# NSW: Deliverance at Dalmeny - the washup



## Squidder

Brief report from me to kick things off - got home about an hour ago from a terrific 3 days around Dalmeny/Narooma with some handsome forum members and their families. Attendees were Ado, Premium, Patwah, Paffoh, Rstanek, Fishwhisperer, BigGee, Pescado, Craig450, Codbotherer and me (with respective families/significant others/youngsters) with a special guest appearance by John316 on his motorbike.

Squidette and I got down after lunch on Friday, quickly set up, and hotfooted it down to Ado's pondage where he, Premium, Rstanek and BigGee were chasing blue lipped monsters. Ado had landed 'just a baby' (his words) bream at a measly 42cm, plus a nice flatty, and the rest of us struggled. I should say it was very windy, and apparently Ado had only released one of his pet bream that morning. Pulled the pin at about 5.30 and headed back to camp for a delicious feed of spag bol (freshly made from scratch no less) prepared by Fishwhisperer. When you go camping with Luke you want for nothing, and this trip was no exception. Dinner was followed by beers and discussions about where to fish the next morning - the consensus was on Mummaga and we had quite a few kayaks on the water bright and early Saturday morning.

The day started of fairly calmly but the wind got up at about 9 and made it a bit tough, I had a pretty ordinary day fish wise (some midget flatties and tailor), but highlight of the session was watching Luke do battle with an enormous red octopus which he initially thought was a snag, then a huge flathead, until it came into view. It was really big (head about basketball sized). Most of the other guys nabbed a few legal flatties. Ado was wearing his trademark hat all day, which combined with his Movember monstrosity to give him a very gaucho look for the weekend.


























Paff, Rowan, Geoff and I walked down and fished the entrance to Mummaga late Saturday afternoon and managed a few whiting and flatties on surface lures (or fly for Rowan - his skill and persistence with the wand was an inspiration all weekend).

Sunday morning saw the keenest among us launching at Wagonga Inlet - I'd heard a lot about this waterway but nothing prepared me for the blueness and clarity of the water- a very unique and special waterway, but also quite a tough fishery for most of us! Vast flats stretched out before us, I've never seen bigger flats, but the fish were hard to tempt and lots of ground was covered by everyone. I managed 7 bream and a few little flatties, plus a ripper 36cm whiting that was extra plump, all on surface and very shallow presentations. Have some footage of one of my bream that I'll edit and post up later. Spent an hour squidding for no luck (apparently there are some great squid inside the inlet).


























It was a really tremendous weekend, thanks everyone for making the effort to get down for the gathering, there were many great memories for Squidette and I to reflect on during the drive home. Two other highlights for me were getting to ride Ado's young son's bike again (even after he told me last time was THE LAST TIME), and coming across a childhood favourite toy at the local IGA, the dreaded woopie cushion, it gave a few laughs to the children present and almost certainly ensured that I won't be invited to the next deliverance at Dalmeny gathering.

I'll let the others tell their stories.


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## koich

After catching Moby Dick in the Clyde, Luke found it necessary to slay the Kraken too.

He should change his name to MythWhisperer.


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## Squidder

Short vid of a bream I got at Wagonga this morning (I was talking to Craig who was nearby, not rambling to myself  ), and a few more pics from the weekend.


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## blueyak

Nice stuff squidder, wagonga is wicked.


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## craig450

What an awesome weekend, it had been way too long since i have had the chance to catch up with most of the guys, especially Paff, Patwah, Pescado, Rowan, Luke and Ado so that alone made the short trip worthwhile.

I was last to arrive on Friday evening and got stuck into a few cans, Paff and i were a little seedy on Saturday morning but managed to get a short session in at Mummaga with the guys, when Rowan mentioned heading in to hit the bakery i was as good as gone.
I was feeling much better after that so when Pescado arrived and mentioned heading down to Wagonga inlet on Saturday arvo i had to join him, absolutely love that place.
It was only a short session but we both managed a few flatties each and some small bream, for me it was the bent minnow that did the damage.

