An Impromptu St.clair Trip...

Pukka · October 16, 2005

Getting a few days off work at the end of last week, me an' the missus decided it was time to go camping for the first time in 15 years of marriage and what better place to do it than Lake St.Clair.

The plan was to stay o'nite Thurs' and come back Friday, but the weather made us think twice and by the time we had got organised the best part of the day was gone. Frustratingly, we vowed to get up early the next day and go, whatever the weather. Friday morning saw us up and filling the car with all manner of kitchen utensils and enough food to feed a rugby team for a week!

We made it to the Lake with no hassles, paid half our life's savings to the park attendant amd looked for a level bit of grass with good a view. Having found a spot we then proceeded to do our "Abbot and Costello Go Camping" routine. Thankfully, no one 'died' during tent assembly, so our first foray into the world of fly sheets and inflatable mattresses, was deemed a success.

With the camp thing done, the next thing on my mind naturally was bass. By the time I'd rigged up however, the wind had strengthened and I was left grumbln' into my coffee. An hour of listening to my braid whine in the wind was enough and I thought 'b*gger it', I'll have to find a lee side of a hill or something, but at least I'll be out there.

The fishing started off slowly with a couple of very small bass hitting the deck and the occassional tap, tap, tap to keep me on my toes. I began with a grass minnow but there were a lot of casts between bites, so I started to work a few of the bigger weedbeds with VT 55's. No sooner had I done that, I had my first half decent 35-er aboard. I battled the wind for a bit longer but it seemed the bass had gone back into hiding.

I drifted from one side of the lake to the other and spotted another good looking weedbed not far from the ramp. I decided to let the wind push me along the face of the bed and as I came to the end of the weeds and into deeper water, I came across promising signs on the sounder.

The bites started to come pretty regularly, and I was amazed at how hard the fish were hitting my lipless. On numerous occasions I'd wrongly mistake a 30 to 35cm fish for a larger specimen. As I pulled the lure thru and between the tall columns of weed a seemingly endless school of similar sized bass would find the VT too hard to resist and smack the lure so hard the rod was almost pulled from my hands. A lightening/hail storm cut short the fun I was having and I just made it back in time before we were hit by a deluge.

An hour or so later the storm had passed and I was off again. I couldn't resist returning to the same spot but promised myself I'd go find bigger fish after I caught the first couple. 6 fish and heaps of strikes later, I was having so much fun with these aggressive little critters, but after an extra hour or fishing, the weather turned for a third time and I was scurrying for home. My timing was off this time, and as I raced back to the ramp, the rain 'burned' my face like a wall of tiny needles.

This time the expected change had definately arrived and we huddled in the tent that night and listened to the wind howl across the point. Next morning after what seemed like 15 minutes sleep I headed out for the last time before heading back to Sydders.

I didn't have much time before we had to be back and the fish were happily still obliging in my little 'honey hole', I managed another 9 or 10 fish before the wind and the sun got up and the bite finally slowed.

Conservatively, I think I caught somewhere around 24-25 bass, but none were of any great size unfortunately, the largest going around 36. Even though the bass were mostly the same size, I lost a couple of fish which felt bigger, but the way these guys were hitting, it was hard to tell!

It was a lot of fun between the storms and because of the wind and rain, and the relatively small size of the fish, I decided I wouldn't take any pics' apart from a couple to remember our first camping trip by.

Puk'

P.S. Hope you enjoyed the 'waffle' anyway

Edited October 16, 2005 by Pukka

October 16, 2005

That was a great read Joe. Sounds like had a good time, although wet.

patl · October 16, 2005

Well done

We almost went there today but I couldnt convince my missus to get up at 2:30, its about 2 hours from our place, went looking for salmon maybe should have gone to St Clair!

Narralakes · October 16, 2005

Great report Joe,

good onya for convincing the wife to go camping, mine will not go unless it is in a caravan or cabin! What sort of camping is that? You did well with the fishing as well.