Friday, 11 September 2020

Fishing Report: August 2020

 

Except for some continuing success with the blackfish August has been a very quiet month. No reports of anyone going out in the boats, and the beaches have given us little opportunities.

It has been a very quiet year for the tailor and the weather on the beaches has been against us most of the time. Even the dynamic Patches Duo has had little to report this month.

Report on the Sinkers

The Sinkers and I went down to Flat Rock one afternoon to fish the beach and gather some cabbage for bait for the blackfish. We managed to get the cabbage okay but the wind would blow a dog off a chain on the beach and the fishing was both uncomfortable and unproductive.

We returned to Nugget GT as it was getting dark and we were both cold and thirsty. You wouldn’t want to know but the new you beaut Nugget GT Fishing Wagon wouldn’t start for us. As the darkness fell on the Flat Rock Car Park we tried everything we could think of but the dam thing just wasn’t going to start. Eventually we gave up and rang Patches (our resident mechanic) to come down and get us out of trouble.

Unfortunately Patches was in the middle of a session with the Runway Crew which had put him over the limit so he was unable to drive down to save us. Thankfully Hammerhead rang his wonderful wife Joy who went around and picked up Patches and took him away from his boozie mates to Flat Rock to save us from a very cold night in the Car Park. The only thing they didn’t think of was to bring us down some coldies to quench our thirst (it was Friday night after all).

Anyway Patches being the master mechanic that he is was quick to diagnose the problem and pretty soon we were on our way back to Douggies Den for a well-earned coldie.


Nugget GT on Patch's Beach before the closure

Four Wheel Drive Access to Patches Beach.

Further to my report last month that the Ballina Council planned to close the four wheel drive access to Patches Beach in September I was invited to attend a meeting of the local Fishing Clubs concerned at this decision. A letter was drafted during the meeting requesting the Council to make arrangements for authorised Fishing Club members (including Palm Lake) to gain continuing access. The letter was signed by the representatives of all six Clubs in attendance and the following is an extract from the Council’s reply.

 “Council staff have implemented the resolution and closed the Patchs Beach access. We have also written to the State Government providing details of the Council resolution. The Council resolution asking that 4WD access be closed did also ask for exemptions for approved users, albeit that the resolution did not define who should be included in that definition.

As the beaches at South Ballina are not under the control of Council, any decision to further restrict 4WD access must be made by the State Government through the NSW Department of Planning Industry and Environment (DPIE) – Crown Lands.

Based on the concerns expressed in your correspondence, for South Ballina, I would make sure you are conveying your views to the State Government through Tamara Smith MP as the State Member for Ballina and Mr Silas Sutherland from DPIE.”

It seems we are into the hurdy- gurdy of getting various agencies to agree at the same time. Patches will be meeting with Tamara Smith shortly as a start so we’ll see how that goes.

 Carp Report

You may recall that I mentioned the problem of Carp in Emigrant Creek and local waterways. We planned to take a team along opposite the Church Restaurant at Tintenbar and catch some of the blighters. It promised to be an enjoyable outing for the sports fishos amongst us. Well Patches took along a few of his team to give it a go but they never got a bite so we need to do a bit more research before we try it again.

 That’s all I have to report on for August so hopefully I can provide a more encouraging report on September as the weather warms up.                  

 Cheers till next Month

Tight Lines Douggie