The plan was for everyone to hit Wagonga again this morning early, and after rising at what i thought was early i felt very lazy when i got up to see everyone except Geoff (who was just about to leave) had already gone  
It didnt take me long to get my things together as i was still pretty much setup from the saturday arvo session so i got down there in time to launch at the same time as Geoff and we launched into the crystal clear water and headed straight for the flats where we could see kayaks scattered all over it.

Even though Squidder was showing us all that the bream were hitting bent minnows, i couldnt get much interest in mine, one small bump was all i got so i changed to a Smith Camion SR and slow rolled it across the flats and got a decent flatty on the 2nd or 3rd cast so i stuck with that lure for the pest part of the morning.
It worked very well landing around 15 bream ranging from 25-30cm, not big but still quite fun, and a couple of flatties and i eventually managed a couple of bream and whiting on surface lures, a Lucky Craft NW pencil was what i got them on.
The whiting were tiny though, i couldnt find the big ones that Squidder got onto at all.

Wagonga rarely fails to please me, it always produces some sort of action whether its big flatties, Jewies, snapper or even the very occasional Kingfish (still yet to see them for myself), or bream whiting and trevally on the flats there is always something to target that will hit a lure.

It was great to catch up with everyone, thanks to all that made the trip down and i look forward to the next one


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## scater

Great looking country boys, would have made for a super trip. Fantastic hat Ado.


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## Rstanek

What a cool weekend! Was great to catch up with the Massive crew and meet a few new guys to put faces to names. Fishing was pretty slow for me; one small flatty, a bream and a mullet after kicking things off with a donut at the fabled pondage on Friday arvo. Hard to be disappointed though, we got to explore 3 amazing systems pretty much to ourselves over the weekend. Even worming was tough on the beach, a difficult tide and Patwah's fondness of punching them in the head probably didn't help but he did come close to extracting a couple  .

I came down determined to pin a 40 fork black bream on fly. Persistence paid off in a big way this morning after Paul and Ado took off, I'll put up a report and a few photos from the weekend when I get back to Sydney on Friday...

Good fun as usual, when's the next one??


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## pescado

Rstanek said:


> Persistence paid off in a big way this morning


Chartreuse clouser!

Great weekend fellas. Good to catch up with number of faces i hadn't seen in a while.

I doodled Saturday morning and didn't get down until lunchtime. Luke offered me a steak sandwich which I accepted. He then invited me to share in his and craig's tent romance to which I respectfully declined. We then drank beer and kicked the footy around where I learned there's a few AFL stars in our ranks and no i'm not one of them!

Craig and I went to wagonga Saturday afternoon which was great fun, a 50 something flattie and a few bream on blades. Saturday evening was copious beers and a ripping fire.

Sunday morning a few sore heads and back to wagonga again. Man it was struggle street for me. I cast a $30 bent minnow off the end of my line which couldn't be found. Taunted by the drag of Jason's exist squealing in the distance, I jigged for jew for ages but surprise surprise no love there either. I followed ado and his chartreuse appendage around and finally found a couple of tiddlers but was well and truly over it by then.

Quick pack up and off to durras lake where the whiting were typically going nuts. Mostly small but a couple in the high 30s some consolation. Till next time dudes! I'll put a few piccies up later.


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## Squidder

Rstanek said:


> I came down determined to pin a 40 fork black bream on fly. Persistence paid off in a big way this morning


Can't wait to hear about this - well done and well deserved Rowan


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## Ado

Squidder said:


> Rstanek said:
> 
> 
> 
> I came down determined to pin a 40 fork black bream on fly. Persistence paid off in a big way this morning
> 
> 
> 
> Can't wait to hear about this - well done and well deserved Rowan
Click to expand...

I have first hand information, but I'm not an eye witness. More from me later.


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## koich

Rowan, you're a freak.


