Windang Revisited

[PJ Garn]

Hi Raiders

I've been a bit quiet on the fishing front the past couple of weeks and not much creative juices on the poetry front either but with our recent success at Windang still fresh in our minds and a New Moon in the sky, a return trip was a certainty.

My mate John V and his son "Gungrel Mutts" arrived to pick me up just as the big storm hit on Friday evening... I frantically logged on to the Beaureau of Met website and saw that the storm cell had past Wollongong, so we hit the road for another nights prawning and fishing the lake!!!

Armed with our new prawning outfits consisting of an esky, Suzuki car battery and innertube to keep all afloat we hit the water just gone 11pm. The new aerator pump I had purchased "shat" it's self within five minutes but the prawn were there!!! They proved hard to find at first, most were hanging on the bottom and were a challenge to catch but after about four hours of prawning fun, finally John V's prawn light took on water and our little bait collecting adventure was over!!! Fortunately we had about 100 good bait sized specimens to turn into better things!!!

Back to the car and with the new 12 volt kettle purchased earlier that day we waited about half an hour for a luke warm coffee before we hit the water for an all night session!!! > When we first rigged and hit the water the tide was running out fast, our lines picked up weed and nothing was biting. Young "Gungrel" armed with his newly purchased rod and reel outfit was keenly fishing between John V and myself when I heard him say "Hey Dad this rods gonna break!!!", I nearly turned and said "Mate you'll never break that!!!" when I witnessed John V take the rod and "Bang" it snaps in half... he was only retrieving the line with a small amount of weed on it!!! That put a damper on the young blokes night and he failed to recover fully from the disappointment of breaking his first rod. With the temperature dropping, I returned to car to get the arms for my new jacket and took the opportunity to get a quick kip before the tide turned. Young "Gung" also took advantage and disappeared to the car for a sleep only to return just as the sun was coming up and all the fun had been had!!!

I woken at about 3.30am from my comfortable sleep on my chair by female voice and laughing... a group of people taking a hire boat on the lake were congregated on the jetty!!! I looked at the water which was now slacking up and re-baited my line... just as I'd predicted the bites came thick and fast!!! I was the first to land a nice Bream of 28cm... for the next half an hour or so John V and I took turns to land alternate fish. He nailed a beauty of 40cm and things were starting to look real good... and then just as quickly as they'd come on... they were gone again. The tide started to run the other way and weed once again was all we were catching. We fished on though and about half way through the incoming John V hooks and lands a nice Flatty (our first from this spot) With renewed hope I suggested casually that we fish on to the next turn of tide and we both nail more Flatties (even a double hook up) to a total of five. Just before high John V hooks and lands a nice Sand Whiting but it proves to be the only one of the day!!! Somewhere amongst all this fun I get a bite and land my first Coke can!!! A Occy had mad his home in a pre-1976 can (it had fluid ounce markings on it, these cans were phased out by 1976!!) and had taken a liking to my nice fresh prawn bait... a first time for everything!!! Sorry no photo!!!!

Then just as I'm preparing to fish the slack again, John V spits the dummy after a break off on a snag and starts to pack his gear up!!! Still perched at the end of the jetty I decide that unless I want to walk home I too better call it a day (or day/night) and we hit the road with our somewhat damaged gear (broken aerator pump, leaking prawn light and snapped rod) and head for home and the tackle shop. As predicted our friendly tackle provider was more than accommodating in replacing all our failed gear and enjoyed our yarns!!!

Not a bad night spent again at Windang... we'll be back!!!

The fruits of our labours!!!

Cheers

PJ Garn

[james7]

Nice report PJ Garn. That's a good collection of bream and flatties and I reckon it was worth all that damaged gear. Still, I know it can get a bit frustrating! I've broken two guides on my rods this year.

Overall, it sounds like you had a good night.

I'd love to give prawning a go again. I think the last time for me was at Dalmeny when I was just a little kid.

Cheers

Peter

[stoney]

Well done on a good session. I may have to head there and give it ago my-self.

[STOCK]

Nice catch, ill be visiting windang again shortly as well =)

[gretsch]

You should tell your young bloke that breaking rods is all part of the fun. At least that's how I look at it knowing my track record....