Following my disastrous start to the 25/26 season, I made a 2nd attempt at enjoying a day on the lake in the 4 metre Osprey, otherwise known as “Silver Frog.”
To refresh memories, October, November and December on The Coast provided few opportunities, but rather gave us some of the most inclement weather I can recall for Spring and the start of a season. A watch was kept on the forecasts, until finally a decent high was observed creeping over the Tasman from Australia, so once again preparations were made to get out there and do it! This included making sandwiches for lunch and as we were still chomping through the Christmas ham, that was the filling, along with whole grain mustard. I believe you have to have something nice for lunch, it’s part of the whole angling experience on the day. There’s nothing quite like sitting in a sunny nook, taking in the vista of lake, forest, mountain and watching the wildlife, which due to Murphy’s Law, while you are busy eating, will often be a trout.
So where to go was the next question? I knew Lake Brunner would be chokka with fizz boats, jet skis, paddle boards and kayaks, after all it is quite the aquatic playground. This would mean a bit of a traffic jam at the ramp, particularly when coming back after the day’s fishing. The ramp has been more recently improved and the ramp fee of 2 bucks has gone to a still reasonable $5.00 but some people still ignore the honesty box, having arrived in a large vehicle, towing a massive floaty thing, which denotes obvious wealth. Or maybe its all on tick, LOL. With all this activity it would also be fairly noisy, which somewhat detracts from the possibility of a peaceful time to enhance one’s wellbeing. There have been some unfortunate moments on the lake from time to time, such as people devoid of any angling etiquette, who cut into the beat you are drifting through. Others who race past, well beyond the 5 knots within a 100 metres of shore and these guys make it difficult to keep standing in the boat while casting. There has also been the odd guide (not local) who thinks they own the lake.
I thought that given it was the holiday season I should look at some of the good alternative lakes that are a bit further afield, so I settled on Lake Alternative!
Another check on the forecast showed a good day was in the offing, so with all preparations made, it was off to bed ready for an early start. It was getting light at around 5.30am so I thought if I got up at 4, grabbed a bit of breakfast and latched on the boat, I could be at the ramp as daylight came up. Huh! It was raining the next morning and there is nothing attractive about sitting in a boat getting wet so I flagged it.
Not going to trust the weather forecast from now on either.
