During a recent trip to Fingal Bay (Port Stephens) I snuck away for a quick hour on the water. I chose to head to the rocky point at the southern end of the bay, as I believed this had the best possibility of holding good fish. The beach was devoid of wave action, which made me believe it was unlikely to hold any good fish (or at the very least, they would be widely spread out and difficult to find).
In theory this proved to be a good choice as I had access to good structure, deep water, and multiple impressive gullies. Sadly, the 40 km/hr winds made fly fishing exceptionally difficult. In fact, at points the wind actually lifted my fly line cleanly out of the water, and blew my fly around like a kite in the wind.
I persevered through the wind, and managed to find one or two locations where I could position myself in such a way that I could cast into the deep water with some level of success. I fished predominantly Charlies and Clousers, using a multitude of retries. Sadly my perseverance went unrewarded, and an hour later I walked away without having had so much as a bump.
On the up side, I do believe that this venue has a lot of potential. Had I fished it in more favourable conditions, and a little closer to dawn or dusk, the outcome may have been drastically different.