Heavy raindrops collected in the hollows of the granite and began to cascade over the polished surface as I clambered over the boulders, trying to escape the impending lightning strikes that were falling some half a kilometre away. The storm had started to move on and I kept moving upstream fishing the current eddies and boulders that make up the infamous character of The Clarence Gorge.
The weekend started on Friday 11:30am when a small group of blokes in 4WD’s headed off on the journey to the property where we would be camping for the next three days. We arrived at the campsite some 3hrs later, and began the process of setting up camp. In this first group were Brian and his son Nick; John; and Dad (my Dad) and myself.
Entry to the Gorge Property
The river on the way into the Gorge
Rigging up the kayak I made my way upstream to explore the river and to try and reach the actual Gorge. This was an easy pedal of about 40min to reach the steep granite cliffs of the Gorge and its first series of small rapids. This little jaunt rendered no fish but some huge surface smashes which didn’t result in any hook-ups.
There were hundreds of turtles in the river and they weren’t afraid of us paddling past. There were also plenty of eagles and hawks.
I left the Gorge in the darkness and made my way downstream under the moon of a smoke screened moon, to arrive to a dinner of steak and sausages.
Saturday
Arising at the magical time of 5am I organised my kayak and gear for a full day of fishing which was supposed to begin at 8am, but I was delayed after the arrival of my uncle Terry.
Meanwhile John and Dad had left early to walk up to the Gorge along the river bank, on their return they practically fell over in exhaustion as the 40°C+ heat and kilometres of rocks radiating trapped heat had taken its toll on them, apparently causing the 1.5km walk to become like 10km. Though making the walk worth the effort, Dad had landed a 52cm to the fork bass on a black Arbogast Jitterbug above the first waterfall.
Eventually I left after John and Dad’s tale and went for another journey up to the Gorge, but I was clever and took the shorter (and much cooler) route by kayak. I was able to drag my kayak up onto a gravel bay and anchor it with my paddle, as I donned a pack and began the short walk to the falls. I was surprised that even during the middle of the day I was able to draw surface strikes, which still didn’t hook-up; very frustrating. Near the falls I found a souvenir from a certain creature I didn’t need to encounter this far away from help. The skin from an Eastern Brown snake was as more than longer to my fishing rod which is 2.1m long.
When reaching the falls I was greeted by a cloud of cooling spray of water, this brought instant relief as the rocks were so hot my rubber soled water shoes were starting to melt. At the bottom of the falls were hundreds of fork-tailed catfish either trying to climb the waterfall or feeding on algae, most of these fish were about 60cm long and well conditioned.
About four hours of hammering this short (200m) section of river I decided to escape the constant heat and returned to the campsite, to be greeted by Craig who had just arrived bringing along his daughter for her first camping trip.
With only 3 kayaks brought along, I had booked two hire canoes from the owners for the craft-less guys to use. So in that afternoon we decided to head up to the Gorge and allow the people who hadn’t visited it yet to have a look around and a fish along the way.
We went as far upstream as the first set of rapids impassable to all but Dad and John in one of the canoes. Brian attempted to climb it and was close to succeeding but was sucked under and over the yak went. I tried all of the possible routes through the rapids but wasn’t able to climb the 2ft drop. Portaging this rapid was not an option as it was created by large boulders trapped between extremely narrow and deep (12m) section of river.
The Gorge walls
As the sun began to slowly set behind the ranges, a storm that had been brewing all day finally let loose with heavy rain drops and lightning striking the mountains above us. Everyone decided to make the way back to camp, but I decided to stay behind and have another fish the waterfall one last time from the land.
I fished my way up to the waterfall for no fish and made my way back to the parked yak. I then made my way hiding along the cliff walls and keeping my rod low, as lighting continued to strike the nearby mountains and rock pillars.
Meeting up with John and Dad who were still fishing some way downstream of the Gorge, they had caught numerous freshwater herring and catfish on crickets. So I changed tactics and threw out a cricket on a small jighead and got a bass of 18cm instantly.
Returning to camp we were met with a trashed camp, as the wind had blown down our tent (first time ever) and some tarps. Seeing the tent was full of some water (all of my sleeping stuff was dry, yets Dad’s soaking wet. Haha there must be karma!) and the previous night Dad had kept me awake with his snoring, I decided to sleep in the tray of our Ute. A good night sleep was assured.
Sunday
Waking up after a solid sleep I had a quick fish around a drowned tree opposite camp resulted in 2 small bass about 20cm long on live crickets. The boats hooning past began to become annoying so I began the pedal upstream to the Gorge to try and meet up with Terry and Dad who left earlier this morning to try and reach the waterfalls, in the two canoes. Only meeting them about halfway we casted, trolled various lures with no result. The only fish caught during this session were caught using live crickets.
Eventually we made our minds up to go back to camp and have a late breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns and sausages. We feed like kings when we go camping!
Overall, I was pleased with the weekend but not particularly so with the fishing. Neil commented that this was a very slow November and that the best time of year to come for the fishing is September with an average of more than 1000 fish caught in that month. So next September we will be there again!
Thanks to Neil, Sue and Warren for running such a great place and we will be back for sure!
