Even the storm-tolerant terns were sheltering from the gale behind the Curdies berm.
The window for this two day trip to southwest Victoria with JD, was both short and fairly inflexible: it had to be Wednesday and Thursday, or nothing. The fundamentals stacked up well for our Crater Lakes day on the Thursday: light to moderate winds, good water quality & history, and a decent stocking history too.
The same couldn’t be said for our estuary day on Wednesday though. With both the Hopkins and Curdies closed (the latter for many months), plus rain, icy temperatures and gale force winds forecast, water quality was an unknown. And although I have fished estuaries successfully in very bad weather, it does pose its challenges.
Leaving home on Wednesday morning, there was snow mixed in with the rain, and the wind was howling. By the time we approached the coast, the rain had eased (after a much-needed overnight drenching in this drought-hit area, if stream flows were anything to go by) but the gales were worse.
While the Curdies estuary at Curdievale was a reasonable height (for a blocked system) and visibility was okay, the wind was relentless. In a cruel twist, wherever we could see fish on the boat’s sounder, the gale ruled out actually fishing for them.
Eventually, we found a quiet corner, where about 100 metres of river was blissfully sheltered. No fish on the sounder, but at least we were able to flog up a few salmon.
Blissfully calm Curdies corner.
Down at the mouth, surf spilling over the huge berm offered hope of some seawater stir-up of the fish. Sadly though, the cyclonic winds made effective angling nearly impossible. So, after an hour of trying, we called it quits and settled for a steak in our cosy cabin.
A steak sounds good!
Thursday made Wednesday look like a bad dream, and by the time we arrived at Bullen Merri, the wind had faded to a gentle zephyr. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to convert the conditions to results.
Bullen Merri looking idyllic.
One nice trout ate the fly twice at my feet, but somehow, I managed to miss it both times! Finally, after more missed chances, a good rainbow ate an Olive Zonker, and stayed on all the way to the net.
Finally!
With some “goin’ when you should be comin’” misgivings, we left Bullen Merri for an evening session at Purrumbete. Just like its twin, Purrumbete looked idyllic. The lake was very clear, with lots of enticing gaps in the weed. It looked even better when a couple of trout started belting minnows in centimetres of water along the edge. True to form for this trip though, we had takes but nothing came to hand.
Purrumbete on evening.
Still, going by our theory that all you can ask on a trip is for opportunities, this one worked out okay.
