt managed a sweep and Col managed a very nice luderick and a drummer. Not much else caught, but pretty good success rate given the conditions.
Bacon and eggs and a nice hot cup of tea was just what we needed after a cold windy morning on the rocks. Thanks to Brownie and Mat for their help with the BBQ and Tea and Coffee!