New email address for events at Palm Lake Ballina

 

Driftwood Xmas Party photos

Jacqui Baskerville from Villa 262 sent in some photos she took at the recent Driftwood Xmas Party. To view her photos click on the link below:

Link to Jacqui's photos from Driftwood Xmas Party 

Trivia Night

 A total of 96 wannabe quiz masters turned up for the 70s theme trivia night last week. Quite a few dressed for the occasion, as did hosts Peter and Roger. 

The night was hotly contested with “Golfers plus 1” taking the prize. Fiona Jones was the non golfer in the team and it can be argued whether Lyle, Bob White and the Hogbens, Ted and Sharyn, can claim to be golfers. Serial burglar Doug was there with wife Lesley nictitating (winking) at him all night. 

Some of the team captains submitted profiles of where they were in the 70s and what they were doing. There was skinny dipping, long sideburns, VW Beetles, escaping Cyclone Tracey and some boring stuff like being the CEO of Ballina Hospital.

Information session about a new exercise program

 

Fishing Report November 2020

 

Not too much to report again this month and the most successful team again was Commodore Barry and First Mate Pam who never seem to miss when they take the Rescue vessel up the river. Using mainly yabbies they have had success with bream and whiting and I understand they caught a nice big muddie up in Graham (the Emigrant) Suffolk’s territory in Emigrant Creek. Speaking of muddies now is the time to get amongst them so get out there and have a crack at them. I should have exciting reports on this next month.

 As promised Paul (Ice Blocks) Ison took Anchors Away Johnnie and Stephen (Flash) Fleming up to Casuarina Beach where according to Ice Blocks you can’t miss with the tailor. Apparently apart from a couple of undersized bream and whiting the mission was a total failure. Well done Ice Blocks!

 In the meantime Hammerhead and I were fighting huge barramundi at the Fish Farm in Bli Bli on the Sunshine Coast. We took our wonderful wives up to Mooloolaba to treat them to a couple of day’s luxury and while we were up there we snuck away for a bit of fishing action. It was hard to believe the size of the barramundi in the ponds and while we didn’t manage to land any we had the best time ever fighting them. They kept breaking us off and Hammerhead couldn’t control his emotions as freight train barramundi well over 60cms kept charging away with his line.  If you are looking for a good day of sport fishing you can’t go past this place.

 We’ve had little in the way of reports from Patch’s and his team this month, so he either hasn’t been out much or his efforts have been unproductive.      

Club Meetings

We finally held a very successful barbecue meeting of the Fishing Club on the 9^th November with around 15 members and their partners in attendance. Apparently we broke some of the Covid 19 rules (which have never been explained to us) and caused some angst with Management. Oops! Sorry about that. Anyway now that we have a better appreciation of the rules Gladys has taken the brakes off in NSW and it seems we’re all good to go again.    

 Report on the Sinkers

Now that the blackfish season is over we have taken to fishing the beach and the river for whiting. Apparently the reports (mainly from the Bait Shops) have been that the whiting are thick. We haven’t seen any evidence of that apart from the odd small one from the River. The Ballina Bait and Tackle man told us that we couldn’t miss if we took our (very expensive worms) along the river to the tree behind the Swimming Pool. Anchors Away caught a couple and a small flathead but I wouldn’t say the spot was anything to write home about. Hammerhead certainly wasn’t impressed.

 We still haven’t taken the boats out but we should take to the water with the SS Vaucluse and Tiny Tinny as soon as the winds die down and the weather warms up.

 Tip of the Month

As we heard local reports that the whiting were really on the Sinkers decided to take up the challenge of catching them with poppers. At $8.50 a packet for about three lousy worms we decided it would be much cheaper and more fun to catch them on the poppers.

 Hammerhead in one of his regular visits to BCF, was introduced to the very best,  you beaut , top of the range poppers and despite my protestations forked out the princely sum of $25 of his hard earned to buy one. Anchors Away was similarly encouraged to buy one from Dave’s Bait Shop (this was also supposed to be top of the range and guaranteed to catch whiting) but his only cost $20.

 We headed off to the beach at Flat Rock, me with my yabbies and the boys with their poppers determined to get amongst the whiting. You guessed it, the boys caught zilch with their poppers and I caught four very nice whiting.

 By the way I have since bought five poppers very similar to theirs over the net for $10 bucks.

The Tip

Don’t take too much notice of the bait and tackle stores and don’t expect to get amongst the whiting with poppers.

Happy X-mas to All

Cheers till next month and have a great X-mas and a fantastic New Year.

 Let’s hope we will have lots of very successful fishing outings to report in 2021.

Tight Lines Douggie

 

Palm Lake Photography Exhibition

 Last week the second annual Palm Lake Photography Exhibition was held with 10 photographers bravely displaying their work. 

Exhibitors of printed images included Andy Duke-Yonge, Helen Armstrong, Tony Hart, Peter Biddles, John Cross, Michael Armstrong, Jill Greaves, Julie Pallant, Norm Harris and Ali Sidki. Thanks also to Stuart Barker for his digital images.

A big congratulations and thank you to all these exhibitors who put in the effort behind the scenes getting their images ready for display.  

It was great to see so many residents make their way over to the Oasis clubhouse to check out the exhibition, many returning for a second look. Your support, positive feedback and encouragement were greatly appreciated by the exhibitors. 

My thanks also go to those of you that purchased the Birds of Ballina calendar that I produced again this year to support SeaBird Rescue. There are still a few calendars available if you missed out, or want some extras for gifts - give me (Julie Pallant) a ring on 2283 or email jfpallant@gmail.com and I can arrange delivery. There are more details about the calendar on my website: Link to Birds of Ballina Calendar

For those of you that missed out on the exhibition, or want a second look, I took some shots of the exhibition and have put them up on my website, as they are too big for this blog. If you would like to check them out click on the link below: 

Link to photos of Photography Exhibition

If you are interested in getting involved in next year's exhibition, or would like more information please email me and I will add you to the mailing list. We are considering starting a Photography Discussion Group - email me if you are interested in coming along. Details of dates/times are yet to be decided. 

Julie Pallant (Villa 283)

Phone: 2283  Email: jfpallant@gmail.com

Warning about scams

 Dougie Townsend (Villa 108), in his volunteer role with the Ballina Police Station, has sent through a warning about scams that are operating taking advantage of people. Sadly some within Palm Lake Resort have been affected. 

Please be very careful if you are sent a message indicating you must pay using gift cards or ITunes cards. As the flyer above indicates - these are scams.