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## CodBotherer

Hi all,
What a great weekend! Thanks to you all for the great company, I hope we all had a good time, I know I did.
Fishing was a bit hard to start with being in a new waterway/s, but a big thank you must go out to Ado for his local knowledge and willingness to share where the fish should be. Had a lovely session on the pondage this morning, getting a couple of nice flatties and finally a reasonable bream. Currently at my next fishing venue ( Brogo ) as I'm still on a 5 week road trip. Will do a full report of places and fish encounted once I get home.
Cheers Paul


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## koich

DId anyone get any pictures of Rowan teaching Paddy to skate?


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## imtheman

nice mixed bag mate


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## Rstanek

Thanks for the kind words guys, it was a very special session. Chris, I didn't have any clousers but it was chartreuse and yellow - a little creation of my own which was pretty cool.

Forgot to say a big thank you to Paff and Claire for setting up the communal marquee for everybody, making their barbecue available and even feeding me when the IGA sandbagged me by closing at 6.00pm on Friday arvo...


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## Rstanek

koich said:


> DId anyone get any pictures of Rowan teaching Paddy to skate?


I didn't end up bringing the freeboard, couldn't find my tent poles so had to camp in the back of my car and needed to minimise uncomfortable things to sleep on. The boys were talking about giving Tallowa a go soon, if so we'll get him to send it down Moss Vale rd through Kangaroo Valley...


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## paffoh

No worries Ro, anytime.

Spewing I missed Brou, sounds like it paid off. But, you know what they say... Happy wife happy life, first time camping with both kids was hard work. Had a great time guys, got my spew on and caught bugger all. Thanks Ado for the beers and local knowledge, great area I wish was 45 mins closer to Canberra (For plenty of return trips).


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## Junglefisher

Was there cake?
Bacon jam?


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## Zed

Good fun. A group camp n fish never fails to please. Great place to divine some real names from the usernames.
Cool to see Occy even showed up.









So who caught the overall JP?
Thanks for reporting. I need something like that soon.


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## Ado

It was great having everyone at my place for the weekend - especially since it wasn't actually at my place so I didn't need to do the washing up.

Friday Pre-Fish
Seabreeze proved more fickle than an Alzheimer patient on crystal meth. Friday was meant to be the pick of the days with a steady deterioration after that. Instead, Friday afternoon proved to be a NE blast that made the Pondage nearly unfishable. Squidder looked positively traumatised after the 1.5km paddle into the wind to join us later in the afternoon. Meanwhile Rstanek mooned us all by rolling out perfect 6 weight casts into and across the 15 knot winds all afternoon. I feel so inadequate.

I pedalled my way to the honey hole, past BigGee and Rstanek that arrived after me but launched before me (typical). I motioned for BigGee to follow, which he did, but too soon to witness my hookup first cast. I dropped it in an instant, but it had the hallmarks of a bruiser bream. Game on! Fifteen minutes later I was on again, drawing Gee closer as I waved at him like a lunatic. At 42cm is was a tiddler for these waters, but a promising start nonetheless.










The wind just continued to strengthen forcing us to hide near the northern bank. While not as productive as the honey pot, it has produced a wealth of belter Black Bream from time to time. Hours past without a touch before I finally landed a decent Flathead at 48cm. No joy for the others unfortunately, which left me torn between pride and guilt. I adjourned to the child care centre to pick up Xavier, home for dinner and then a night around the fire drinking my one beer. By the morning, others were wishing they took my lead.


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## Ado

Saturday - Mummuga

With the wind predicted to continue and strengthen all Saturday, the Pondage was excluded from the wealth of options in these parts. Mummuga provides the best shelter from NE winds so we headed that way day 2. The 85 second drive had me arriving at the launch ramp at 7am to witness a myriad or kayaks in various colours with owners exhibiting various shades of green. I launched before those with the deeper shades that spent hours trying to tie leader knots in lightweight braid.

I headed across the lake to my prized dropoffs, snaring a chopper en-route. Doughnut avoided, I changed to my go-to gulps and peppered the dropoff for more than an hour without a touch. Craig450 worked the shallows with some surface action but was unable to rustle up so much as a mullet. Others hugged the northern shore with little success.

