Gashes contestants would be Ranger Will, Ondie J, and myself.
We hit the 42 Mile Crossing around 11 am and paused to let some air out of the 4wd's tyres.
Upon hitting the beach, we turned right along with all the other traffic and made our way north looking for a good gutter with suitable spot to set up camp nearby. The beach was packed with 4wd's and fisho's - we saw one guy pull in a salmon as we drove past and hopes were high for our own. The beach track started to deteriorate up ahead and sure enough there was a car bogged in front of us.
We weren't going anywhere unless he moved, so out we got and with a few guys pushing, he was out easy enough. A nearby fisher warned us that the beach was impassable up ahead and the best bet was to turn back. I walked up ahead and saw the next camp turn in was only 50 metres a head and looked doable, so with the other guys out the car to lighten the load, I plowed through and got up to the next campsite. The beach track was definitely not passable beyond here. A 2 foot drop off was in the path of anyone continuing along the beach.. although at least one person attempted it (or didn't see if soon enough)....
You can see one set of tyre tracks that went over the edge. That picture also shows the amount of fishers down there, as they couldn't proceed any further up the beach, they were all crammed up together. Eventually a few 4wd's came through and cut the wire near our campsite to continue on a track behind the dunes. The more cars that went through, the firmer the track got, although a few guys were still getting fairly sideways there!
Ranger picked up the first catch of the weekend with a decent sized Mulloway at 65cm. Unfortunately, not legal size and back into the water he went after a quick photo.
Ondie followed with a Mulloway half the size, before Will pulled in a similarly small fish. I just caught a crab which proceeded to clamp onto my finger and draw some blood.
The next day saw another undersize Mully to Will, and finally I got on the board with a small salmon - probably about 1kg. Perfect to cook up on the fire for dinner though.
The park ranger came past on his 4 wheeler to check the track conditions (he said it was completely washed out further north) - pity he wasn't Fisheries checking for undersized fish, as we saw one nearby fisho keeping a clearly undersized mulloway. We've thrown probably one hundred of them back in the water of our trips, and its disappointing to see people do the wrong thing here.
Sunday night saw some rain start to drizzle about 1am and not let up. I woke up to water pooling up on my swag and dripping inside - so up I got. The others followed soon after and with everything at camp completely soaked, we decided to pack it all up and head home early to clean up.
Ranger was declared the Gashes winner for 9th time, with his 65cm Mulloway and 2 "insurance" mulloways as well. Although I should be given some credit for providing the only keeper fisher ;)
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