By Richard Hassall
A great turn out of twelve people fronted up at Lake St Clair. There were a couple of late scratchings for personal reasons. Col secured a nice spread out camp spot amongst the gum trees, designated with our corporate flag. The Lake was the highest we have seen – at a hundred percent capacity with flooded ramp and picnic tables under water. All of us set out in boats on the first night with expectations. Tony invited me to join him and Quiggly ( large friendly Vizsla) in his large boat. We explored some interesting new ground to the north west but with no success. The dog was fun to watch as he was memorised with chasing reflections & shadows. We were both happy to see him not end up in the water. When we got back, others had similar stories and around a nice fire we pontificated why the fish were not biting. Poor Mat spent one and a half hours looking for us in the camp area and it was only due to the fact that he was locked in for the night that he did not go home. A good suggestion of illuminating our flag for night time late arrivals was made By Dave.
There had been sightings weeks earlier of dead fish but we felt after not seeing any that the report may have been exaggerated. Around the fire we contemplated a fire pit redesign, as the side of the park pit may have need bigger holes and lower sides. Saturday night we struggled to leave the fire because it was a cold night and fire master Jeff got the fire cranking with his Jenga style wood pile and boy scout skills. Stories of singing Dave tripping over Brownies solar panels and destroying them was amusing. After little success from the boats, I picked up 2 fish off the bank down from Murrays Nob. Now the monkey was off my back. Later that night, Murray & I picked up some good numbers after dark on a Craigs night time. I did notice some of the fish seemed to be deformed, [the largest being a very fat 45cm bass] probably due to previous skirmishes. After sporting a new tent & catching a nice number of fish in one session, Murray slept like a baby. Also of note was the Asiatic carp Dave landed after covering a boil on the top with a Craigs night time. With Dave’s experience, it is not often Dave gets a new species.
It was great to see some new faces. Thanks to Tony for organising things, especially the BBQ Sunday morning. After spending time in such a beautiful environment we all left the park with an enjoyable experience, knowing it is not all about the fishing.
Col 1
Ken 1
Dave 1 Asiatic carp – (new species TBC)
Geoff 4
Murray 7
Richard 11