Within a few hours, everyone had a chopper or two but little more of any substance. Patwah and I trolled the northern shoreline, Codbotherer opted for the western creek entrance, Fishwhisperer and Squidder peppered the northern headland and BigGee did all of the above. But it wasn't until Paffoh spread the burley and went home that things started to liven up.


















I picked up a tiny Flathead on the troll just off BigGees bow. Then I headed over the Squidder and Fishwhisperer and poached a 45cm model from under their noses. It was like someone flicked the Flathead switch. Soon we were all getting hits and hookups with a smattering of decent fish landed. We left them biting, with the wind biting more. The afternoon was spend at the campsite trying to re-live football past glories. A few made a mockery of my local knowledge by having success in Wagonga and the Mummuga inlet. For shame, for shame.


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## GregL

paffoh said:


> No worries Ro, anytime.


ahem ;-)


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## Dodge

Looks like all you Mexicans had a good time down there.

And Ado reckon you have a double with that hat on, in the shape of Alan Grice, do you unconsciously make car sounds by any chance?


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## pescado

Dodge...that is a dead ringer!

Few pics from the weekend









_Rowan and Paff getting ready at wagonga_









_[email protected]_









_L to R: Luke, Claire, Jase, Paff, Rowan, John._









_Durras ting_


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## Ado

Gricey indeed. Where's his bandanna?

Sunday

Seabreeze turned the worst day, Sunday, into a stunner. Seeing this on Saturday afternoon I did my best to coerce everyone back to the Pondage. It was to no avail. I was outvoted 10 to 1 through a coercion more powerful than my description of boiling bream among the millpond calm. One vision of Wagonga Inlet is all it takes to drive grown men to tears and boys to dreams of monster Mullaway, and a prize more special - top water whiting.










Wagonga has never been kind to me. I always end up with something, but something just doesn't seem sufficient when sitting on the cobalt blue clarity watching the life aquatic below. Perhaps it's just that I'd never fished it during the warmer months on a high tide when the world below was awakened and surfacing. This would be the day to test such hypotheses.

We gathered and parted around 6am to an inlet whose stillness beckoned. Many of us headed to the wide expanses of the Forsters Bay flats, covered in barely 30cm of water. Fiddy and Squidder plied their top water craft. I bowed and headed to the dropoff to cast my chartreuse at the bottom dwellers, keeping one eye on the antics of the top water freaks.










I was soon rewarded with a Flathead, 42cm but looking smaller. I soon found a 4m deep channel in the 0.5m flats with nothing but sand below and nothing but crystal on the surface. Banjo sharks and small rays lurked beneath. Large Luderick and smaller bream scurried about. For the first time in my life, I was able to site fish for Flathead. It proved frustrating but highly educational, showing me these were not the morons that we envisage. They would sit a centimetre from the plastic, suspecting something amiss with the presentation. A flick would send them scurrying or slashing in equal measure. I hooked a few and landed none before I'd flogged and frightened all that were present. At least I saw Gee land a decent bream in the adjacent shallows.

I followed the dropoff the long way around until I ended up back in the main channel. I saw Pescado wading among the racks, yak in one hand, braid in the other in an obvious attempt to rescue some priceless piece of plastic. It had done him no good. Wagonga was doing his head in, as it had done to me so many times before. So much potential, so many many casts, so little reward. I headed back to my channel across the flats thar had deepened by a few more inches. I flogged every deeper area of sand I could find. Finally, back where I'd started, I landed my best Flathead for the weekend at 51cm.

I was sure that the now falling tide would result in Flathead lining up at the dropoff from the expansive flats to the main channel. It had to be the case, just like it had to be on all previous occasions. I'll never learn.

A weird sea mist rolled in around midday. It was the curtain call for the day and for the weekend for most. I'll just have to be satisfied with having all this to myself again.

More to come ...


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## kayakone

Great stories guys, and camaraderie. Wished I'd come down, but the fishing sounded way too hard for me.

