The Windy City

Hi Fishoholics,

Just a berated report from the windy and wild south coast. Last weekend i made a pilgammage down south with my ol man to meet up for a fish with our fearless editor, Jim. The reports weren't too positive on the wind front but like most die-hards i kept an optimistic outlook and prayed to the gods that Tim Bailey got it wrong.

We arrived friday night to the Palm Beach caravan park on St George's basin to be met with a stiff westerly blowing at a mere 40kts. Things were not looking good. Up we get a 4:30am sat morning and the same westerly was still around. It's a long way to come not to wet the boat so we decided to have a crack anyway.

After picking up Jim we hit a few spots in the Shoalhaven, targeting some jew which are apparently on the move in the river at the moment. Wind aside, the Shoalhaven is a magic looking waterway. It's a microcosm of the Hawkesbury system, my home ground back in Sydney. My dad was rewarded first up with a beaut looking EP around the 35cm mark. We didnt measure it but he did behave well for the camera (pic hereabouts). 2 nice eater sized lizards we next to follow.

We made a run down to Broughton Creek to catch the tide change. The wind picked up as well, if at all that was possible. I reckon it hit 50kts at stages. We were forced to venture well into the creek and had decent success in the trying conditions. We snared another EP, which basically made my day, and few ppint size bream and a couple more keeper lizards, one going 59.5cms. My throwback threshold is 60cms so this was one unlucky bugger. Rules are rules. Soon after we called it a day.

Sunday morning it looked as though the wind had abated. My prayers to a higher power were answered. We launched the boat in the basin and for half hour the conditions were perfect. Then we heard the trees in the distance. Yesterday's 40kt wind was back, and with a vengence. Dad and i are pretty resiliant buggers so we persisted. We tried to find a spot with some protection and in the process started having some success on flattys. In turn the wind changed into a higher gear. For the last hour the highest speed on the electric, and i run an 80lb thrust model, couldn't hold position against the wind...holy moly. We were catching these lizards adjacent to some weedbeds and kept getting blown away. The only option was to discard the leccy to try and hold position in favour of the stronger main motor! That should give you a clue how tough it was.

Like idiots we were last boat to come off the water. But we did have a feed to show for it. We managed the wrangle 20 odd flatties out of those dismal conditions. Really i was so proud of our efforts. We hung in there and came home feeling like we achieved something.

Next time i head down south i reckon i'm gonna sacrifice a live offering to the man upstairs. Cause prayers alone this time were far from enough.