Thursday, January 19, 2012

Clyde River Picnic

The Clyde River rises in the foothills of the Budawang Range behind us and spills out into the ocean at Batemans Bay. The river valley is a pretty remote area in parts but near Brooman there are a lot of rural properties on its banks. The co driver's quilt group had a social day at one of their member's farms and the men and kids were invited.
It was sure a beautiful setting for a picnic.

The kids swam and paddled canoes, the ladies talked and sewed, the men swam and lay in the sun and I did a little fishing.
The whole thing was a "Summertime and the livin' is easy" scenario.

I had been fishing in the Clyde but a lot further upstream many years ago. We used spinner lures and targeted yellow belly or Golden Perch which is a native Australian fresh water fish.
Casting into the edge of weed beds and around structure like fallen trees always brought us luck.
So this time I took a good selection of lures hoping for continued success.

I found a good spot a little downstream from the group and cast out into a weed bed. I used spinner lures, fluorescents, cicada rattlers and even soft plastics.
Over two hours of effort resulted in nothing, not even one bite!
Ok, so "the fish are jumpin' "part of the song was missing.
But at least the view down river from my spot made up for that.
Finally I gave up and headed back for lunch.
Fresh bread rolls, fresh fruit and cold drinks were on the menu.
After that, I succumbed to lying in the shade of a huge sheoak (Casuarina) on the river bank.
A great day with good company.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

sounds like a perfectly lovely day! lucky you. kayp