Gotta get to this wonderful coast line and it's estuaries and lakes. Maybe next year?....

trev


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## premium

Dodge said:


> Looks like all you Mexicans had a good time down there.
> 
> And Ado reckon you have a double with that hat on, in the shape of Alan Grice, do you unconsciously make car sounds by any chance?
> View attachment 3


Uncanny.

I arrived on thursday Evening with my mate hayden, planning to give a certain area of racks at the back of wagonga a thorough workout friday morning. When I last came down (may-june this year), i had been well and truly outgunned by some big surface bream.

This time, i planned to get the better of them - an upgrade to turbo fins, and adding a snapper rod to the quiver just in case the fish were too tough to pull out...

Friday morning, we were greeted with a misty launch:









Peddled over to the racks, found them quite easily thanks to the new turbos... and spent the next 4 hours or so casting everything we had at them. All that we hooked were a couple of legal-ish chopper tailor... and after a few hours, this 30cm model, on a sinking stickbait:









the most excitement came after the sun came up and i put the sunnies on... after a bit, the top of my right ear, where the sunnies sit, started to ache and get itchy.

allergic reaction? Mutant mole? Skin Cancer?... i asked hayden to take a look but it was a bit hard "kayak to kayak".

Back on land - "It's a bloody tick!!" - after 3 goes, he finally got it out, and without a second thought flung it into the water. So although i never saw it, we were reasonably sure i had a tick up there.

After lunch Headed out to the pondage. as discussed elsewhere, it was a lean trip - this was about as good as it got for me:









Pedalling around with the new turbo fins wasn't turning out to be the breeze i expected - i was finding them really hard to use, and they seemed to be sucking my energy more and more as the session went along. I put it down to the cold my girlfriend had, thinking that maybe i'd copped a dose too.

when i finally made it back to shore, i told Ado about the tick, and he proceeded to tell me all about how Poisonous ticks can be, and everything started falling into place.
A massive thanks to Squidder for sticking around to help me load my Kayak and gear - i was starting to feel quite shabby at that stage!

Back in town, a quick check of the NSW Govt "ticks fact sheet" revealed the following:
"Early symptoms of _tick paralysis_ can include rashes, headache(check), fever, flu like symptoms(check), tenderness of lymph nodes, unsteady gait(check), intolerance to bright light, increased weakness of the limbs (check) and partial facial paralysis."

bugger! after a couple of hours sleep i was feeling ok, but after a Pub meal and back to the ranch i spent the rest of the evening laid out on the couch, enjoying the flu-like symptoms of tick poison.
Would have preferred to get down and meet a few more people, but it was great to meet those of you who i did at the pond!

I felt a hell of a lot better come Saturday, except for a decent headache which plagued me up until about midday. 
Was still a lovely trip, and great to be out on the water with plenty of other yakkers!


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## koich

Where is the massive bream that Arse Tank caught?


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## FishWhisperer

Had a ball thanks guys and girls....It was great to meet a few new people and have a chat to some old ones.....

Unfortunately I have no photos and no real stories...

Friday after my arrival I had a few beers and cooked dinner.

Saturday I was a bit shabby (not as shabby as some)

Managed to get to the boat ramp about 20mins behind everyone else, loaded the yak, paddled out across the lake to catch-up with paddy who had parked his yak on the bank and was fishing the channel. We cracked a beer (8am) and contemplated the plan of attack.

A few minutes later a few of the crew migrated our way one of which was Craig. About 40m downwind his PA began to twitch and a full right rudder ensued, thinking something was wrong we yelled out to see if he need assistance...At this point he replied "I'm ok I've just smelt those beers you're drinking and I nearly hurled".

Feeling sorry for the young fellow I offered him one of my famous back scratches later that evening.

Fishing for me was pretty slow (although I only fished the Sat morn) Jase was right the highlight was the occy, at one stage I went to land the thing but was convinced otherwise by an ear piercing scream from Jase, I turned around and he was busy shooting photos of me trying to bring the thing in. After the quick National geographic commentary in which I found out about these things biting sucking and attacking I decided to cut the line.

Sat arvo involved a few more beers when I went to catchup with Craig about the back scratch but I'd been beaten to it by Chris (as they say early bird gets the 'worm' )

I took off first thing Sun Morn.

