SSS – Swansea Salmon Sunday
I don’t know what it is about the prospect of fishing for Australian Salmon, but it certainly sparks a great deal of interest and anticipation when there is a trip planned and the reports have been pretty good through the week leading up to it.
This outing was no exception to that. We had 13 keen (or mad or both) anglers fired up to hit the Swansea channel to chase that hard fighting, sometimes finicky Arripis trutta. The tide was looking good with a run in most of the morning. The weather, whilst cool was for a sunny day with light to moderate SW winds and the fishing over the past week had been pretty good by all reports.
I teamed up with the new Madam Secretary, Brownie and Luke for the morning. Our intention was not so much to fish but to help Luke with his fly fishing and to get him onto his first Aussie Salmon on the long wand and then hopefully have him hooked on fly. We arrived at the ramp at Swansea about 7ish and it was a balmy 3 degrees – warmer than expected 8^)
We launched and hit the channel to see a reasonable large flotilla already out there chasing the splashes of free jumping salmon. Things were look good, even though none of the people in the boats had bent rods. We moved into position and starting casting to some of the splashes. The tide was on the last of the run in.
Luke was first to get the eat but didn’t quite connect. Ooops forgot to teach him not to trout strike! I then got a solid hookup and played the fish to the boat and Luke kindly landed it as Brownie was busy hooked up to his own fish. Yep it’s looking like a great day so far we thought.
The tide slowed and so did the jumping fish so we moved around a bit in search of them. No action for anyone and as the saying goes – no run no fun – so we decided it was a good time to warm the hands with a nice cup of tea. Once the tide had turned the fish were starting to hit the surface again, but were very very scattered. So many boast and no doubt that way all week has the schools spread out and fish hitting the surface sporadically. It really was luck of the draw.
They were very finicky and easily spooked but I did manage to hook and land another decent fish before Luke then got a solid hook up only to pop the leader on the first big run. Yes Salmon do pull hard Luke. 😉
Brownie then hooked up and landed a fish and we continued to just move around and drift in the hope of getting a fly into the face of the fish. I spent the rest of the morning help Luke and giving him tips as he sorted out his casting and by the end of the morning he was throwing a pretty good cast I have to say.
No more hits for us but we did see the other guys getting the odd fish here and there. First saltwater fish on fly for Tim was a bit of a highlight.
Back to the ramp for the BBQ put on by Ken and to exchange stories of the morning. The snags and drink went down a treat on a cold day.
It was good to see so many fly fishers out there. The Hunter club guys were out there as well as a few local fly fishers and I think we outnumbered the bait and lure guys on the day.
Fishing is all about learning and there was a bit of that done on the day. First of all it was obvious that the salmon had been under pressure all week by the fact that they were so scattered and also very boat shy. Second, just cos you catch a fish early doesn’t mean your in for a great day so don’t count your chickens before they hatch as they say. I think we did pretty well on our main objective to get Luke casting and the fact that he got the eat twice was a pretty good result even if the fish didn’t make the boat.
Good to hear most people got a fish or two. Brownie managed to break his rod on a fish, which made for a good discussion and some new words that I learned from him lol.
