Weather forecast for Saturday was looking good, light winds in the morning with an afternoon sea breeze of 10/15 knots. Sunday wind warnings and gale force winds predicted, ah! What do do weather people know, the venue was on and that’s all that mattered. On this venue I was crewing in Denis’ boat, a 5.2m Kevlacat, James made up the second crew. We arrived at Pt. Broughton at around nine o’clock to be greeted by Twiggy, Darryl and David the Southwind Skipper and crew, along with Martin and Kym

the Nereus Skipper and crew.

After some deliberation about when to launch and who else was likely to roll up it was decided to launch later that evening. This was due to the deteriorating weather conditions later in the weekend or even earlier in the weekend if the forecasters got it wrong. 11 O’clock saw the three boats on the water and navigating the Pt. Broughton channel. At this point I must say the skippers did a great job getting us out to the Broughton light without incident, right Martin?

First stop was Middle Bank where sharks were in plague proportion and not much else on offer, from there all three boats moved to the Illusion wreck. By the time we anchored and got set up and got our lines wet it was just on day break and it was a beautiful one at that and as a bonus the winds to this point were under 5 knots, perfect conditions for night fishing.

The snapper action was fast and furious virtually from the word go, unfortunately it was the ruggers that were ravenous and on the rampage attacking every bait thrown overboard. On the turn of the tide the larger snapper moved in and started chewing the baits. The final snapper score was Twiggy’s boat claimed 3, Martin’s boat 1 and released 2, Denis’ boat 2.

At about mid morning it was decided to leave the Illusion and fish close to Pt. Broughton just in case the weather turned bad earlier than forecasted. And by about lunchtime the winds had started to increase to approximately 10 to 15 knots. The Kevlacat was the first boat off the water by 2 o’clock, followed by the others shortly after.

Accommodation was at the Pt. Broughton Scout Hall, which could be described as basic, however the bare essentials were there (except showers) and it did the trick in terms of keeping us warm and dry. Thanks Pt. Broughton Scouts. Saturday evening the restaurant was alfresco style; fish n chips and hamburgers on the sidewalk in the main street of Broughton watching the world go by.

Saturday night back at the hall and there were two categories of people those of us that were literally buggered from being up all Friday night and all Saturday and the ones that found a second wind from somewhere and went off the the pub for a quiet ale or two.

Rain had fallen off and on through out the night and early Sunday morning and the wind was up to about 25 to 30 knots, no one was keen to go fishing today. Next the worst part of any weekend, pack up clean up and go home. We were all on the road well before lunch and the trip home was like playing dodgem cars just out of Broughton, the wind was that strong that it was blowing branches and debris off the trees and causing us to veer to the opposite side of the road every now and then.

Pt. Broughton was:

Each boat covering approximately 120 klms.

Darryl not 1 but 2 doggies.

Twiggy not clipping his trace line on and losing it. Darryl hooks a Doggy, guess where Twiggy’s trace line was found.

James is sleeping as his rod goes off, I grab it and set the hook, “come on James reel this in” I say, handing him the rod and he reels it in, Doggy! My dilemma – how much of the fine do I pay?

David proving to be the fisherman of the weekend bagging the biggest snapper of around 3 kilo’s, well done David.

“amputation was an easier option”

Phone:08 82529292

Fax:N/A

Email: ndsfci@hotmail.com

Port Broughton Venue

August 2002 by Steve Boldog

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