Thanks again for a great weekend...


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## Ado

Monday - Epilogue

A few couldn't resist punching out an extra long one. So it was that I dropped Xavier off at childcare and joined Codbotherer and Rstanek on the pondage. Cloaked in high cloud and mirrored, it had become the Jurassic swamp that it always had been. Friday's gale a distant memory, it was time to conjure monsters from the deep (or at least the shallows).

As with Friday, I hooked up first cast. As with Friday, I dropped it almost immediately. As with Friday, that was the last of the action for about 30 mins. In that time I found that Codbotherer had scored big time, with three good Flathead, a keeper bream and a whole bunch of eerie memories of a magical place lost in time.

It glassed out even more, a stillness between the zephyrs from the west and the breeze from the south. Boils became visible, always bream. The only thing that was unusual was the constant taps from what were obviously undersized bream. I waited for the bruiser, and it didn't disappoint. Another tap turned into a slight bend in the rod tip. I struck and came up tight - very tight. It had the weight of a big Flathead, followed by a headshake to match. But then to arced to the right, then left, giving away the black scaled truth. I found it hard to gain ground, but this suited me well. With no snags, I've found it best to fight them from a distance. It roared past me. I turned the rudder and followed. This was big. But I was mistaken. It boiled to the surface about 10m away. It wasn't big, it was heeeee-uuuge. The adrenaline kicked in and I started to want for victory. It fought deep again and then boiled once more. It's hard to imagine a boil so big from a bream. Could this be the mythical half metre? I was never to know. It spat the hook at the third boil.

The bent rod and bleating was like a siren to Rstanek. He cruised over, as calm as the Zen that permeates his 6 weight. I asked how he was doing. He put a finger to his head like a gun. He'd caught many around 30cm, and dropped a frustrating number above 40cm. He even got cut off on the only snag in the four square kilometres of pondage.

Codbotherer had to go. My time too was running out. I was plagued by bream that had no hope of gulping my gulp. When the time arrived I headed over to Rstanek. He told me he wasn't leaving until he got a bream over 40cm on fly. I saw him at the supermarket that afternoon. I asked him how he went. HE simply said "I'm not on the pondage anymore am I?", and smiled a knowing smile.


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## craig450

Ado said:


> Could this be the mythical half metre?


I dont think your too far away from getting that one Ado, we want heaps of photos when you do


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## CodBotherer

Hi all, 
The pondage on Monday was awesome! Even though I didn't really need the paddle ( another day another 4-5 k's to paddle) drifted the shallows for a while without a touch, then remembered what Ado had said the night before, so headed out to said area and sure enough, second cast 27 f/l bream ( finally a legal) while sorting that fella out I cast the plastic back out just to clear the line. Sitting there in a slow drift the rod double over! Great caught in the weed again, but no up come a 46 flattie ( great if I don't turn up home with some fish shortly I will be looking for somewhere else to live  )
Thinking to myself this place is not to bad, I kept working over the same area with the drift, all the while watching Rstanek working that wand of his and his bust ups! For something as calming as fly fishing I think he may have been getting cranky.
After throwing plastics for another 30-40 minutes without a touch I was starting to think, maybe an early start at Brogo??? But then in the space of 10 minutes I landed 2 more flatties of 52 and 54 in consecutive casts so that sealed it stay on for a while longer, but for no joy. Then unfortunately it was time to go as other places beckoned.
Thanks once again to Ado and his willingness to show us where to fish as that is a big pond and we could of all had a bad experience there
Cheers
Paul


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## Rstanek

Like Ado said, I was having an infuriating session on Monday morning. I lost two really good fish on the flats; one of which I got the leader inside the rod tip 3 times before I took the pressure off for a second and the hook just fell out and a behemoth drifted away... Another drilled me into a submerged tree in deeper water - my 30lb butt section was just about shredded so the 6lb tippet didn't stand a chance. Paul took off with a couple of flatties in the esky and Ado worked his drop-off while I headed back to a flat I'd pulled a few fish up to 30ish off earlier. I made a few drifts and landed a couple more, happy to finally be having a consistent session after a fairly barren weekend but still determined to get a decent fish to the yak. Ado called it quits just as I got another little one and I told him I wasn't leaving until I got my 40 fork target, hoping that I wouldn't still be stubbornly drifting along this flat in the dark 

