Bemm River
Competition 21-23/October
It has been
a long time since the ‘Bemm’ has spoilt our annual competition with such
unpleasant weather.
Friday was
the pick of the weekend with some sunshine, minimal wind and no rain. Saturday
and Sunday morning were somewhat a contrast with no sun, lots of wind
intermittent rain and plummeting temperatures.
Friday saw
the retired members of the club take to the water with great gusto. Jack and Ken Waller headed for Siberia where some large fish were caught (by Ken anyway)
whilst Don and Ken Bittner ended up at the river mouth where 9 fish were caught
in 20 minutes ( but the next 5 in 3 hours).
Yours truly
followed Bill and Kath up the river because on Thursday they had caught 29 fish
although most were 28-29 cms-but where there are fish there is always hope. I
did get a bit of a scare as we had travelled slowly across the lake but once in
the river it was “a little more throttle” which raised the front of the boat
and allowed the bilge pump to start pumping out LOTS of water – panic stations
and I was over the back to check the bungs which were tightly in place which
was not very reassuring as I didn’t know how I had holed the hull but a quick
taste of the water, much to my relief, had a distinct absence of salt. While
the boat was at Lakes Outboards it had obviously been left out in the rain—went
much better without the 30 liters of ballast.
As per
Thursday the fish were all small and interestingly they made very tentative
bits so it was strike on the slightest movement of the rod or line. Luckily I
had a phone call from Don skiting about the 9 fish ( one was 40.1 cms) so it wasn’t too hard to
head for the river mouth where I managed to catch 4 fish all of them keepers.
Friday night
half the crew headed for the pub for the evening meal whilst the rest ate at
Cosy Nook. Jack ordered pork chops and was amazed at the size of the chop and
even more amazed when he discovered another one under the first. The meals were
very generous and of a high standard.
Saturday was
very interesting as wind was up and there was a bit of a chop across the
lake—this made it very hard to tell if you had a tentative bite because the tip
of the rod was up and down like a yo-yo.. A lot of time was spent in the river
hard up against the southern bank out of the wind. It was here that Owen
Bennett caught his winning fish of 40.6cms and Dave Veenstra caught his non-winning
flathead of 52cms (we don’t have ‘other species’ any more) although he did
manage a 39 cm bream.
Shaun Myers
again managed to out fish his father and as expected won the junior award as
well as the secret weight.
David Bell
was probably glad he had to leave the water early as it couldn’t have been very
pleasant in his open clinker built boat but he had cooking to attend to – the
spit roasts had to be started.
The meal
David provided for his fellow members was superb –all eighteen members and two
guests were served roast pork and beef along with roast potatoes and pumpkin.
Helen also spoilt us with grog soaked cake and ice cream for ‘afters’.
Congratulations David for a job well done (see you next year).
A game of
five hundred was held in one corner with four ‘serious’ players helped along by
the onlookers who felt no shame in offering advice which harbored on cheating.
It poured
with rain most of the night and on arising on Suinday morning the weather
looked about as promising as the day before, with wind and intermittent rain
showers so it was not surprising that no one ventured out but all went home
early with some like Don henry being unable to resist a pie or two at Orbost.
A great
weekend very much like the ‘old days’.
Robin
Widdowson