By now I was battling triple sun burn, the seductive call of the Narooma bakery and a stiff southerly that had really kicked up, making casting, concentrating and maintaining my drift difficult. Luckily I didn't have to wait too long; about 45 minutes later after a few more barely-legals, I set the hook hard and felt the weight of what was obviously a better fish as it woke up and took off. Determined not to lose this one I took a couple of wraps of fly line, leant on the fish with a low rod angle and just followed it around the flat until it was beaten. Without a net I was freaking a bit when I got it to the side of the yak but blacks are always so well behaved once they're landed compared to their yellowfin cousins and he didn't make a fuss as I slipped a hand under and cradled him up onto my lap.










I don't think I've ever wanted or worked so hard for a fish before, especially after having such a tough weekend fish-wise and dropping a few brutes that morning, so I was absolutely rapt! I didn't have a brag mat so had to line it up with a couple of points on the yak which measured up to be 47.5cm to the tip, I'm calling it 46 to be safe, fork length a mystery at a little less but definitely mission accomplished  .

The thing was a pig - as Ado's said of his big ones, photos really don't do these bream justice. To give you an idea of its girth, it fit pretty well snug in the gunwale recess next to the seat in my Outback, which is 90mm across...










I took a few photos before pulling the fly out and swimming it until it moseyed back of across the flat. Seeing as I'd only completed half my drift at this point, I checked my knots, straightened the eyes on my fly and 10 casts later I hooked another solid fish:




























Next drift I pinned another:



















And half an hour later I got one more smaller one, a beautiful deep bronze fish, before calling it a day before punching back into the southerly towards the car completely satisfied.










I got all the bigger fish, plus probably 12 smaller ones, on the same fly which is looking slightly battered and anorexic, now retired to the treasure box. It was very cool to see every single fish I caught so healthy and in perfect condition; not wounds, weird lumps or torn fins like the mutants we chase in Sydney!

Most of my other pics are pretty similar to what's already been posted by the other guys but here's a couple more:

Wagonga launch Sunday morning.










Squidcycle!


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## paffoh

Wow worth the effort


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## Ado

I am much more stoked that you got stuck in than with any of my successes over the weekend. You understood, you felt, you believed, to succeeded ... you have succumb. That's a fanstastic session in a very special piece of water. Just 2.5cm from the mystical mark. Maybe next time.

They are quite the pump to try to hold out one handed. You feel as though the bicep is going to pop.

It's also a cack that your fly is chartreuse pepper neon :lol: .


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## Squidder

Worth the wait Rowan - incredible fish mate, and easily the biggest bream on fly we've seen on AKFF. OMG @ the girth! :shock:

Great camera work too 8)


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## FishWhisperer

Yeah great fishing Rowan...I wonder how many people are reaching for their fly rods right now in time for the weekend.....Top job


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## Rstanek

Thanks guys, not sure I'll ever get a bream like that again. However it _would_ be cool to crack 50 one day...


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## pescado

Rstanek said:


> not sure I'll ever get a bream like that again


Tell me you won't be sneaking back down for another session in the nearby future 8)

Totally awesome mate, congratulations.


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## Oldman

....yeah & next time the oldman'll be taggin' along..............


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## Ado

Xavier gets an upgrade to a pedal bike at christmas. Should I put this one in the For Sale section?


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## koich

Rowan, you're a freak.


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## Zed

>





koich said:


> Rowan, you're a freak.


Just for context.
That's a stout fish no matter what kind. That is was fly-caught is freakish.


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## Brez

looks like a great time was had by all 8) I had better pull my finger out and get there next time


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## keza

Awesome


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## blueyak

Rowan you are da man.

Well done.


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